I am running a fully updated openSUSE 11.3 distribution on an hp mini 5101. The mini has an integrated intel graphics processor. It is nothing to rave about, but it would be nice to take advantage of its limited capabilities. It would be even nicer to be able to login after upgrading to kde 4.6.

The kdm login screen appears as usual on boot after the upgrade. Entry of username and password just takes one back to the kdm login screen rather than the desktop. Looks like something is crashing. Rebooting with "nomodeset" allows one to login only to face a dog's breakfast of pixels. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution except for an OS reinstall or to delve into a litany of confusing text files with vim.

This problem has something to do with kde, xorg, and the intel driver. Martin Graeslin's blog, <<http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2010/09/demystifying-opengl-desktop-effects/>> from the September 2010 timeframe is one source of information. After several months, there is still no clear description of what needs to be done by users to fix the problem or if a solution actually exists. I would also point out that this problem that has existed now for two major kde upgrade cycles.

The intel graphics hardware is so ubiquitous that the problem really ought to be addressed head on. A response from a knowledgeble person would be much appreciated. Many users are not in a position to apply patches and compile kernels and drivers. They do not have time to flip from distro to distro looking for something that works. Some simple guidance on which distros/drivers do and do not work would be great; a table listing kde 4.5/6 status per OS and graphics card would fill the gap. Right now, the easier solution is to just buy a mac or install W7 and quit wasting time.

Please try running the following command, in a virtual terminal prior to logging into KDE.

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kwriteconfig --file kwinrc --group Compositing --key Enabled false

If this doesn't fix the issue, can you please pastebin the content of ~/.xsession-errors and /var/log/Xorg.0.log after trying to log in? You can use paste.kde.org for this.

bcooksley wrote:Please try running the following command, in a virtual terminal prior to logging into KDE.

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kwriteconfig --file kwinrc --group Compositing --key Enabled false

If this doesn't fix the issue, can you please pastebin the content of ~/.xsession-errors and /var/log/Xorg.0.log after trying to log in? You can use paste.kde.org for this.

Gave it a try. It doesn't work.

What is it that kde has messed up? Versions before 4.5 worked just fine one this very same hardware. Why doesn't kde support a simple vga or vesa mode so that a user at least has a gui.

I'm not sure how to use pastebin, should I just paste the text of those two files into a reply?

Pastebin's can be used by navigating to their site, then pasting your text into the field provided. Then press submit, and copy the url it generates to your text from the address bar, and post that link here.

Given that disabling compositing hasn't helped, I doubt it is anything graphics related. Does it work under a new user?

Creating a new user does not correct the problem.

I found comments while searching about this problem that editing the kwinrc file and manually changing Compositing from true to false allows login to finally reach a desktop. Progress. The system is pretty sluggish compared to 4.4.

This feels a lot like hacking modelines back in 1992 to make slackware work on S3 hardware. Note to KDE developers, forcing users to dust off their vi skills will not win any friends.

Back to my original point, why is this happening on such ubiquitous and now mature hardware given that intel even released the specs? What distributions and/or combinations of kde 4.5/6 work with which driver versions, kernels, and Xorg? I see lots of similar reports in verious forums with the same request, file a bug report. There should be a simple table states compatibility. If it is embarassing to the devs of the kernel, xorg, and kde, some of these issues might actually get fixed properly.

It may be ubiquitous, but the Intel developers have done a pretty bad job with their driver, starting with the KMS rewrite that caused massive performance regressions. And on recent kernels (2.6.38rc3) I sometimes get the GPU to hang all of a sudden. I would rather blame the lower stack, rather than KDE.

The situation is a real hash.

-There is no way to know in advance which versions of the kernel, drivers, xorg, and kde play nicely together.

-It is not clear where the problem lies.

-The developers do not seem to care about the big picture. They seem to talk to one another on the basis of individual bug reports.

-There is no way to tell if the problem will be corrected in the future.

This does not inspire confidence that kde will ever work correctly.

Bummer....

Note that KDE developers and users use a varied range of hardware, which includes Ati and Nvidia hardware, with varying versions of software, so the experiences of them vary. For instance, Desktop Effects work perfectly fine here on my Intel system, whilst they don't on yours.