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

[david]

Phillip Pi wrote:
>>>>> 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 remember seeing the gcc4.1 updates. I don't remember seeing the others.

>> 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

My sources list is much shorter:

# Primary
deb ftp://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free

# multimedia
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main

#wine
deb http://wine.sourceforge.net/apt/ binary/

#freemind
deb http://eric.lavar.de/comp/linux/debian/ unstable/

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

>> 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.

And Fluxbux still works, with KDE working under Fluxbox.

>> 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.

KDE only works via Fluxbox. Some problem interaction with X, I guess.

>> 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.

The module loading problem will have to wait!

>> 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.

Updates that hosed the system were typically connected with updating X.

>> 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.

He had the same problem, but I don't know if the cause was the same. 
Here's what he had to say:

"I updated to the xserver core Thursday. No problems here so far. Then 
again, I haven't restarted X. The KDE upgrade went fine, as long as you 
realize there is a bug, aka kdelibs must be updated too, or KDE won't 
load. Updating kdebase doesn't pull in the new kdelibs."

That message was Oct 27, so I'd have expected that bug would have been 
fixed.

>>>> 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).

Hmmm, you might try it with Fluxbox, perhaps Gnome isn't so cooperative. 
Fluxbox is more of a barebones environment than Gnome and KDE.

>>>> 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!

My parents are visiting for the Thanksgiving holiday, so I've only been 
able to increase the file server storage and get most of my laptop data 
backed up. I'm holding off on backing up my home folder until I have the 
time to reinstall. Backing up 36GB takes awhile!

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community