Some flaky things in Daryna KDE CE?

[arjay]

I have been using LM 4 kde ce for a few days and am well pleased with the experience - I like the innovations that Mint has developed to distinguish itself from other good distros. But there are a couple of things that worry me:

1. I have had 2-3 software crashes where the KDE crash handler has come up with SIGSEGV faults. Can't remember them all and anyway they are not repeatable. One I do remember, was when I wanted to reduce the font-size of the plain clock in the panel (I have the panel on the left and need smaller clock numerals). I got as far as the font dialogue box, selected the font size I wanted and pressed return. BOOM, up came the crash handler. I haven't been able to reproduce it. Just a glitch maybe?

2. The desktop device icons only come on intermittently when i reboot. I have turned on "Show Device Icons" in the KDE systems setting menu. However, mostly they don't come up on boot. I have to click on System Menu, then Storage Media, then double click on one of the internal HDD partitions, or mount my external HDD. Then all the icons appear on the desktop. I want to be able to just click on a Volume icon on the desktop - not have to go through multiple mouse clicks etc just to get to my files. Again this appears to be intermittent.

3. About 50% of the time the PC fails to shut down when I choose Log Out and Shut Down. Although it will always Reboot if I ask it to. I have tried a couple of suggestions like putting acpi=off in menu list without any success. I have checked what might be open at shut down but that doesn't seem to make any difference. I have an external HDD but this is shown as unmounted when I request a Shut Down. Sometimes I forget to close an app like Firefox and I always have Skype open and connected when I shut down but closing these first doesn't seem to improve things. Again, this is intermittent and I can't replicate the situation.

Otherwise all looks good, but it is a bit worrying - at the back of one's mind is always the question "If X happens then when might Y happen?"

Anyone else have similar experiences?

[phubai]

Daryna KDE has been exceptionally stable for me. I haven't had any of the problems you mention, although, I haven't tried to display the devices on my desktop as you wish to do.

The other two problems have never occurred with this, or previous installations.

Have you noticed anything that would indicate a problem when you run "dmesg" form the Konsole?

phubai

btw arjay is my handle on the Gentoo and Sabayon linux boards; some others too, although lately I've preferred phubai (less chance for duplication).

[badmotor]

Haven't had those problems either - maybe a re installation is in order?

[arjay]

Thanks for the interest folks. Well, I have tried a couple more things. I burnt a new CD and re-installed. Still get both problems - device icons won't display on the desktop unless I first use the system menu, find a volume and open it; and also the PC just won't shut down cleanly. The screen goes blank and nothing else happens. Evrything is locked - can't Alt F1 or or Cntl-Alt-Backspace - nada.

I have looked at dmesg but there is nothing much untoward there. I see from googling that ubuntu forums have a substantial number of posts about the shut down problem. I have tried some of the solutions suggested there but no joy.

I'll probably go back to SimpyMepis 7.0. I never had these sort of issues with Mepis even though it is based on Ubuntu now - it was one of the most stable distros I've tried. I just "fancied a change" as they say. Pity, because I like some of the mint innovations around adding and removing software. I might just try the gnome version of mint and see if I get the same problems (although I have never been fond of gnome). How easy is it to install gnome over kde I wonder? That would save me a complete reinstall.
EDIT: Don't worry about my question re gnome. I am going to download elyssa beta and try it on a spare machine I have...
Richard

[badmotor]

Thanks for the interest folks. Well, I have tried a couple more things. I burnt a new CD and re-installed. Still get both problems - device icons won't display on the desktop unless I first use the system menu, find a volume and open it; and also the PC just won't shut down cleanly. The screen goes blank and nothing else happens. Evrything is locked - can't Alt F1 or or Cntl-Alt-Backspace - nada.

I have looked at dmesg but there is nothing much untoward there. I see from googling that ubuntu forums have a substantial number of posts about the shut down problem. I have tried some of the solutions suggested there but no joy.

I'll probably go back to SimpyMepis 7.0. I never had these sort of issues with Mepis even though it is based on Ubuntu now - it was one of the most stable distros I've tried. I just "fancied a change" as they say. Pity, because I like some of the mint innovations around adding and removing software. I might just try the gnome version of mint and see if I get the same problems (although I have never been fond of gnome). How easy is it to install gnome over kde I wonder? That would save me a complete reinstall.
EDIT: Don't worry about my question re gnome. I am going to download elyssa beta and try it on a spare machine I have...
Richard

Not really a Gnome fan either, but Mint version is really nice - you may be surprised.

[arjay]

Well - an update. I installed the KDE version on another spare machine. This time it shut down cleanly every time. But although it found my sound card, it never configured it correctly. I fiddled around with Kmix etc but never succeeded in getting any sound. Can't be bothered to have to go find uptodate drivers for a sound card for goodness sake. The other problem was that I still could not get the volume icons to display on the desktop at boot.

So I reformatted and installed Elyssa. This feels a LOT more stable and it "does exactly what it says on the tin". Everything seemed to work - the main problem was/is that I have hardly ever used Gnome and struggle to find the things I want!

I am pleasantly surprised by gnome overall, though. It sure has come along way since I first (and last) used it 3 years ago. The mint version is not bad at all. I think the main menu works much better than the KDE one. For a start, it shuts when you click off it - the KDE one stayed open unless you actually clicked on the close button. Of course this may not be what it is supposed to do - I don't trust the KDE version at all. I do find that KDE is more configurable and has more options. For example, unless I am mistaken, I could not find a Logout applet for the main panel in Gnome, but KDE does have one. I need to look about a bit more in Gnome - maybe there are things there that I have not found yet.

Well, I'll play around a bit more with Elyssa and maybe put it on my main machine in place of the KDE version. I know it is only in beta but it is either that, or return to Mepis for my main PC.

[AK Dave]

My Mint4KDE menu doesn't have a close button, and it automatically closes when it is supposed to. But I think I see the problem. Upper right corner of KDE Menu is a box with a big arrow, or a blank box that you mouseover and a big arrow appears. It is SUPPOSED to be the very upper right corner, but if a normal window frame (with an X) is in the corner, you need to click the big box with the arrow and the window frames disappear. Thats your problem. If KDE Menu has window frames, it closes as a window. If you disable the frames, which is supposed to be the default, it closes like a menu. Basic problem: you shouldn't see a close button in the first place. You do because you have frames, which you shouldn't have. But you went with Elyssa and gnome anyways, which is fine. I like that version also. It is now what runs on the home desktop, because with only 1gb ram and a single-core AMD gnome carries a little less baggage.