This is a problem which has also been documented at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=148399 but, it seems, misdiagnosed. I get the same problem on my Debian Jessie system. Every so often, when I load KDE, it seems that a number of KDE services, such as KMix and KWallet, don't load. Worse, none of the programs load from the KMenu, and, as the person on Arch Linux noted, the only way to reboot or shut down the system is to do it through bash. Because logging in KDE tends not to be informative, it's tricky to isolate a service which is causing the problem. Some people have theorised KMix. However, as I can't prove this, I'm filing this bug against the whole desktop. Reproducible: Sometimes Steps to Reproduce: 1. Start computer and boot into KDE. Actual Results: Only the BlueDevil, PowerDevil, notifications and device notifications system tray icons load. Attempting to start a KDE program causes the icon to appear in the task manager but the window is empty. Non-KDE programs (like Firefox/Iceweasel) load correctly. Expected Results: KDE to load correctly. I realise that this is a skeletal bug report and, by itself, pretty useless. However, since I'm not the only one who has it, I'm hoping that filing it will encourage others to come forward or, at the very least, solicit feedback as to how I can troubleshoot this problem.
Which KDE version are you using? It could indeed be the KMix problem (see bug 317926) or a KWallet problem (see bug 254198).
I'm using 4.8.4, which is the version currently on Debian Jessie. Yes, I know it's several releases outdated and the problem may have 'miraculously' fixed in 4.10. Then again, it may not have, which is why I'm willing to do what I can to help troubleshoot and encourage others to come forward. It could be a KMix problem, but since this problem is in 4.8 and not the newest 4.10, there may be different causes. KWallet doesn't load (I don't think) automatically on start up because no applications use it - my NetworkManager uses system-wide configuration settings and so doesn't need to go into my personal wallet. When/if it happens again, where's the first place I should look for clues as to what went wrong?
> I'm hoping that filing it will encourage others to come forward But that's not what a bug tracker is for. I suggest posting your issue to https://forum.kde.org/ to get more people to read it. KDE 4.8 is indeed old, we already released KDE 4.11. > When/if it happens again, where's the first place I should look for clues as to what went wrong? .xsession-errors contains a lot of valuable information. You can increase debugging output by using the kdebugdialog program. Note that restarting the session clears the file, so you have to catch it before you log out. More ideas: - try System Settings > Startup & Shutdown > Session Management > On Login > Start with an empty session - try disabling kded4 modules that could cause issues. For more information, see http://kdepepo.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/troubleshooting-kded4-bugs/
Thank you for your response, Christopher, Debian has just upgraded to 4.10, so I'm going to see if the problem recurs in the next week or so. Again, it's fairly random so, with my luck, I'll say that the bug's been magically fixed and then it'll pop up again! I have personally found .xsession-errors to be very unhelpful, and I've ranted about it at length with little useful feedback. My two biggest criticisms are that it doesn't show what application generated the message and it doesn't tell you when it happened. However, I'll try to remember to 'rescue' it with a LiveCD the next time my desktop breaks in hopes that it may have something useful. With thanks,
OK, so I can confirm that I got this issue again in KDE 4.10.5. I saved the .xsession-errors log before rebooting, and its contents are largely meaningless to me. Is there anything in particular that I should look for?
I am running 4.11.2 and this or a very similar error just happend on my system too. I logged into kde, and Klipper + Kmix did not load. Only the Network-Interface was visible. Tee system was unresponsive for several seconds (around 20s) and after that i could launch the kickoff-menu, but restart/shutdown did not work. The only way to restart was via console. After the reboot everything seems normal as if nothing ever was wrong.
I am running KDE 4.11.5 on Debian Jessie and this bug or a very similar error happend on my system too. Only a restart via console helps.
Same exact problem with Kubuntu 13.10 (and before that 13.04) and KDE 4.11.5, dual-boot Win7. I often have to reboot several times to solve the problem. Restarting lightdm (killall lightdm, sudo lightdm restart) solves the problem partly (the session is loaded correctly, execpt KMix which shows a "dummy output" or the wrong (or default) output as master). I have the impression (without beeing able to confirm) that it happens more frequently when I boot after having used Windows ( but maybe I cant help believing that Microsoft is the root of all problems)
I removed pulseaudio yesterday and that's "fixed" the problem for me so far. But it's an ugly solution, because Skype needs pulseaudio.
Perhaps this Debian Bug relates to our problem? https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=740931
I am still unsure if this is a duplicate of bug 317926, but I guess only kmix/phonon people understand the interaction between KDE and pulseaudio. Adding some.
Christoph, I don't think this is the same bug as #317926. This bug involves a session that occasionally never fully starts, whereas in bug #317926 the session does eventually fully start. There seems to be a lot of sleuthing done on this bug here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=983110 The consensus seems to be that there is a race condition exposed by klauncher's use of the glib mainloop. The workarounds proposed in the Red Hat bug report (linked above) include: 1) Run 'killall ksmserver' to return to the login screen, and login again. 2) Change the autostart phase ordering of the autostart items (see comment #93). --doesn't always work 100% for everyone. 3) Patch klauncher to disable its use of the glib mainloop. (see comment #179) For the record, I have been able to reproduce this bug somewhat regularly on two systems since upgrading to Kubuntu 14.04. I've had it happen extremely rarely (once or twice) on my third system. I am currently running KDE 4.13.3.
Here's a direct link to the Fedora patch mentioned in comment 12: http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/cgit/kdelibs.git/tree/kdelibs-4.11.3-klauncher-no-glib.patch
This bug is a duplicate of https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=328571
Hasn't occurred on my system since. This can die now.