Very Computer

I just installed KDE 2.2.2 and when I start it up the KPanel does not
appear. When I attempt to start it manually by using Run Command it
appears for a quick second then disappears. When I log in as a user other
than root, I have no problem and KPanel appears like expected. What
the hell is going on? I imagine error messages are written to the
console, but how do I see them? When I quit KDE, any such messages
would appear to have scrolled off the top while KDE displays its
usual shutdown messages. I'm sort of a KDE, Linux newbie.

Thanks

--
Crazy Cat
------------
I didn't really say everything I said
                                - Yogi Berra

Have installed _all_ necessary KDE 2.2.2 packages? Maybe you forgot
something.

Arne

--
When the speaker and he to whom he is speaks do not understand, that is
metaphysics.
                -- Voltaire

[--- PGP key available on http://www.root42.de/ ---]

As I wrote before, the KPanel appears when I log in as someone other
than root, hence I hardly think this has anything to do with missing
packages. I've installed all the necessary packages as per the instructions
listed on the site were I got the distribution (www.slackware.com).

--
Crazy Cat
------------
I didn't really say everything I said
                                - Yogi Berra

On Wednesday 20 March 2002 10:35 pm, in message:

thuslike fashion:
[..]

Quote:> As I wrote before, the KPanel appears when I log in as someone other
> than root, hence I hardly think this has anything to do with missing
> packages. I've installed all the necessary packages as per the
> instructions listed on the site were I got the distribution
> (www.slackware.com).

The KDE panel can sometimes play hide and seek if anti-aliasing was enabled
for a particular user.

I'm a bit out of practise with KDE (I'm straying from Gnomehide whilst
playing with alternate distro's ;o)) but IIRC, you need to edit
/home/username/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals and change the line:
AntiAliasing=true to: AntiAliasing=false

In your case, it might be totally unrelated to the anti-alias setting, but
it seems like a possibility if other user accounts can run KDE fine *with*
the panel.

Good luck. :-)
--
leej (at) cafe-society.com

1) Do not run KDE as root. It is _very_ easy to mess things up (eg.
incidentally drag&droping files) You generally don't need root priviledges
for your work. For system administration, use su or kdesu commands to gain
root priviledges.

2) Try running konsole and then running kicker (if that is what you mean by
KPanel). You will be able to see all of its debugging output.

3) Panel just disappears or it says it crashed?

4) You may want to remove all *DCOP* *mcop* and other files like these in
your home dir and/or temp dir. Also try deleting
/root/.kde/share/config/kickerrc (path may vary depending on your
distribution).

5) Take 1) seriously. root user is for administration - not for everyday
work. Create and use an unpriviledged user.

Hope this helps,
Lada

--
Ladislav Strojil
MFF, Charles University in Prague

Worked like a charm! Thanks!

--
Crazy Cat
------------
I didn't really say everything I said
                                - Yogi Berra

Turns out my problem was the anti-aliasing as suggested by lee in an
earlier post, but your comments have convinced me to not run KDE as root.
Thanks!

--
Crazy Cat
------------
I didn't really say everything I said
                                - Yogi Berra

Try deleting the affected user's $HOME/.kde directory.

This seems like too much of a sacrifice. I would not let AA go so easily.
But you might want to wait for KDE3.0 which is coming shortly (to your
desktop - as Konqui says).

Cheers,
Lada

--
Ladislav Strojil
MFF, Charles University in Prague

On Thursday 21 March 2002 9:42 am, in message:

fashion:
[..]

Quote:>> Worked like a charm! Thanks!

> This seems like too much of a sacrifice. I would not let AA go so easily.
> But you might want to wait for KDE3.0 which is coming shortly (to your
> desktop - as Konqui says).

But if the alternative is to have no panel, with no menu, no pager, no
taskbar, no Klipper, no time, no date, etc., then KDE is well and truly
broken.  It's like saying, "well the door has fallen off your fridge, but
it's best to let your food go bad and suffer food poisoning in the meantime
because Hotpoint have a much better model coming along soon!" ;o)

For the time being, it's best to turn off the anti-aliased fonts and have a
usable desktop environment than leave them on and not have one at all.  
It's also arguable that fonts are sharper and less 'smudged' if you turn
*off* anti-aliasing in KDE.  The anti-aliasing is hardly of Mac - or even
Windows quality - come to think of it.

