kde-4.6 maverick startup fails, kded4 at cpu 100%

[doctordruidphd]

This is a problem that started with kde-4.6 in maverick, and has been steadily getting worse.

When I boot the system, after an apparently normal login screen, the kde splash screen hangs just before the last icon appears. After a few minutes, it starts, but incorrectly. Some of the system tray icons are missing, and the theme is messed up -- the windows look like undecorated x-windows, no bar with shutdown buttons. If I shut down kde with ctrl-alt-backspace, it restarts, but at that point kded4 is running with 100% cpu, sometimes (but not always) nepomukservices also at 100%. There is no crash report. If I exit kde, and manually kill kded4 (which requires the -9 option to actually kill it), then kde appears to start normally - normal window appearance and behavior. I haven't tested whether nepomuk is working or not.

This started out as an occasional glitch, but now it's getting to be every boot. There is no crash, and nothing obvious in dmesg or Xorg.0.log. KDE is (apparently) working normally in natty.

Any ideas how to find out what's bugging kded4? Last time this happened, it was kde-config-tablet, which I have removed. When that happened, kded4 was crashing with a crash report. Now it's just hanging, so no crash or backtrace.

I really would like to learn how to trace out this kind of problem.

[dibl]

Re: kde-4.6 maverick startup fails, kded4 at cpu 100%

the windows look like undecorated x-windows, no bar with shutdown buttons

This suggests kwin is involved, and not working correctly.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: kde-4.6 maverick startup fails, kded4 at cpu 100%

I have seen kwin crash messages in the past, but not since several version of kde ago.
Not getting any crash messages even when starting kde from the console.

But I have noticed something strange, now that you mention it. When kde fails to start normally, if there is a message popup about updates or kopete messages, the theme they are using appears to be different from my usual theme. Curioser and curioser...

[dibl]

Re: kde-4.6 maverick startup fails, kded4 at cpu 100%

Next time it comes up "wrong", open a terminal and issue

kwin --replace

and see whether it (a) works, or (b) gives error output. You might also try turning desktop effects of, on, and/or changing the compositing type.

[sithlord48]

Re: kde-4.6 maverick startup fails, kded4 at cpu 100%

dr.druid , do you have any plasmoids, like yawp or smooth tasks. that might be causing you issue , i have had them cause issues in the past, but not w/ 4.6

[doctordruidphd]

Re: kde-4.6 maverick startup fails, kded4 at cpu 100%

I left the computer off for a while, and turned it on (cold boot) with the intent of trying dibl's suggestion. Of course, kde started perfectly.

I do have several plasmoids, which all seem to be oeprating properly, even when kwin dies and kded hangs.

This means the problem is not repeatable. It happens sometimes, and sometimes not. I could remove ~/.kde, but how would I know whether doing so fixed anything? I suppose I could boot several times and see whether or not the problem returns, but I still would not know why there is a problem.

This is a computer, which means, among other things, given the same conditions, the same results should obtain. The fact that they are not, means, I think, one of three things:

1. The computer has free will -- possibly, but assuming this will not lead to any solution.

2. The computer is cursed or haunted -- not entirely unlikely, but if so, discoverable by other methods which have so far not yielded useful results.

3. The initial conditions on bootup, while apparently the same, actually are not.
I can think of two reasons for this happening:
a. Ubuntu's fast parallel bootup is messing up somewhere. Not much I can do about it, but many others would also be having the problem if this were the case.
b. Some program is not shutting down properly, and returning to haunt the system on the next startup.

3b is my bet. The normal bootup I just did shows the following for kded:

greenman@Wolfenstein:~$ ps aux | grep kded
greenman 3428 0.0 0.4 678320 35064 ? Sl 11:54 0:00 kdeinit4: kded4 [kdeinit]
greenman 4035 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z 11:55 0:00 [kded4] <defunct>
greenman 16184 0.0 0.0 9932 876 pts/1 S+ 12:10 0:00 grep kded

I'm guessing the "defunct" kded, still hanging around after an hour, might be the source of the problem, at least as far as kded is concerned. So far, I have not been able to figure out how to kill the defunct kded -- sudo kill -9 4035 doesn't touch it, nor do any of the other kill options, which serves only to increase my suspicions.

Is there some log file that shows what is going on with kded?

[doctordruidphd]

Re: kde-4.6 maverick startup fails, kded4 at cpu 100%

KDE finally started up in failure mode, and here is what happened:

This is, by the way, maverick.

I got the plasma screen, notifications from kopete and the update-notifier appeared, but not in the normal theme. I could open konsole with the mouse, but nothing inside kde would respond to the keyboard -- as thought the keyboard was not connected. I removed and replugged the keyboard, made no difference.

Got out of kde with CTRL-ALT-F1, logged in, keyboard working fine.

Did a top, saw nothing unusual, EXCEPT that kwin was not running at all.
So I tried kwin --replacewhich produced nothing.
kwin --display :0 produced an error message, that it wanted export $(dbus_sonmething-or-other (I haven't figured out how to scroll back the text console, sorry), which I did, and then kwin --display :0 --replace and lo! the desktop now works.
There is a lot of text on the F1 console, including a message saying the "shader failed to load".

I did get a crash report from kwin, included as an attachment. All geek to me, I'm afraid.

Also, for what it's worth, I notice that the middle-mouse-click paste function on konsole no longer works. The hardware is OK because it works in nattyl