Kmail crashes on every message close/reply/etc

[René J.V. Bertin]

On Monday May 27 2019 10:24:12 Erik Quaeghebeur wrote:
>On maandag 27 mei 2019 08:21:20 CEST, Ian Douglas wrote:
>>
>> Kmail Version 5.10.3 on AMD, Gentoo Linux.
>>
>> After system update over weekend, every time I close a message, 
>> Kmail crashes.
>
>I can confirm this, also on Gentoo (stable). There's even no backtrace 
>generated by DrKonqi.

This can happen if the crash occurs before the crash reporting scheme was set up, or if the crash is so "violent" that nothing can be done any more. I've also seen it happen when there is a problem with a library (missing, or the wrong version); in that case the system can unload the application straight away. DrKonqi is launched by code that runs "in" the problem application itself, so there are plenty of ways for it to fail to be started.

In such cases you would need to start the problem application directly via a debugger, i.e.

%> gdb /path/to/kmail

or 

%> lldb /path/to/kmail

Then, at the debugger problem, hit r <return> and then use the application as usual after it comes up. This way the debugger will have more chance to intercept the crash immediately, and you can get the backtrace.

R.