Hi I'm very new to linux but I feel I know enough to get me into trouble and sure enough I am in that position now.

I was trying to get amarok working and in the process I must have done something that has totally crashed my KDE. I have two users on my system + root. And none of them can login to KDE. When I login my existing windows still show up but it appears with no system bar, no clock at the bottom etc.

I read someone elses post and they said to run kwin that did not work and so I have thought of perhaps trying to reinstall kde? I've tried apt-get install kde but I guess there is no package called kde??... This is the error message when kde starts up from reboot :

Application: Plasma Workspace (kdeinit4), signal: Segmentation fault
[KCrash Handler]
#6 0x028b9cf0 in Plasma::Wallpaper::setUsingRenderingCache(bool) () from /usr/lib/libplasma.so.3
#7 0x072a8579 in ?? () from /usr/lib/kde4/plasma_wallpaper_image.so
#8 0x028b9b69 in Plasma::Wallpaper::restore(KConfigGroup const&) () from /usr/lib/libplasma.so.3
#9 0x027dfa4c in Plasma::Applet::paint(QPainter*, QStyleOptionGraphicsItem const*, QWidget*) () from /usr/lib/libplasma.so.3
#10 0x02357f9c in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#11 0x02372ba4 in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#12 0x02375054 in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#13 0x02375cdb in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#14 0x023766ae in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#15 0x02390c1b in QGraphicsView::paintEvent(QPaintEvent*) () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#16 0x01d215d6 in QWidget::event(QEvent*) () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#17 0x0211d6a3 in QFrame::event(QEvent*) () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#18 0x021b7922 in QAbstractScrollArea::viewportEvent(QEvent*) () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#19 0x0238d09b in QGraphicsView::viewportEvent(QEvent*) () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#20 0x021ba215 in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#21 0x010d1e8a in QCoreApplicationPrivate::sendThroughObjectEventFilters(QObject*, QEvent*) () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#22 0x01cc33a9 in QApplicationPrivate::notify_helper(QObject*, QEvent*) () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#23 0x01cca0b9 in QApplication::notify(QObject*, QEvent*) () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#24 0x00d925ba in KApplication::notify(QObject*, QEvent*) () from /usr/lib/libkdeui.so.5
#25 0x010d2beb in QCoreApplication::notifyInternal(QObject*, QEvent*) () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#26 0x01d2a8e6 in QWidgetPrivate::drawWidget(QPaintDevice*, QRegion const&, QPoint const&, int, QPainter*, QWidgetBackingStore*) () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#27 0x01d2b725 in QWidgetPrivate::paintSiblingsRecursive(QPaintDevice*, QList<QObject*> const&, int, QRegion const&, QPoint const&, int, QPainter*, QWidgetBackingStore*) ()
from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#28 0x01d2a635 in QWidgetPrivate::drawWidget(QPaintDevice*, QRegion const&, QPoint const&, int, QPainter*, QWidgetBackingStore*) () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#29 0x01f00e70 in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#30 0x01f012fa in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#31 0x01d1a9e2 in QWidgetPrivate::syncBackingStore(QRegion const&) () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#32 0x01d475f8 in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#33 0x01d53b3a in QApplication::x11ProcessEvent(_XEvent*) () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#34 0x01d8300a in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#35 0x0386ae88 in g_main_context_dispatch () from /lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#36 0x0386e730 in ?? () from /lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#37 0x0386e863 in g_main_context_iteration () from /lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#38 0x010fe805 in QEventDispatcherGlib::processEvents(QFlags<QEventLoop::ProcessEventsFlag>) () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#39 0x01d82b35 in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#40 0x010d1209 in QEventLoop::processEvents(QFlags<QEventLoop::ProcessEventsFlag>) () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#41 0x010d165a in QEventLoop::exec(QFlags<QEventLoop::ProcessEventsFlag>) () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#42 0x010d584f in QCoreApplication::exec() () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#43 0x01cc3467 in QApplication::exec() () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#44 0x0313b80d in kdemain () from /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_plasma-desktop.so
#45 0x0804dff7 in _start ()


I want to thank you in advance for your kind help

Hm,

something similar happened to me recently 'cos of a plasmoid which my system didn't like. So IF you installed a plasmoid just before this happened, uninstall it and try again.

