Bug 294955

Summary:	"ksmserver could not be started" when starting KDE
Product:	[I don't know] kde	Reporter:	info
Component:	general	Assignee:	Unassigned bugs mailing-list <unassigned-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED NOT A BUG
Severity:	crash	CC:	cfeck
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	openSUSE
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	Backtrace

Description info 2012-02-27 20:46:47 UTC

Created attachment 69146 [details]
Backtrace

Version:           unspecified (using KDE 4.8.0) 
OS:                Linux

When logging in from kdm, KDE crashes with the error message "ksmserver could not be started" and a message from KCrashguard.

A long thread could be found in the kde forum:
http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=98769&p=214786#p214786

To sum up:
Seems, as something goes wrong with libqca2. When starting ksmsererver manually, it works. When starting with startkde, KDE crashes. 
Backtrace is attached to this bug report. If the powerdevil service is deactivated in the KDE startup settings, the keyboard service is listed in the trace next to the libqca2 error messages (instead of the powerdevil service). Therefore it seems that any process that uses libqca2 results in a crash.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Login to KDE from kdm

Actual Results:  
KDE crashes

Expected Results:  
Well, KDE should start, of course. :-)

- openSUSE 11.4 64bit
- KDE is installed from KDE 4.8 Core repository (http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE%3a/Release%3a/48/openSUSE_11.4/)
- all KDE packages are up to date and are installed from KDE 4.8 Core, QT too.
- installed version of libqca2: 2.0.3-18.2
- downgrading to KDE 4.7.1 from openSUSE 11.4 repo did not work
- deleting .kde4 did not work
- creating a new user and logging in: same result

Starting another desktop manager like LXDE is possible, KDE apps can be used with limitations (e.g. not running services like nepomuk).

Comment 1 Christoph Feck 2012-02-28 01:21:41 UTC

Is qca2 compiled against the same Qt version that you have installed? Does deleting .config/Trolltech.conf help?

Comment 2 info 2012-02-28 21:21:41 UTC

Hopefully qca2 is compiled against against the same Qt, as both are installed from the same repository and no updates are available. 

Deleting .config/Trolltech.conf did not help.

Comment 3 itech 2012-02-29 10:19:30 UTC

I had a similar issue with ksmserver on OpenSuse 12.1. I checked libqca2 version, glibc version and many more things I've found somewhere. The key thing is that the ksmserver started to crash after I ran "zypper dup". I'm using Tumbleweed repo, Packman repo and Tumbleweed Packman repo. In the end I found out that gstreamer packages was upgraded inconsistently. The part of them was from the Update repo, a part was from Tumbleweed Packman repo. So I switched gstreamer packages to Packman TW repo and since then it works flawlessly.

Comment 4 info 2012-02-29 18:58:30 UTC

Yeaaaah. You made my day, itech!!!

Indeed the gstreamer was mixed up between OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, openSUSE and Packman repsitories, however this has happend. Most likely, the openSUSE Tumbleweed packages have caused the crash.

Before I change the status to resolved, I really would like to know how you found out that gstreamer was installed inconsistently. Maybe this can help me or somebody else in a similar situation.

Thanks for answering to the ticket.

Comment 5 itech 2012-02-29 20:40:39 UTC

To be honest I can't remeber where I saw that the gstreamer stuff caused that a KDE session didn't start properly. But I'm pretty sure it was related to the OpenSuse 11.4 distro. I also found a thread at forums.opensuse.org where a user recomended to disable the Packman repository to solve the same issue with the ksmserver. I noticed that your problem started after you upgraded to the KDE 4.8 SC but I was using KDE 4.7.2 when the problem occurred. I was convinced that the ksm server issue can't be related to the 4.8 version. I went through a /var/log/zypp history to find whether a gstreamer packages were upgraded recently.Indeed it was true. Then I checked a version of all gstreamer packages and found that the repos were mixed up. Tried to downgrade to the version in Update repo, it started to work as expected. Tried to switch to Packman Tumbleweed repo - still worked. I don't know which gstreamer package causes the ksm server crash but the phonon-backend-gstreamer-0_10 works well regardless the repo was used.

Comment 6 info 2012-02-29 20:50:24 UTC

Thanks for your feedback. Especially the hint to /var/log/zypp may help.

Problem solved. As it showed up not to be a KDE bug, set to 'invalid'.