x2go issue with XFCE and Ubuntu 20.04

Question

When I connect x2go with XFCE Ubuntu 20.04 (KVM VM) after ~10 minutes of idle time, x2go will lose its mouse focus and keyboard focus and there is no way to grab control of the session. Even restarting x2go will not bring the focus back.

The XFCE VM is still running because I can see the top output in the console.

I tried several key combinations to bring the focus back but it does not. I tried LXDE and it does not have this issue. I tried XFCE desktop 20.04 on its running in a KVM VM. I also tried installing Ubuntu server 20.04 and load Xubuntu-desktop (KVM VM) - the same issue. After ~10 minutes the x2go session-focus is lost.

What brings the session focus back is if I reboot the VM and then connect to the VM again using x2go. as I mentioned just restarting x2go will not bring the session focus back.

I tried uninstalling the screensaver and the power management features in XFCE but that did not fix this issue.

Kacikacie

I assume this is better suited for Server Fault?! – Kacikacie

I have experienced this same issue on two different installations of Ubuntu, both using XFCE. This only happened after upgrading to 20.04. – Premillennialism

Answer 1

Update: this x2go bug report log suggests its screensaver related. Using the applications/settings/screensaver allowed me to turn off anything related to the screensaver, solving the problem for me. Issue appears to be solved here similarly: askubuntu forum

I've been having the same issue w/ XFCE and LXDE both after an idle period (10-15 minutes), and only on Ubuntu 20.04, not on 18.04 or earlier. In either desktop env, the session was not recoverable and required termination of the session either from the client side or via a separate terminal ssh session to kill <PID> the x2gocleansessio process on the server side (after seeing it was running using top). For a short period, I regained control in the new session until the cycle recurred.

Seems like a major problem for x2go in Ubuntu 20.04.

Eisenhart

Answer 2

Just to save everyone the time of digging through the AskUbuntu forum... run this + restart and you should be good to go on Ubuntu 20.04 - sudo apt-get remove xfce4-screensaver

Hapten

This was the solution for me in Xubuntu (Ubuntu + XFCE). – Katlynkatmai

Answer 3

If your are login via x2go and don't want to uninstall xfce4-screensaver, it's hard to solve the problem because there are intern script of xfce who launch xfce4-screensaver whatever you told him to do. I found my own workaround WITHOUT root privilege:

First activate screensaver on start-up :settings-manager -> Session and Startup->check screensaver(that sound weird but by this way you are sure to launch your xfce4-screensaver localy otherwise it's the root user who launch it which this own startup file which you can't edit without root)

Second : in ~/.config/autostart/xfce4-screensaver.desktop (if it doesn't exist uncheck then check screensaver in first step). Add to the end of this file:

Exec=sh -c "kill $(pgrep -u <YOUR-USERNAME> screen)"

This will launch it but auto-kill it after OnLogin

Edit: it's better than uninstall it because in my case that was the administrator that install for every user xfce4-screensaver so I can't uninstall it because the computer need a screensaver on the real sessions (I mean not in ssh on the physique machine). Maybe switch to Xscreensaver or other screensaver will solve this problem

Haggi