kwin crashes -- system unusable

[jesnow]

I have been experiencing occasional kwin crashes:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-8 ... ml#8072268

But now kwin refuses to start at all. Just try using KDE without a functioning kwin. Launcher works, so I can start apps, but I cant switch between them, can't move or resize windows, and the usual methods of restarting kwin "kwin_x11 --replace" just repeat the startup process to the dead-kwin state.
ps says the following:

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jesnow@armstrong ~ $ ps ax | grep kwin
 3492 ?        Tl     0:00 kwin_x11
 3618 ?        Sl     0:00 /usr/lib/libexec/drkonqi -platform xcb -display :0 --appname kwin_x11 --apppath /usr/bin --signal 11 --pid 3492 --appversion 5.8.6 --programname KWin --bugaddress submit@bugs.kde.org --startupid 0
 5773 pts/11   S+     0:00 grep --colour=auto kwin

So kwin is a zombie that doesn't know it's dead.
Any ideas how I can get kwin back to life?
Jon.
ps:

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jesnow@armstrong ~ $ equery list -f plasma
 * Searching for plasma ...
[IP-] [  ] kde-frameworks/plasma-5.29.0:5/5.29
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/breeze-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/kactivitymanagerd-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/kde-cli-tools-5.8.6-r1:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/kde-gtk-config-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/kdecoration-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/kscreenlocker-5.8.6-r1:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/ksysguard-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/kwin-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/libksysguard-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/milou-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/oxygen-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/plasma-desktop-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/plasma-integration-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/plasma-workspace-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/polkit-kde-agent-5.8.6:5
[IP-] [  ] kde-plasma/systemsettings-5.8.6:5
jesnow@armstrong ~ $ equery list -f qtgui
 * Searching for qtgui ...
[IP-] [  ] dev-qt/qtgui-4.8.7:4
[IP-] [  ] dev-qt/qtgui-5.6.2:5/5.6
jesnow@armstrong ~ $ equery list -f dbus
 * Searching for dbus ...
[IP-] [  ] dev-libs/dbus-glib-0.102:0
[IP-] [  ] dev-libs/libdbusmenu-qt-0.9.3_pre20160218:0
[IP-] [  ] dev-python/dbus-python-1.2.0-r1:0
[IP-] [  ] dev-qt/qdbus-5.6.2:5/5.6
[IP-] [  ] dev-qt/qtdbus-4.8.7:4
[IP-] [  ] dev-qt/qtdbus-5.6.2:5/5.6
[IP-] [  ] dev-util/gdbus-codegen-2.50.3:0
[IP-] [  ] kde-frameworks/kdbusaddons-5.29.0:5/5.29
[IP-] [  ] sys-apps/dbus-1.10.18:0
jesnow@armstrong ~ $ 

i915 video driver.

[Apheus]

Try disabling compositing. In systemsettings - Hardware - Display, or ~/.config/kwinrc:

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[Compositing]
...
Enabled=false

As a workaround, to have a usable desktop: If x11-wm/openbox is installed, the display manager should have a login option "KDE/openbox", which is the plasma shell with openbox as the window manager.

[jesnow]

Turned off for good years ago. I hate compositing, animations, eyecandy, and such. Windows 2 already had all the UI functionality I need to do my work, KDE 3 was a good stable work platform, and everything since then has just been breaky bs. <rant mode off>.

I don't use a display manager, I use startx.

I have very limited functionality right now, so its hard to just try stuff.

For example I am using an intel driver (see above) but the workaround listed here:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/critical ... 8621.shtml
did not help.

Without klauncher there is no easy way to log out of KDE.

The hard way (for future reference) is from a terminal:

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 qdbus org.kde.ksmserver /KSMServer logout 0 3 3

I read you can preface that with DISPLAY=0: to shutdown KDE from a console window.

Once openbox is emerged, if you use startx you need to edit ~.xinitrc thusly:

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# exec ck-launch-session startkde
exec ck-launch-session openbox-kde-session

Then at least you have worked around buggy kwin. Maybe this is a good long term solution as well. But why did kwin break? I would rather run a vanilla system.

Many thanks Apheus for the tips so far, that really helped!