Desktop issues on 11.1

[enr23]

Background: SuSe 11.1, x86-64 architecture, 4 Gb RAM. Worked a treat until a few days ago when, after an update and reboot, the following symptoms started to occur:

1. Every time on new boot, log out & back in, or after a return from sleep mode, I get the kdesktop_lock process into overdrive (100% processor use) and have to kill it via command line.

2. OpenOffice, Mplayer, and a few other programs won't close, process usage skyrockets again it's a kill -9 PID job. Sometimes the whole desktop locks and I have to use the mechanical restart button.

3. Whenever I kill a desktop process, then kio_sysinfo starts to play up and hogs all the processor time. So I reach yet again for that root shell ... what a chore ...

4. Audio stops. I have to do a rcalsasound restart in order to hear anything.

Obviously something went wrong - maybe more than 1 thing. Does anyone have ideas as to what I can do?

[eTech97]

Background: SuSe 11.1, x86-64 architecture, 4 Gb RAM. Worked a treat until a few days ago when, after an update and reboot, the following symptoms started to occur:

1. Every time on new boot, log out & back in, or after a return from sleep mode, I get the kdesktop_lock process into overdrive (100% processor use) and have to kill it via command line.

2. OpenOffice, Mplayer, and a few other programs won't close, process usage skyrockets again it's a kill -9 PID job. Sometimes the whole desktop locks and I have to use the mechanical restart button.

1&2 Is Beagle installed? This is a resource hog and should be uninstalled or at least disabled. Another thing their may have been a kernel update, and if you had to compile your video driver the hard way, you will have to re-compile it; if you haven't it will cause your system to slow down completely especially if you desktop effects enabled!

3. Whenever I kill a desktop process, then kio_sysinfo starts to play up and hogs all the processor time. So I reach yet again for that root shell ... what a chore ...

4. Audio stops. I have to do a rcalsasound restart in order to hear anything.

Obviously something went wrong - maybe more than 1 thing. Does anyone have ideas as to what I can do?

The other thing that I suggest is renaming the hidden folder in your home directory called .kde4 to .kde4old then logging back in, this will replace all the kde4 settings with its defaults, if there were a lot of updates this can cause problems. NOTE: If this does not work you can always rename the old folder back and get all of your settings back again

Cheers!

[enr23]

Thanks eTech97,

No I uninstalled Beagle a long time ago

I have nvidia drivers from the official repositories which reinstall themselves after a kernel update. Very stable so far.

Additional info: I have KDE 3.5 not 4.x, and I do not have the compiz stuff enabled.

Though before I do something like you suggested I'd like to know if there are any less radical moves to try first. Does anyone understand what's happening? Why do I have those two errant processes?

Thanks

[eTech97]

I do not have any other ideas other than renaming your hidden .kde folder to .kdeold and seeing if that solves your problem.

Cheers!

[gogalthorp]

That sounds reasonable to rename the folder. You can also test be creating a new user log in as it and see the the new user also has the problem. This will tell if the problem is in the kde4 configuration or somewhere else.

[whych]

Since it's kde3, look for a file called .kde* and rename it.
I only have an 11.0 sytem with kde3, and all is fine so can't think of anything else.
I don't like kde4 and most other distros give gnome as default, so I now use gnome.
Like all changes, gnome is fine once you get to know it!