Title bars disappeared after upgrade [SOLVED]

[kzollman]

Hello all -

I came in this morning and logged into my computer. KDE runs, but there are no titlebars or window borders. The bottom program bar is there, although it's missing a significant number of the usual icons which appear near the clock (on the lower right side). Also, it only has 1 virtual desktop instead of my usual two.

The "loading window manager" section of startup is taking quite a bit longer than usual.

I am on a Intel 64bit machine running an ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro graphics card. Normally I run flgrx I have switched to vesa and ati drivers in xorg.conf and the same problem occurs no matter what. I haven't seen anything in any of the log files which would be of use, and I've run out of ideas. Can anybody help?

Thanks a lot!

best,
kevin

[Snowhog]

Re: Title bars disappeared after upgrade

Re: Yet another problem - NO TITLEBAR

[kzollman]

Re: Title bars disappeared after upgrade

Thanks, and sorry about the duplicate problem.

A note to others which might have the same problem. It was necessary for me to include the display.

That is, I had to type:

kwin --display :0.0 --replace

otherwise kwin was unable to connect to X server.

Thanks again.

best,
kevin

[Snowhog]

Re: Title bars disappeared after upgrade

Verify that this fixes your problem 'permanently' by performing a normal shutdown and reboot. Assuming a reboot results in proper window decorations, you can return to you initial post, click the modify button, and add SOLVED to the subject line.

Welcome to KFN!

[kzollman]

Re: Title bars disappeared after upgrade

I was just checking that. Unfortunately, this doesn't permanently solve the problem.

After reboot the same problem occurs again. It's solved, again, by running kwin.

Obviously something more sinister is going on. Any suggestions?

[Snowhog]

Re: Title bars disappeared after upgrade

Are you running KDE 3.5.x or KDE 4.x? If not sure, just click on Help > About KDE on any open application (Konqueror). Assuming KDE 3.5.x, you can rename the hidden .kde directory in your user home directory (say, to .kde_OLD) and then logging out and restarting (you don't have to perform a system reboot; just a KDE logout and re-login). This will result in the hidden folder being rebuilt. This will of course, result in a loss of any desktop customization you have already made. But it might resolve the problem.

[kzollman]

Re: Title bars disappeared after upgrade

Thanks, that did solve the problem.

Is there anyway to figure out what the offending configuration bit was, so that I don't do it again?

[Snowhog]

Re: Title bars disappeared after upgrade

"Is there a way ..." Probably, but I'm not the one who would now how.

This stuff "just happens" sometimes. Sometimes the best we can hope for is how to fix it, rather than discovering what caused it in the first place.

[garry_3peace]

Re: Title bars disappeared after upgrade [SOLVED]

Hm I am not agree. I think we should know what cause a problem so we can prevent it. I believe prevent is better than fix.

I am not sure what will cause it. But maybe because of graphic card driver upgrade or installing compiz fusion. Just guessing...

[andybleaden]

Re: Title bars disappeared after upgrade [SOLVED]

I had this recently and persistently had to start kwin via konsole...the history may not be the same but the symptoms were exactly..had installed compiz, did not work, uninstalled it and there the problem began.

Sat awake , having a grump instead of a sleep and then lights appeared ..reinstall compiz including the kde compiz icon...reset all the settings to kwin as default, turned off any other compiz settings...rebooted and it had gone away.
I guess I had maybe played with some toys in a box and not put them away properly..I was more pleased with the fix than with the compiz..which still gets on my nerves and does not work with my graphics card..

kzollman...was this similar?

[IndianKamikaze]

Re: Title bars disappeared after upgrade [SOLVED]

How did u exactly reset all settings, con u giv steps.
commands if any?

[dibl]

Re: Title bars disappeared after upgrade [SOLVED]

Search this forum on "window decorations" and you should find a lot of information.

[andybleaden]

Re: Title bars disappeared after upgrade [SOLVED]

How did u exactly reset all settings, con u giv steps.
commands if any?

I installed the kde compiz icon and there you could select which elements of compiz ran and which did not. Give it a try and let us know if it makes any difference. I now have compiz working and still get most winodws decorations working except a few naughty ones!