Not sure how to approach this; using Lucid on a Gigabyte GA K8NSpro, AMD Athlon 64 3000+, + other stuff.

Use dialup to get online and had been having trouble with Akonadi randomly crashing on closing out applications or exiting, and a week ago thought to get cleaner performance by adding the kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu lucid main source.

After I did this, couldn't use KPPP, no KMail, Firefox wouldn't open, etc. Bug 593305 prompted installing libkontactinterface4 and libakonadi-contact4, which then made dialup, Kontact and other Akonadi-correlated stuff work, though with some odd kicks to KPPP's gallop, possibly just change in interface.

I started noticing this odd hanging behaviour and finally saw that it is due to right-clicking any open application in the system tray. Some limited response after a bit--but everything is subject to errors and further hangs, until I reboot.

Haven't tried stopping and starting Akonadi (it is autostarted: akonadictl start) but if I check after booting, 'akonadictl status', it reports: 'stopped'.

Any suggestions, anyone?

Thanks for any help!

If you create a new user, does it occur there? If so, please ensure that all packages contained under the "kubuntu-desktop" metapackage are installed, and that all packages are up to date.

From your other posts, I had thought you might suggest a new user, and I did try that, but initially gave it up when the system hung on my attempt to start that. At that point I enabled Ctrl-Alt-Bksp as an easy method to deal with restarting. When I tried again, I was indeed able to set up a new user, which actually seemed to work quite well, apps seeming to work just fine, up until the point when I tried to configure KPPP to dial out to my ISP. At this point the OS started working much as it had with the old user.

So, perhaps it is KPPP, But I've started noticing that problem is much more involved than just right-click on the system tray. Under the conditions (minimized app) that produce the problem with right-click, left-click often produces the same results, and impossibly slow response is the result.

But I have now seen that stopping the X-server and restarting doesn't necessarily fix the problems. In fact, things often seem to need a reboot to clear the problem. Right now, the old user is working better than the new one, not because it has improved but the new one is quite a bit worse!??

I will try a couple of other things, substituting some pre-ppa-upgrade files where I have them, e.g. KPPP which was one of the upgraded parts, as I recall. I should mention that this was all from a complete upgrade that was presented from the ppa-backports, as I mentioned earlier, so I don't know what I could have left out, though I could have disabled Bluetooth, or Chat earlier, don't recall. Do not use Nepomuk or Strigi, though I had found it necessary to enable them last spring to get Akonadi to work.

I have noticed some other minor strange things--more later, but somehow the new user adopted the image I had been using for my splash screen, which wouldn't work (reverted to the default ethais) during the part subsequent to login (kdm, I think) and then had displayed my desktop image when the system was up. On the new user, it just uses the first image for all phases, including desktop, and this is something I fail to understand, but there are others as well--the desktop folder ghost image stopped working on the new user, while the old one still works. Go figure.

Ready to throw it out into the street, except I don't think I can send it high enough to really make it smash entirely. Besides, too stubborn.

Thanks again for your help. I'll post back when I have anything more sensible to report.

This is highly unusual behaviour, especially with information being carried over between users...

Did the usernames of the two users, and their specified home directories differ? Also, try removing /tmp/kde-*, /tmp/ksocket-* and /var/tmp/kdecache-*

I have been trying this several different ways. Removed the 'new' user, and created a newer one. Much the same thing occurred, but this time I noticed some other things--First, the problem occurs with either right or left click, just more readily with right. Might get away with 3-4 left clicks before it happens, and what seems to be the case is that the application just gets non-responsive--no error message. Second, I can run all day with everything just as it was, so long as I never click on anything in the tray. Third, icons placed by apps, e.g., the one placed by KPPP, say, or KMail, don't cause any problem.

Something I hadn't noticed is that, in the process of the ppa-backports installation, an application was installed which I had never installed, and which, when I tried it (ExpoBlending) informed me that I needed to install some more packages for it to work. It did, once I had installed those. But there is no question that I had not previously installed this. The only things that didn't appear on the new user menu were WINE applications (Windows programs), obviously since the .wine folder was not available. However, I discovered that Dolphin would willingly display the original home folder, and indeed, copy files from it. This was not a kdesu-enabled Dolphin, either, nor did it ask permission.

Contrary to my expectations, KPPP doesn't seem to cause problems in this way. If I restart the X-server and log in again, things seem to run pretty much OK except if KPPP had been running with the modem connected, it comes up complaining that it is disconnected, when in fact it isn't and may be used to pull things off the internet. It is all very odd. I haven't tried deleting the complete tmp/kde folder, though I did delete some of the files, which seemed to have no obvious effect. I will try that tomorrow.

Thanks again for your help!

Sorry, was using a small window, forgot to answer two of your questions--names were distinctly different, and that points up another oddity--this is a home machine, and I have used a four character password, which the installation program has always complained about, but accepted. On the old user, this is still operable, but on the new user PAM refused to accept anything less than 7 characters, though it didn't specify that. Home is a separate partition, and all of the new user stuff is separate from the old user. Today, I copied some files from the old user to the new (graphics) but that is the only cross-contamination possible from me. It's all different for me, but then I was just assuming that a lot had changed for KDE 4.5.3.

Again, thanks for your time and trouble on this.

The issue with left or right clicks like means that an application is hanging, causing Plasma to hang whilst awaiting the D-Bus reply.

Does this happen with applications such as KMix, Amarok or Kopete (the freezing)? Also, try testing with Akregator.

The ability to access the other users files is slightly concerning, but may be permitted, and assuming the output of "whoami" is different under each new user, there should be no problem with this.

