Can't log out of KDE 4.3.5 with "Leave" (Solved-Brute force)

[Featherfoot]

I have been running KDE 4.3.5 on my amd64 system for a while and I have noticed lately that the KDE Leave menu item doesn't do anything. That is, I can select the particular actions but no confirmation dialog boxes show up and the system fails to shut down. I did a revdep-rebuild and it found some problems, but none of them fixed the problem.

I can reboot and shutdown from the console terminal, just not the KDE dialog box.

Any ideas?

Emerge --info follows:

• bopper jc # emerge --info
  Portage 2.1.7.16 (default/linux/amd64/10.0/desktop, gcc-4.3.4, glibc-2.10.1-r1, 2.6.31-gentoo-r6 x86_64)
  =================================================================
  System uname: Linux-2.6.31-gentoo-r6-x86_64-AMD_Athlon-tm-_64_X2_Dual_Core_Processor_6000+-with-gentoo-2.0.1
  Timestamp of tree: Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:00:01 +0000
  app-shells/bash: 4.0_p35
  dev-java/java-config: 2.1.9-r2
  dev-lang/python: 2.4.6, 2.6.4
  dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r8
  dev-util/cmake: 2.6.4-r3
  sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.1
  sys-apps/openrc: 0.6.0-r1
  sys-apps/sandbox: 1.6-r2
  sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.63-r1
  sys-devel/automake: 1.5, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.2
  sys-devel/binutils: 2.18-r3
  sys-devel/gcc: 4.3.4
  sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1
  sys-devel/libtool: 2.2.6b
  virtual/os-headers: 2.6.30-r1
  ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"
  ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA"
  CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
  CFLAGS="-march=k8 -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
  CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
  CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/config"
  CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/php/apache2-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo"
  CXXFLAGS="-march=k8 -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
  DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
  FEATURES="assume-digests distlocks fixpackages news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch"
  GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/dis ... ons/gentoo"
  LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"
  LINGUAS="en_US en"
  MAKEOPTS="-j3"
  PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
  PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
  PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
  PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
  PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
  SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
  USE="X a52 aac acl acpi aim alsa amd64 apm audiofile avi bash-completion berkdb branding bzip2 cairo calendar cdda cdparanoia cdr cdrtools cgi clamav cli colordiff consolekit cracklib css ctrype cups curl cxx dbus dri dts dvd dvdr eds emboss encode evo examples fam fbcon festival ffmpeg firefox flac foomaticdb fortran ftp gcj gdbm gif glut gnome gnome-keyring gphoto2 gpm gsm gstreamer gtk gtk2 gtkhtml guile gzip hal handbook hddtemp iconv icq ieee1394 imagemagick imlib ipv6 jabber java java6 javascript jpeg jpeg2k kde kde4 kontact ldap libgda libnotify libwww lirc lm_sensors lua lzo mad maildir mikmod milter mime mmx mng modules mono mp3 mp4 mpeg mpeg4 mpi mplayer mudflap multilib mysql mysqli ncurses nls nntp nptl nptlonly nsplugin ofx ogg oggvorbis opengl openmp oss pam pcre pdf perl php png ppds pppd python qt qt3support qt4 quicktime rdesktop readline reflection rss ruby samba sdl session slang smp sndfile soap sockets spell spl sqlite sqlite3 sse sse2 ssl startup-notification subversion suid svg symlink sysfs syslog sysvipc tcl tcltk tcpd threads thunar tidy tiff timidity tk tokenizer truetype unicode usb v4l v4l2 vcd vhost videos vnc vorbis webkit wmf wxwidgets x264 xcb xcomposite xft xine xinerama xinetd xml xorg xpm xscreensaver xsl xulrunner xv xvid yahoo zeroconf zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev mouse keyboard" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="en_US en" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"
  Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY
  
  bopper jc #

[daddio]

How are you getting into kde?

kdm, gdm, startx, other?

