KWin is unstable - Computer won't boot

[Dlrocket89]

Hi everyone,

Newbie Neon user here. I installed Neon probably 6 months ago. I started havingan issue wherein windows would crash closed as soon as I tried to open afolder. So - Open Dolphin, that's fine. Then click on a folder I want to openand the window would crash closed.

Over lunch today it occurred to me that I hadn't rebooted my computer inprobably 3 months. Went to the main menu button, clicked "reboot" andnothing happened. I clicked "shutdown" and again nothing happened.Tried this a few times with no luck, so finally I pressed the power button onthe front panel of the tower. Nothing. So, I just pressed the reset button.FAIL.

Now when the computer tries to boot, I get this message:

KWin is unstable.
It seems to have crashed several time in a row.
You can select another window manager to run:
(dropdown menu with only option as kwin_X11)

Two buttons: OK and cancel. Pressing either one will freeze the cursor forabout 2 seconds and then back to the window like nothing happened.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance!!

Dustin

[GreyGeek]

With Neon (and other systems using systemd) the command to use is systemctl.
Open a Konsole and issue "sudo systemctl reboot"
Check the man page near the bottomm "System Commands". It gives lots of other useful checks and fixex for a borked system. It is well worth the read.

[Dlrocket89]

Hi GreyGeek,

Could I trouble you for a link to manpages? I've found several but none are what you describe...

Thanks!

[GreyGeek]

Opening a Konsole and issuing:
man systemctl
should give you the man page for systemctl.

If you can't bring it up the web page is here.

[Dlrocket89]

K, got to a terminal at least using ctrl+alt+F1, hope that was correct. Found man page for systemctl.

There is a test for "is system running" - that returns running, so that's good.

Reboot just brings me back to the same error.

Rescue goes into this loop where I'm at the terminal login screen again. I type my login ID. Is replies "system is going down". And then says login incorrect and drops me back at the login prompt.

Emergency gets me back to the login screen.

Kexec brings me back to the main page with the same kwin error.

I have access to systemctl, not really sure what I should be doing with it...

Any ideas?

[Dlrocket89]

Also, from the terminal if I type sudo kwin_x11 I get: FATAL ERROR while trying to open display.

Any ideas on that?

[vinnywright]

wile sitting at the terminal run off updates ,,,cant hurt and can help at times

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

VINNY

[Dlrocket89]

Vinny - I was just getting to that myself when your message popped up. That's chugging away currently

[vinnywright]

Vinny - I was just getting to that myself when your message popped up. That's chugging away currently

did you happen to notice if kwin was getting updated

VINNY

[Dlrocket89]

Lol, did not notice, but it's like 500something things being updated. I'm guessing / hoping this boils down to "update your system more often moron"

[vinnywright]

what ver of Neon ,,,,,,,,6 months is a long time in update years .

VINNY

[Dlrocket89]

Yeah, the result of this adventure was "update your system more often moron". Rebooted straight away without issues. Dolphin works again and the only immediate defect is that my desktop icons don't have actual icons, just a greyed out X. Otherwise, looks good!

Thanks everyone for the patience with the new guy. Neon has been good to me so far, good to not have to start over...

[Dlrocket89]

Not sure...whatever the version was on Jan 1 at minimum.

[vinnywright]

Not sure...whatever the version was on Jan 1 at minimum.

O ,,,sorry I meant was it user,user-LTS (did thay have the LTS then,,,maybe not) /dev/unstabel or /dev/stable

[Dlrocket89]

ah, gotcha. I've dabbled in Linux (many varieties) for awhile now, pretty much always go with the LTS versions.

Doesn't Neon always come based on LTS?