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Saturday, May 2, 2009

KDE 4.2.2 still has a few problems

I went through the first week or so without encountering any major issues with KDE 4.2.2 at all, but once I started using more than just Email and a Web browser, I started running into issues. I used Dolphin, the new file manager, to locate a Word 2007 document that someone had sent me and I opened it. Open Office 3.0.1 got about halfway through initialization, then froze the entire desktop. At first, I could not tell what was responsible for the issue, so I tried it again. I should note that when I say froze the entire desktop, in the past, I could issue a Ctrl-Alt-F1 ... F4 and start a non graphical interface. I was locked from doing that; no key sequences at all responded; holding the power button for five seconds is the only thing that worked.

Did it again, was able to open a few files, but coming back to the same file on the third or fourth try blew me right out of the desktop - but that's better, at least I did not have to reboot. Once I saw that, I blame Plasma for the issue, but also Open Office for erratic behavior. However, running with fvwm-crystal, I saw no symptoms of an issue with Open Office, despite opening several files repeatedly, therefore I believe this to actually be a KDE 4.2.2 and more specifically a Plasma issue. Have to follow up to verify this, then issue a bug report so that this can get fixed.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Which distribution are you using ?
Please be aware that latest Ubuntu release have stability issues with Intel graphics drivers as they use 2.6.28 kernel.
http://www.h-online.com/open/Ubuntu-9-04-and-Intel-graphics--/features/113196you may want to give a try to Mandriva 2009 Spring which use kernel 2.6.29 kernel and do also provide KDE 4.2.2 :
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/2009.1_Tourhttp://wiki.mandriva.com/en/2009.1_Notes

Brian Masinick said...

After doing a few more updates, the issues reported earlier seem to be taking care of themselves, and in any case, none of them are show stoppers.

Better news is that it looks like the KDE project has not only been aware of the issues, they have been hard at work at fixing them. KDE 4.2.3 was released today, May 6, 2009, and KDE 4.3 is on the not-too-distant horizon, though it does look like there will be a KDE 4.2.4 before KDE 4.3 is released.

Ye Olde Dood said...

I never seem to remember this stuff when I need it most. Some day, I might print some notes!

Hold down the Alt and SysRq (Print Screen) keys, type each key in order WITHOUT letting go of the Alt and SysReq keys. Give each command time to execute.

R-E-I-S-U-B. ('Busier', spelled backwards)


R gives back control of the keyboard
E sends all processes but init the term singal
I sends all processes but init the kill signal
S issues a sync
U mounts all filesystem ro to prevent a fsck at reboot
B reboots the system

=====
From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key

unRaw (take control of keyboard back from X),

tErminate (send SIGTERM to all processes, allowing them to terminate gracefully),

kIll (send SIGKILL to all processes, forcing them to terminate immediately),

Sync (flush data to disk),

Unmount (remount all filesystems read-only),

reBoot.

--mmmmna