[SOLVED] Xlib: Maximum number of clients reached ?

Message

manji_ · Post by **manji_** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:58 am

The past 2 days, I have the following problem. Kde(or whoever is responsible) won't let me run more than 3 or 4 applications. Launching a program from the console, gives me this error:

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Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: Maximum number of clients reached
kchmviewer: cannot connect to X server :0.0

I read a couple of post about a similar issue, and it seemed tha Firefox was causing the problem. Well, this is not the case for me, It happens even when I don't launch Firefox at all. Can someone plz tell me what to check? I don't remember if that's the way it used to be, but "top" gives me alot of python processes

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  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 5743 root      20   0  112m  52m 5288 S   10  5.2   3:29.30 X
 8460 stathis   20   0  134m  43m  24m S    5  4.3   2:15.29 amarokapp
 7846 stathis   20   0 44396  19m 9760 S    5  1.9   0:11.78 avant-window-na
 6325 stathis   20   0 49780  14m  10m S    4  1.5   1:20.74 compiz
 7676 stathis   20   0 37428  16m 8156 R    1  1.7   0:36.01 gkrellm
 7732 stathis   20   0 34616 9.8m 6780 S    1  1.0   0:04.38 python
 7749 stathis   20   0 34612 9.8m 6780 S    1  1.0   0:04.26 python
 7762 stathis   20   0 34616 9.8m 6780 S    1  1.0   0:04.22 python
 7766 stathis   20   0 34616 9.8m 6780 S    1  1.0   0:04.28 python
 7770 stathis   20   0 34616 9.8m 6780 S    1  1.0   0:04.36 python
 7772 stathis   20   0 34616 9.8m 6780 S    1  1.0   0:04.16 python
 7783 stathis   20   0 34612 9.8m 6780 S    1  1.0   0:04.24 python
 7786 stathis   20   0 34616 9.8m 6780 S    1  1.0   0:04.28 python
 7797 stathis   20   0 34620 9.8m 6780 S    1  1.0   0:04.28 python
 7806 stathis   20   0 34616 9.8m 6780 S    1  1.0   0:04.26 python
 7814 stathis   20   0 34620 9.8m 6780 S    1  1.0   0:04.48 python
15685 stathis   20   0 31612  18m  14m S    1  1.8   0:00.88 konsole
16411 stathis   20   0  2360 1276  852 R    1  0.1   0:00.06 top
    1 root      20   0  1588  480  460 S    0  0.0   0:00.80 init
    2 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd
    3 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0
    4 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0
    5 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/0
    6 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/1
    7 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/1
    8 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/1
    9 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.20 events/0

I also tried to sync and emerge world, but nothig changed.

manji_ · Post by **manji_** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:17 pm

Anyone who can help me, plz? My laptop has become useless, I can only run 2 or 3 applications. I emerge a tool called lsof which shows some details about the processes that ran on the system. I noticed that the following lines, are repeated aloooot of times. The thing is I don't know which application is responsible for these PIDs, and I have closed all of them.