This makes a difference.

[Featherfoot]

I am using KDM.

[Featherfoot]

An update: I have upgraded to KDE 4.4. Along the way, I had to change from KDM to GDM. I still can't log out, reboot or shut down from within KDE.

I have looked at the System Settings and don't see anything that looks like a "Don't allow logout" control. I tried experimenting with the "confirmation" option to see whether the dialog box wasn't being handled properly, but even when the logout/shutdown/reboot dialog is selected directly with no confirmation required, it still doesn't do anything.

dmesg also doesn't show anything.

Can anyone tell me where these kinds of settings are stored. Perhaps I can find a way to reset it back to some reasonable value.

[Mike Hunt]

First create a new temporary testuser account and login KDE there to see if this behavior is persistent.

[Featherfoot]

I created another user and he can log out.

[Featherfoot]

Poking around the web I see many complaints about not being able to log out of KDE 4.3.5 and 4.4. The examples suggest turning off compositing effects or the sound notifications. I have tried both with no effect.

Along the way I can report that even when I select and test a logout sound, it does not play when I try to log out.

[daddio]

KDE has blasted my personal configuration a few times during upgrades.
If it works for another new user, I suggest clearing out your kde configs:

Code: Select all

$ rm -rf ~/.kde4 ~/.kderc

or just move them to another location:

Code: Select all

$ mkdir hide
$ mv ~/.kde4 ~/.kderc hide

See if that does it for you.

[Featherfoot]

I tried a variation of that by renaming my .kde4 directory to kde4save. I was able to log off, but my environment was set back to nothing. No address book, no calendar, no email.

It's pretty clear that something in there controls logging out and I should be able to rename something out of the minimal .kde4 into my completely configured one and make it possible to log out.

I'd appreciate any suggestions you have.

[Featherfoot]

Here is what eventually got my desktop back:

1. Created a second user and logged in as him, creating an empty environment that I could log out of.
2. I logged in under gnome and saved my bad configuration. I determined that the bad files were in ~/.kde4/share/config.
3. Since that had all of my mail and desktop settings I saved the config directory.
4. As root I copied the empty environment config directory over to this one and verified that I could continue to log out.
5. I copied over saved config files to the a few at a time and verified that I could continue to log out. When I couldn't I restored config files from the empty environment. It was a long tedious process.
6. I eventually determined that knotifyrc, krunnerrc, ksmserverrc, kderc, kdeglobals and possibly a couple of others would cause logging out to fail. I decided not to restore the kwin* configuration files.

I am glad that config files are stored in a place where this can be accomplished and not in some database registry, but I think not being able to log out of an environment is really close to an environment switching experience. It should never happen.

[superbrain666]

Thanks for that solution. I can logout again, with my kde 4.4.2
I experienced many times similar problems over the last years.
This time it was more tricky.

[Featherfoot]

You're welcome.

I have the same problem in KDE 4.4.2, and was glad that I had logged my solution.

Right now I'm running Gnome, working up the mental energy to go fix KDE again.

[hujuice]

Having the same problem, I've found a different solution.
Simply, I saved a session and I configured the DE to restart in the saved (not previous) session next time.

The task failed (I've lost the saved session, too) but the session system and the logout button are unblocked now.

In this way I didn't experienced any configuration loss (except the last session).

Regards,
HUjuice

[menschmeier]

@hujuice
how did you save the session?

[hujuice]

@hujuice
how did you save the session?

It is a good question.
I really don't know. I remember a »save session» button in the KDE menu, in the shutdown tab.
I remember so, but I haven't any «save session» button, now...

I'm becoming too old? They removed the button?
I cannot help you, I'm sorry...

Maybe someone else?

Regards,
HUjuice

[menschmeier]

Solved the problem by switch off all audio system notifications...

I found this solution here in an other thread.

[hujuice]

Audio notifications? o.O

@menschmeier, can you link the thread where they solved in that way?

HUjuice