I never use Amarok or Kopete, so I can't say at the moment. I have used Akregator, but rarely and not recently, so I can't say there. Many of these things aren't practical with a dial-up connection that manages 52K at best, even were I inclined towards their use.

So far though, everything I've tried, browsers, graphics programs, editors, etc., follow the same pattern--so long as I don't minimize them to the system tray and merely change focus on the desktop, I can keep several applications going with no problem.

At any point I need to resort to clicking on one in the tray, things may not freeze the first time (though they usually will) but eventually, say the 2nd or 3rd time, everything comes to a stop. Even the applications (Firefox, Dolphin, whatever) open on the desktop will then not respond except, occasionally and very belatedly to the close 'X' button.

My immediate check on this is to raise the KMenu, which will raise to the favorites panel but not to anything else (so normal shutdown is not possible).

This is why I have had recourse to Ctl-Alt-Bksp to restart the X-server. As I detailed last, this doesn't always work properly. The soft-power-off button always does, however, so ACPI is working just fine.

I will try KMix and post back, and Akregator as well. I should mention that on the new user, I have placed no apps in the panel, and have been doing everything from the KMenu, save shutting down KPPP for which one needs the icon it places in the notification area which seems to work just fine. Otherwise, there is no difference between new and old user in this, either in usage or in result.

On the old user, activating Firefox from the panel seems to cause no problems. On the new user, while testing things out, I downloaded three extensions for FF that I usually use, NoScript, AdBlock, and UnMHT, and towards the end of the process, FF "appeared" to hang, much as it does in the system tray click situation, but this was different, as I was able to bring up Ksysguard and found that FF was waiting for a response which had apparently been obscured--using Ksysguard to bring it to focus resolved that, but I can't see any immediate pertinence. My main point is that I have tried 'normal' applications, both KDE and others such as FF, and they all seem to do much the same thing on both users, suggesting the problem has to do with Plasma communication with Dbus, or similar.

I can't help wondering if it is implicit in the use of dialup since so few people use this anymore, and it tends to produce a borked Network Manager configuration--something I've had to wrestle with on nearly every installation since Hardy. I recall it being especially bad the time I tried the Ubuntu (GDE) Karmic. Caused me to go back to KDE for Karmic, which had some difficulties that way also.

Did the appearance of a previously unsolicited application (ExpoBlending), dysfunctional at that, after the ppa-backports installation seem unusual to you, or is that something that occasionally happens?

Once more, thank you for your patience and for any insight you can provide.

Did as you requested--tried Akregator and KMix--same behaviour on both users, consistent with all the other things.

One additional thing I have noticed is that when clicking on the close "X" button, a dialog box occasionally appears, telling me that the application will not close if I click on that but will instead be minimized to the tray, and that I should use 'Quit' from the file menu, immediately after which it disappears and the application does close and doesn't appear in the tray. When it does this, though, the KMenu will not operate properly, and it isn't possible to get past the 'Favorites' menu. If one tries this enough, eventually it will not close in such a case.

The point in this is that if there is any application that is hanging, other than Plasma and the one upon which one clicks, it must be some system operation, since nothing has been called up by me. When something has previously been called up, this all occurs much more readily.

One further question: as I mentioned earlier, the PAM login module seems to insist upon passwords longer than 4 characters, perhaps longer than 7, though this has not been true in the past, and it doesn't insist upon it in the old user. Is this generally an absolute now, or is there some adjustment I may use to cause acceptance of less secure passwords?

Thank you again!

I believe you can adjust the password requirements, through adjusting files in /etc/pam.d/. However, if changes to these files are made incorrectly, you may render yourself unable to login, change your password, etc.

This freezing is extremely unusual, and I have never experienced it. Can you please try attaching gdb to Plasma once it has frozen and generating a backtrace? Debugging packages will need to be installed for this.

Code: Select all

gdb --attach $(pidof plasma-desktop)

Once you have a gdb prompt, run "thread apply bt full" to generate a backtrace. Note that once you run gdb, Plasma will be hung completely until you exit gdb. Once you have the backtrace, enter "quit" to exit gdb. Then post the full generated backtrace here.

OK. I just did a quick dry run with gdb on Plasma and see that I will have a very large number of libraries for which to download debug versions, and since this will all be via dial up at ~50K, it will take some time. I will get back to you when I have made some headway.

I must confess to a certain slowness, here. As I said previously, I tried a dry run, by which I meant just using gdb on plasma to find what debug packages I might need. I found a daunting number, but it seemed possible that a smaller number might be needed depending upon where the problem occurred, so I tried the process of inducing the hang, having first opened a terminal window. Of course, since this characterizes the problem, it was hung also, and I have no recourse but to restart. I must admit to having thought of this initially, but thought perhaps it might be possible to get it to work if I waited long enough. It seems that the hang is pretty solid, and I cannot bring focus back to anything, no matter the wait. I don't have another machine capable of connection to this one to work remotely. Have you any advice?

Thank you.

Did you try using Alt+Tab to change window? For debug packages, Qt and kdelibs should be a good start.

Alt+Tab flips things about, can make the window of any application which had greyed out (typical behaviour in this problem) appear again, but doesn't bring up focus except for the close "X" button. That is, I can close a window down, but do nothing else--no keyboard communication with anything except Ctl-Alt-Del (sometimes) and Ctl-Alt-Bksp (always). Alt+Tab principally makes the screen look better, but doesn't help anything else.

Have you tried ctrl+esc and click on the desktop? Can you give us a complete list of system tray applets you have?