Comment 51 for bug 53897

Bug Remains in Xfce 4.10 LTSP Clients

In our Xfce 4.10 thin clients, running on Ubuntu 12.04LTS LTSP server, it is the panels (top panel 'panel 1' and launch dock 'panel 2') which are often missing when the desktop appears, but usually only when there are other Xfce client(s) already logged-in. The first Xfce client to login (no other clients logged-in) rarely, if ever, has missing panels.

Alt-F2 > xfce4-panel restored the panels.
Saving the session (when panels displayed) at logout, did not ensure they were displayed at the next login.

The solution that works for us, is to run the panel plugin as an autostart application.
Settings > Autostart (or Alt-F2 > xfce4-session-settings) to Session and Startup > Application Autostart tab > Add (+) > Name: Panel, Desc: Xfce Panel, Cmd: xfce4-panel.

Also, on the General tab > Logout, we do:-
> Auto save session > Chk (to help ensure that desktop configs persist)
> Prompt on logout > UNchk (only confusing for user)

Our system was installed as Ubuntu 12.04LTS LTSP server. We then installed xubuntu-desktop to provide Xfce 4.10 as a more configurable desktop than Unity 2D for users. We have Xfce as the default client session in lts.conf (LDM_SESSION=/usr/bin/xfce4-session).