Help! No Window Frames

[caco3]

Not sure how to best describe it, but all of a sudden none of the windows I open have frames around them. Meaning I can't resize, move, min/max, close. They just get opened and stuck in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Also can't use Alt-Tab to page through or switch windows. Some apps now also will not accept keyboard input. The only other thing that I notice is odd is when a log on and you see the different icons, ie HD, network, windows. But now it never shows the last one, the KDE blue symbol. Significant, not sure. Heard they also don't mean anything.

As for what I was doing when all this happened. I had just uninstalled Wine, and then a trial version of Crossover. Everything still ok at that point. Then purchased in STD Edition of Crossover and went to install it. Everything appeared ok. It showed up in the menu, but selecting anything just lead to nothing happening. Also tried installing isomount app from Kpackageit. Couldn't get it to work so, uninstalled. Then rebooted and thats when the fun started.

I've since tried running: sudo aptitude update; sudo aptitude full-upgrade
It found some broken files and did a couple of up/down grades.
rebooted - still no frames
ran the aptitude commands as before
found a few more things
ran it again and it came up clean
rebooted
still have the problem

HELP!!!!!!!!!! any suggestions

John.........

[Snowhog]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

What version of Kubuntu are you running?

[caco3]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

I'm using Karmac 9.10 - 64bit Desktop edition

[askrieger]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

It would be very helpful, to find out what happens if you start Linux without the GUI and then start KDE from the command line. It sounds as if there is a problem with KDM (the KDE display manager) or something related. Any error messages that might appear would be very enlightening.

In the old days, priot to Karmic (grub1):
(1)I would have edited (as root) a file called /boot/grub/menu.lst (note the absence of the 'i' in the file name).

(2)I would have changed the line that says "timeout <tab>10" (without the quotes) to something like "timeout<tab>30", so that I would have time for the next steps.

(3)After saving the file, I would reboot my machine.

(4)When the boot menu appeared with all the possible options, I would have chosen the one with the words "recovery mode". This would have started my computer in a full screen console mode.

(5)After entering my username and password, I would have entered the command "startkde" (without the quotes).

(6)I would have noted EXACTLY what happened.

(7)I would then have posted the results here.

But, alas, times have changed and I don't know whether this technique still works with the combination of Grub2 and Upstart. Someone who is more expert than I with the process of debugging startup issues with these new programs, will have to tell you how to proceed.

[caco3]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

Maybe a dumb question, how do I start KDE from the command line. Only been with Linux for about a year. Assuming when I get to login maybe I can select to log into the command line, but then not sure of the exact command to type. Thanks,

John............

[dibl]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

how do I start KDE from the command line

sudo service kdm start

[caco3]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

Ok, I logged out and got to the GUI login screen. Switched to tty1 (ctrl-alt-1) and ran: sudo service kdm start. It reported it was already running. So I ran: sudo service kdm stop. Then verified that going to tty7 it was in fact stopped (ie no more GUI login). Went back to tty1 and ran: sudo service kdm start. It brought me right back to the GUI login screen. I then checked back on tty1 and all it showed was "KDM Start/Running, Process 4620". No error message. Any other help suggestions, please...

John............

[caco3]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

Oh and one more thing. I while at the GUI login screen if I select to boot into "Failsafe" mode, not KDE, it only brings me right back to the same login screen after I enter my username/password.

John...........

[dibl]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

Both the loss of "window decorations" and the KDM display problems smack of a video driver problem. I would advise chasing down that possibility first -- Ubuntu Forums has many more threads on that subject, under the "Multimedia and Video" subforum, but if you want to run

lspci

and post the output so we can see your graphics chip, maybe someone here can provide assistance.

[caco3]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

Output from: lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation X58 I/O Hub to ESI Port (rev 12)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 12)
00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 12)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 7 (rev 12)
00:10.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Physical and Link Layer Registers Port 0 (rev 12)
00:10.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Routing and Protocol Layer Registers Port 0 (rev 12)
00:14.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub System Management Registers (rev 12)
00:14.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub GPIO and Scratch Pad Registers (rev 12)
00:14.2 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Control Status and RAS Registers (rev 12)
00:14.3 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Throttle Registers (rev 12)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 1
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 3
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 5
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 6
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 4 port SATA IDE Controller
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G96 [GeForce 9500 GT] (rev a1)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 12)
05:00.0 IDE interface: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE6121 SATA II Controller (rev b2)
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 12)
08:02.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306 Fire II IEEE 1394 OHCI Link Layer Controller (rev c0)

[dibl]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

Wow I think that is the longest lspci output I have ever seen -- that is a busy PCI bus!

OK, so it is an nVidia GeForce 9500. Here's the guidance for driver installation:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3107406.0

[caco3]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

ok did a few things:

added the new nvidia repository and upgarded to 190.42 (was at 185)
- no change

Then I went looking around the system settings trying to find the one that control the windows look and feel. Couldn't find it, but when I went under "Display" for Screen Edges I got an error message (paraphrased)

Shared library not found "kcm_kwinscreen edges"
Possible reasons:
- orphaned control module
- old third party modules lying around

Any thoughts? BTW, appreciate all the help!

John.........

[dibl]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

The "window decorations" are put on by the "window decorator". If you will look in System Settings > Desktop > Desktop Effects, I assume you have Desktop Effects checked. You might want to try "Suspend Compositing" and then re-enable it, and see if that evokes an error. Then under "Advanced" take a look at the Compositing Type window. If it says "OpenGL" change it to XRender and "apply" it, close out of system settings and see what you have in window borders. I haven't seen that exact error message, but I use Compiz and Emerald, so I wouldn't.

One more thing to try is to reinstall kwin. Since it's affecting your display, I would get out X, shut it down with

sudo service kdm stop

then at the command line

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install --reinstall kwin

and then start X again with

sudo service kdm start

and see what you have after you log in.

[caco3]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

Ok first off "Desktop Effects" was not loaded as an option. Which I think now was symptomatic of the problem. So I then went over and reinstalled kwin and logged back in. WOW! That was it. Everything is now working as it should be, including the "Desktop Effects" option is back. BTW, when I did the reinstall it actually added 3 missing files. Some how they got removed/corrupted or who knows.

Bottom line though we are FIXED! dibl, thank you so very much and everyone else that helped out. Great learning experience and couldn't have done it with ya. This is why I love the Linux community.

John.............

[dibl]

Re: Help! No Window Frames

Cool -- good to hear. Enjoy!