I just noticed: no more crashes! Thanks, KDE team!

[Duncan]

Alex Schuster posted on Sat, 27 Aug 2011 01:45:11 +0200 as excerpted:

> Duncan writes:
> 
>> Alex Schuster posted on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:27:10 +0200 as excerpted:
> 
>> > About the crashes with Gwenview showing multimedia files: My bug
>> > report [#279624] was confirmed by someone else. I found out that this
>> > only happens with ffmpeg 0.7.3 installed, so a downgrade solved this
>> > problem. I reported this upstream in [#410], and it looks like they
>> > found the problem. It will be solved in 0.7.4.
>> 
>> Looking at the bug, no wonder I didn't run into it.  I had strigi and
>> nepomuk turned off, and now have USE=-semantic-desktop set and don't
>> even have nepomuk at least, installed (strigi seems to be an
>> unconditional depende of kdelibs, but whatever, at least it seems
>> harmless without nepomuk).
> 
> Do you have Dolphin/Konqueror configured to show short infos for the
> files the mouse is over? I would think that -semantic-desktop disables
> the indexing done by Strigi, but in this case it looks to me that Strigi
> is doing the analyzing of what type of file this is.

It appears that I have (48x48) icon-view set by default.  I have only the 
name shown, but dolphin has the preview/detail pane on the right.  I set 
detail-view if I want dates, etc, or switch to mc (which I have setup as 
the top priority open-with option for directories, but embedded set to 
use the internal viewer so I can browse in kde apps when I want to, 
without it constantly switching me to mc).

But it could be doing it when inspecting the file to see what icon to 
use.  You're right about that.

>> > List of weird stuff happening in the last weeks since I last wrote
>> > something here:
>> > 
>> > One day, the bouncing mouse cursor that indicates a starting program
>> > did not go away. The problem was that I was doing important stuff
>> > involving VMware Player, and could not easily log out and in again
>> > for a while. This drove me crazy :)
>> 
>> I used to have problems like that occasionally, but haven't in quite
>> awhile.  When I did, I made it a point to configure a custom busy
>> cursor, that still had a pointer (the background-busy from a different
>> cursor scheme, usually), so if it got stuck, I could still use the
>> pointer.
> 
> Using was no problem at all, it's only that the constant hopping annoyed
> me.

=:^)  For awhile, back on MS so over a decade ago, IIRC, I had animated 
cursors set for everything, including one of the background-busy cursors 
with a pointer, set as the default.

So bouncing cursors don't bother me much.  But if it gets stuck on a 
cursor without a pointer, as in the full-busy cursor, THAT BITES!

>> > On two occasions, the Windows and Ctrl keys no longer worked. Had to
>> > log out and in again.
>> 
>> That's weird.  I've not see anything like that recently, at least on my
>> machine (something similar happened at work today, tho, to the POS
>> system, rebooting fixed...), but if it was going to be a bother to
>> logout, I'd probably first try unplugging/replugging the USB keyboard,
> 
> I had this before, maybe three times per year. The keyboard is PS/2, I
> do not dare to unplug it. This seems to be safe, but in theory this
> could kill the PS/2 port. And once when I did this, the keyboard did not
> work at all, I had to reboot.

Yeah.  That's one of the down-sides of ps2 ports.  But everybody I know 
rather ignores it (few even know it's not in the spec) and treats them as 
hotplug anyway, in the spec or not.

Meanwhile, USB is DEFINITELY hotplug speced, but now that you mention it, 
I'm using some cheap dollar-store USB extension cables here, without a 
lot of shielding, and have some problems with electro-static pulses due 
to that.  I have a wireless combined-receiver (Logitech) for both 
keyboard and mouse, but it's primarily the mouse that's affected.  The 
ESP triggers a right-mouse-click most frequently, which can be annoying 
but usually just pops up a context menu, so nothing major.  But 
occasionally, it triggers a full mouse reset, which with some xinput/
evdev-driver versions, would often return me to unaccelerated mouse.  
That was frustrating on a dual 1920x1080 stacked for 1920x2160 desktop, 
but I quickly setup a hotkey to invoke an xset mouse to fix it.

