xfce not displaying settings manager in F9

[Globe Trotter]

hi,

I have been trying to change my display settings using the settings manager on the xfce panel and nothing seems to be happening. 

% xfce-setting-show 

just brings back the prompt. What could be wrong? I can't figure out the problem since there is no error message that I could locate. 

Among the logfiles wpa_supplicant.log is updated, but it is not clear if anything is written: the last line CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS but it is not written at this time.

many thanks for any insight.
trotter