[Solved] Unable to start KDE

[mark9117]

Somehow I've managed to break something. I am no longer able to get kde to load for my primary user.

When I "startx" I immediately get an error from xauth stating that .serverauth.nnnn does not exist and the X server promptly fails. I'd show you a screenshot but I need a desktop to do that. I can log into a cli environment and everything seems okay, but when I issue "startx kde" I get a bare-bones windows manager (icewm?) that won't allow me to access MCC. I can get the ncurses MCC from the cli environment.

I added another user to the system and that account can get into kde just fine. I also had an error about .Xauthority missing and managed to copy a good one into my user's directory. That's when I started to see complaints about .serverauth.nnn not existing.

Google has not lead me to a solution. How do I troubleshoot this?

I appreciate any help.

Edit: I have checked permissions and ownership. They all look good in my user's directory tree. Just wanted to mention that.

Mark

[wintpe]

try moving the .kde4 directory to .kde4.old

this is located in your home directory.

Code: Select all

mv .kde4 .kde4.old


then go back to the login screen, and try again

regards peter

[mark9117]

try moving the .kde4 directory to .kde4.old

Yup, that was it. A 5-minute fix.

I figured it was something like this, but I can't remember the last time I had that particular flavor of trouble.

I do appreciate the time and attention.


Mark

[isadora]

Please Mark, don't forget to mark the topic [SOLVED].
You can do so, by editing the subject/title in the first message in this topic.
Write [SOLVED] to the left of subject/title, thanks ahead.

[jiml8]

You have now restored your KDE installation to its plain, vanilla, default state.

I back up .kde4 (along with everything else) nightly. When I have a problem starting KDE (and it happens from time to time), I just copy last night's backup of .kde4 back into place, and I wind up with a working installation again, while not losing my settings.

[mark9117]

Ironically, this is my backup server and I don't have backups for it. Need to get that on a to-do list.

Also, this box runs essentially headless administered over ssh, and I practically never need the GUI.

[jiml8]

Really? Then why have a gui even installed on it?

Generally, when I want to use a gui tool on a headless server (usually an editor like kate), I just mount the server's filesystem using sshfs and use the gui tools on my workstation. When managing the server, I pretty much don't want the gui tools anyway; they're too limiting and many of them make inappropriate assumptions about configuration. Network Manager, for instance, positively sucks in a server environment.

[doktor5000]

Hey, don't blame me man! I just installed this stuff.

I'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy when it comes to something in which I claim no high expertise. I installed Mageia as I usually do which happens to involve KDE. I do occasionally use KDE because it's easier and more familiar. I could probably get by with just a window manager rather than a full desktop environment, but again, I'm familiar with KDE. Given Mageia's very good gui tools, I think it's worthwhile. I am known to use those tools forwarded over ssh. Your mileage may vary.

I've never used netman - my gui fav is net_applet. But on my servers, I generally do what I do at the CLI over SSH. I do find net_applet handy on initial setup, especially with wireless connections. And yes, we've been around that tree as well. It's not worth the effort to get cable all the way back into that bedroom. But I appreciate the general reliability of cables versus wireless network connection.

And finally, I'm attempting to pull off something that turns out to be more complicated that I expected. I have to get the server running a media player that can play the audio from my file server and has an off-the-shelf remote control application that I can use to operate the media player from my iPad or phone. Just getting that implemented is essentially done, but making it reliable, efficient and just generally more elegant involves a bit of a learning curve.

There's a lot I don't know about running VLC as a service. But I enjoy learning to do this stuff, and if I fail it costs little more than my time and sanity. If I succeed, my life is a little richer. GUI or no GUI.

An to you and the other good folks in this community, thank you for your time and assistance.

[wintpe]

hey Mark

one things for sure, joining the linux camp, you will never run out of things to learn.

but a good starting point would be , get hold of a ebook or paperback of the

redhat7 RHCSA.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/RHCSA-Linux-Ce ... b_title_bk

while redhat is not exactly the same as mageia, its sooooo close under the hood that you wont really notice, and google or this place will fill the gaps.

Jim is right the CLI is your friend, and I think you have been playing with this stuff long enough to start down the CLI road, you life will be so much richer for it.

regards peter