Failing that reinstalling kubuntu-desktop and QT cannot do any harm...

Thanks Toad, But I'm afraid I don't know what a plasmoid is.

Plasmoid = widget If you've used Add Widgets, one of those could be a problem. It sounds as though KDE is starting correctly, but you have no panel. Can you try this:

Alt+f2, and type in 'konsole'.
From there, type in 'kquitapp plasma-desktop'.
The screen will go black, but you'll still have konsole.
Navigate to /home/you/.kde/share/config and renaming every file that starts with 'plasma' by adding '.sav' to the end of the name.
When you've done that, still in konsole, type in 'plasma-desktop'. That should cause a default setup to be re-created.

If anything goes wrong, just log out or reboot - you should be fine.

Thank you Ann,
I tried what you said. When I tried to quit plasma-desktop, it said:


<unknown program name>(4606)/: "Application plasma-desktop could not be found using service org.kde.plasma-desktop and path /MainApplication."



So I figured that ok It was prob not running. I did the renaming of plasma* to plasma*.sav

When I tried to start plasma-desktop, I get the following error:


QDBusObjectPath: invalid path ""
plasma-desktop(4693)/plasma PlasmaApp::PlasmaApp: Setting the pixmap cache size to 19959 kilobytes
Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
plasma-desktop(4693)/plasma SystemTray::DBusSystemTrayProtocol::registerWatcher: service appeared "org.kde.NotificationItemWatcher"
QLayout: Attempting to add QLayout "" to QWidget "", which already has a layout
QGraphicsLinearLayout::removeAt: invalid index 0
plasma-desktop(4693)/kdecore (services) KServiceFactory::findServiceByDesktopPath: "/home/norm/.kde/share/apps/RecentDocuments/Music.desktop" not found
plasma-desktop(4693)/kdecore (KLibrary) kde4Factory: The library "/usr/lib/kde4/solid_hal_power.so" does not offer a qt_plugin_instance function.
plasma-desktop(4693) Solid::Control::ManagerBasePrivate::loadBackend: Backend loaded: "HAL-Power"
Object::connect: No such slot TaskManager::GroupManager::reconnect()
plasma-desktop(4693)/plasma TaskItemLayout::updatePreferredSize: Empty layout!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
plasma-desktop(4693)/plasma TaskManager::GroupManager::reconnect:
plasma-desktop(4693)/plasma TaskManager::GroupManager::reconnect:
plasma-desktop(4693)/plasma TaskManager::GroupManager::reconnect:
KCrash: Application 'plasma-desktop' crashing...
sock_file=/home/norm/.kde/socket-bears/kdeinit4__0
plasma-desktop(4692): Communication problem with "plasma-desktop" , it probably crashed.
Error message was: "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown" : " "The name org.kde.plasma-desktop was not provided by any .service files" "



So it seems my problem is with this plasma-desktop not KDE. Any Ideas what I should do to fix this?

Thanks again.

I googled for "TaskItemLayout::updatePreferredSize: Empty layout!" and found a number of entries - every one being for kubuntu (again!!!!). The first one I read said:
************8
Use alt-F2 to get the runner, then open konsole, and type:
Code:

sudo apt-get install plasma-desktop

Once it completes, type
Code:

plasma-desktop

See if that restores your desktop.

If it does, you may need to install the kubuntu-desktop package. If when you reboot, there is no desktop, you may need to put plasma-desktop into your autostart list.
***********
See whether that helps, and let us know.

Wow Ann, you are amazing... from all that greek that I sent, you decided to google that particular line?

Well I did the plasma-desktop install and then ran plasma-desktop.... Got some error about not reaching some remote reply or something.

So I installed the kubuntu-desktop and again ran plasma-desktop .... still same error about no reply.

I decided that this was a good time to reboot.

Upon reboot .... magically my gui desktop was back.

Thank you so very much.

BTW how do you get Karma points. Do I give you the point? If so, how?

Hehe! Glad it all worked out for you. To give me karma - thanks for the thought - just click on the karma number on my avatar patch, I think.