extreme window open delay, missing menu highlight

[Guido Falsi]

On 21/01/21 18:12, Gerrit Kuehn wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I've been "lucky" again and found another machine behaving strangely
> after updating to the latest xfce4 (4.16 on 12.2). I see two different
> issues, but I cannot say if they're independent or not.
> 
> 1. Some programs take very long until they actually start and open up a
> visible window. Once the program runs, more of the same windows open up
> quickly. I've seen this issue most notably with xscreensaver. After
> typing the name in a terminal or clicking on the item in the start
> menu, it takes about *1* *minute* until the window opens up. This feels
> like there is some timeout involved, but I cannot get any error message.
> 
> 2. Some programs don't show a "highlight" for the menu item the mouse
> pointer is currently set to. The menues still work as expected, but you
> don't see what entry is actually selected. Concerned programs are
> claws-mail and lxterminal.
> 
> If there should be a single root cause: all affected software appears
> to still use gtk2, so maybe the issue is buried somewhere there? Is
> there an easy way to reset gtk2 settings (while keeping everything
> else)?
> First I thought that xfce4-terminal might also be affected as it took
> ages to re-open my saved session. However, maybe it is just trying to
> start something else before, and that is blocking everything else. Menu
> highlighting definitely works fine for it.
> 
> Any hints are greatly appreciated.

XFCE itself removed all support for gtk 2. But maybe after upgrading you 
still have some gtk theme? try grepping your packages for "engine" and 
"gtk", most probably you can just remove any gtk theme/engine you find. 
Pay caution anyway, obviously.

Also check in ~/.config/gtk-2.0 if you have any custom configurations there.

I can't remember the systemwide gtk customization files location, but 
I'd look into:

/usr/local/share/gtk-2.0
/usr/local/share/gtk-engines

-- 
Guido Falsi <mad at madpilot.net>