Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

[Naddiseo]

Hi there, I switched over to kubuntu HH yesterday. So far I'm liking it, with the exception of one thing: It's unusable unless I start in failsafe mode, then start kicker and kwin manually from command line.

By "unusable" I mean that every widget on every window takes about 10 minutes to draw, and when I looked in ksysguard I found that the programs I'd started had started around 20 times each, and seemed to be continually spawning copies of themselves.

Is this I known issue? If so, or if not, can anyone help me diagnose and fix this?

Thanks for your help.

[integr8e]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

That's really quite strange :P

I'm not sure what's going on, but I'll help as best I can.  First of all, what video card/driver do you have and are Compiz and/or XGL installed (xserver-xgl)?

[Naddiseo]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

I have a nVidia GeForce 6150LE (integrated) with two monitors attached onto CRT-0 and DFP-0 (Which makes one of them blurry and flicker). I don't have xserver-xgl installed, and this computer can't run compiz so it's either not installed or is turned off.

Thanks for your reply.

[integr8e]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

Alright, are you using the 'nvidia' or 'nv' driver?

[Naddiseo]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

I'm using the nvidia driver (I couldn't get a decent resolution with the nv driver, and it doesn't support a second monitor).

[integr8e]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

OK, try running this command to help make sure you're xorg.conf is setup properly (assuming X.org is the culprit):

sudo nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals --composite

Then, try restarting Xorg with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. See if that helps; if not, could you post your xorg.conf file?

[Naddiseo]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

Sorry for the delay.
Unfortunately that didn't help. Here's my xorg.conf.

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder26) Thu Feb 14 18:13:41 PST 2008

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildd@yellow) Tue Mar 4 20:28:57 UTC 2008

Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier   "Layout0"
  Screen   0 "Screen0" 0 0
  InputDevice  "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
  InputDevice  "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
  RgbPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
EndSection

Section "Module"
  Load      "dbe"
  Load      "extmod"
  Load      "type1"
  Load      "freetype"
  Load      "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
  Option     "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

  # generated from default
  Identifier   "Mouse0"
  Driver     "mouse"
  Option     "Protocol" "auto"
  Option     "Device" "/dev/psaux"
  Option     "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
  Option     "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

  # generated from default
  Identifier   "Keyboard0"
  Driver     "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier   "Monitor0"
  VendorName   "Unknown"
  ModelName   "ViewSonic VX2035wm"
  HorizSync    30.0 - 82.0
  VertRefresh   50.0 - 75.0
  Option     "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier   "Device0"
  Driver     "nvidia"
  VendorName   "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier   "Videocard0"
  Driver     "nvidia"
  VendorName   "NVIDIA Corporation"
  BoardName   "Quadro NVS 210S / NVIDIA GeForce 6150LE"
EndSection

Section "Screen"

# Removed Option "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP: nvidia-auto-select +1680+0"
# Removed Option "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP: 1680x1050 +1680+0"
# Removed Option "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP: nvidia-auto-select +1680+0"
  Identifier   "Screen0"
  Device     "Videocard0"
  Monitor    "Monitor0"
  DefaultDepth  24
  Option     "TwinView" "1"
  Option     "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
  Option     "metamodes" "CRT: 1680x1050_60 +0+0, DFP: 1680x1050_60 +1680+0"
  Option     "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
  SubSection   "Display"
    Depth    24
  EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
  Option     "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

[integr8e]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

Looks good to me; I don't think Xorg is the culprit. You stated in your 1st post that the applications you started seem to open ~20+ times each, do you have them configured to start automatically upon login or do you start them after logging in?

[Naddiseo]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

I'm not sure. It was the first time I'd logged into KDE. After I figured out where everything was, I had a look in ksysgaurd and saw that any program I opened (kate, quanta, firefox, opera) had ~20 instances open. If I killed all but one of them, then they'd respawn.

What I didn't understand was how ksysgaurd functioned fine, and its wigets draw fine, yet something like konsole would only draw it's border, but not its widgets for at least 10 minutes. When it finally did show the widgets, it wouldn't except my keystrokes.

[integr8e]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

Your PC's resources were probably being bogged down by all the running apps. Try booting into failsafe mode and opening System Settings:

systemsettings

Then, configure your system to login to an empty session from "System Settings -> Advanced tab -> Session Manager -> Start with an empty session". Apply the new setting, exit System Settings, exit failsafe mode (just run the command "exit" from the console), and try logging into a regular KDE session.

[Naddiseo]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

Hi, thanks again for your replies.
I tried the systemsettings, and set it to start a new session, but unfortunately it still didn't work. One possible thing I've neglected to say so far was that this kubuntu install isn't a clean one; I upgraded from ubuntu gutsy to hardy, then installed the KDE packages and removed the gnome ones. I'm not sure if that'll help you in a diagnosis.

Thanks again.

[integr8e]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

Maybe, try this (I'm using both 'apt-get' and 'aptitude' on purpose):

sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-standard; sudo aptitude install ubuntu-standard kubuntu-desktop

Also, what does your /etc/X11/default-display-manager file look like?

cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager

[Naddiseo]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

$ cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager
/usr/bin/kdm

I'm running that other command, there are about 74 things to install. I'm surprised that it is since I"m sure to get to kde I ran something along the lines of

sudo aptitude install kde kubuntu-desktop kde-base

Edit:
And out of curiosity, how does apt-get differ from aptitude? (I tend always use aptitude since I remember it has better at resolving package conflicts.)

[Smurphy]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

If I were you - I suppose you have not configured KDE at all yet - right ?
then delete the .kde directory in your home - or move it to something else.
Go down to the Console: <Ctrl><Alt><F1>
Log into the system as user.

mkdir old
mv .kde* old/

Make sure though that you have a clean KDE installation - e.g.
as stated before:

sudo aptitude install kde kubuntu-desktop kde-base

Then go back to the X-Session: <Alt><F7>
F7 is usually the console where the X-Server runs on.
And kill it - with <Ctrl><Alt><BackSpace>

This should clean your local (users) KDE Configuration. Eventually you had an old one hanging around and these are effects you can have.

[Naddiseo]

Re: Kde unusable unless started in failsafe mode.

I had actually configured it when it was first installed, but as you suggested I just tried it and still no luck; kwin still seems snappy, but the painting and responsiveness of anything inside the windows takes forever (>2mins).

I would do a reinstall from scratch using a kubuntu CD if this was my home computer, but since it's my work computer I have to be "working" on it while doing changes to it, and a reinstall and setting up my environment would take too much out of the day.