When accessing network drive unexpectedly fails xfdesktop repeatedly freezes and unfreezes

Issue Description

When accessing my NAS, if it goes down, the desktop gets unresponsive and frozen.

I'm running FreeFileSync for syncing some files to my NAS and occasionally it will error out with something like this:

Cannot open directory "/media/data_server/[REDACTED]".

EHOSTDOWN: Host is down [opendir]

The panel works totally fine just like normal, all the windows work and move around fine, I can launch new programs witout issue. But the desktop gets this weird frozen state where it just shows what was last displayed and doesn't respond.

After the above situation with "Host is down" happens, the desktop freezes every 25 seconds and then unfreezes itself after 40 seconds (I've timed it, it is very consistent).

Maybe there's some blocking task running here poking the NAS every 25 seconds and timing out after 40 seconds?

Steps to Reproduce Issue

I'm not sure about the most minimal steps to reproduce this but this is what causes it in my case:

  1. Start a sync operation with FreeFileSync between a drive on the current PC and a NAS
  2. Break the connection in some unexpected way
  3. FreeFileSync will keep trying to access the NAS (it can be exited at this point to stop that)
  4. xfce desktop now freezes and unfreezes itself on a schedule (25 seconds working -> 40 seconds frozen -> repeat)

Expected Behavior

Doing things on network storage should not freeze or block the desktop

Additional Information

Network storage is attached like this:

sudo mount -t cifs -w -o username=administrator -o uid=$USER //$SERVER_IP /media/data_server/

I recently ran a system update that made this upgrade:

xfdesktop-4.20.1-1-x86_64 -> xfdesktop-4.20.1-3-x86_64

thunar-4.20.6-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst -> thunar-4.20.7-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Including thunar here incase theres a possibility that could be the issue. I did not have this issue before this upgrade.

Environment & Versions

  • OS distribution and version: EndeavourOS (Arch based) Linux 6.18.9-arch1-2
  • Overall Xfce version: Xfce4 4.20
  • xfdesktop version (git hash if not a release): 4.20.1
  • thunar version (if issue related to file/launcher icons): 4.20.7
  • Windowing system (X11/Wayland): X11
  • GTK Theme: Arc-Dark
  • Icon Theme: Qogir-Dark
  • UI Scale Factor: 1x
Edited by Kuuuube