However, on a number of occasions the ESP has been bad enough that I had 
to unplug/replug the USB keyboard/mouse receiver, and in one case, it was 
apparently bad enough to cause the hardware to kill that USB port 
entirely, until I rebooted.  Fortunately I have others, tho the one I 
switched to is on an addon card, so didn't work in grub when I rebooted.  
For some reason I was trying to do something other than default with grub 
at the time (IIRC I was testing a git kernel that had issues, and it was 
at the primary position, so I had to fallback to an older kernel 
manually, to boot properly), and that threw me for a bit, until I 
remembered that I had plugged the keyboard/mouse into a different USB 
port and replugged it into a built-in port, so grub could detect and 
respond to it.

>> then if that didn't work, run something like xev [...]
> 
> Maybe next time :) I just logged out. I do this from time to time
> anyway, because of a memory leak in KWin, that needs a lot of memory
> after some days of being logged in.

Yeah.  It just frustrates me when I have an untraced bug, and even when 
simply rebooting (or logging out and back into kde) will fix it, at least 
temporarily, I prefer to do some diagnostics and see exactly what's going 
on.  (With the above, I /know/ it's ESP issues due to the dollar-store 
cheap unshielded or close to it USB cables, which is tracked enough for 
me.  If it gets bad enough, I can simply plug directly, without the 
extensions, or quit being so miserly and get properly shielded 
extensions.)

>> > For some days now, when I start Konqueror and enter any URL,
>> > LibreOffice starts. I have NO IDEA why. Sometimes this even happens
>> > when I am using Akregator and show a site in a new tab. Weird.
>> 
>> Let's see if I've guessed the problem right on this one.  Check the
>> file associations (kde settings, common appearance and behavior, file
>> associations) for text/html and/or application/xml.  It's likely one of
>> them has LibreOffice set to the highest priority association, so it's
>> what's loaded.
> 
> Nope.

> But the object is not being opened in LibreOffice. The page shows up in
> Konqueror just as it should, but I get an empty LibreOffice document.
> This happens when I open Konqueror and enter a URL of a site that was
> flash content. ps axf shows this:

... and that came to be quite a mess after rewrapping, probably on both 
your side and mine.  Let's see if I can manually straighten it out a bit, 
deleting unneeded info so each process stays on a single posted line...

>  9938 \_ kdeinit4: konqueror [kdeinit] --preload
> 10682 |   \_ [32-bit nspluginwrapper]
> 10705 |   |   \_ /opt/Adobe/Reader9/.../acroread
> 10740 |   \_ /usr/lib64/libreoffice/.../nsplugin
> 10742 |       \_ /usr/lib64/libreoffice/.../oosplash.bin
> 10752 |           \_ /usr/lib64/libreoffice/.../soffice.bin

Total conjecture here:

Looks like it has the (32-bit proprietary) pdf reader plugin loaded, 
presumably for a pdf, and then libreoffice, possibly for the flash.

That does look to be association related, but not the web page but the 
flash association.  So I was part right and part wrong.  I still say 
check your associations, tho.  But others than the ones I said first.

Meanwhile, since I don't do proprietary here, there's little reason to 
have 32-bit at all (except for the 32-bit chroot that does the netbook 
builds, but it's not even mounted under normal use, only when I'm 
maintaining my 32-bit netbook image), so I run a no-multilib profile, 
which simplifies things dramatically. =:^)

I don't have any plugins loaded in firefox at all.  I download pdfs to a 
temp-working folder open in a folderview on my desktop, and open them 
from there, in okular.  Flash is a bit of an issue, one I generally 
ignore, but for youtube and the like I try to keep one or another 
downloader working, then play it in smplayer/vlc/whatever.  That's a 
hassle, but does mean I already have the files locally if I decide 
they're worth saving.  And of course I avoid problems of any sort 
(including the rash of vulns they've had) with Adobe servantware, but 
also the convenience of having them installed, since I won't install it 
at all, nor do I believe I could do so legally even if I wanted to, since 
I can't agree to the damage waivers, etc, for blackbox software I'm 
unable to inspect -- no meeting of the minds there, so those bits of the 
EULAs should be illegal because the user can't fairly inspect (or have 
someone he trusts inspect, for those who don't read source code) what 
he's agreeing to accept responsibility for, but whatever.  That's just 
me.  Others do what they want on their own computers.

>> You may also need to run kbuildsycoca4 manually, if just Kde's SYstem
>> COnfig CAche (k-sy-co-ca) somehow got screwed up, but the text-file
>> config is proper.
> 
> No change.

Yeah, that's not going to do much (unless it was simply corrupted, 
but...) since it was the wrong associations I suggested to look at.

