[RESOLVED] Can't start KDE

[nenadsuperzmaj]

Okay, I'll try to present my problem as precise as I can:

- During the starting of KDE (v 4.5.1, Kubuntu Lucid) the screen went black and I had to restart X.
- After that, when I choose KDE in KDM and try to login, the splash screen shows for about a second, then the screen goes black, and returns to KDM.
- Logging in to different graphic environments (openbox, fluxbox, LXDE, awesome) works fine.
- Logging in of other users into KDE works fine.
- Renaming/moving of ~/.kde and ~/.config didn't change anything.
- When I login into one of the other DEs and run startkde in terminal, this is the output I get:

nenad@superzmaj:~$ startkde
startkde: Starting up...
Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
kded(2093): Communication problem with "kded" , it probably crashed.
Error message was: "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown" : " "The name org.kde.kded was not provided by any .service files" "

<unknown program name>(2091)/ KStartupInfo::createNewStartupId: creating: "superzmaj;1284966033;910064;2091_TIME0" : "unnamed app"
startkde: Shutting down...
klauncher: Exiting on signal 1
startkde: Running shutdown scripts...
startkde: Done.

- Also, when I login to other DEs the KDE apps (Amarok, krusader) won't start. I cannot recall the exact message I got in terminal, but it was something like (can't connect to bus).

I suppose I could try moving everything out of my home folder or creating a new user for myself, but that isn't exactly solving the problem.

I don't really understand that output up there. Is kded the culprit? If so, how do I "reset" kded?

Are there any ideas? Please help!

[sithlord48]

Re: Can't start KDE

try to reinstall the kubuntu-desktop meta package , that should reinstall anything your missing or what ever may have not gotten configured durring the initial set up.

[nenadsuperzmaj]

Re: Can't start KDE

I'm not at home now, so I cannot try that, but yesterday I tried to dpkg-reconfigure kubuntu-kde4-desktop. I might have been on the right track there...

Will try and post afterwards. Thanks for a speedy reply, hope that does the trick.

[Vistaus]

Re: Can't start KDE

kubuntu-kde4-desktop is deprecated since 8.10 The new name of the package is kubuntu-desktop

[nenadsuperzmaj]

Re: Can't start KDE

Ah, didn't realize that. Can't wait to give it a try.

[nenadsuperzmaj]

Re: Can't start KDE

Reinstalling kubuntu-desktop didn't do the trick

Any more ideas?

[Yuri sss]

Re: Can't start KDE

Reinstalling kubuntu-desktop didn't do the trick

Any more ideas?

kubuntu-desktop is only an empty meta-package to install all Kde packages and apps as dependencies. Reinstalling this empty meta-package does nothing. You can just as well remove it, it's not needed for anything.

You can try to reinstall individual packages:
kdm (Kde login manager)
kde-workspace-bin (Kde core apps) Note: kde-workspace also is an empty meta-package.
kde-plasma-desktop (Kde plasma core apps)

[dibl]

Re: Can't start KDE

Yuri's ideas are good. Here are two more:

(1). Any chance of a full root filesystem? That will prevent KDM from running.

(2). Try shutting down the X servier (Ctrl-Alt-F1 then "sudo service kdm stop"), then remove the files .ICEauthority and .Xauthority from your user's home directory, then restart the X server with "sudo service kdm start".

[sithlord48]

Re: Can't start KDE

Yuri's ideas are good. Here are two more:

(1). Any chance of a full root filesystem? That will prevent KDM from running.

you can check that with the command df (use df -h for human readable )

[nenadsuperzmaj]

Re: Can't start KDE

Nothing still.

I even moved EVERYTHING from my home folder, rebooted, and it doesn't work. Still, KDE works for other user accounts on the computer.

I'm officially baffled...

edit: here is the df output

nenad@superzmaj:~$ df -h
Фајл систем      Капацитет Зауз. Слобод. % Прикачен на
/dev/sda10       19G  11G 7,4G 58% /
none         1003M 308K 1002M  1% /dev
none         1007M   0 1007M  0% /dev/shm
none         1007M 220K 1007M  1% /var/run
none         1007M   0 1007M  0% /var/lock
none         1007M   0 1007M  0% /lib/init/rw
none          19G  11G 7,4G 58% /var/lib/ureadahead/debugfs
/dev/sda1       29G  26G 2,4G 92% /home
/dev/sda5       30G  11G  20G 35% /media/Aplikacije
/dev/sda6       38G  25G  13G 68% /media/Download
/dev/sda7       49G  38G  12G 78% /media/Muzika
/dev/sda8       50G  37G  13G 74% /media/Filmovi
/dev/sda11       19G 5,8G  13G 31% /media/Rezanje

[dibl]

Re: Can't start KDE

From /home$

can you post the output of

ls -la

[nenadsuperzmaj]

