[kde-linux] Starting up KDE hangs with a black desktop and movable mouse cursor.

[Phillip Pi]

> >>> Two days ago on my home Debian system, I exited KDE v3.5.x (not sure
> >>> exactly what version I have) and X back to console/text mode and
> >>> restarted it (startx) but now I get a hang. I see a black desktop/GUI/X
> >>> with a movable mouse cursor after seeing NVIDIA logo and an one second
> >>> gray desktop. I have to use ctrl-alt-backspace to kill X to get out of
> >>> it.
> >>>
> >>> I did some investigations and experiments as well. You can see the logs,
> >>> results, etc. in
> >>> http://www.kde-forum.org/artikel/17919/Starting-up-KDE-hangs-with-a-black-desktop-and-mov.html
> >>> thread since they would be too much to post in here.
> >>
> >> I had KDE 3.5.8 until updating yesterday. Every since then, attempts to 
> >> start KDE from command line report either not finding kdeinit or errors 
> >> trying to run kdeinit. I even removed everything KDE and reinstalled it, 
> >> still having same problems.
> > 
> > Do you remember what was updated yesterday? I updated on Friday because
> > I saw kdelibs (4:3.5.8.dfsg.1-3) so I decided to restart X. I don't know
> > if kdelib update caused the problem since I haven't restart X for like
> > two weeks! Is this what you did too?
> 
> Actually, my KDE problems began on Friday, I did an update and there 
> were updates to gcc and such. Didn't see any updates to KDE at that time.

This is what I updated on Friday before I exited X (again, I don't know
if these actually caused the startkde hang): cpp-4.1 gcalctool gcc-4.1
gcc-4.1-base gnome-terminal gnome-terminal-data iputils-ping kdelibs
libcurl3-gnutls libgail-common libgail18 libglibmm-2.4-1c2a
libgnomecanvas2-0 libgnomecanvas2-common libgsmme1c2a libgtkmm-2.4-1c2a
libnessus2 libportaudio2 python-gnome2 vino libasound2

 
> I did the update again later that night as an attempt to fix - I've had 
> problems with partial updates, I think due to repositories being in an 
> in-between state - some packages updated to the newer version, but other 
> related packages not updated YET.

Hmm. I am using Lenny/testing. Here's my sources.list:
$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
# Based on Mousey's Sources.list

# These are the official of the official debian repos..
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib 
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib 

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing-proposed-updates main non-free 
contrib 
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing-proposed-updates main 
non-free contrib 

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ stable main non-free contrib 
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ stable main non-free contrib 

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ proposed-updates main non-free contrib 
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ proposed-updates main non-free 
contrib 

deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free 
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free 

# Xine CSS plugins
deb http://www.interq.or.jp/libra/oohara/debian-unofficial/ ./
# VideoLAN DVD stuff
deb http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian sarge main
deb http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian sid main

 
> Anyway, I was up late determining that the problem wasn't due to any 
> updates to Xorg and that fluxbox worked with no problems.

Yep. That is what I found. Xorg (even without NVIDIA driver; using VESA) 
and Gnome were fine.

 
> This afternoon I ripped out the installed KDE and went to reinstall, and 
> found that 3.5.8 was no longer available as an option (only 3.5.7). So I 
> can successfully run KDE 3.5.7 from fluxbox, but not from the command line.

Odd. I did an unintall (not sure if I got all out) and reinstalled. But 
still didn't work.

 
> I have other weirdnesses on the system that I'm trying to solve - for 
> instance, getting driver modules to install on startup - so I don't 
> really know what in all this tangle is the root of the problem.

Ah, I haven't had those.

 
> I've been rather disappointed with Linux updates this year - three times 
> now, I've had updates hose my system. At least one was an error in a 
> package!

Ouch. It didn't kill my system. Only KDE went bonker.

 
> In fact, a friend of mine updated 3.5.8 a few weeks ago and got himself 
> a non-functioning KDE because something wasn't indicated properly in a 
> package somewhere and a piece of KDE that should have been updated 
> wasn't. I don't remember what it was now, though.

Rats. Was it the same symptoms I am having or different? I wonder if it 
is the same.

 
> >> BUT to make things more strange - the KDE 3.5.7 runs fine if I start it 
> >> using "exec startkde" inside an XShell in Fluxbox!!!!
> > 
> > Ha, in Gnome and its terminal, I tried that just now but it hangs at
> > "Setting up interprocess communication." at the first blinking icon
> > (wheel) and hangs. Terminal shows "startkde: starting up" (same as 
> > shown in logs).
> 
> Mine takes a lot longer at that icon than it did before I had to start 
> it from inside fluxbox - but it eventually gets past it.

Ah, mine never did and timed out and failed (no errors).

 
> >> For now, I'm adding more drive space to my file server, then I'll backup 
> >> my home directory and reinstall ... stupid computers!
> > 
> > :(
> 
> Anyway, time I did a real good backup of my /home directory, anyway. I 
> have Etch running fine on my server, so I think I'll put it on the 
> laptop, too. And maybe add a partition for a good multimedia/audio 
> distro to accommodate my music composition hobby ...

Let me know how it goes. I hope I don't have to do a reinstall!