Downgrading to 4.2

[Guest]

Long story short, after upgrading to KDE 4.3 kwin and plasma are crashing on startup. Is there an easy way to downgrade back to 4.2?

[kubicle]

Re: Downgrading to 4.2

Downgrading is theoretically possible, but can be tricky.

Most (plasma/desktop) issues when upgrading are caused by:
1. Upgrading too soon, when all kde packages in the repo aren't yet of the newer version (there often is a delay for some packages, and local mirrors may need time to update as well)...solution is to wait a bit (a few hours to a day), and run upgrade again.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

2. Using 'apt-get upgrade' instead of 'apt-get dist-upgrade' when upgrading, this may not upgrade some key packages...solution is running

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If you have removed the kubuntu-desktop package, you may also wish to run

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

to make sure you have everything installed (or at least check what would be installed)

3. Plasma configuration issues...solution is clearing the plasma configuration files and start afresh with

rm ~/.kde/share/config/plasm*

[gromituk]

Re: Downgrading to 4.2

Hello. I've got kwin crashing - "failure during initialisation: aborting". I've moved ~/.kde/share/config/kwin* out of the way but it makes no difference. And I've tried updating as you suggested. Besides plasma-widget-network-manager being kept back, there's nothing to do.

kwin doesn't have a man page nor any command line option which would make it more verbose. Any other ideas how to proceed please?

[kubicle]

Re: Downgrading to 4.2

kwin doesn't have a man page nor any command line option which would make it more verbose. Any other ideas how to proceed please?

You could check ~/.xsession-errors to see if there is anything of interested logged there.

[gromituk]

Re: Downgrading to 4.2

Yes, that's where I found the error; the same error which it gives if subsequently run on the command line. But you've encouraged me to look more closely and these are preceding errors:

xmodmap aborts due to no /usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kubuntu.xmodmap

A load of "Invalid D-BUS member names found in interface 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session' while parsing introspection": idle-hint, is-local, x11-display-interface, x11-display, display-device, remote-host-name, session-type, unix-user

A couple of "XSyncBadAlarm 152"

XRANDR error base: 162

And, kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/kdeinit4_kmserver.so<unknown program name>(4029)

[kubicle]

Re: Downgrading to 4.2

Yes, that's where I found the error; the same error which it gives if subsequently run on the command line. But you've encouraged me to look more closely and these are preceding errors:

Nothing immediately apparent (to me) in your output that could cause the issue, although the XRANDR error might be related.

There are a few things to try to troubleshoot further:
1. Disable 3d effects temporarely:

kwriteconfig --group Compositing --key Enabled --file kwinrc false

and try starting kde (in case it's an issue with with your graphics card/drivers/3d)
2. Create a new user or rename ~./kde temporarely to start with a completely clean configuration
(This should tell whether it is a user configuration issue or something else)
3. Try running 'startx' this should skip kdm altogether

[gromituk]

Re: Downgrading to 4.2

Thank you for your continuing help.

I tried your command to disable 3d effects, then did an /etc/init.d/kdm restart. Didn't work unfortunately. I also tried changing the driver in xorg.conf from radeon to ati. Unfortunately I've got a Mobility Radeon 9700 which has had problems with the proprietary ATI driver for some time - X stopped working when 8.10 came out (I think) because the developers hadn't disabled the fglrx driver with that upgrade, and I think it was incompatible with the kernel. (Changing it to fglrx results in the graphics card getting screwed up enough that even virtual terminals don't work, but pressing the power button does bring up the "shutting down" animation and allows the machine to shut down.)

I also tried renaming .kde/. No effect, though the "migration" window comes up and says it's successfully migrated.

I also did an /etc/init.d/kdm stop, then startx, which did indeed bypass the login screen but made no difference otherwise.

Proving to be a bit of an awkward one, this! I sent a message to the kde/kwin mailing list but it's still quarantined as I didn't join.

[gromituk]

Re: Downgrading to 4.2

Good news! Developer Lubos Lunak says on the kwin mailing list that this issue has been solved in svn. Will it percolate through to Kubuntu soon I wonder?

[kubicle]

Re: Downgrading to 4.2

Good news! Developer Lubos Lunak says on the kwin mailing list that this issue has been solved in svn. Will it percolate through to Kubuntu soon I wonder?

I guess it depends whether the fix is in 4.3 branch (in which case the fix will likely be in 4.3.1, which will be available in kubuntu some time next month) or not.

You can always file a bug report for kubuntu in launchpad, if you can point to the fix in svn, someone might yank it and make a kubuntu patch.

[gromituk]

Re: Downgrading to 4.2

He wrote: "The problem should no longer occur now (with 4.3.1 at the latest), it's been
fixed in SVN."

So I guess it will indeed appear. Meanwhile, installing metacity, as recommended to make the desktop usable in the mean time, hauled in the rest of GNOME, so I'm using that instead.