Restore previous session as default

[chimak111]

Currently, Kubuntu, and perhaps other KDE Plasma distros, have Restore previous session as the default in System Settings > Startup and Shutdown > Desktop Session.

I came across a user who had this default setting as well as a conky in Autostart. After some sessions, there were several conky processes running presumably because the user didn't shutdown conky before logging out or shutting down.

To lower the chances of such a situation, it may make sense to change
• Applications to be excluded from sessions
to something a little more verbose such as
• Applications, such as those in your Autostart, to be excluded from sessions

[Don B. Cilly]

I have Restore previous session set.
In autostart, I have three entries: XplanetFX, Latte dock, and... conky.

The first two, resume with no problem. So it seems that autostart deals with them properly. Conky... can be wonky ;·) sometimes.
So I (auto)start it with a little script. For two reasons.
First, I make it kill any residual conky processes.
Second, I make it wait a little for the network interface to be fully up and hence show IP addresses properly.
So:

#!/bin/sh
killall conky
sleep 16
cd /home/not/.conky
conky -c ./.conkyrc & exit

[chimak111]

My preference is to start with an empty session and to close all applications except panels (latte or the default plasma one) and conky.

But I've just tried the restore session and purposely left a window each open for dolphin, kate, and konsole. I also included these (along with conky, gedit, and latte) in autostart. I logged out and back. Here's the output of wmctrl -l:

$ wmctrl -lx
0x02800010 -1 plasmashell.plasmashell  KUEE Desktop — Plasma
0x03200007  0 konsole.konsole       KUEE ~ : bash — Konsole
0x03c00007  0 konsole.konsole       KUEE ~ : bash — Konsole
0x03e00006  0 dolphin.dolphin       KUEE Home — Dolphin
0x03a00006  0 kate.kate             KUEE Untitled  — Kate
0x02e00011 -1 latte-dock.lattedock  KUEE Latte Shell — Latte Dock
0x03000006  0 kate.kate             KUEE Untitled  — Kate
0x03800064  0 org.gnome.gedit.Org.gnome.gedit  KUEE Untitled Document 1 - gedit
0x03600006  0 dolphin.dolphin       KUEE Home — Dolphin
0x04e00002 -1 conky.conky           KUEE conky (KUEE)
0x05000002 -1 conky.conky           KUEE conky (KUEE)
$

As seen by donbcilly, latte is handled properly. But there are two instances of dolphin, kate, and konsole and, of course, conky. (I did not use a script with killall conky. )

Edit:
I tried again with two windows of gedit open at log out. On logging back in, there's just one! Hmmm... back to start with empty session for me. In any case, I don't like leaving applications open at log off or shutdown.

[Don B. Cilly]

Hmm.
I left Dolphin, Kate, Konsole and Firefox windows open.
Logged back in:

~$ wmctrl -lx
0x0220000b -1 plasmashell.plasmashell  all Desktop — Plasma
0x0300000c -1 latte-dock.lattedock  all Latte Shell — Latte Dock
0x03600007  0 konsole.konsole       all ~ : bash — Konsole
0x03a00006  0 kate.kate             all ~/.conky/2k.sh  — Kate
0x03c00006  0 dolphin.dolphin       all .conky — Dolphin
0x02200019 -1 plasmashell.plasmashell  all Plasma
0x03400003  0 Navigator.Firefox     all Restore previous session as default - Mozilla Firefox
0x05600002 -1 Conky.Conky           all conky (all)

No extra legs ;·) *

* A friend of mine was working at an airport check-in counter years ago. A lady came up and asked if she could have "extra leg room". She replied: "Why, have you got extra legs?". Since then, we use "extra legs" for unrelated things :·)

[chimak111]

Hmm.
I left Dolphin, Kate, Konsole and Firefox windows open.
...

But did you also add them to autostart?

[Don B. Cilly]

Oops. I did not.

I did now (Dolphin, Kate and Konsole), and sure enough, I had two instances of each. One open, one minimised (they were minimised at shutdown).

And

~$ wmctrl -lx
0x0220000b -1 plasmashell.plasmashell  all Desktop — Plasma
0x02a00007  0 konsole.konsole       all ~ : bash — Konsole
0x0300000c -1 latte-dock.lattedock  all Latte Shell — Latte Dock
0x03a00006  0 dolphin.dolphin       all Home — Dolphin
0x03600006  0 dolphin.dolphin       all Home — Dolphin
0x03c00006  0 kate.kate             all Untitled  — Kate
0x03400007  0 konsole.konsole       all ~ : bash — Konsole
0x03800006  0 kate.kate             all Untitled  — Kate
0x02200019 -1 plasmashell.plasmashell  all Plasma
0x05000002 -1 Conky.Conky           all conky (all)
0x05400003  0 Navigator.Firefox     all Restore previous session as default - Mozilla Firefox

So you're right. In the case of having open sessions of those three and having them enabled as startup apps, logging out and back in results in double instances.
Funny thing is, I also have Latte and XplanetFX in autostart, they are running at shutdown, and they don't double up.
XplanetFX isn't even mentioned by wmctrl...

[chimak111]

...
Funny thing is, I also have Latte and XplanetFX in autostart, they are running at shutdown, and they don't double up.
XplanetFX isn't even mentioned by wmctrl...

Yes, Latte behaves for me as well.

I don't know anything about XplanetFX but according to this it's a sort of daemon:

xplanetFX is a daemon for rendering high quality views of mother earth as wallpaper in real-time (sun, moon and clouds). It comes with a handy GTK interface but is fully usable under CLI.

and
it seems to have provision for autostart as well. Maybe the OS deals differently with programs like it (and latte).

Re. wmctrl not "seeing" XplanetFx, maybe it's because it isn't an actual X window?

---

By the way, this video deals with XplanetFx and Conky

[Don B. Cilly]

Re. wmctrl not "seeing" XplanetFx, maybe it's because it isn't an actual X window?

It isn't. It is a deamon, and has an icon in the tray.
But neither is Latte, and wmctrl mentions it... or maybe it is an X window, just a "clever" one...

Anyway, I guess the moral to the story is, don't leave actual windows open of startup applications when shutting down - if you have "restore session" enabled.
- Or else?
- Or else you'll get double instances of them

[AH] My xplanet/conky setup is prettier than the one in the video, nye nye ;·)

[jglen490]

I always leave Dolphin, Firefox, konsole, and Thunderbird open upon shutdown. They just open at the next boot just fine.

I don't use conky, so I can't help with that, Don. But, I've done the same shutdown for years, and stuff just opens at the next boot without setting anything for auto open. So it has to be conky's fault