Also - I test drove the beta of KDE3 - on Red Hat Rawhide - last week and
this was still an issue.  Either a panel, or anti-aliased fonts.  You
couldn't have both (I have no doubt that it works fine on many setups, just
as it doesn't on others).

Once the panel is restored, you can then hunt down the bug that is causing
this problem.  I find that choosing different fonts sometimes fixes it -
although sadly - they're never the more generic/familiar ones.  

Incidentally, one of the reasons I've not used KDE for the best part of a
year is because of this problem (seemingly related to RH7.1 then 7.2).  I
installed MDK8.2 on this box yesterday and anti-aliasing works fine - with
the panel intact (!) - yet it's the same KDE version as the one I was using
on RH7.2.  The bug seems to occur if you're using XFree86 4.0x up to 4.10,
KDE2 or 3, with certain graphics cards (all ATI Rage 128 based cards *and*
Radeons on my local network).
--
leej (at) cafe-society.com

:-))) That was no my point, you got me wrong.
The alternative is not to let panel go, the alternative is to look further
into the problem.
What I wanted to say is that sacrifying AA is too much. I would rather go
into determining why kicker crashes, if it can be overcome by changing
XFree version, by modifying startkde script (LD_BIND_NOW hacks and the
likes), by forcing kicker not too use AA but letting other apps use it and
so on.
But this is a lot of work. So I suggested that instead of going through all
this he can live without AA and wait for KDE3.0.

Quote:> For the time being, it's best to turn off the anti-aliased fonts and have
> a usable desktop environment than leave them on and not have one at all.
> It's also arguable that fonts are sharper and less 'smudged' if you turn
> *off* anti-aliasing in KDE.  The anti-aliasing is hardly of Mac - or even
> Windows quality - come to think of it.

No, I have never seem fonts look so good on Windows box as they look here
with KDE. With sub-hinting font are quite sharp and much more readable than

back. I had to live without AA for few days when KDE3.0 was a bit broken.
Grrrr. Ugly. Also, using mozilla or netscape is PIA because the fonts are
so damn ugly.

Quote:> Also - I test drove the beta of KDE3 - on Red Hat Rawhide - last week and
> this was still an issue.  Either a panel, or anti-aliased fonts.  You
> couldn't have both (I have no doubt that it works fine on many setups,
> just as it doesn't on others).

KDE3.0 has come a long way since beta. It is now rc3 and nearing final
release.
Also, this problem could be solved (IIRC) by removing LD_BIND_NOW=true from
startkde script.

Cheers,
Lada
--
Ladislav Strojil
MFF, Charles University in Prague

On Thursday 21 March 2002 11:25 am, in message:

fashion:

[..]

Quote:> :-))) That was no my point, you got me wrong.

OK. :-))

[..]

Hmm, I'm on the same resolution on the same size screen.  I'll experiment
further. :-)

Quote:> For me there is no way
> going back.

..well that (Windows) has never been an option.  Historically I've lived
with Enlightenment and Gnome and I just take a look at KDE from time to
time (as in now).

Quote:> I had to live without AA for few days when KDE3.0 was a bit
> broken. Grrrr. Ugly. Also, using mozilla or netscape is PIA because the
> fonts are so damn ugly.

You can use GDKXFT for anti-aliased Mozilla fonts.  You don't need to rely
on KDE for it.

[..]

Quote:> KDE3.0 has come a long way since beta. It is now rc3 and nearing final
> release.

Well...that's what I was referring to actually.  It was last week that I
downloaded and compiled the latest (CVS) build.  I presumed it was a beta,
not an RC.

Quote:> Also, this problem could be solved (IIRC) by removing LD_BIND_NOW=true
> from startkde script.

I'll take a look. :-)
--
leej (at) cafe-society.com