I'm a newbie, but I just solved a problem and I thought I should share my experience here, for future reference perhaps.
I have 2 laptops both running Kubuntu 11.10, one experiences frequent crashes the other one doesn't. Both are clean installs from the same CD, but they do have different hardware, naturally.
I was going through the system settings of both laptops, comparing them, looking for differences that might explain the freezes. As they are both clean installs, I didn't expect to see differences, but I did:
System Settings --> Startup and ShutDown --> Autostart --> Desktop File -->
Plasma Desktop Workspace (enabled)
System Settings --> Startup and ShutDown --> Autostart --> Desktop File -->
Command Runner krunner (enabled)
Those two settings were inexistent in the laptop that was working well, so I unchecked them and rebooted : Black Screen Of Death !!
I tried some keyboard shortcuts and discovered that I was able to launch programs, so I typed "autostart," re-enabled those two and restarted. Problem solved. That is, Black Screen Of Death problem solved.
My other problem largely remains: why is one laptop so painfully slow?
It turns out that the slow laptop had:
System Settings --> Desktop Effects --> Enable Desktop Effects at Startup (enabled)
whereas the fast laptop has:
System Settings --> Desktop Effects --> Desktop effects are not available on this system due to the following technical issues: OpenGL compositing (the default) has crashed Kwin in the past. This was most likely due to a driver bug. [...] followed by a suggestion that I could re-enable it but "Pressing this button can crash the desktop" and a scary check-box labelled "I have saved my data."
So it turns out that the fast laptop was benefiting from having Desktop Effects disabled, while the slow laptop had them enabled, but not terribly successfully.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Patrick.
I have 2 laptops both running Kubuntu 11.10, one experiences frequent crashes the other one doesn't. Both are clean installs from the same CD, but they do have different hardware, naturally.
I was going through the system settings of both laptops, comparing them, looking for differences that might explain the freezes. As they are both clean installs, I didn't expect to see differences, but I did:
System Settings --> Startup and ShutDown --> Autostart --> Desktop File -->
Plasma Desktop Workspace (enabled)
System Settings --> Startup and ShutDown --> Autostart --> Desktop File -->
Command Runner krunner (enabled)
Those two settings were inexistent in the laptop that was working well, so I unchecked them and rebooted : Black Screen Of Death !!
I tried some keyboard shortcuts and discovered that I was able to launch programs, so I typed "autostart," re-enabled those two and restarted. Problem solved. That is, Black Screen Of Death problem solved.
My other problem largely remains: why is one laptop so painfully slow?
It turns out that the slow laptop had:
System Settings --> Desktop Effects --> Enable Desktop Effects at Startup (enabled)
whereas the fast laptop has:
System Settings --> Desktop Effects --> Desktop effects are not available on this system due to the following technical issues: OpenGL compositing (the default) has crashed Kwin in the past. This was most likely due to a driver bug. [...] followed by a suggestion that I could re-enable it but "Pressing this button can crash the desktop" and a scary check-box labelled "I have saved my data."
So it turns out that the fast laptop was benefiting from having Desktop Effects disabled, while the slow laptop had them enabled, but not terribly successfully.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Patrick.