KDE Unable to start

[cjordan]

The problem that I'm facing with kubuntu is, after I put in my user name and password for login, I then get a box with a red and white 'X' saying: The operating system has reached the following error while trying to start KDE. Cannot write access $Home cjordan/Home. KDE will not start.
Essentially I can't get into kubuntu. Anyone have any ideas? Does this have anything to do with the init files?

[Snowhog]

Re: KDE Unable to start

Reboot and select recovery mode from the boot menu. This will boot to the command line and you will be operating as root. Type:

df -hTxtmpfs

What you are looking for is the amount of space available on the root ( / ) partition, and if you have a separate /home, the amount of space available there. This is what my system reports:

Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 ext3 7.9G 3.4G 4.2G 45% /
/dev/sda7 ext3 20G 1.9G 17G 10% /home
/dev/sda1 ext3 7.9G 2.8G 4.8G 37% /media/sda1
/dev/sda2 ext3 7.9G 3.1G 4.5G 41% /media/sda2
/dev/sda5 ext3 20G 188M 19G 1% /media/sda5
/dev/sda6 ext3 20G 6.6G 13G 36% /media/sda6

Post back what is shown for the / and /home (if you have a separate /home partition). You type shutdown -r now to reboot the system.

[Fintan]

Re: KDE Unable to start

To expand on snowhogs suggestion have a look here:
http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/01/...own-partition/

and here:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/separatehome

Good luck

[cjordan]

Re: KDE Unable to start

alright, what I have mounted on / is Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use%
/dev/sda2 ext3 17G 3.2G 13G 21%

and I do not have one for /home, only
/proc/bus/usb
/media/sda1
/

[dibl]

Re: KDE Unable to start

One cause of that problem can be if the root user/Super User has been working in your home directory -- it can change the permissions on it. So you might want to check the permissions setting on your /home/cjordan directory, and use (as root) "chmod 777" to change it if needed.

http://www.ss64.com/bash/chmod.html

It is also possible that some corruption or ownership/permission issue has affected the hidden .kde folder in your home directory, preventing the login. If you are willing to sacrifice your prior KDE "settings" (wallpaper, icons on the desktop, icons on the panely, etc.), then you can (from the recovery console, as root) simply delete the .kde directory and all of its contents. At your next login, it will be re-created "as new", with no special settings in effect.

[cjordan]

Re: KDE Unable to start

alright dibl, so you're saying to use that chmod 777 as a command in the recovery console? Because I can't boot into the OS right now.

[Fintan]

Re: KDE Unable to start

You can boot into recovery mode and type that command at the prompt

[cjordan]

Re: KDE Unable to start

I ran chmod 777 /home/cjordan and it didn't do anything

[dibl]

Re: KDE Unable to start

OK, when I wrote "/home/cjordan" I was referring to your actual user directory on your installed system -- I used "cjordan" since that is the name I know, but your actual user name might be something more personal. So, from the recovery console, when logged in as the Super User, aka "root user", the prompt looks like "#", and so the command would look like:

#chmod 777 /home/{your actual user name}

Sorry if I wasn't real clear.

[cjordan]

Re: KDE Unable to start

yeah I did run that same command: chmod 777 /home/cjordan
cjordan is my username.
when I type it in and hit enter, all it does is bring me right back to a new line with no messages. Any thoughts?

[toad]

Re: KDE Unable to start

Hm, I wonder what this

Cannot write access $Home cjordan/Home

means/ Why should kde want to get into ~/Home In addition his ~ (if it exists) is now on 777, which is far from ideal. Perhaps a 755 would be better, so that others have only read access to it.

cjordan, can you log in again on the command line and go to / by typing

cd /

Now try and work your way up to your home directory and check its structure with an

ls -la

Also check dibl's command for free space please. Now go up to /home/cjordan and repeat. Does everything look ok? In particular, do you have a /home/cjordan/.kde folder?

Also, do you have a /home/cjordan/Home directory? If not, you want to create one typing mkdir /home/cjordan/Home

Now try again.

Lot of steps, sorry...

[cjordan]

Re: KDE Unable to start

it's not that it's a lot of steps, its that I'm simply unfamilar with how it works. thanks

[toad]

Re: KDE Unable to start

Welcome to the club There is always something else, regardless of which step on the ladder you are...

Ask whatever you are unsure about. We are a friendly lot.

[dibl]

Re: KDE Unable to start

Yeah, KDE uses the /home/cjordan/.kde directory for all custom settings, so it needs to access it every time you log in. When you first boot Kubuntu, there is no such folder -- it is created the first time you log into the GUI.

@cjordan, how would you feel about re-doing all of your custom desktop settings? I suspect if you simply delete that .kde folder, your login problem will be solved, and then you'll just have to re-do your wallpaper, panel icons, and that type of thing. If that's OK, then boot into recovery mode and at the # prompt, do this:

#cd /home/cjordan

now if you do

ls -l

you should see the contents of your home directory in a list. If, and ONLY if, that looks correct, then do this:

#rm -rf .kde

Be VERY careful with that command, and make sure you enter it precisely as I did.

Then restart your system with

#shutdown now -r

and when you log in again, you'll have a "clean" Kubuntu desktop.

Reminder, the root or Super User should NOT save any files in /home/cjordan, nor should the Super User run the X server, except it's OK to use apps with the "kdesu" prefix for system administration/configuration purposes.

[toad]

Re: KDE Unable to start

@ dibl
So what do you make of the original error message? That ~/Home irritated me, I've never seen that...