KDE 3.4: multiple hangs at login
I'm running KDE 3.4.0-0pre2 from the Debian packages at alioth.debian.org.
I'm having a problem that when I customize some of KDE's settings, both in
the control center and in some applications, the next time I log in the
login will hang towards the end, somewhere during the "Loading panel"
phase. The mouse pointer still moves, but the desktop is locked up hard.
I have to switch to a different VT and kill a bunch of processes to get
that VT back.
When I installed KDE 3.4, I started fresh as I always do with a new release,
by moving aside my .kde directory and reconfiguring everything from
scratch. I import some files from .kde-old/share/apps
and .kde-old/share/config as needed. Unfortunately, as I customize things
more and more, at some point if I log out and then log back in again, the
login hangs.
There seem to be many settings that cause this behavior. I haven't been
able to isolate them all, but I have definitely isolated two:
(1) Turning off the annoying login music. In the Control Center this is
Sound -> System notifications -> KDE System Notifications -> KDE is
starting up. In .kde/share/config/knotify.eventsrc, turning off that sound
changes "1" to "0" in the section
[startkde]
commandline=
logfile=
presentation=1
soundfile=KDE_Startup_1.ogg
And indeed, I can now reliably turn the hang on and off (at least, with
respect to this setting) just by changing that presentation setting from 1
to 0 and back again. When I set presentation=0, login hangs. When
presentation=1, it doesn't.
(2) As soon as I configure a kwallet, login will hang every time. Even
removing .kde/share/config/kwalletrc and .kde/share/apps/kwallet doesn't
solve the problem; I have to delete .kde and restore it from backup.
I love my new 3.4 desktop, but this is turning into a real hassle. Every
time I change any setting at all, I have to stop my work, log out and log
in again, and see if the login hangs. If it does, I have to give up on
that setting, kill all my processes, and restore my old settings. If it
doesn't hang, then I have to make a new backup of .kde. And, besides that,
I can't use my kwallet. This is not good.
I've been looking around for other reports of this problem, but haven't seen
any. I haven't filed a bug report with KDE yet but will probably do so
soon.
Does anyone have any ideas about causes or workarounds for this problem?
Heard of the same problem anywhere else? KDE 3.4 is the most beautiful and
functional KDE yet. I'm already hooked on my beautiful transparent red
cursors. I don't want to go back to 3.3!
Thanks,
Andrew.
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