KDE sometimes doesn't start

Message

tomtom69 · Post by **tomtom69** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 6:56 pm

Hi,

after recent upgrade from KDE 4.6.3-r2 to 4.6.5-r1 KDE sometimes (about 1 of 10 times) does not start completely.
I can login at the kdm screen. The start bar grows until the next to last position but then stops. I can change to a text terminal by CTRL-ALT-F1, but even restarting /etc/init.d/xdm does not help (KDE starts again after login but stops at the same stage). After a reboot everything works fine again.
Is there any log file or debug option where I can see what stops KDE startup from continuing or what goes wrong?
System ist amd64 stable.

tom

(Reply may take some time due to the random behaviour of this problem).

dirkfanick · Post by **dirkfanick** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 4:54 pm

treid it with gdm or just gnome?

Randy Andy · Post by **Randy Andy** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 5:10 pm

@ dirkfanick
Is this a answer to Tom's question?

Tomtom69.

Check /var/log/kdm.log or Xorg.0.log for Errors, Warnings etc.

Eventually try to start with a new profile or test user.
There lots of new / different settings which could confuse KDM to start, especially in:
~/.kde4/share/config/kwinrc
like Compositing and more.

Regards, Andy.

dirkfanick · Post by **dirkfanick** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 5:23 pm

For me it reads like a usage of unstable packages or unsupported compiler-flags 'cause of this:

After a reboot everything works fine again.

tomtom69 · Post by **tomtom69** » Fri Aug 19, 2011 5:14 pm

Thank you for your answers.

@dirkfanick:
gdm or gnome is not an option just because of this KDE problem.
There are no unstable packages or unsupported compiler flags - I am using only the stable versions, because the machine is for "productional use" (=my wife also uses it)

@Andy
/var/log/kdm.log shows some new messages after KDE upgrade (befor KDE upgrade only the xkbcomp messages were present), hoewver these messages always appear, regardless of KDE starting up completely or not. The messages in kdm.log are:

---BEGIN---
klauncher(5191) kdemain: No DBUS session-bus found. Check if you have started the DBUS server.
kdeinit4: Communication error with launcher. Exiting!
kdmgreet(5185)/kdecore (K*TimeZone*): KSystemTimeZones: ktimezoned initialize() D-Bus call failed: "Not connected to D-Bus server"

The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:
> Warning: Type "ONE_LEVEL" has 1 levels, but <RALT> has 2 symbols
> Ignoring extra symbols
Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server
--- END ---

Xorg.0.log looks like before the KDE update - no anomalies or differences there.

"top" tells me that plasma-desktop consumes 100% CPU when the failure occurs. Google finds a lot of hits for 100% CPU consumption of plasma-desktop but none of them is related only to startup (when KDE runs, I never got an issue of 100% CPU of plasma desktop - it is always just at start)

A completely new profile is not fun because I have to set up all things of KDE again. I now copied only ~/.kde4/share/config/kwinrc from a new and clean profile, however it does not show differences that should be relevant (mainly: compositing is disabled). I will see whether this helps the next days...

tom

dirkfanick · Post by **dirkfanick** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 3:35 pm

kde is trolltech...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qt_Development_Frameworks

I'm with xfce or gnome.

khumba · Post by **khumba** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:09 pm

Tomtom69, did you solve your problem?

I was experiencing a similar issue: KDE splash screen would stop at the last stage (after the K icon appears) randomly, and plasma-desktop would sit, consuming CPU. Usually it worked fine on boot, but I couldn't re-login. What fixed it for me was comment #3 here. I had installed and put a custom plasma widget on my desktop, and deleting ~/.kde4/share/apps/plasma/plasmoids solved the problem.

(In hindsight, krunner(14311)/libplasma Plasma::Package::isValid: Could not find required file mainscript in ~/.xsession-errors possibly seems relevant.)

tomtom69 · Post by **tomtom69** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 5:40 pm

Hi khumba,

no, I did not solve the problem yet (had to reboot again today).
Thank you for your answer.
I'll give it a try and remove the python plasma widget (I have actually installed one) and delete ~/.kde4/share/apps/plasma/plasmoids. Will see if it solves the problem within some days.

tom

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:43 pm

Hi guys, do you own a nvidia card and do you use the nvidia-drivers ?

tomtom69 · Post by **tomtom69** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 7:06 pm

Yes, I am using onboard nvidia graphics (GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a) and nvidia-drivers (blob).

Goverp · Post by **Goverp** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:08 pm

I had a similar problem that I think was caused by a KDE app called vehiclereminder which opened a window when the desktop started up. There were no messages in the logs; my bypass was to log into root via the Ctrl+Alt+F1 session and issue "/etc/init.d/xdm restart".

I suspect there was a "race" condition between it and the desktop. Removing it appears to have cured the problem.

My guess if you have any uncommon KDE apps or widgets that start with the desktop (or possibly get restarted by the desktop) that don't take enough care with their interaction with the desktop, you might get this sort of issue.

