I came here looking for a fix to this for my Mint 19.3 (Ubuntu 18.04) install. So the problem may be older than 19.10.
The closest thing I've found to an explanation is here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/339593/missing-icons-for-headless-xfce- session-via-vnc But none of those fixes work. One of the comments on that askubuntu post suggests a problem with xfsettingsd. Running xfsettingsd manually gives a few errors: xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: 12:49:29.776: RANDR extension is too old, version 1.1. Display settings won't be applied. Xlib: extension "XInputExtension" missing on display ":1.0". (xfsettingsd:20627): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: 12:49:29.780: XI is not present. (xfsettingsd:20627): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: 12:49:29.780: Failed to initialize the Xkb extension. (xfsettingsd:20627): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: 12:49:29.780: Failed to initialize the Accessibility extension. I can confirm that xfwm4 is running. Restarting it gives a few errors: (xfwm4:21159): xfwm4-WARNING **: 12:55:18.497: XSync extension too old (3.0). (xfwm4:21159): xfwm4-WARNING **: 12:55:18.497: The display does not support the XRender extension. (xfwm4:21159): xfwm4-WARNING **: 12:55:18.500: The display does not support the XComposite extension. (xfwm4:21159): xfwm4-WARNING **: 12:55:18.500: The display does not support the XDamage extension. (xfwm4:21159): xfwm4-WARNING **: 12:55:18.500: The display does not support the XFixes extension. (xfwm4:21159): xfwm4-WARNING **: 12:55:18.501: The display does not support the XPresent extension. (xfwm4:21159): xfwm4-WARNING **: 12:55:18.501: Compositing manager disabled. Waiting for current window manager (Xfwm4) on screen :1.0 to exit: Done xfwm4-Message: 12:55:18.822: Unsupported keyboard modifier '<Super>Tab' (xfwm4:21159): xfwm4-WARNING **: 12:55:18.847: Cannot find visual format on screen 0 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1860921 Title: Missing window decorations in VNC To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xfce4/+bug/1860921/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
