Bug 82277

Summary:	when kwin crashes it shouldn't make KDE unusable
Product:	[Unmaintained] ksmserver	Reporter:	Eduardo Robles Elvira <edulix>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Lubos Lunak <l.lunak>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	major	CC:	aa, david, finex, rottis, sdr
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	RedHat Enterprise Linux
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	kwin backtrace nvidia glxinfo

Description Eduardo Robles Elvira 2004-05-26 23:03:12 UTC

Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.2.2)
Installed from:    RedHat RPMs

When kwin crashes, there's no debug window specifying the error and letting the user to report the bug, and what's more, kwin's not reestarted automatically, which makes KDE barely usable.

We cannot expect kwin to never crash, but users expect their systems to be still usable even if something important in KDE such as kwin crashes. 

I guess that we can fix this potential problem just relaunching kwin when it crashes, and then make appear a debug window about the crash just like any other KDE app does when it crashes.

However, we should be smart and careful: we cannot even expect that kwin won't crash just when it's relaunched, so if we implement automatical relaunching in kwin when it crashes, we should be sure that an infinite loop of launches and crashes doesn't happen.

Additional Note: This bug has been filled just after experiencing a kwin crash reported in bug #82272.

Comment 1 Eduardo Robles Elvira 2004-05-26 23:05:11 UTC

sorry for reporting this as a crash ! I meant wishlist or just bug... please can someone modify that?

Comment 2 Eduardo Robles Elvira 2004-08-04 14:43:33 UTC

This is a really nasty bug, is it being overlooked ?

Comment 3 Lubos Lunak 2004-08-04 15:01:14 UTC

No, it's not being overlooked. It's just not considered the most important from the large number of all reports.

Comment 4 icefox 2004-12-31 08:41:20 UTC

Hmm this probably shouldn't be a kwin bug, but a kde bug sense this (script?) should also watch for kicker to die.

Comment 5 Eduardo Robles Elvira 2005-01-02 21:46:24 UTC

Benjamin Meyer:

Whenever a KDE app dies, a dialog with the backtrace is shown. And this is also KDE specific - maybe it' possible to improove that making that program to recognice which app has died and then execute an action that can change depending on the program that crashed.

I for one like the idea of creating a common way to deal with program crashes KDE-wide. Now I have a lot of new questions: does also kwin show that crash dialog when it crashes? if not, could it? is possible at all what I've proposed? is it difficult to implement, or would it be a better idea just to fix this bug first meanwhile the other solution is being developed?

What do you think about it? how would you improove the idea?

Comment 6 Lubos Lunak 2006-05-02 18:04:51 UTC

*** Bug 126554 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7 Jaison Lee 2006-05-15 04:58:59 UTC

*** Bug 127277 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 8 Eetu Kinnunen 2006-05-15 15:55:51 UTC

One way to make kwin crash --> Execute YaKuake, with F12, open the console, then press that "Show Desktop" button twice and blob, it's crashed!

Comment 9 Lubos Lunak 2007-05-14 15:29:04 UTC

*** Bug 145338 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10 Ramon Antonio Parada (brainsqueezer) 2008-07-23 11:18:39 UTC

Unable to reproduce #8 in 4.0.98 (Debian experimental). What crashes yakuake or plasma? Can give more information and report as separate bug?

Comment 11 James 2008-09-04 22:45:08 UTC

Created attachment 27246 [details]
kwin backtrace

Comment 12 James 2008-09-04 22:46:14 UTC

Created attachment 27247 [details]
nvidia glxinfo

Comment 13 James 2008-09-04 22:48:39 UTC

kwin crashes every time I login. When using compiz to render the interface I have no problems whatsoever.

Not sure if I should be sending this to the Arch team, I'm merely following the instructions from the crash handler.

Linux bluepoint 2.6.26-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Aug 26 20:53:58 UTC 2008 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

Comment 14 FiNeX 2008-12-26 22:43:33 UTC

@James: you should report your crash on a separate bug.

@Eetu: it was a yakuake crash, it has been already reported (and maybe even fixed)

About the initial problem, now kwin is more robust: when it crashes, it try to restart itself with more "safe" settings. I think this bug can be marked as "solved".