[kde-linux] KDE programs gradually fail during sessions

[John O'Hagan]

Hi all,

A strange annoyance: during KDE sessions (3.3.2, Debian testing), I recently 
find that various KDE programs begin to load slower and slower, till they 
won't start at all. It usually begins with kwrite being unlaunchable from a 
root konqueror, then spreads to other programs and services, for example the 
print manager, until at last even konqueror will not start. It doesn't seem 
to affect non-KDE programs.

The initial error messages say "kdeinit could not launch [program]".

At first restarting X fixes it; then not; eventually X will not restart, 
complaining about DCOPserver and/or ICEauthority; I must then either reboot 
or, if that doesn't fix it, log in to a console and remove ~.DCOPserver* and 
sometimes ~.ICEauthority as well.

I have noticed that the ownerships on these files are sometimes wrong.

I have seen similar problems posted before, but have not found a permanent 
solution yet.

(It may be relevant that I recently suffered some filesystem corruption caused 
by a bad suspend; it is possible that some files may have gone missing during 
the fsck repair process.)

Does anyone know what causes this and how to prevent it?

Thanks,

John O'Hagan