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python    13546 stathis  cwd    DIR        8,8     4096   212993 /home/stathis
python    13546 stathis  rtd    DIR        8,7     4096        2 /
python    13546 stathis  txt    REG        8,7     5356   400397 /usr/bin/python2.4
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    34244   550148 /lib/libnss_files-2.6.1.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    79544   550147 /lib/libnsl-2.6.1.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    26260   550021 /lib/libnss_compat-2.6.1.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    22896  1744383 /var/cache/fontconfig/87f5e051180a7a75f16eb6fe7dbd3749-x86.cache-2
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7     9192  1745467 /var/cache/fontconfig/7998293451e4b7352c3495b870377734-x86.cache-2
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7     8112  1745465 /var/cache/fontconfig/76fa4b957c916922374347f144bde9da-x86.cache-2
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    55104  1742968 /var/cache/fontconfig/372cc6709f3dde9ead3aeee94be9d4c5-x86.cache-2
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    55440  1743480 /var/cache/fontconfig/8d4af663993b81a124ee82e610bb31f9-x86.cache-2
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    76168  1744938 /var/cache/fontconfig/4b5cf4386f1cde02a336ba961b4ac82d-x86.cache-2
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7     9944  1744818 /var/cache/fontconfig/d62e99ef547d1d24cdb1bd22ec1a2976-x86.cache-2
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   138184  1744386 /var/cache/fontconfig/17090aa38d5c6f09fb8c5c354938f1d7-x86.cache-2
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   138664  1744696 /var/cache/fontconfig/df311e82a1a24c41a75c2c930223552e-x86.cache-2
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,8     5184   220478 /home/stathis/.fontconfig/964b027c7c5dfedc7e0c392487ba441a-x86.cache-2
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   915314  1474656 /usr/lib/locale/el_GR.utf8/LC_COLLATE
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7  1118716   609004 /usr/lib/libxml2.so.2.6.30
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    14208   284675 /usr/lib/libXfixes.so.3.1.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    17592   361154 /usr/lib/libXdmcp.so.6.0.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   166624   827634 /usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1.3.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   497700   319132 /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6.3.16
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    71628   658216 /usr/lib/libXft.so.2.1.2
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    34272   459213 /usr/lib/libXcursor.so.1.0.2
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    21244   284679 /usr/lib/libXrandr.so.2.1.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    29548   284676 /usr/lib/libXrender.so.1.3.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    30064   459265 /usr/lib/libXi.so.6.0.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    39992   610206 /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.1.2/libgcc_s.so.1
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   879236   610209 /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.1.2/libstdc++.so.6.0.8
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   953124   560029 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6.2.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    52672   376992 /usr/lib/libXext.so.6.4.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    80004   379929 /usr/lib/libICE.so.6.3.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    29980   380497 /usr/lib/libSM.so.6.0.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   136908   445940 /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0.22.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   123420   281929 /usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62.0.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   375068   363389 /usr/lib/libmng.so.1.0.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7  7136816   937984 /usr/qt/3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3.3.8
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    34280   550124 /lib/libnss_nis-2.6.1.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    60316   271179 /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/sip.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7  6123052   706211 /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/qt.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    18460   743997 /usr/lib/python2.4/lib-dynload/time.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    25486  1459116 /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   254020  1474649 /usr/lib/locale/el_GR.utf8/LC_CTYPE
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7  1237276   550115 /lib/libc-2.6.1.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   149256   550132 /lib/libm-2.6.1.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7     9624   549998 /lib/libutil-2.6.1.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7     9612   550135 /lib/libdl-2.6.1.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    84168   550145 /lib/libpthread-2.6.1.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   965324   400389 /usr/lib/libpython2.4.so.1.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7     7624   333769 /usr/lib/libXau.so.6.0.0
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    69620   577020 /lib/libz.so.1.2.3
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7    15436   744017 /usr/lib/python2.4/lib-dynload/collections.so
python    13546 stathis  mem    REG        8,7   108996   550104 /lib/ld-2.6.1.so
python    13546 stathis    0r  FIFO        0,5             32192 pipe
python    13546 stathis    1w   REG        8,8   189116   212998 /home/stathis/.xsession-errors
python    13546 stathis    2w   REG        8,8   189116   212998 /home/stathis/.xsession-errors
python    13546 stathis    3u  unix 0xca821900             34176 socket
python    13546 stathis    4u  unix 0xc4465900             34184 socket
python    13546 stathis    5r  FIFO        0,5             34186 pipe
python    13546 stathis    6w  FIFO        0,5             34186 pipe
python    13555 stathis  cwd    DIR        8,8     4096   212993 /home/stathis

irasnyd · Post by **irasnyd** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:23 pm

The only time I've run across this kind of error is when I made a programming error that made connections to the X server, but never closed them. I don't really know a good way of finding out.

Something to try is:

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lsof | grep -i xlib

Which will show you all processes which are using Xlib. Maybe it will help, maybe not. Running it as root would be best.

