kde 3.4.0: empty application list; "Configure desktop" does not work

[Denis Vlasenko]

I am using kde for a long time, IIRC I started to
use kde at version 2.2.2. I always build from source.
I used 2.2.2, 3.0.5 and now I am using 3.1.4.

I downloaded kde 3.4.0 sources, built and installed them
(usual configure/make/make install method).

Then I moved almost everything away from my home dir
(/root) and launched X+startkde, in order to get clean
.kde, not damaged by mix of old and new version.

KDE started and walked me thru setup wizard.
I've got a standard desktop configuration.

But there is something very wrong this time:
* K menu have no applications listed.
* kicker have no app icons. No KMail, no Kate,
  not even Konsole. Nothing. (Other elements are ok:
  K menu button, small images of 4 virtual desktops,
  clipboard tool, clock...)
* Clicking on Home icon on desktop brings up
  a "Pick an application" dialog (KDE does not
  know how to handle klick on a directory?),
  and this dialog, while looking normally,
  has a list of apps which is completely empty.
* Right-clicking on desktop and selecting
  "Configure desktop" does apparently nothing.
  X's stderr, where KDE stderr is being emitted to,
  prints this:

kio (KLauncher): KLauncher: Got kdeinit_exec('kcmshell', ...)
kdeinit: Got EXT_EXEC 'kcmshell' from launcher.
kio (KLauncher): kcmshell (pid 29578) up and running.
DCOP: register 'kcmshell-29578' -> number of clients is now 8
kio (KSycoca): Trying to open ksycoca from /.local/var/tmp/kdecache-root/ksycoca
kcmshell (kdelibs): WARNING: Could not find module 'kde-background'.
kcmshell (kdelibs): WARNING: Could not find module 'kde-desktopbehavior'.
kcmshell (kdelibs): WARNING: Could not find module 'kde-desktop'.
kcmshell (kdelibs): WARNING: Could not find module 'kde-screensaver'.
kcmshell (kdelibs): WARNING: Could not find module 'kde-display'.
DCOP:  'kcmshell-29578' now known as 'kcmshell_'
DCOP: unregister 'kcmshell_'
kdeinit: PID 29578 terminated.
DCOP: unregister 'anonymous-29530'
kdeinit: PID 29530 terminated.
kio_file: Done
kdeinit: PID 29540 terminated.
kio (KDirWatch): KDirWatch-3 emitting dirty /etc/mtab

It's not that bad, actually. I can start Konsole via
desktop right-click and "run a command", and then I tried
to start Kmail. It works.

Does anybody have an idea what might be wrong?
--
vda

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