Bug 102671

Summary:	Can't start Kontact when it complains about another instance already running
Product:	[Applications] kontact	Reporter:	Till <kdebugsystem>
Component:	general	Assignee:	kdepim bugs <kdepim-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED DUPLICATE
Severity:	normal	CC:	arne.schmitz
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Debian testing
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Till 2005-03-28 15:06:54 UTC

Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.4.0)
Installed from:    Debian testing/unstable Packages

When trying to start Kontact it just complained about another instance already running and presented me with a dialog from where I should choose to start Kontact anyway or exit it. Neither of the two buttons presented had any effect. I had to kill Kontact. But when starting Kmail I got the same error message but with KMail I was able to start KMail anyway. After quitting KMail I was also able to start Kontact again (without any warning about an already running instance).
I have no idea how this can be reproduced. Is there a special lock file for Kontact?

Comment 1 Thiago Macieira 2005-03-28 15:57:36 UTC

Confirmed, and I know this is a duplicate. I just can't find the bug it is a duplicate of.

3.4 branch 20050313.

Comment 2 Till 2005-03-28 16:52:52 UTC

Bug 78352 is similar. But in contrast to my report the reporter states that "The only way to get contact running after this is manually deleting the "lock" file in the '~/.kde/share/apps/kmail' folder."

Comment 3 Thiago Macieira 2005-03-28 23:52:22 UTC

No, that isn't the one. I am sure I commented on it and it was exactly what you're describing :)

Comment 4 Michael Nottebrock 2005-04-06 21:21:43 UTC

I hit this one this afternoon, here's how to reproduce:

1.) Make sure kontact/kmail aren't running.

2.) Edit ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail/lock

3.) Replace the content of the file with one line, 

pid=12345

    (the number can be anything different from -1)

4.) Start kontact. The dialog pops up, but the dialog buttons are locked. Click the close button of the dialog to cancel. Start kmail. The same dialog pops up, but the buttons are clickable. The obvious difference is that kmail doesn't have its mainwindow open yet by the time the dialog is shown ...

Comment 5 Michael Nottebrock 2005-04-06 21:24:48 UTC

N.B.: The fact that kmail(part) can leave stale lockfiles behind which trigger the bug of the unclickable dialog-buttons is a bug in itself, but probably harder to fix.

Comment 6 Arne Schmitz 2005-04-12 20:17:51 UTC

I can confirm this bug -- workaround: The accelerator keys (e.g. Alt-K on germany localization) still work and will start kontact.

I find it rather annoying that Kontact or Kmail leaves stale lock files in the first place. It's this stupid log out, where the session manager does not wait for the Kontact applications to finish...

Comment 7 Christopher J. Bottaro 2005-04-22 16:47:48 UTC

I experienced this bug as well.  My workaround was to log out of KDE then log back in.  I guess the lockfile got cleaned up by doing that.

Comment 8 Anthony J Moulen 2005-05-03 19:09:04 UTC

I think the person looking for the error this is similar to is perhaps this one: http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=101093 which mentions a focus problem with dialogs.  I have had the password dialog issue since 3.4 was released but hadn't run into the already running problem till yesterday.

Comment 9 Tobias Koenig 2005-05-29 00:38:17 UTC


*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 102104 ***