Hello! For about a month now I cannot upgrade xfce4-settings-devel. I can’t find anyone in that package’s home repo, on this forum, or anywhere else mentioning this problem, which makes me wonder. I don’t know if this is the correct venue to ask for help?
I updated my mirrors and ran yay -Syyu to refresh the system.
The basic problem is:
Dependency libxfce4util-1.0 for host machine found: NO. Found 4.19.5 but need: '>= 4.20.0'
Full log:
:: 1 package to upgrade/install.
1 aur/xfce4-settings-devel 4.21.2-1 -> 4.21.3-1 [17d7h]
==> Packages to exclude: (eg: "1 2 3", "1-3", "^4" or repo name)
-> Excluding packages may cause partial upgrades and break systems
==>
AUR Explicit (1): xfce4-settings-devel-4.21.3-1
:: PKGBUILD up to date, skipping download: xfce4-settings-devel
1 xfce4-settings-devel (Installed) (Build Files Exist)
==> Packages to cleanBuild?
==> [N]one [A]ll [Ab]ort [I]nstalled [No]tInstalled or (1 2 3, 1-3, ^4)
==> N
1 xfce4-settings-devel (Installed) (Build Files Exist)
==> Diffs to show?
==> [N]one [A]ll [Ab]ort [I]nstalled [No]tInstalled or (1 2 3, 1-3, ^4)
==> N
==> Making package: xfce4-settings-devel 4.21.3-1 (Mon 31 Aug 2026 03:33:28 AM)
==> Retrieving sources...
-> Found xfce4-settings-4.21.3.tar.xz
-> Found enable-antialias-by-default.patch
==> WARNING: Skipping verification of source file PGP signatures.
==> Validating source files with sha256sums...
xfce4-settings-4.21.3.tar.xz ... Passed
enable-antialias-by-default.patch ... Passed
:: (1/1) Parsing SRCINFO: xfce4-settings-devel
==> Making package: xfce4-settings-devel 4.21.3-1 (Mon 31 Aug 2026 03:33:30 AM)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Checking buildtime dependencies...
==> Retrieving sources...
-> Found xfce4-settings-4.21.3.tar.xz
-> Found enable-antialias-by-default.patch
==> Validating source files with sha256sums...
xfce4-settings-4.21.3.tar.xz ... Passed
enable-antialias-by-default.patch ... Passed
==> Removing existing $srcdir/ directory...
==> Extracting sources...
-> Extracting xfce4-settings-4.21.3.tar.xz with bsdtar
==> Starting prepare()...
patching file xfsettingsd/xsettings.xml
==> Sources are ready.
==> Making package: xfce4-settings-devel 4.21.3-1 (Mon 31 Aug 2026 03:33:36 AM)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Checking buildtime dependencies...
==> WARNING: Using existing $srcdir/ tree
==> Removing existing $pkgdir/ directory...
==> Starting build()...
xfce4-settings-4.21.3 has no wrap files
+ exec meson setup --prefix /usr --libexecdir lib --sbindir bin --buildtype plain --auto-features enabled --wrap-mode nodownload -D b_pie=true -D python.bytecompile=1 xfce4-settings-4.21.3 build -D x11=enabled -D wayland=enabled
The Meson build system
Version: 1.12.0
Source dir: /temp/cache/yay/vivid/xfce4-settings-devel/src/xfce4-settings-4.21.3
Build dir: /temp/cache/yay/vivid/xfce4-settings-devel/src/build
Build type: native build
Project name: xfce4-settings
Project version: 4.21.3
C compiler for the host machine: /usr/bin/ccache cc (gcc 16.2.1 "cc (GCC) 16.2.1 20260810")
C linker for the host machine: cc ld.bfd 2.47
Host machine cpu family: x86_64
Host machine cpu: x86_64
Found pkg-config: YES (/usr/bin/pkg-config) 3.0.6
Run-time dependency garcon-1 found: YES 4.20.0
Run-time dependency glib-2.0 found: YES 2.88.3
Run-time dependency gio-2.0 found: YES 2.88.3
Run-time dependency gio-unix-2.0 found: YES 2.88.3
Run-time dependency gmodule-2.0 found: YES 2.88.3
Run-time dependency gthread-2.0 found: YES 2.88.3
Run-time dependency gtk+-3.0 found: YES 3.24.52
Run-time dependency libxfce4kbd-private-3 found: YES 4.21.9
Run-time dependency libxfce4ui-2 found: YES 4.21.9
Dependency libxfce4util-1.0 for host machine found: NO. Found 4.19.5 but need: '>= 4.20.0'
Found CMake: /usr/bin/cmake (4.4.3)
Run-time dependency libxfce4util-1.0 found: NO (tried cmake)
xfce4-settings-4.21.3/meson.build:55:15: ERROR: Dependency lookup for libxfce4util-1.0 with method 'pkg-config' failed: Invalid version, need 'libxfce4util-1.0' ['>= 4.20.0'] found '4.19.5'.
A full log can be found at /temp/cache/yay/vivid/xfce4-settings-devel/src/build/meson-logs/meson-log.txt
==> ERROR: A failure occurred in build().
Aborting...
-> error making: xfce4-settings-devel-exit status 4
-> Failed to install the following packages. Manual intervention is required:
xfce4-settings-devel - exit status 4
In terms of libxfce4util, here is what’s on offer:
$ yay libxfce4util
3 aur/libxfce4util-git 4.17.2.r22.ge2f2a6e-1 (+4 0.00) [1417d16h]
Basic utility non-GUI functions for Xfce
2 aur/libxfce4util-devel 4.19.5-1 (+8 0.00) [633d6h] (Installed)
Basic utility non-GUI functions for Xfce (development release)
1 extra/libxfce4util 4.20.1-1 (142.1 KiB 1.1 MiB)
Basic utility non-GUI functions for Xfce
==> Packages to install (eg: 1 2 3, 1-3 or ^4)
So the aur/libxfce4util-devel has fallen behind extra/libxfce4util. I think this is a dependency of aur/libxfce4ui-devel, here is the situation with that:
$ yay libxfce4ui
3 aur/libxfce4ui-git 1:4.21.3+103+gb5167ff3-1 (+4 0.00) [177d8h]
Commonly used Xfce widgets among Xfce applications (git checkout)
2 aur/libxfce4ui-devel 4.21.9-1 (+20 0.08) [17d8h] (Installed)
Commonly used Xfce widgets among Xfce applications (Development version)
1 extra/libxfce4ui 4.20.2-1 (391.4 KiB 2.2 MiB)
Widgets library for the Xfce desktop environment
==> Packages to install (eg: 1 2 3, 1-3 or ^4)
Removing libxfce4util-devel is not desirable because it is a dependency of many other xfce4 -devel packages that I have installed, so I would likely have to uninstall and reinstall my whole DE and various related packages.
(Why am I running -devel? I forget. There was some reason at the time.)
Is there a way to see the whole cascade of implicated packages that are required to remove a given package? I usually go 1 level at a time by using yay -R, then repeating it for each listed break, which is OK for simple situations. But in this case it could be dozens of packages.
Any ideas how to solve? It’s curious to me that nobody else reports this problem even though I’m probably not the only one running -devel.
Thanks for reading my post.