Bug 328228 - Several programs in kde show very long waiting periods, do not start or cannot be closed.
Summary: Several programs in kde show very long waiting periods, do not start or canno...
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: Phonon
Classification: Frameworks and Libraries
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: 4.7.0
Platform: openSUSE Linux
: NOR grave
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Harald Sitter
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2013-11-29 20:49 UTC by J Reitsma
Modified: 2023-02-07 03:55 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
Screen print of the KDE System Settings (130.33 KB, image/png)
2013-11-30 15:03 UTC, J Reitsma
Details

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Description J Reitsma 2013-11-29 20:49:15 UTC
The summary above is somewhat broadly formulated, but there are several thing going on in this version (from openSuse 13.1) that seem related to me. A short survey:
- dolphin takes about a minute for it' s initial start; after that, it acts normally
- the "halt/restart/sign off"  window that should appear after choosing this option from de kde-menu, takes some 2 minutes before coming up; when a choice is made, it takes another minute before the system responds and actually signs off or begins the stop/restart action
- when in k3b ripping an audio CD is chosen, and one wants to choose a directory to save the results in, an empty window appears, which after 45 secs is filled with the contents of the initial directory. Pressing the Create new map button gives another 30 secs waiting. Af all this is done, and one wants k3b to start ripping, it crashes.
- when I try to report about the crash (debug symbols for k3b and k3b-codecs are installed), DrKonqi complains it cannot contact kded. This proces (kded4) appears to be defunct, and defuncts immediately again after being started by hand.
- vlc (OK, no kde program, but maybe related though) when started from the command line, gives it' s version and stays mutt, no further messages or window. It cannot be killed, even by root.

There's probably more, but hopefully this is enough to try to tackle the problem.


Reproducible: Always
Comment 1 J Reitsma 2013-11-29 20:56:59 UTC
What I even forgot, sound does not work to.
In Yast the test sounds are played OK.
If in the kde-mixer from the menu Configuration (Dutch: Instellingen)->Sound Configuration (Geluidsinstellingen) is chosen, it takes again two minutes to appear. If it appears eventually, and one wants to close it, it doesn't. The window manager kicks in, and reports kcmshell4 does not react.
Comment 2 Christoph Feck 2013-11-29 21:11:55 UTC
Do not mix multiple issues in one report, it makes tracking them impossible. Please report them separately.

As for the hang, this probably means a kded4 module does not respond. Please disable kded modules, such as package update notifiers (apper etc.) or bluetooth daemons. For more information, please see http://kdepepo.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/troubleshooting-kded4-bugs/
Comment 3 J Reitsma 2013-11-30 14:58:45 UTC
It was not my intention to mix multiple issues, my guess was that they somehow might be related. From your comment I gather it's not very likely they are.

Having read the link you gave I opened System Settings (goes fine). Selecting System Services takes again ages, and results in a messages the kded4 daemon cannot be reached. But besides 3 defunct kded4 processes, there are also 3 running kded4 processes (all three started by me, one as root, 2 as ordinary user).

I'll add an attachment, containing a screenshot of the System Settings window.
Comment 4 J Reitsma 2013-11-30 15:03:38 UTC
Created attachment 83841 [details]
Screen print of the KDE System Settings
Comment 5 Christoph Feck 2013-11-30 16:05:02 UTC
Check which kded4 module causes kded not to reply or crash by disabling them. Without this information, there is nothing we can do. Additionally, make sure only a single kded4 process runs.
Comment 6 J Reitsma 2013-11-30 20:51:47 UTC
Rebooted, one kded4 running, disabled all modules in System settings, reboot again, kded4 still running.

Dolphin, vlc and the Restart window now act normally, and kded4 keeps running.

But the behavior of the kmix settings window described above is still there, and now kded4 is defunct again.

What can I do further to pinpoint this behavior of kmix?
Comment 7 Christoph Feck 2013-11-30 21:28:03 UTC
If you disable all modules, you will not be able to find the module that causes the issue. As for the kmix problem, you probably have to enable the kmixd and phononserver kded4 modules to make kmix work correctly.
Comment 8 J Reitsma 2013-12-01 08:01:43 UTC
I was aware of the fact that disabling all modules wouldn't give me the cause, but I wanted to pinpoint the kmix issue first.

There is no phononserver module in the list. I activated kmixd, but kmix reacts as before, defuncting kded4 after the workflow described above.

By the way, Favicons and Time zone are activated again without my intervention.
Comment 9 J Reitsma 2013-12-03 19:19:11 UTC
I have checked several other openSuse releases in the 12.x range in my neighborhood, but none of them has a phonon kded4 module in it' s release.
In the list of modules in these systems I cannot find anything looking like a phonon module. Am I missing something here?
Comment 10 Christoph Feck 2013-12-03 19:32:06 UTC
You can find all kded modules at /usr/share/kde4/services/kded/

To disable a service, move the .desktop file away. This needs root permissions.
Comment 11 J Reitsma 2013-12-03 19:50:12 UTC
Yes, just seconds after my last posting I discoverd that, and there *is* a phononserver.desktop. 

