I installed delft to HD along with a few other distros (and it is my favourite one currently), updating to kernel -14.

but one thing happens SOMETIMES that's intriguing me: sometimes when i logout or reboot or shutdown, it hangs on a black screen with only the mouse cursor working and doesn't go anywhere.

as an average linux user i haven't been able to figure out the cause for this.

this has never happened to MCN virtualcity, which i also installed.

I saw this once when 3D desktop was enabled.

Do you use the default Delft KDE version? Any special applets in the systray?
You could try in KDE Control center: KDE components --> Session manager -> check: Start with an empty session.
Logout and login again.
But I am not sure what the cause of the problem is.

thanks for your answer, chris!

3d desktop is not enabled. my video is onboard (sis, mobo asrock);

yes: default KDE, only cosmetic changes and lots of software added;

in systray: net applet, kmix, kwikdisk, knotes and firestarter;

"start with an empty session" is already checked;

any clue?

daltro borowski

When the hanging happens again. CTRL & ALT & F4, login as root and run the command: top
(with CTRL & c you can stop top)
Which processes are running. Firestarter? kwikdisk? Maybe something else?
You can halt the pc by typing: halt

Try this. Start kwrite in SU mode (run command: kdesu kwrite).
Open the file: /etc/kde/kdm/kdmrc

Search for the line:

#TerminateServer=true

(it is in the section: [X-:*-Core])

Edit the line so it reads:

TerminateServer=true

Save the file.

hi, chris,

there isn't a line like that in my kdmrc...

i have to add it, right?

Oops, sorry. I did not check in the original Delft.
Yes, just add it. Be sure to add it in the section: [X-:*-Core]

I am at work atm and can't look at it.

On MCNLive VirtualCity I had it enabled, I can remember. Maybe check there the kdmrc file.

yeah, i checked my VirtualCity install kdmrc and there is the liine.

thanks a lot!

Hi, again,

it is still happening: sometimes it still hangs on reboot, and "Ctrl+Alt+F4" doesn't work. just the black screen with only the mouse cursor working...

weird, isn't it?

Yes, pretty weird. And annoying because the system is not cleanly unmounted. Looks like the xserver can't be stopped.

You could try, the next days, to shutdown the PC not using the menu, but via a terminal command:

hey, chris, how are things!

i've been using a toronto installation now, and that same annoying logout problem persists.

but i think i found what application is not finishing properly and preventing the x-server to terminate: the villain seems to be wine.

Fine here, thanks.

How do you start a windows program with wine? And how do you close it?

... I don't know anything about wine stuff ...

i can just click the .exe file to start wine, but because use wine to run just two dictionaries i need, i created menu entries whose command is wine "location of the .exe file" .

to finish it, i always use the windows program gui itself.

i went to http://www.winehq.org/ in order to maybe find something about it, and it does seem that killing wine processes is a pain in the arse, indeed...

they suggest a few commands:


i haven't tried those yet. if they work, would there be a way to put a script somewhere to automate that?

...and i've just found OpenOffice also causes a logout/reboot/shutdown hang.

Not clear what you mean by "not cleanly unmounted" The system itself is not on any disk. If you have other partitions from real disks mounted you could just unmount them all. and then just switch off the machine. There is nothing that can be harmed is there?
Eg, on the default
for i in /mnt/*
do
umount $i
done
should do it. Then just switch off.