>> No more akonadi on my system, here! =:^)  Even assuming akonadi's
>> working right, unloading it was if I just got a 500 MHz or a couple
>> extra cores upgrade, for free! =:^)
> 
> It uses quite some CPU resources here, from time to time.
> 
>> FWIW, claws-mail is growing on me quickly, too.  I'm /extremely/
>> pleased with how that decision turned out, here. =:^)
> 
> Maybe I will try it then. When I have some spare time, which I don't. or
> when the next major problem arises.

Be aware that migrating is a pain, in part because the migration scripts 
are a bit old and at least here, needed some hacking in ordered to work.  
And I transferred the filters manually.  But it was definitely worth it 
for me.  And I should be able to save you some time and trouble if you 
decide to try it.

You'll need to look at how it handles IMAP, tho.  Since I don't use it I 
wasn't worried about that.  If it works with IMAP at all, that's likely 
to vastly simplify your migration, but I don't know if it does.  That's 
definitely something you'll need to look at on your own, if you do decide 
to consider it.
 
>> But I know you like the integration of kontact...
> 
> That's not very important. One thing i that I used KMail for so long
> now, I got used to it, and as always I hope the bugs will become fewer
> over time,
> and this akonadi stuff hopefully also will get a speedup.

I expect it will.  It just became way too much for me.  As I said (I 
think in this thread) like an aircraft carrier, when all I needed was a 
rowboat and a trolling motor.  The switch was definitely the right thing 
for me.  For others, as they say, YMMV.  But I do expect akonadi will be 
a net benefit for the kdepim stuff over time.  Just not for me, as I did 
the right thing for me and switched to something else.

> And what I would like very much is to get my mails indexed by Nepomuk.

That's very much one of the potential positives that should count toward 
"net benefit", for sure!

> I
> don't have Nepomuk activated at the moment, though. But I'll try again
> now and see how much resources this will need. Let's see if virtuoso_t
> is still running tomorrow morning. I did not yet activate Strigi, but I
> will try this again, too.

Let me (us) know how it goes. Hopefully well.  =:^)

> I like to watch stuff in English, with English subtitles. Without,
> understanding is hard for me. Works fine for Futurama, but most movies
> are a pain to watch without subtitles for me.

<The light dawns.>  That makes quite some sense, when you put it that 
way.  I wasn't thinking of same-language captioning.  However, now that I 
am,I too have noted how effective close-captioning is on various TV 
programs in public, restaurants, etc, where it means the sound can be 
turned down.  The same would certainly apply here.

Then too, while I'm native English-only, I've been exposed to enough 
accents and the like that I understand it in contexts that other native-
English speakers have trouble with.  The first time I really became aware 
of this was back in high school (80s, Colorado, central-US rocky-mountain-
west).  The (private, church-based) school rented and showed Chariots of 
Fire in the gym one Saturday nite (yes, rather sheltered upbringing in 
that regard).  Given my time growing up in Kenya, I understood (and 
thoroughly enjoyed, I REALLY enjoy hearing different accents!) the 
European accents, etc, even in the "non-ideal" acoustics of the gym, with 
a the background noise of decent sized crowd of people.

Only afterward, from the comments of others, did I realize my experience 
wasn't the norm for the evening.  Many of those rocky-mountain-western-US 
natives would likely have understood only with difficulty the accents in 
the film even under ideal acoustic conditions, let alone the rather noisy 
and echo-y acoustics of a gym with a crowd of people and a less-than-
ideal PA system.

They certainly could have used some captioning/subtitles, even tho the 
film was nominally in English.  Based on that experience, I can certainly 
understand the difficulties you may have as a non-native English speaker, 
as well, and therefore the positive role English subtitles on English 
sound-track media may still play, not just for you, but for so many 
others, native English speakers or not, as well.

> Despite the good reputation, I do not like synchronized movies at all.
> German synchro may be good technically, but the translations are often
> silly. Plus the usual errors, like when silicon is translated as
> silicone, or billion as trillion.

I've read the same observations in the context of fansubs vs. the 
official translations for Japanese anime, among other things.  The 
official translations may "do the job", but are largely characterized as 
not just "silly", but often as "flat" or "dead", without the depth of 
meaning and in-side references that they fan-subs often convey far more 
successfully, because for them it's an effort of love, not just a job.  
And that's when the translations are technically correct, never mind when 
they're not, as with silicon/silicone, etc.

If only time wasn't of the nature it is, perhaps I'd have time to get 
into all these things of interest, that I've simply had to prioritize out 
of my limited scope of /pursued/ interests. =:^\

>> > And while I usually opened the .zip files in Ark

>> Hmm... sounds like it might have lost its zip library compatibility.