With some research I found x11-apps/xlsclients. Posting the output of that should help.

manji_ · Post by **manji_** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:09 am

"lsof | grep -i xlib" shows me nothing(neither with Xlib)
I had used xlsclients, but I hadn't seen anything unusual there. Anyway, I tried to kill one by one the applications, and check if the problem persisted, and so it did. xlscients usually gives me something like this

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stalap  gkrellm
stalap  emerald
stalap  firefox-bin
stalap  kicker
stalap  avant-window-navigator

I ended up having only kicker, and opening some konqueror windows and launching a couple of several applications, produced the same result
Thnx for your reply.

irasnyd · Post by **irasnyd** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:22 am

Seems like one of those apps opened (opens?) a lot of connections to the X server. You could try restarting X, if you haven't already.

Other than that, I'm out of ideas.

Post by **i92guboj** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:36 am

You can emerge xrestop and try that.

manji_ · Post by **manji_** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:51 am

I have tried that, but I don't know how to use it. Giving xrestop from the console shows nothing at all. Strange as it sounds, when i do that, I can hear a high pitched noise coming from the CPU(there is a certain issue with the 1.7 core 2 duo CPUs and noises), but nothing is displayed, it just hangs.

manji_ · Post by **manji_** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:33 pm

Somebody who could help me out? I don't know what to do with my computer, it's practically useless now.

manji_ · Post by **manji_** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:47 pm

Ok, i managed to run xrestop. It gives me these:

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xrestop - Display: localhost:0
          Monitoring 237 clients. XErrors: 0
          Pixmaps:   35227K total, Other:     140K total, All:   35368K total

res-base Wins  GCs Fnts Pxms Misc   Pxm mem  Other   Total   PID Identifier
1200000   174   41    1  497  221    19947K     11K  19958K  7780 Gentoo Forums :: Index - Mozilla Firefox
1d600000    57   29    1   55  115     4158K      5K   4164K 12536 emerald
1d000000   109    1    1    5 1899     3747K     48K   3795K   ?   compiz
1600000    35   11    1   60  132     2931K      5K   2936K  6273 KDE Desktop
1ce00000    28   27    0  263   63     2083K      2K   2086K  7721 gkrellm
1b800000    32   29    1   34   54     1085K      3K   1089K  7698 Katapult
1800000    86   75    1  388  328     1044K     12K   1056K  6276 kicker
1d800000   106   99    1   95   96      104K      8K    112K 12502 Untitled - KWrite
12a00000   183    9    1   30   35       33K      6K     40K  7538 KMix
1da00000    33   75    1   38   51       35K      4K     39K 12508 stathis@stalap:~ - Shell - Konsole
0e00000    11    9    1   36   20       34K      1K     36K  7734 KPowersave
0c00000    13    4    1    1   46       21K      2K     23K  6251 kded
1d400000    13   10    1    0   41        0B      2K      2K   ?   <unknown>
1a00000     3    1    1    0    7        0B      1K      1K  6302 kaccess
1400000     2    1    1    0    6        0B      1K      1K 11729 knotify
1000000     2    1    1    0    6        0B      1K      1K  6263 ksmserver
0200000     0    1    1    0    0        0B      1K      1K   ?   <unknown>
1cc00000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>
1ca00000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>
1c800000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>
1c600000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>
1c400000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>
1c200000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>
1c000000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>
1be00000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>
1bc00000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>
1ba00000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>
1b600000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>
1b400000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>
1b200000     0    1    0    0    3        0B     96B     96B   ?   <unknown>

But what does this tell me? Can someone help me plz?