So  ran kbuildsycoca4, and rebooted, but still no phononserver in the list of services in  the Service manager.

Then I moved phononserver.desktop to another place, ran kbuildsycoca4 again, rebooted, and now the kmox peculiarities are gone. Except I still can' t get sound from the soundcard. But that's probably because the phonoserver module is not there, I suppose.

What to do next? (and, by the way, thanks for your help so far!)
Comment 12 Christoph Feck 2013-12-03 20:05:59 UTC
As I said, please report the "no sound" issue separately, so that Phonon/KMix developers can have a look at it. In this report, I want you to find out which of the kded modules is responsible for applications hanging.
Comment 13 J Reitsma 2013-12-03 20:26:30 UTC
I will report the "no sound" issue separately.

But apparently the phonon module is also responsible for the hanging: all modules enabled except phonon gives no hanging or defuncting kded4, but on enabling the phononserver module again, the kded4 is defuncted, and hanging reappears, after the above described workflow within kmix.
Comment 14 Christoph Feck 2013-12-03 20:40:53 UTC
Okey, reassigning to Phonon developers for further inspection.

Which Phonon backend you use? Does the issue persists if using a different backend? Depending on the system, some users prefer vlc, others prefer gstreamer backend.
Comment 15 J Reitsma 2013-12-03 23:01:11 UTC
I use the gstreamer backend. Will test vlc tomorrow, the pillow calls me.
Comment 16 J Reitsma 2013-12-04 19:42:05 UTC
Changing the gstreamer backend for the vlc backend does not make a difference.
Comment 17 Christoph Feck 2013-12-04 20:05:22 UTC
Please stop changing the product field. You might need to reload this page before adding a comment.
Comment 18 J Reitsma 2013-12-04 20:19:29 UTC
It wasn't my intention to change the product field, but I was presented a form with only one button - Commit, so in order to be able to continue I pressed that.

Never knew one has to reload the page - isn't that somewhat awkward, especially for non-experienced users (like me)?

But I' ll reload the page when it comes up again.
Comment 19 J Reitsma 2013-12-24 14:00:52 UTC
It has been more than two weeks since my last comment - is anyone looking into this? Is there anything I can do myself to help solving the problem?
Comment 20 Myriam Schweingruber 2013-12-24 14:14:01 UTC
Which exact Phonon version do you use?
Comment 21 J Reitsma 2013-12-25 08:18:30 UTC
The phonon-version (comes with openSuse 13.1) is 4.7.0-4.1
Comment 22 J Reitsma 2014-01-25 10:59:24 UTC
Almost two months  passed since my anwer to Myriam's quiston. So I would like to ask again if anyone looking is into this. Is there anything I can do myself to help solving the problem?

Since I had to disable the phonon-service, the way it is now I have no sound at all from within KDE (in Yast the test sound is played perfectly), and all programs that rely on sound (for example, kdenlive) don't start either. So for my most important use cases of my pc it is severely crippled.

If you phonon-guys can help me, please!
Comment 23 Harald Sitter 2014-02-01 17:01:38 UTC
(In reply to comment #22)
> Since I had to disable the phonon-service, the way it is now I have no sound
> at all from within KDE (in Yast the test sound is played perfectly), and all
> programs that rely on sound (for example, kdenlive) don't start either. So
> for my most important use cases of my pc it is severely crippled.

phononserver is not required to produce sound, also kdenlive does not use phonon at all. as far as I understand this bug report is about phononserver breaking kded, which to be honest is most likely a result of whatever is the cause for your broken audio in general. I'd encourage you to head to the opensuse or kde forums to discuss the reason for that. it most certainly is not a bug in KDE technology though, alas filing a bug about the no-sound issue won't get us anywhere either.

as for the bug at hand:
- install gdb and the phonon debug symbols (best check with opensuse on how to do that)
- move the phononserver.desktop file back
- in terminal run `kquitapp kded; sleep 2; gdb --args kded4 --nofork`
- a new prompt will open inside the terminal, type 'run' an hit enter
- in another terminal run `kcmshell4 phonon`
- a window should appear and freeze
- in the first terminal now hit ctrl+c and type 'set logging on'
- gdb will tell you that a log file is being written
- now type 'thread apply all bt'
- followed by 'set logging off'
- type 'quit' to exit gdb
- run `kded4` from the terminal
- you should find the logfile gdb.txt in your home, attach this file to the bug report.

as I said though, since this likely is a symptom and not a cause I'd first try to get sound in general workign again, otherwise the gdb stuff might be quite a waste of time.
Comment 24 J Reitsma 2014-02-02 19:13:33 UTC
Thanks a lot for this explanation. From the sound architecture I had concluded that phononserver was obligational for kde to give sound, but apparently that is the wrong conclusion.

Why do you suppose the sound problem is not a bug in KDE technology? Testing the sound from within Yast gives a positive result.

I'll ask around on kde@mail.kde.org about the sound issue, before eventually file a bug on the appropriate place.