> Ark is working fine when I open files with it. It's only when I download
> them. Maybe Ark opens before they are actually downloaded or something.
> Oh, it's working now. It also no longer opens my $HOME directory after
> I dragged a file somewhere, which it did for years. Things become
> better!

/That's/ good news! =:^)

>> > Discovered a problem with KMail2 not showing header titles (like
>> > From:, To:, X-Bugzilla-URL:). Filed bug [#280670].
>> 
>> No more kmail2 to worry about, YAY! =:^)  (FWIW, claws-mail lets you
>> configure which headers to show, or not show, your choice,
>> specifically. So all my bugzilla mails now come thru with most of the
>> X-bugzilla-* headers shown, for instance, since that's how I configured
>> it. =:^)
> 
> Nice.

Indeed.  That's one of the nice "extras" I had no idea about when I 
switched, but which have very quickly been growing on me.  Certainly it's 
nothing that can't be done without, but it's a very nice feature to have, 
none-the-less.  The thing is, I keep finding such things, which is why, 
as I said, claws-mail is very quickly growing on me.

BTW, one thing to consider since you mentioned nepomuk for indexing, is 
that since mh-format message-stores such as claws-mail uses are simply 
plain text files, one per message, if you keep nepomuk (I didn't, as I 
don't use that functionality) and let strigi index those files, you'll 
have the same sort of fully indexed content as you would have with the 
similar maildir format that kmail2 uses and that was one of kmail1's 
options.

So you'll have the same indexed search ability on the raw content, you'll 
just not have it as integrated with the rest of kde as you will with 
kmail.  Instead, it'd be indexed (I believe) as would any other more or 
less generic text file.

> BTW, the threading seems to be broken in KMail. Your response does not
> appear below mine, but the references in your header seem to be okay to
> me. AH, seems this is https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=279115 . At
> least I don't have to report this.

I wonder if that's related to the duplicate message-id bug (the pick one, 
right, left, both, dialog).  Did that get fixed for 4.7?  If not, and the 
bug happened with this mail, perhaps you picked "the wrong one", in terms 
of proper threading?  (It just as easily could have nothing to do with 
it, since I'm effectively clueless at to what was causing that bug in the 
first place.  But it was worry about just this sort of effect that was 
one of the factors in my decision that I'd simply had enough, and it was 
time to try something without all this needless complication.  FWIW, 
that's /exactly/ why I dropped the LVM layer I had been experimenting 
with on my system, too.  I realized the complication level was simply 
well above what I could understand to a comfort level necessary for 
troubleshooting should something go wrong, and that as such, I'd be 
VASTLY better off in a recovery situation if I just killed that to-me 
unnecessarily complicating layer in the first place.  Akonadi was much 
the same, except that it was just my mail at risk, not all the data I had 
stored on the affected logical volumes.  The point being, there's 
complication that provides measurable benefits, and there's needless 
complication where the benefits simply don't outweigh the hassle and risk 
factor cost of the complications in the first place.  For my usage, both 
LVM and akonadi fall very much on the wrong side of the cost/benefit 
analysis, and are thus very much a WRONG solution for me, however much 
they might be a GOOD solution for someone else who weighs the cost/
benefit factors differently due to their different needs.)

>> > Krunner died. But I could simply restart it in a terminal. Nothing I
>> > would even mention, if the subject to this mail were different.
>> 
>> FWIW, krunner was MUCH more stable for me after I followed the
>> suggestion at the bottom of this page, disabling the krunner nepomuk
>> search plugin and the contact plugin.  That was while I was still
>> running akonadi and thus had to have USE=semantic-desktop.  Of course
>> now that I don't, I don't even have those options to disable. =:^)
> 
> This happened only once so far, so I don't care about this. Yet.

Practical problem prioritizing.  Cool!  =:^)

Just keep that reset script trick on file in case you need it sometime.  
As I mentioned above, I use a variation on the theme for my mouse accel 
reset, too, and I've used the same basic trick in various other 
situations.  The trick is thus useful in enough situations that you'll 
probably find it useful somewhere, eventually.

Not that it's at all unique or unusual.  I expect every sysadmin 
eventually has this sort of thing in his bag of tricks.  Perhaps you 
already do and I'm making a big deal of nothing, but if not, it's worth 
putting there, as you'll almost certainly find it useful, eventually.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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