KDE 4 boot trouble

[Snorkel]

Just installed 64-bit Kubuntu 8.04 last night. Installed the kubuntu-kde4-desktop packages. Everything was running smoothly. Installed the nvidia driver and edited my fstab to automount a couple of harddrives. Then I installed mediatomb and was trying to get it to autostart by first linking, then making a script to start it in the .kde/Autostart folder, but it didn't work. After I did this and rebooted a couple times I started having some problems. When I boot up Kubuntu for some reason my monitor says "out of range" for about 5-10 seconds during bootup, then will come back before it gets to the login screen (which is weird, but it has always come back and worked). Now, however, when I boot up it will just stay at "out of range" until I hit ctl-alt-del which will get me to the login screen.

When I try to login I get two errors. First, it says "Cannot enter /home using /". I click ok, then it gives me an error "Could not start kstartupconfig4. Check your installation". Then it stays at the login screen. If I exit out to the shell and do a sudo mount /dev/sdb3 /home it will mount my home directory and let me login.

Any ideas what I've managed to screw up the first night I installed KDE 4?

[dibl]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

You didn't save anything or install anything in your /home directory while you were logged in as root, did you? Like save a link in .kde/Autostart?

If so, probably you'll have to delete the .kde folder in your home directory and then reboot. When you log back in, you will have a default KDE desktop and you'll have to do your desktop settings again.

[Fintan]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

Yep, that sounds very familiar:
the old "edit /home as root and forget to change the remissions to /home/username" ploy.

I have done that often enough to remember

[Snorkel]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

I don't remember ever logging in as root, but maybe I did. Haha. Anyways, so I just delete the whole .kde folder? or the .kde4 folder? or both?

Also, any ideas why it makes my monitor say "out of range" every time I boot? Right now it gets stuck at the out of range part and I have to press ctl-alt-del, but I'm guessing that might have something to do with it getting stuck trying to mount home.

[Fintan]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

You don't have to (can't) log in as root.
running kate with kdesudo (root mode) or editing from konqueror / dolphin in kdesudo (root) mode will do it.

I am presuming you have kde4 installed "next to " kde3.5.9.

In that case delete ~/.kde4 and re login.

As for the nivdia / xorg / graphic card / resolution issue i believe there is an issue with nivdia drivers.

For more:
http://www.linux.com/feature/142661

I hope that points you in the right direction.

I am sorry I can't of more help and dible is the nivdia guru, especially on 64bit systems.

Maybe you could post your machine specs?
Especially video card / driver etc.
Did you use envy to install the driver?

either way, welcome to the party

[kjjjjshab]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

I don't remember ever logging in as root, but maybe I did. Haha. Anyways, so I just delete the whole .kde folder? or the .kde4 folder? or both?..

Since you only have two posts, I'd like to give you a friendly reminder that there may be user data in those .kde directories... /home/username/.kde/share/apps/kmail/mail, for example. So just to be safe, rename them to something else instead of deleting and regretting!

[Fintan]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

So right. sorry I forgot about that.

[Snorkel]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

Thanks for the tip. It is a fresh install of Kubuntu so I'm not at the point of having any important user data yet. I'm also not a linux noob, I'm just a kubuntuforums noob!

I have all my important stuff on other partitions. I'm hoping to make Kubuntu with KDE 4.1 my main os, but for now I have MEPIS on a separate partition until I'm sure Kubuntu is the way I want to go.

BTW, my system specs...

AMD Athlon 64 1.8 Ghz
1 GB RAM
Nvidia 6600GT
2 SATA HDDs
1 IDE HDD
Creative SB Live

[kjjjjshab]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

Thanks for the tip. It is a fresh install of Kubuntu so I'm not at the point of having any important user data yet. I'm also not a linux noob, I'm just a kubuntuforums noob! ...

Only a linux noob would dare install 64-bit! Just kidding! :P

Yeah, your post showed you had some skills... I shouldn't have implied otherwise. Good luck with your problem.

[Snorkel]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

LOL, touche!

Thanks though. I'm at work now so I can't try deleting .kde4 at the moment, but hopefully that fixes my problem when I get home.

[Snorkel]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

OK, so I did what you guys said and deleted .kde4 directory, which didn't change anything.

So, I decided to reinstall since I didn't really have too much time invested in customizing and setting stuff up. I reinstalled, completely updated all packages, then installed kubuntu-kde4-desktop and kdeplasma-addons. Rebooted and same problem. However, I was a little more patient on the second reboot. I went outside and played frisbee with the dog when it hung at the "out-of-range" part and when I came back in it was at my graphical login screen and it let me login just fine with no errors. Before, I was assuming that it was stuck so I would control-alt-del and it would cancel whatever it was doing and not mount /home. Now, it seems it's a more complex problem than just /home not mounting.

I think it might be something with the updates that I install right after the install. Obviously there's something that's taking a really long time during boot that I can't see because for whatever reason my monitor switches to "out of range" during that part. Are there any logs that I can look at to see what's happening and why it's taking so long to boot?

[dibl]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

Maybe

dmesg

will show something. The video stuff is at /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

[Snorkel]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

Hmmmm....VERY strange. I think what was happening was it was doing a fsck on my large hard drive and it was taking a while. I'm still not sure what was causing the monitor to go "out of range" though. That also seems to have cleared up. I have no idea what I did to make that stop though, but last time I rebooted it actually showed the boot progress bar and didn't go out of range.

[Snowhog]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

A 'self repairing OS' - when was the last time you saw that in Windoze?

[Fintan]

Re: KDE 4 boot trouble

Glad you (or something ) got it going

I have no idea what I did to make that stop though, but last time I rebooted it actually showed the boot progress bar and didn't go out of range.

Sounds like you a hal computer

Seriously, I would try booting in verbose mode a few times just to make sure no strange messages are cropping up.