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:34 pm

Did you try the nouveau driver instead ?

Which version of Nvidia-drivers are you using ?

tomtom69 · Post by **tomtom69** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 6:13 pm

Hi,

@d2_racing: I am using latest stable nvidia-drivers on amd64, which is x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-270.41.19. Did not try nouveau - it was not working with googleearth ~1 year ago because of opengl issues, so I switched to nvidia-drivers. I do not really need 3D, so nouveau would also be worth a try if someone could confirm nouveau is compatible with googleearth (which is needed by my wife, so I can not simply omit it).

@Goverp: I only have konsole starting up with the desktop. /etc/init.d/xdm restart doesn't help when the error occurs. However I did not check yet why (I think plasma-desktop isn't restarted?)

Without the python plasma widget I did not have the problem at the moment, but I did not start the system so often that I can be sure this was the cause.

It is somewhat strange that the problem started with kde 4.6.5-r1. KDE 4.6.3-r2 worked perfectly. Maybe I should downgrade...

tom
(EDIT: typos)

Lustmored · Post by **Lustmored** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:00 pm

I have sometimes exactly same problem.

But here KDE 4.7.0, xf86-video-ati... Completely different settings

My KDE is prelinked and for me it looks like it starts before some necessary service actually does... something?

Goverp · Post by **Goverp** » Sat Aug 27, 2011 9:10 am

Interesting - despite removing that vehiclereminder application, the problem recurred. FWIW, the last message in /var/log/messages was about the powerdevil backlighthelper.

I think I found the cause in my case - I'd installed a new logon theme via the System Settings (run as root). It turns out that the logon panel had lost the "session type" setting - none of the radio buttons (default, custom, plasma workspace, and some others I forget) were selected. Selecting plasma workspace cured the hang.

tomtom69 · Post by **tomtom69** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 6:28 pm

Hi,

at the moment it looks like removal of the python plasma widget (in this case: pyweather) solved the problem. No hang so far since I removed it from desktop. The widget was also looking most probable to me for the problem because it appears at the very start of the plasma-desktop (not like other restored applications which seem to be started a little later). So most of the the credits may be for khumba

What is strange and also votes for a racing condition is the fact that this only appears on one of two nearly identical machines, and that it shows up only after upgrade of KDE.
I do not mark this thread as "solved" because it looks like some bug to me.
If someone has an idea how to further investigate (i.e. re-enable the widget and compile some packages with debug options or whatever) the issue and possibly gather enough information to file a bug for the KDE team please let me know.

tom

dirkfanick · Post by **dirkfanick** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:06 pm

Sorry for forking kde but...

...kde is really the worst desktop I can remember (Compiling-times, pseudo-transperancy, performance, apperance, so called features, configuration etc).

I like gnome.

Or xfce4.

fbcyborg · Post by **fbcyborg** » Wed Oct 19, 2011 10:04 pm

khumba wrote:I was experiencing a similar issue: KDE splash screen would stop at the last stage (after the K icon appears) randomly

This happens to me too! Always!
But only when I select the nvidia card on my laptop (using the nvidia-drivers). If I select the intel video card, KDE always starts.

It's strange because I have a nvidia card also on a Desktop PC, and I don't have this problem even if I use the nvidia-drivers.

So, is there no solution?

khumba · Post by **khumba** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 7:40 am

I don't have an NVidia card but... Does KDE start normally with nvidia-drivers if you disable desktop effects on startup?

(Is no video card safe?

Never had a problem with KDE's effects on my previous NVidia laptop...)

fbcyborg · Post by **fbcyborg** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 8:58 am

If as Desktop Effects you mean System Settings->Workspace Appearance and Behavior->Desktop Effects->General->Enable Desktop Effects, NO, KDE, doesn't start.
If as a Desktop Effects system you mean Compiz, even in this case it doesn't start. It remains at the splash screen.
Anyway, in both cases I hear the KDE startup sound.

dE_logics · Post by **dE_logics** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:19 pm

Anyone using x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau or FB?

fbcyborg · Post by **fbcyborg** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:41 am

I created a new user and I've seen that if I log in with that user, KDE starts normally.
I don't know what the problem could be.

dE_logics · Post by **dE_logics** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:22 pm

Well, you know, something in ~.*. How about renaming/cleaning the .kde4, .local, .local, .cache, .kde folders? That way you can atleast isolate the problem.

fbcyborg · Post by **fbcyborg** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:31 pm

Could you be more precise please?
I don't want to lose all my KDE settings. I know that removing my ~/.kde directory would solve the problem but what do you suggest to clean exactly, apart the fact that you wrote: local, .local, .cache?
Thanks a lot.

khumba · Post by **khumba** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:01 pm

Try starting with kwin* or plasma* in ~/.kde4/share/apps and ~/.kde4/share/config. I think those are the usual culprits.