Re: Can't start KDE

Here it is. It's Serbian localization, so some folders' names may be a bit strange

nenad@superzmaj:~$ ls -la
укупно 880
drwxr-xr-x 105 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-22 21:40 .
drwxr-xr-x  8 root root  4096 2010-09-21 21:45 ..
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 21:42 .AbiSuite
drwx------  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-08 09:02 .adobe
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-12 20:46 .amph
drwxr-xr-x  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-07-04 09:47 .android
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-21 22:45 .aptitude
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-18 21:09 .aptoncd
-rw-------  1 nenad nenad 46065 2010-09-21 22:57 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  220 2010-05-08 15:33 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  3103 2010-05-08 15:33 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x  5 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-21 10:02 .blender
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  123 2010-08-07 22:40 .Blog
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-06-19 00:10 .bluefish
drwxr-xr-x  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-30 10:28 .boxee
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-17 22:49 .byobu
drwxr-xr-x  7 nenad nenad 12288 2010-09-21 22:53 .cache
drwxr-xr-x 39 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-21 21:44 .config
drwxr-xr-x  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-02-23 15:28 .covers
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-06-19 22:46 .crystalspace
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-19 23:37 .cwp
drwx------  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-08 15:43 .dbus
drwxr-xr-x  6 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-21 11:33 .dc
drwxr-xr-x  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-30 22:32 .dc++
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad   56 2010-09-20 11:06 .DCOPserver_superzmaj__0
lrwxrwxrwx  1 nenad nenad   36 2010-09-18 16:44 .DCOPserver_superzmaj_:0 -> /home/nenad/.DCOPserver_superzmaj__0
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-21 22:00 .debtags
drwxr-xr-x  5 nenad nenad  4096 2010-07-04 09:20 .designer
drwxr-xr-x  5 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 21:20 Desktop
-rw-------  1 nenad nenad   23 2010-09-21 22:48 .dmrc
drwxr-xr-x  9 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 08:57 Documents
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-14 11:05 .dosbox
drwxr-xr-x  5 nenad nenad  4096 2010-02-21 12:32 .dosemu
drwxr-xr-x  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-07 19:25 Downloads
drwxr-xr-x  6 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-11 19:37 .dvdcss
drwx------  6 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-18 16:27 .e16
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-12 14:57 .easytag
drwxr-xr-x  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-16 22:47 Electronic Arts
-rw-------  1 nenad nenad   16 2010-05-08 18:56 .esd_auth
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-06-28 22:55 .filezilla
drwxr-xr-x  5 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 08:59 .fluxbox
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-17 10:22 .fontconfig
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  508 2010-05-08 16:05 .fonts.conf
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-18 16:24 .frozen-bubble
drwx------  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-22 21:41 .gconf
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-22 21:43 .gconfd
drwx------  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-11 20:04 .gegl-0.0
drwxr-xr-x 22 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-18 12:58 .gimp-2.6
-rw-r-----  1 nenad nenad   0 2010-09-21 22:37 .gksu.lock
drwx------  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-07-17 22:08 .gnome
drwx------  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-17 22:51 .gnome2
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-11 18:24 .gnome2_private
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad   50 2010-09-20 22:40 .gntpositions
drwx------  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-30 22:49 .gnupg
drwx------  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-07 09:57 .googleearth
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-16 22:38 .gphoto
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-17 22:26 .gstreamer-0.10
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad   37 2010-09-20 09:14 .gtk-bookmarks
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  293 2010-05-10 21:42 .gtkrc-2.0-kde4
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-11 18:55 .gvfs
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-11 09:47 .gwhere
drwxr-xr-x  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-06-30 21:51 .hedgewars
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  1232 2010-07-01 20:45 .hugin
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad   0 2010-09-20 08:48 icon-cache
drwxr-xr-x 11 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-31 22:28 .icons
drwx------  6 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 22:21 .kde
-rw-------  1 nenad nenad  345 2010-05-08 16:06 .kderc
drwxr-xr-x  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-09 09:21 .klamav
-rw-------  1 nenad nenad   84 2010-09-19 16:10 .lesshst
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  150 2010-05-13 13:48 .lightyears.cfg
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-21 22:57 .links2
drwxr-xr-x  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-08 15:44 .local
drwx------  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-08 09:02 .macromedia
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 22:46 .mc
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  525 2010-09-12 14:28 .mkvmergeGUI
drwxr-xr-x  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-17 23:18 .moc
drwxr-xr-x  5 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-11 19:36 .moovida
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-15 09:53 Movies
drwx------  5 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-30 15:43 .mozilla
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-01-01 13:00 .mplayer
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-12 21:03 .mu-cade
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-11 10:49 Music
drwxr-xr-x  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-06-28 09:01 .mypaint
drwx------  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-04 19:19 .mysqlgui
drwxr-xr-x  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-04 19:28 .netbeans
drwxr-xr-x  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-04 19:30 .netbeans-derby
drwxr-xr-x  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-04 19:28 .netbeans-registration
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  1167 2010-09-22 21:44 .nvidia-settings-rc
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-12 20:54 .oes
drwxr-xr-x  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-19 22:04 .openoffice.org
drwxr-xr-x 15 nenad nenad 36864 2010-09-20 08:47 Pictures
drwx------  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-13 21:09 .pki
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  2244 2010-06-18 15:24 playdeb_0.3-1~getdeb1_all.deb
drwxr-xr-x 10 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-18 16:26 .PlayOnLinux
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  675 2010-05-08 15:33 .profile
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad   2 2010-06-19 12:13 .ptbt0
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 22:31 .pulse
-rw-------  1 nenad nenad  256 2010-05-10 11:46 .pulse-cookie
drwx------  5 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 22:40 .purple
drwxr-xr-x  9 nenad nenad  4096 2010-06-30 23:09 .python-eggs
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-06-02 09:51 .qt
-rw-------  1 nenad nenad  9266 2010-09-20 21:34 .recently-used
-rw-------  1 nenad nenad  4411 2010-09-20 21:31 .recently-used.xbel
-rw-------  1 nenad nenad  1024 2010-08-28 20:39 .rnd
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  5007 2010-09-04 10:00 .rtorrent.rc
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad   19 2010-09-03 17:24 .rtorrent.rc.save
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad   17 2010-09-03 17:27 .rtorrent.rc.save.1
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad   0 2010-08-17 22:48 .screenrc
drwxr-xr-x  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-31 19:13 .scribus
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad   0 2010-06-16 20:35 .scummvmrc
drwx------  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-28 19:51 .Skype
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-30 10:28 .smb
drwxr-xr-x  5 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-19 15:46 .speed-dreams
drwxr-xr-x  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 22:59 Sports Interactive
drwxr-xr-x  7 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-12 21:11 .spring
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-12 21:11 .springlobby
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  3028 2010-05-12 21:11 .springrc
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-02 22:22 .ssh
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad   0 2010-05-08 15:44 .sudo_as_admin_successful
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  660 2010-05-12 20:49 .tennix-current_match-1.0
drwx------  5 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-08 21:25 .thumbnails
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad 136598 2010-08-17 23:03 ttytter
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  173 2010-08-31 21:41 .ttytterkey
drwxr-xr-x  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-15 23:35 .tucan
drwxr-xr-x 11 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-09 13:51 .uae
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  1750 2010-05-11 20:20 .uaerc
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad  1750 2010-05-11 20:19 .uaerc~
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-06-12 15:26 .update-notifier
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root  4096 2010-05-19 21:55 .ure
-rw-r--r--  1 nenad nenad 80547 2010-05-16 19:49 .usbcreator.log
drwxr-xr-x  3 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-30 15:42 .veetle_vlc
drwxr-xr-x  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-08-30 22:57 .VirtualBox
drwx------  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-06-29 00:23 .w3m
drwxr-xr-x  4 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 21:30 .wine
drwxr-xr-x 12 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-16 22:28 .winetrickscache
-rw-------  1 nenad nenad  164 2010-09-22 21:40 .Xauthority
drwxr-xr-x 11 nenad nenad  4096 2010-05-30 10:13 .xbmc
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 10:47 .xine
-rw-------  1 nenad nenad  1012 2010-09-22 21:41 .xsession-errors
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-04-21 00:09 .zsnes
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 22:17 Видео
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 22:17 Документа
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 22:17 Јавно
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 22:17 Музика
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 22:17 Преузимања
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 22:17 Слике
drwxr-xr-x  2 nenad nenad  4096 2010-09-20 22:17 Шаблони

