KDE Problem

[Per]

I can't start KDE or any KDE applications any more. One event that preceded this problem and that may or may not be related is this: I installed the Marble Blast Gold Edition. I didn't like the game and couldn't exit it either. I resorted to the standard keys for exiting X ([CTRL][ALT][backSpace]). I tried to uninstall the program, but I couldn't find the uninstaller mentioned in the documentation. I removed the game with this command:

\rm -r /usr/local/games/MarbleBlastGoldDemo/ /usr/lib/menu/marbleblastgolddemo /usr/bin/marbleblastgolddemo

When I restarted KDE some applications could not be started including kontact, kicker and konqueror while others could be started including kmail, kcalc and kate. After a modification of ~/.kde/share/config/kickerrc i managed to start kicker. I then exited KDE and renamed ~/.kde to ~/.kde.old and restarted KDE. This time KDE didn't want to start and I have since then been unable to start KDE, even after restoring ~/.kde.

[Gowator]

try making a spare user and see if this user can start KDE....

 

if it cantyhen its a matter of copying incrementally from the old .kde until you find whats messing it up :D

 

If not then it will take a bit more work....

[Per]

This is weird. When I create a new user I can start KDE with that user, but I can't start KDE as my regular user even if I rename the .kde directory.

[scarecrow]

Go back to your previous user's directory, and delete things like .kderc , .fonts.cache , .dmrc and .fonts.conf

Edited August 23, 2005 by scarecrow

[Per]

Go back to your previous user's directory, and delete things like .kderc , .fonts.cache , .dmrc and .fonts.conf

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I removed those files, but unfortunately it didn't fix things. If I start X with 'xinit' and then try to start KDE with 'startkde' I get these messages:

xset:  bad font path element (#159), possible causes are:

    Directory does not exist or has wrong permissions

    Directory missing fonts.dir

    Incorrect font server address or syntax

I don't get these error messages with my other 'test'-user (where KDE works). Searching for these error messages on the internet resulted in little help.

[arctic]

Try solving the permissions issue first in case it has to do with it (who knows?). Type in a terminal as root:

 

chown -R username:username /home/username

[AussieJohn]

Move any important data you have in your account such as .mail to another partition. Then go into root and wipe your present account completely. Recreate the account and log into it.

Sure you will have to setup all your settings again but that will be far, far quicker than what you are trying to do now and ontop of that you clean out any corrupted files that might still exist from that bomb of a program.

 

Cheers. John.

[Per]

Don't know why, but now KDE is working again. I copied all .* files to a directory in another newly created account and then copied the files back (except for 1.3GB in the ~/.thumbnails/ directory).

[AussieJohn]

Just think about it. 1.3Gb in /.thumbnails !!!.

Your symptoms sound just like I experienced one time when I too discovered as much as 1.5Gb of thumbnails in ./thumbnails. It caused / to have no more free space. When I emptied out the thumbnail cache, things returned to fully normal again. Lucky for me I used the application called Filelight and it led me directly to the source of the problem. It would seem now that the Program you were using may not have been a problem after all.

You need to empty out this cache occasionally especially if you process a lot of graphics and photos, to ensure the problem does not reoccur.

 

Cheers. John.