KDE not starting

[DracoTB]

Today I updated my BIOS. Since then KDE has not been starting. I didn't do anything to the actual Kubuntu configuration files.

When I go to start I get the message

Not starting K Display Manager (kdm-kde4); it is not the default display manager.

It does nothing after that.

I have tried going through Recovery Console. Run the dpkg option to repair files, xfix to repair Xserver etc. This has achieved nothing - when starting it still stops at the same place.

Suggestions on what needs fixing and how would be appreciated.

[otisklt]

Re: KDE not starting

Can you create a new user?
Sounds like a possible profile corruption.

[DracoTB]

Re: KDE not starting

how do I do that as root in cli?

[otisklt]

Re: KDE not starting

If you can get there you can use the sudo command in front of what you want to do.
eg: sudo useradd

Otherwise you have to actually set the root password.
Kubuntu / Debian relies more on the sudo action than the root account itself and effectively makes it disabled unless you set the password for it.

[DracoTB]

Re: KDE not starting

yes, but what actual command?
What am I changing?

[Fintan]

Re: KDE not starting

I have a suspicion you are running kubuntu 8.04 with kde4 installed as a second Desktop to choose from.

Before going about changing / adding a user do:

apt-get install kdm

from the command line in recovery mode.

You will be asked to choose which login manager you want to use. Choose kdm.

I think I remember kdm-kde4 not being that stable in that constellation.

Hope that helps

[DracoTB]

Re: KDE not starting

I have a suspicion you are running kubuntu 8.04 with kde4 installed as a second Desktop to choose from.

I'm not. I did try it when it first came out but, as you say, it was very unstable. I'm presently running 8.10 which is fully updated. It's been as stable as a rock for the last few months.

[DracoTB]

Re: KDE not starting

Can you create a new user?
Sounds like a possible profile corruption.

It's not actually getting to the login screen so it wouldn't make sense to be a corrupt profile as the system isn't reading the profiles yet.

[The Liquidator]

Re: KDE not starting

I have a suspicion you are running kubuntu 8.04 with kde4 installed as a second Desktop to choose from.

I'm not. I did try it when it first came out but, as you say, it was very unstable. I'm presently running 8.10 which is fully updated. It's been as stable as a rock for the last few months.

However Fintans advice to run sudo apt-get install kdm makes perfect sense. kdm-kde4 is not the correct name for the k display manager in 8.10. What happens if you try sudo apt-get remove kdm-kde4?

Also, from the command line have you tried the command startx?

[DracoTB]

Re: KDE not starting

It tells me that kdm-kde4 is not installed. I also tried his suggestion and it told me that I was up to date.

using startx gives me

Fatal server error:
no screens found
giving up.
xinit: Connection refused (errno 111): Unable to connect to X server
xinit: No such process (errno 3): Server error

possible BIOS issue. I know when I set up the PC I had to use auto detect in dpkg

dpkg reconfigure xserver-xorg

But that doesn't work so I must be remembering the command incorectly.

[dibl]

Re: KDE not starting

Try

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

[DracoTB]

Re: KDE not starting

Another go at startx gives me the same error but I noticed another line

Primary device is not PCI

this indicates to me that the BIOS upgrade has shifted the ?address? of the graphics card and so the old config no longer applies.


The dpkg command line you advised gave me a warning that it was possibly overwriting a custom config file but didn't appear to do anything else. Running it without the -phigh takes me through the keyboard setup but not the option to auto-detect the video hardware which seems to be what I need to do.

[cleb]

Re: KDE not starting

I fixed a similar problem using the sysv-rc-conf utility. Install it, disable kdm-kde4 and enable kdm. If this does not help, just install gdm or xdm or whatever you want. It will not look as good as kdm but it is better than nothing.

[DracoTB]

Re: KDE not starting

Ok, got it going. It was a BIOS setting. Turns out that when I updated it turned the integrated graphics back on even though it was showing as I had had it before.


Thanx for your help.

[The Liquidator]

Re: KDE not starting

Glad it worked.

Can you please mark the title of your first posting as "solved" as it will help others with a similar issue.