Xfce4-session is a session manager for Xfce. Its task is to save the state of your desktop (opened applications and their location) and restore it during a next startup. You can create several different sessions and choose one of them on startup.
General
Preferences – Configure the behaviour of the session manager
Logout Dialog – The logout dialog and more information about power management handling
Advanced – Advanced information about environment variables and kiosk mode
Known Issues – Read this if xfce4-session causes trouble
Latest Release
xfce4-session 4.21.1 released (2025/12/29 17:55)
xfce4-session 4.21.1 is now available for download from
https://archive.xfce.org/src/xfce/xfce4-session/4.21/xfce4-session-4.21.1.tar.xz
https://archive.xfce.org/src/xfce/xfce4-session/4.21/xfce4-session-4.21.1.tar.xz?sha1
https://archive.xfce.org/src/xfce/xfce4-session/4.21/xfce4-session-4.21.1.tar.xz?sha256
What is xfce4-session?
======================
The Xfce session manager controls the loading of applications when Xfce
is started. It also handles logging out, shutting down, and rebooting.
Website:
https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-session/start
Release notes for 4.21.1
========================
[Please note that this is a development release.]
- build: Rename POTFILES.in to POTFILES
- build: Fix typo in optimization level
- startxfce4: Prioritize XKBLAYOUT over KEYMAP for kbd layout on
wayland
- manager: Avoid use-after-free in idle function
- I18n: Update po/LINGUAS list
- labwc: Let amixer use system default mixer
- README.md: Add uninstall info
- wayland: startxfce4: Remove definition of SDL_VIDEODRIVER variable
- Update README after switchover to meson
- Remove autotools build
- Add xapp for Settings in xfce-portals.conf
- startxfce4: Add check for /etc/vconsole.conf
- labwc: Add some default config values
- xfce-portals.conf: Add wlr for ScreenCast
- startxfce4: Improve keyboard layout detection on wayland
- wayland: start a D-Bus session only if there isn't one already
- Use syntax compatible with most sh shells.
- labwc: Add window snapping range
- build: Fix include order on *BSD
- autotools-build: Be sure gdbus-codegen files are regenerated
- Translation Updates:
Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian (Armenia), Asturian, Azerbaijani,
Azerbaijani (Azerbaijan), Basque, Belarusian, Belarusian (Tarask),
Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (China), Chinese (Hong Kong),
Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Eastern Armenian,
English (Australia), English (Canada), English (United Kingdom),
Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew,
Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Interlingue, Italian,
Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål,
Norwegian Nynorsk, Occitan (post 1500), Persian (Iran), Polish,
Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak,
Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tatar, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Uyghur,
Venetian, Vietnamese