Post by **i92guboj** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:18 pm

I really have no experience with these tools and I don't know what it causing it, but it seems that something is forking lots of x clients in your system for some misterious reason. In my case, I have only 15:

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          Monitoring 15 clients. XErrors: 0
          Pixmaps:   35999K total, Other:     196K total, All:   36195K total

res-base Wins  GCs Fnts Pxms Misc   Pxm mem  Other   Total   PID Identifier    
1200000   603   81    1 2517  170    21751K     21K  21772K  6919 Firefox
0c00000     0    0    0    1    0     6150K      0B   6150K   ?   <unknown>
0400000   139   40    1  158 5659     4705K    137K   4843K   ?   FVWM
0600000     8    5    1    6  382     3001K     10K   3012K  6736 htop
1800000   149   99    1   18   88      143K      8K    152K 12398 sylpheed
1a00000   341  106    1  208  151      128K     15K    143K  9579 kate
0e00000     1    2    0    7    2      116K    120B    117K   ?   wmsmixer
0a00000    26   12    1    0   18        1K      2K      3K   ?   Escritorio
1000000     1    2    0    0   12      248B    360B    608B   ?   Conky (jesgue)
0800000     1    4    0    0    5        0B    240B    240B   ?   FvwmTaskbar
1e00000     2    1    0    0    4        0B    168B    168B  9641 kded
1600000     1    1    0    0    0        0B     48B     48B   ?   xrestop
1c00000     0    1    0    0    0        0B     24B     24B   ?   <unknown>
1400000     0    1    0    0    0        0B     24B     24B   ?   <unknown>
0200000     0    1    0    0    0        0B     24B     24B   ?   <unknown>

While your code tells us that you have 237. A big difference, and the problem might be there. Right now I don't know what to tell you. I'll try googling a bit and think about it and see if I can deduct something...

manji_ · Post by **manji_** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:30 am

Thnx alot. Everything I have found, seems to have to do with electricsheep screensaver or mozilla firefox. I don't have electricsheep though, and the problem occurs even without launching firefox. Also, giving 'xrestop -b' which I saw somewhere, shows me several PIDs, and then way too many repeating lines likes these:

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48 - <unknown> ( PID:  ?   ):
        res_base      : ox18c00000
        res_mask      : ox1fffff
        windows       : 0
        GCs           : 1
        fonts         : 0
        pixmaps       : 0
        pictures      : 0
        glyphsets     : 0
        colormaps     : 0
        passive grabs : 0
        cursors       : 0
        unknowns      : 3
        pixmap bytes  : 0
        other bytes   : ~96
        total bytes   : ~96

I don't know how to find what it is that produces so many clients. Sometimes I can only run one application!

Post by **i92guboj** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:01 am

Just to discard some user related stuff, can you create a new user and test with it?

Also, if you login as root into the console, what does this report?

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ps -A | wc -l

If x works, try running it without kde. With just twm or any other light wm, and see if that makes any difference.

manji_ · Post by **manji_** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:21 pm

I tried what you suggested, and I think we may have found something. I created a new user, and I restarted X, and logged in as the new user. xrestop now show only 20 clients running. So, this can lead us somewhere...
I present the differences of the outputs of the command in stathis(me) and test_user

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ps -A | wc -l  
stathis	328
test_user 	115

xrestop (clients)
stathis 233
test_user 20

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xlsclients
stathis
stalap  compiz --replace --sm-disable --ignore-desktop-hints ccp
stalap  kicker
stalap  emerald
stalap  avant-window-navigator

test_user
stalap  compiz --replace --sm-disable --ignore-desktop-hints ccp
stalap  kicker
stalap  emerald

The only difference in xlsclients is awm, chich I have tried shutting down, but still the number of clients is the same. I 'm thinking of removing the .conf file of kde (located somewhere in home). Could that solve anything?

manji_ · Post by **manji_** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 2:09 pm

I really need the computer, so what I did was to remove the entire '.kde' directory from my user. Now the kde starts faster and the problem with the excessive clients has gone(only 24 now). At least I hope so. I know there must be a more elegant way to solve this, but as I said i need the laptop. Thnx alot for your help, I really appreciate it.

Post by **i92guboj** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:54 pm

manji_ wrote:I really need the computer, so what I did was to remove the entire '.kde' directory from my user. Now the kde starts faster and the problem with the excessive clients has gone(only 24 now). At least I hope so. I know there must be a more elegant way to solve this, but as I said i need the laptop. Thnx alot for your help, I really appreciate it.

