Unable to contact KDED

[David Kirchhoff]

Upon trying to access Power Management through System Settings I receive an awesome red box with an X in it and the following: "Power Management configuration module could not be loaded. The Power Management Service appears not to be running. This can be solved by starting or scheduling it inside "Startup and Shutdown"

When I go to Startup and Shutdown and then Service Manager I get another awesome red box with the X through it and "Unable to contact KDED." Both Load-on-Demand Services and Startup Services are greyed out and all entries display a Status of "Not running".

I'm sure some additional information would be most helpful - but I can't even guess what that would be.

Thanks in advance for some help on a most frustrating problem!

[Snowhog]

Is this on a laptop PC?

[David Kirchhoff]

Negative. It's a desktop.

[Snowhog]

I'm only guessing here, but I don't think Power Management works/applies to a Desktop PC -- it doesn't have a battery. Power Management is designed for laptops/notebooks.

[David Kirchhoff]

On one hand that makes some sense - on the other hand I actually have a 2nd desktop running Kubuntu and I can access Power Management on that one. Really, all I am trying to do is to access the Screen Energy saving and Suspend session check boxes.

Thanks, though!

[Snowhog]

Verify that you have the package upower installed.

[David Kirchhoff]

I do - newest version.

[teracow]

Same here. Identical symptoms as OP.

My current config is Kubuntu 14.04 64b Desktop (but I have been getting this fault for years on every previous Kubuntu version - I've never been able to use the session manager! )

And here's some things checked along the way.

Is KDED running?

$ ps ax | grep -i kde
   63 ?        S      0:00 [kdevtmpfs]
 2005 ?        Ss     0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/startkde
 2066 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/start_kdeinit +kcminit_startup
 2067 ?        Ss     0:00 kdeinit4: kdeinit4 Running...                  
 2068 ?        S      0:00 kdeinit4: klauncher [kdeinit] --fd=9           
 2075 ?        Sl     0:00 kdeinit4: ksmserver [kdeinit]                  
 2133 ?        Sl     0:00 /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1
 2831 pts/0    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto -i kde

Nope.

Can we start it?

$ kded4
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
kded(2851) ColorD::connectToDisplay: RandR extension missing 
kded(2851) ColorD::ColorD: Failed to connect to DISPLAY and get the needed resources 
Xlib:  extension "RANDR" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:  extension "RANDR" missing on display ":0".
Can't get XRandR version 
kded4: Fatal IO error: client killed
kded(2850): Communication problem with  "kded" , it probably crashed. 
Error message was:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply" : " "Message did not receive a reply (timeout by message bus)" "

Nope. (I'm also using the proprietary Nvidia driver - hence no RANDR - 2 x dual-port GeForce 9800 GTs)

Check qdbus:

$ qdbus
:1.0
 com.ubuntu.Upstart
:1.1
:1.10
 org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver
 org.kde.ksmserver
 org.kde.ksmserver-2075
 org.kde.screensaver
:1.11
 org.kde.kglobalaccel
:1.13
 org.kde.KWin
 org.kde.kwin
 org.kde.kwin-2079
 org.kde.kwin.Compositing
 org.kde.kwin.Scripting
:1.14
 org.kde.ActivityManager
 org.kde.kactivitymanagerd                                                                                                                                   
:1.17                                                                                                                                                        
 org.kde.plasma-desktop                                                                                                                                      
:1.25                                                                                                                                                        
 org.kde.knotify                                                                                                                                             
:1.29                                                                                                                                                        
 org.kde.Polkit1AuthAgent                                                                                                                                    
:1.3                                                                                                                                                         
 org.kde.kwalletd                                                                                                                                            
:1.31                                                                                                                                                        
 org.PulseAudio1
 org.pulseaudio.Server
:1.32
 org.kde.kmix
:1.35
 org.kde.krunner
:1.37
 org.kde.StatusNotifierItem-2137-1
:1.38
 org.freedesktop.Telepathy.AccountManager
 org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ChannelDispatcher
 org.freedesktop.Telepathy.MissionControl5
:1.39
:1.44
:1.45
 org.gtk.vfs.Daemon
:1.46
:1.47
 org.a11y.Bus
:1.48
 org.kde.internal.KSettingsWidget_kcm_autostart
 org.kde.internal.KSettingsWidget_kcm_kded
 org.kde.internal.KSettingsWidget_kcm_powerdevilprofilesconfig
 org.kde.systemsettings
:1.5
 org.kde.klauncher
:1.50
:1.51
 org.gnome.GConf
:1.54
:1.55
 org.gtk.Private.UDisks2VolumeMonitor
:1.56
 org.gtk.Private.MTPVolumeMonitor
:1.57
 org.gtk.Private.AfcVolumeMonitor
:1.58
 org.gtk.Private.GPhoto2VolumeMonitor
:1.60
:1.61
 org.gtk.vfs.Metadata
:1.62
 ca.desrt.dconf
:1.81
 org.kde.konsole
:1.86
org.freedesktop.DBus

and check xsession-errors:

$ cat .xsession-errors
Script for none started at run_im.
Script for auto started at run_im.
Script for default started at run_im.

So - I'm out of ideas. I've been seeing this same fault reported again and again but with no solution. Can someone please advise me further?

Thanks.

[SteveRiley]

In System Settings -> Startup and Shutdown -> Service Manager, which Startup Services are

* enabled (selected)?
* currently running?

[teracow]

Hi SteveRiley and thanks for your reply.

as the OP mentioned:

When I go to Startup and Shutdown and then Service Manager I get another awesome red box with the X through it and "Unable to contact KDED." Both Load-on-Demand Services and Startup Services are greyed out and all entries display a Status of "Not running".

I get the same.

[SteveRiley]

Please log out of the desktop. When you see the login screen, press Ctrl+Alt+F2. You will see a console login prompt. Please log in with your normal user ID and password. Run the following two commands:

rm -rfv /var/tmp/kdecache-$USER

sudo rm -rfv /var/tmp/kdecache-root

Next, reboot:

sudo reboot

Can you now manipulate services normally?

[teracow]

I've now done those things. (But I should have mentioned that this is also a new installation).

The fault still exists.

[SteveRiley]

Sounds like you may need to embark on a troubleshooting exercise, to find a possibly malfunctioning service. Have you seen this: http://kdepepo.wordpress.com/2011/05...ng-kded4-bugs/

[teracow]

yep... but no luck so far... I will continue moving .desktops and see if I can make any progress...

Thanks SteveRiley!

[SteveRiley]

I am, alas, coming up with little additional guidance. Given that you're starting a new installation, why not use 14.04 rather than 13.10? The newer KDE release has a number of interesting features.