Screensaver slideshow froze KDE, hard reboot required

[isaiah36]

This is more of a report than a support request. I stepped away from the computer for a short while earlier. When I got back the slideshow screensaver was frozen on an image. Mouse and kb were dead. Ctrl+Alt+Backspace did nothing. So I did a hard reset from the power button. This is a first for me, I don't recall ever having a Windows style freeze up. I remember back in the days when Nvidia and ATI support was still kinda experimental I had to kill the X server and restart KDE/Gnome sometimes, but only when tinkering with drivers and such. Never on a stable system.

I have noticed KDE4 is becoming kinda Windows-ish in some respects. It is kinda bloaty and slow to respond sometimes. Even the little system monitor applet needs reboot sometimes! This whole Plasma business is looking kinda dubious. The Amarok player has become total crap now. That Akonadi thing didn't work out of the box. Looks smooth out of the gate but as you start to use it starts to feel more like beta ware.

I used to like Gnome but it appears to have gone in a tablet direction. If I could have a proper desktop Gnome again I would go for it.

[doktor5000]

So what's your actual problem? Do you want to unbloat or speed up plasma, get a replacement for amarok, fix akonadi, prevent the little monitor applet from requiring a reboot, or get any pointers on the slideshow screensaver?

[isaiah36]

LOL "This is more of a report than a support request."

I don't expect these are things that can be fixed in the forum, but rather considerations for the development team of version 6. If you have any suggestions to prevent a future Plasma freeze that would be greatly appreciated. Akonadi is working now, there are alternatives to Amarok, the Ksysguard kinky behavior is a minor annoyance. Desktop freeze up -- big problem! I don't expect Linux to do that -- ever!

[isaiah36]

Here is another example -- I was renaming a folder in Dolphin, so on right click KDE did a sudden lightning flash type thing, whiting out the desktop and redrawing it, before presenting the context menu. Even I was startled a bit, so imagine a newbie user the first time that happens. It might scare the daylights out of him - "oh shit! I must'a done something wrong", that's how newbies think

[isaiah36]

Here is another one -- I just launched Kmail for the first time, because I want to read my localhost mail in a GUI, instead of the terminal. It configured my domain email correctly, but it does not show the Inbox. If I select the Inbox in the left column, the welcome page keeps showing in the right panel! Then I tried to configure my local mail in the account wizard, and it did add an item in the left column called 'local-mail' but clicking on it does nothing, shows nothing in the right panel. File another one under 'Crap', KDE

[isaiah36]

Thunderbird does the job with no fuss, although it is not supplied with the default packaging.

screenshot_linux_thunderbird-localhost.jpg (139.47 KiB) Viewed 4722 times

[doktor5000]

Sorry, I don't get your points. Reporting random crashes or arbitrary issues you encountered and expecting the developers to magically fix those - are you kidding?
As you don't even provide any substantial details like used graphics card and driver, and any clear steps to reproduce those issues reliably, this pretty much just a waste of time IMHO.

FWIW, I'm using KDE since nearly ten years now, and it never froze hard for me. plasma may have crashed, but it always restartet itself when it did. This was the same on several distros.
If there were hard freezes, those were usually related to hardware issues, like ACPI problems, bad wireless vendor drivers being used via ndiswrapper/driverloader etc.

If you want to complain further about KDE, please do so upstream: https://forum.kde.org/
Good luck with that.

[isaiah36]

No, not "magically". Nothing in human affairs is perfect. I appreciate Mageia 5, especially considering the price! I don't expect it to be perfect. I run Linux for a tough file system, reliable networking and generally greater speed and stability than Windows. That is plenty of value. Switching to Linux from Windows used to feel like I had switched to a machine that was twice as fast, but now it feels like I switched to a modestly faster machine. KDE4 and the package of default apps is sub standard IMHO but it is adequate, not a deal breaker. I am sure there are plenty of users who love it! (I have had a Plasma restart also, very much like an Explorer restart.)

Thinkpad hardware is usually decent quality, but maybe there are issues buried in there. Anyway, I am done ranting about KDE. I apologize for distracting attention from user support. Feel free to delete this topic, I won't mind.

Thanks for the reply, and have a great day!

[isaiah36]

I am going to download the Gnome edition live DVD and give it a spin.

[doktor5000]

KDE4 and the package of default apps is sub standard IMHO but it is adequate, not a deal breaker.

Sub standard? Compared to what standard, exactly? FWIW for most users the Mageia KDE implementation is often recognised as the best KDE default implementation.
As you don't provide any constructive criticism or details to make it better, I consider this trolling.

And no, topics are not deleted here.

[isaiah36]

It is very unfortunate you are taking it that way. I have provided specific problems with Akonadi, which we then resolved. Amarok hangs while importing media library, repeatedly. Kmail failed to configure my localhost mail, although Thunderbird did it smoothly. Ksysguard stops updating sometimes. I wish I had unlimited time to search logs and post bug reports for every issue, but I don't. I have already worked around the music player and the email client so I don't intend to take up time from community support over problems that are already worked around.

I have never intended to be anything other than a constructive member of the community, so it is very disappointing to be characterized as "troll". You have been very helpful to me, and I am grateful, but you are dead wrong about this. Even if the distribution is known for the best KDE integration it does not disqualify my real life experience. My experience may be an anomaly, but it is nonetheless real. Reporting it does not make me a "troll" especially when I said it is an "humble opinion". I have enough experience with Linux to evaluate my own experiences comparatively.

Like I said before, feel free to delete this thread, if that's how you feel.

[isaiah36]

"compared to what standard?" -- Mandriva with KDE 3.xx, I used to be in love with Amarok, and I have used Kmail before but not for long.

[doktor5000]

How are specific configuration problems on your system the same as "KDE4 and the package of default apps is sub standard" ? Again, compared to what standard?

[isaiah36]

I installed the default KDE version without any special configurations at all. The hardware is a Thinkpad, one of the most loved brands, known for reliability. I have mentioned 4 examples of the 6 KDE packaged apps I happen to have tried, the other 2 being Ksnapshot and Kolourpaint. If all 4 experiences are anomalies specific to my system, then fine, so be it. It is not worth arguing over, really, because I can't prove it one way or the other.

[isaiah36]

Notice I did not mention Windows or Mac as comparative standards, only Mandriva which is the fairest comparison of all, and one that I have the most experience of.

[isaiah36]

I am installing the Mate desktop. Do I have to do anything special to add the Mate desktop to the login options? TIA

[doktor5000]

As a general hint and golden rule: Please only one problem per thread.
For mate it should be sufficient to install task-mate, explained e.g. via https://wiki.mageia.org/en/MATE_Desktop

[isaiah36]

Got it. In my mind I'm solving the same problem, but I get your point. I installed 137 packages with the word mate in it, so I should be good to go.

[isaiah36]

The 'Desktop Pager' applet in the Panel has stopped showing application icons. It shows empty window frames, and a whitewashed window frame for the active window.

[isaiah36]

While I was napping Open GL screensaver (Pipes) froze, on the MATE desktop. After hard reboot I deduced the system was not running processes because my cron jobs were not executed. I have turned off the screensavers totally now.

(At least we know now that Plasma is not to blame.)