It now happens every time.  Kontact/kmail is not un-usable...

(In reply to comment #1)
> It now happens every time.  Kontact/kmail is not un-usable...

I meant is NOW un-usable.... :)

Several posts on misc forums over the web seems to indicate that Akonadi is responsible for this problem.  Please look at a similar bug filed :http://osdir.com/ml/kdepim-bugs/2010-06/msg00662.html

The person seems to have fixed the problem by killing akonadi but I cannot see any akonadi processes (ps -A) when Kontact/Kmail is running.  Except that, I am experiencing all the same symptoms as the OP of the other bug report.

Again please do not hesitate to ask for information or anything else that can help in fixing this problem.

Thanks!

I think this should be merged (upon approval from KDE team) with bug https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=241081

I am also affected by this issue, it started happening in the last months (i guess since KDE 4.4, but i might be wrong). I am currently running kmail 1.13.5 on KDE 4.4.5 (Debian packages).

However, it looks to me that it is related to updating some underlying library or KDE component while the KDE session is open (i run Debian testing and update on a daily basis keeping my KDE session open for weeks or months).
Once the problem starts happening, kmail keeps freezing, but the problem gets solved (looks to me at least) by logging-out of the KDE session, making sure no user processes keep running, and starting a new KDE session.

I don't think this has to do with Bug #241081. This one just happens without any remote session nor when sending, just while typing an email.

I'm not sure either if it is related to bug #241081 but I definitely have the same issue as you have...just while typing an email.

I have not used Kmail in weeks... it is virtually useless on my computer.  Akonadi is also dead so that does not help.

I have this problem.
This happens if Akonadi fails to start and I try to send an email.

So to reproduce:
 - open KMail and kill akonadi if it running (akonadictl stop)
 - open a new message window, type something and Send
 -> Complete UI freeze

This is exacerbated by the fact that akonadi is fragile as crystal and crashes often with any minor problem.

Ping?

Probably duplicate of http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=250047

Some additional info:

I was able to "reanimate" my apparently frozen kmail by just restarting akonadi!

So: 
- using kmail, new mail, after a while the GUI freezes
- actually GUI was not frozen, it is more like no input at all is accepted, either mouse or kbd: at some point I could see the Inbox panel updating and listing some new mail, even if i couldn't activate any menu or buttons, also cursor didn't blink.

- then i run 
      akonadictl stop
      akonadictl start

- and bingo, kmail was breathing again... :-)

Hope it helps, and that some devel reads this report and switches the status to "confirmed" ;-)

running akonadictl stop will issue:

D-Bus session bus is not available!
"[
0: akonadictl(_Z11akBacktracev+0x35) [0x8052685]
1: akonadictl() [0x8052b4e]
2: [0xffffe400]
3: /lib/libc.so.6(gsignal+0x47) [0xb70d5a67]
4: /lib/libc.so.6(abort+0x182) [0xb70d72e2]
5: /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4(_Z17qt_message_output9QtMsgTypePKc+0x84) [0xb74c6dc4]
6: akonadictl(_ZN15FileDebugStream9writeDataEPKcx+0xc4) [0x8053ab4]
7: /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4(_ZN9QIODevice5writeEPKcx+0x8e) [0xb755f48e]
8: /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4(+0x10c6b5) [0xb75726b5]
9: /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4(_ZN11QTextStreamD1Ev+0x3d) [0xb7573bcd]
10: akonadictl(_ZN6QDebugD1Ev+0x43) [0x804f373]
11: akonadictl(_ZN13AkApplicationC1ERiPPc+0x129) [0x804e2d9]
12: akonadictl(main+0x30) [0x80548d0]
13: /lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe6) [0xb70c0b86]
14: akonadictl() [0x804dd41]
]
"

and akonadictl start will issue:

D-Bus session bus is not available!
"[
0: akonadictl(_Z11akBacktracev+0x35) [0x8052685]
1: akonadictl() [0x8052b4e]
2: [0xffffe400]
3: /lib/libc.so.6(gsignal+0x47) [0xb70f4a67]
4: /lib/libc.so.6(abort+0x182) [0xb70f62e2]
5: /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4(_Z17qt_message_output9QtMsgTypePKc+0x84) [0xb74e5dc4]
6: akonadictl(_ZN15FileDebugStream9writeDataEPKcx+0xc4) [0x8053ab4]
7: /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4(_ZN9QIODevice5writeEPKcx+0x8e) [0xb757e48e]
8: /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4(+0x10c6b5) [0xb75916b5]
9: /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4(_ZN11QTextStreamD1Ev+0x3d) [0xb7592bcd]
10: akonadictl(_ZN6QDebugD1Ev+0x43) [0x804f373]
11: akonadictl(_ZN13AkApplicationC1ERiPPc+0x129) [0x804e2d9]
12: akonadictl(main+0x30) [0x80548d0]
13: /lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe6) [0xb70dfb86]
14: akonadictl() [0x804dd41]
]
"

how should i interpret this???

Uhm... probably you don't have a session dbus running
   (you can try starting it with "dbus-daemon --fork --session" )
but no clue if that is required for akonadi.

Anyways, did restarting akonadi "unfreeze" your kmail? it works for me repetitively :-)

I have no clue what is going on here... I tried "dbus-daemon --fork --session" and nothing happens.  Then I tried to start akonadi with akonadictl start and got the same thing as above.

No, restarting akonadi does not unfreeze kmail....

Created attachment 66434 [details]
report when trying to start Akonadi

Thank you for taking the time to file a bug report.

KMail2 was released in 2011, and the entire code base went through significant changes. We are currently in the process of porting to Qt5 and KF5. It is unlikely that these bugs are still valid in KMail2.

We welcome you to try out KMail 2 with the KDE 4.14 release and give your feedback.