[toad]

Re: Can't start KDE

Exactly how did you remove everything from your home folder?

A slightly radical idea but alright for testing purposes is the following. First log out of your system and get into a shell with CTRL+ALT+F6, login and do:

cp -ra ~/.kde ~/.kde_bak && sudo rm -r ~/.kde

That way you create a decent backup of your .kde folder and remove it. Now go back to kdm by pressing CTRL+ALT+F7 and login. What happens?

[GreyGeek]

Re: Can't start KDE

...
I tried to dpkg-reconfigure kubuntu-kde4-desktop. ...

Does that do the same thing as

sudo apt-get --reinstall install kubuntu-desktop

[nenadsuperzmaj]

Re: Can't start KDE

Exactly how did you remove everything from your home folder?

I made a new folder in /home and moved everything from my home folder into that one. I used mv * to do it.

Earlier I did the same with .kde and .config. I mv-ed both into my Desktop folder, just so they are not in ~

A slightly radical idea but alright for testing purposes is the following. First log out of your system and get into a shell with CTRL+ALT+F6, login and do:

cp -ra ~/.kde ~/.kde_bak && sudo rm -r ~/.kde

That way you create a decent backup of your .kde folder and remove it. Now go back to kdm by pressing CTRL+ALT+F7 and login. What happens?

This did not change the result.

Are there any files in /etc or /var that are connected to kde but are not the same for all users?