Aside from the sound issue itself, the standard openSuse repo's don't have the phonon version with debug symbols. So I have to look for them.

Thanks again!
Comment 25 Harald Sitter 2014-02-02 22:45:08 UTC
(In reply to comment #24)
> Why do you suppose the sound problem is not a bug in KDE technology? Testing
> the sound from within Yast gives a positive result.

Because kdenlive doesn't use Phonon and Phonon is the only piece of semi-lowlevel KDE audio technology. Also yast is not an appropriate representation of anything. Things that come to mind causing the issue you have whilest working in yast: pulseaudio breakage, audio output device access permission issues.
Comment 26 J Reitsma 2014-02-03 17:32:05 UTC
Being the simplest thing to check, I checked "audio output device access permission issues". And voilá: audio group membership appeared to be retracted. I suppose in the upgrade process from openSuse 12.3 -> 13.1, because that's when the problem started.

I'm rather busy coming days, but I hope to check phonon-service Wednesday, and report back here.

Thanks for your input!

By the way, kdenlive works again, too!
Comment 27 J Reitsma 2014-02-17 20:20:28 UTC
First, if I move the phononserver.desktop file back, run kbuildsycoca4, and reboot, sound is gone again, Removing phononserver.desktop file again,, run kbuildsycoca4, and reboot, sound is back again.

When I run "kquitapp kded; sleep 2; gdb --args kded4 --nofork" I get 

====================================================================

kquitapp kded; sleep 2; gdb --args kded4 --nofork
kquitapp(2131): "Programma kded kon niet worden gevonden met de dienst org.kde.kded en pad /MainApplication." 
GNU gdb (GDB; openSUSE 13.1) 7.6.50.20130731-cvs
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-suse-linux".
Type "show configuration" for configuration details.
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://bugs.opensuse.org/>.
Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>.
For help, type "help".
Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word".
..
Reading symbols from /usr/bin/kded4...Reading symbols from /usr/lib/debug/usr/bin/kded4.debug...done.
done.
(gdb) 
=======================================================================

When I hit "run" I get

=======================================================================
(gdb) run
Starting program: /usr/bin/kded4 --nofork
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/lib64/libthread_db.so.1".
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/gdb/auto-load/usr/lib64/libgobject-2.0.so.0.3800.2-gdb.py", line 9, in <module>
    from gobject import register
  File "/usr/share/glib-2.0/gdb/gobject.py", line 3, in <module>
    import gdb.backtrace
ImportError: No module named backtrace
kded(2137): KUniqueApplication: Cannot find the D-Bus session server:  "Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken." 

[Inferior 1 (process 2137) exited with code 0377]
(gdb) 
========================================================================

When, in another terminal, I run kcmshell4 phonon I get

========================================================================

kcmshell4 phonon
kcmshell(2155)/kdeui (kdelibs): Session bus not found 
To circumvent this problem try the following command (with Linux and bash) 
export $(dbus-launch) 
KCrash: Application 'kcmshell4' crashing...
KCrash: Attempting to start /usr/lib64/kde4/libexec/drkonqi from kdeinit
sock_file=/root/.kde4/socket-souder/kdeinit4__0
Warning: connect() failed: : Bestand of map bestaat niet
KCrash: Attempting to start /usr/lib64/kde4/libexec/drkonqi directly
drkonqi(2156)/kdeui (kdelibs): Session bus not found 
To circumvent this problem try the following command (with Linux and bash) 
export $(dbus-launch)

=====================================================================

and no (freezing) window.
Comment 28 Andrew Crouthamel 2018-11-11 04:28:27 UTC
Dear Bug Submitter,

This bug has been stagnant for a long time. Could you help us out and re-test if the bug is valid in the latest version? I am setting the status to NEEDSINFO pending your response, please change the Status back to REPORTED when you respond.

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!
Comment 29 Andrew Crouthamel 2018-11-21 04:31:19 UTC
Dear Bug Submitter,

This is a reminder that this bug has been stagnant for a long time. Could you help us out and re-test if the bug is valid in the latest version? This bug will be moved back to REPORTED Status for manual review later, which may take a while. If you are able to, please lend us a hand.

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!
Comment 30 Justin Zobel 2023-01-08 22:45:00 UTC
Thank you for reporting this issue in KDE software. As it has been a while since this issue was reported, can we please ask you to see if you can reproduce the issue with a recent software version?

If you can reproduce the issue, please change the status to "REPORTED" when replying. Thank you!
Comment 31 Bug Janitor Service 2023-01-23 05:04:46 UTC
Dear Bug Submitter,

This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least
15 days. Please provide the requested information as soon as
possible and set the bug status as REPORTED. Due to regular bug
tracker maintenance, if the bug is still in NEEDSINFO status with
no change in 30 days the bug will be closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the
wiki located here:
https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

If you have already provided the requested information, please
mark the bug as REPORTED so that the KDE team knows that the bug is
ready to be confirmed.

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!
Comment 32 Bug Janitor Service 2023-02-07 03:55:17 UTC
This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least
30 days. The bug is now closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the
wiki located here:
https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!