KDE hang at splash screen

[alie]

I got serious issue today.

After restarted my computer I get to KDM, choose KDE4 as my session, and login. The splash screen starts (able to move the mouse) and shows the hard drive icon, the screwdriver & wrench icon, the world icon, the desktop icon, and then stops (the KDE logo didn't show up and I can't move my mouse and can't turn on caps lock too at this time)

[fluca1978]

It could be a problem with some settings of your desktop.
Try doing:

mv ~/.kde ~/.kde.backup

from a console and see if with a clean desktop it starts.

[alie]

It could be a problem with some settings of your desktop.
Try doing:

mv ~/.kde ~/.kde.backup

from a console and see if with a clean desktop it starts.

It hang at Hard drive icon now :(

[adamk]

Sounds like your entire OS is hanging, not just KDE, which indicates some problem with the 3D drivers. Have you tried to remotely log in from another machine to verify that the operating system is dead?

Adam

[alie]

Sounds like your entire OS is hanging, not just KDE, which indicates some problem with the 3D drivers. Have you tried to remotely log in from another machine to verify that the operating system is dead?

Adam

But it works with i3 or failsafe/console

[adamk]

And what, exactly, is your point? Different programs use your drivers in different ways. A program should never be able to lockup a machine, or even X. If it can, you've hit a bug in either the X server or the driver.

[alie]

And what, exactly, is your point? Different programs use your drivers in different ways. A program should never be able to lockup a machine, or even X. If it can, you've hit a bug in either the X server or the driver.

Oops ok, but i noticed i lost all bytes (size 0) from rc.conf or kwinrc when i edit then save them with ee

[adamk]

If you make changes to those files, and then the system locks up a few seconds later, it's not surprising that you lose all the contents if you hit the power button.

[alie]

If you make changes to those files, and then the system locks up a few seconds later, it's not surprising that you lose all the contents if you hit the power button.

Do you think reformatting my system will solve the issue ?

[adamk]

No. Formatting your system, and reinstalling the same software, is just going to do the same thing.

I asked you originally if you've tried to login remotely (such as via ssh) to confirm that the entire operating system is locked up?

EDIT: What video driver are you using?

Adam

[alie]

No. Formatting your system, and reinstalling the same software, is just going to do the same thing.

I asked you originally if you've tried to login remotely (such as via ssh) to confirm that the entire operating system is locked up?

EDIT: What video driver are you using?

Adam

I have intel driver installed and I would like to try to ssh my system tomorrow since I have 1 machine only at home.

[fluca1978]

No. Formatting your system, and reinstalling the same software, is just going to do the same thing.


Uhm, but if I get it right it was working yesterday, and if this is true it means that it is a software/configuration problem, not an hardware one (excluding of course dying hardware).
Now, if you can login in another way you could check your home folder for x error logs or see the system logs for any row that presents an issue.
Can you switch to console when KDE hangs? If so, try seeing what is happening to the machine with top and friends.

[adamk]

Hmmm, I didn't get the impression that it was working yesterday. Even if that is the case, though, I still don't recommend reinstalling :-)

Adam

[alie]

Uhm, but if I get it right it was working yesterday, and if this is true it means that it is a software/configuration problem, not an hardware one (excluding of course dying hardware).
Now, if you can login in another way you could check your home folder for x error logs or see the system logs for any row that presents an issue.
Can you switch to console when KDE hangs? If so, try seeing what is happening to the machine with top and friends.

Yes, it was working yesterday for almost 1 month (with 9.0-BETA3, RC1 and RC2)... I will try all suggestions from both of you soon

[fluca1978]

Hmmm, I didn't get the impression that it was working yesterday. Even if that is the case, though, I still don't recommend reinstalling :-)

Adam

I don't suggest re-installing either, but it was just to point that it was not a "base" system problem, it must have something to do with last installed software and/or configuration.

[alie]

I don't suggest re-installing either, but it was just to point that it was not a "base" system problem, it must have something to do with last installed software and/or configuration.

Is there any way to check the last installed software? Is there anyway to rebuild KDE 4 configs from scratch?

[fluca1978]

Is there anyway to check the last installed software ? Is there anyway to rebuild KDE 4 configs from scratch ?

Not sure about how to check last installed software, may be in /usr/ports/distfile there are still the built packages from ports, with the correct date. But I don't rely on this.
This is a good advice for having software on a ZFS partition and to snapshot regularly when installing new packages.
Rebuilding kde configuration should be easier: deleting ~/.kde (or removing) will make KDE to do a plain configuration, but as you reported, this is locking the computer.
Could you try also to create a new user and to log in with him? It happened to me that a few mistakes in the shell configuration and/or around the home directory caused the KDE login problem.

[adamk]

I don't suggest re-installing either, but it was just to point that it was not a "base" system problem, it must have something to do with last installed software and/or configuration.

It could have something to do with the installed software or configuration, but it's still a bug in the X driver or X server.

Adam

[alie]

Thank you guys, creating new user solved my issue

[adamk]

Out of curiousity, is OpenGL compositing enabled under this new user?

Adam

[alie]

Out of curiousity, is OpenGL compositing enabled under this new user?

Adam

Yes its enabled with intel driver. The issue due to this theme: http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Blue+Sora?content=136657

[fluca1978]

Thank you guys, creating new user solved my issue

Now you can do another experiment: copy the .kde folder of the working user over your original directory (and backup the latter, assign rights, etc) and see if it works. If it works, you can diff the two directories to see what is the difference in the configuration.