Sorry but I had to sleep

The kde config files are on that dir, you could have looked at ~/.kde/Autostart/ which is the responsible to start programs automatically when booting kde. There could be something in there, some kind of script that was launching an ugly loop or something.

manji_ · Post by **manji_** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 4:33 pm

I was not reffering to you! Of course you can sleep(as soon as you solve my problem

)! I have kept a backup of the entire .kde directory, and in the Autostart dir, there's only a.directory file and an old bery-manager script, but it's commented out anyway. I guess I'll never know what what was causing this behaviour

Post by **i92guboj** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 4:43 pm

manji_ wrote:I was not reffering to you! Of course you can sleep(as soon as you solve my problem )! I have kept a backup of the entire .kde directory, and in the Autostart dir, there's only a.directory file and an old bery-manager script, but it's commented out anyway. I guess I'll never know what what was causing this behaviour

Hehe, yeah, it was just a joke.

It's a really strange issue and I think that we will never know what the problem was, as you say. Anyway, the important thing is that at least, it now works ok and you can continue using your machine as you always did. So, congratulations

coolsnowmen · Post by **coolsnowmen** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:09 pm

manji_ wrote:I really need the computer, so what I did was to remove the entire '.kde' directory from my user. Now the kde starts faster and the problem with the excessive clients has gone(only 24 now). At least I hope so. I know there must be a more elegant way to solve this, but as I said i need the laptop. Thnx alot for your help, I really appreciate it.

This starts to point directly to the sessions manager. I user the ~/.kde/Autostart to start the things I want started on login. But if the session manager is set to "restore previous session" processes the don't close nicely when you log off can get stuck in this state (and they are not put in a place that I know how to find). To be honest I'm not entirely sure what happens, but I always change mine to "start with empty sessions". because I have had this "restoring of previous sessions" hurt everything from graphics to completely killing my audio.
I usually notice it in diagnosing someone else's computer when a test user works fine, but their use is snafu.

congrats on finding your problem solving

Post by **i92guboj** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:13 pm

coolsnowmen wrote:
manji_ wrote:I really need the computer, so what I did was to remove the entire '.kde' directory from my user. Now the kde starts faster and the problem with the excessive clients has gone(only 24 now). At least I hope so. I know there must be a more elegant way to solve this, but as I said i need the laptop. Thnx alot for your help, I really appreciate it.
This starts to point directly to the sessions manager. I user the ~/.kde/Autostart to start the things I want started on login. But if the session manager is set to "restore previous session" processes the don't close nicely when you log off can get stuck in this state (and they are not put in a place that I know how to find). To be honest I'm not entirely sure what happens, but I always change mine to "start with empty sessions". because I have had this "restoring of previous sessions" hurt everything from graphics to completely killing my audio.
I usually notice it in diagnosing someone else's computer when a test user works fine, but their use is snafu.

congrats on finding your problem solving

I didn't even think about this because I never used anything similar. But this would make a lot of sense. I don't have any idea either on how kde stores this information. KDE is a bit criptic in which regards configuration files.

manji_ · Post by **manji_** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:35 pm

This starts to point directly to the sessions manager. I user the ~/.kde/Autostart to start the things I want started on login. But if the session manager is set to "restore previous session" processes the don't close nicely when you log off can get stuck in this state (and they are not put in a place that I know how to find). To be honest I'm not entirely sure what happens, but I always change mine to "start with empty sessions". because I have had this "restoring of previous sessions" hurt everything from graphics to completely killing my audio.
I usually notice it in diagnosing someone else's computer when a test user works fine, but their use is snafu.

In reference to coolsnowmen's post, I want to add that I have been using this function of KDE, in case it helps somebody else. Actually this problem of mine may have been there for a long time, as KDE used to be too slow when shuting down, and starting up, maybe even a minute(just for KDE desktop to get off the screen). But I hadn't noticed the number of clients then. As soon as I removed the configuration files and put all the programs I want at startup, KDE starts far more faster. And I am very happy about it

So, maybe I will not too, use this "restore previous session" option.
Thnx alot guys, really.