XServer crashes intermittently due to panels

[atomicben]

Using Mint 14 KDE x64

Sometimes I'll be working along and I'll click another program in my taskbar and BAM, the screen goes black for a second and then I'm presented with the log in screen.
This kills everything I was doing.

I think it might be killing X and restarting because when the screen goes black I can see a couple terminal lines stopping services but my pc is wicked fast and new so I can't read the lines before the log in screen comes up again.

I'm running a new i7
NVIDIA GTX650
16G ram

[atomicben]

I have more information about this problem.

The problem appears to be with the PANELS (taskbar) across the bottom of the screen. It's difficult to describe the problem without seeing it....

Sometimes I will know when the problem is about to occur. This is because sometimes the tasks in the panel will overlap each other and other times there will be a blank spot where a task should be. When either of these things happen I have to be very careful and chose an open window to close. Usually after closing a window the panel bar will correct itself and I will be able to continue without issue. However, if I'm really into what I'm doing I don't look for or notice this symptom and when I click a task the X server crashes. When this happens the screen goes black and I see a couple lines (as described in my previous post). These lines of text are notifications of shutting down processes like samba. Then I will be presented with the log in screen. When I log back in, nothing I was doing is running and I have to start up my progeams again.

Now if that wasn't weird enough, I can usually re-create the crash simply by quickly clicking between tasks and windows. For example, I'll start up firefox and a couple other windows like libre office or whatever. If I very quickly click in a wondow, then another task, then a window, then another task then another window....etc..... sometimes it will crash the same way. Sometimes this happens after just a few clicks and others I've got to do it 10 or more times but eventually it will happen.

This leads me to believe that the panel application is buggy. It just seems to lose track of what items should be in the bar and/or where tasks should be placed in the bar. For example, when they are overlapped if I click on the offending task the crash happens. I'm going to try and get a screen shot the next time the panel goes funky. When/if I do, I'll update this post.

Is anyone else having any buggy problems with the taskbar/panels?

BTW, the reason I believe it's crashing X is because when I'm on the loging screen and I go to the menu and RESTART X I get the same black screen with the same lines on it indictating it's stopping and restarting services like samba.

[homerscousin]

I think I had something similar happen back when I was running Mint 13 KDE 64bit. On my taskbar, I'll call them tabs to indicate which programs are open and running, every so often one tab would disappear and would overlap another. So, I may have a tab with 'Firefox' text and printed on top of that was 'Dolphin' text. 2 programs in one tab. My system did not crash, but to correct things I had to close the programs and start over.

I don't see this any more. I'm running Mint 14 KDE 64 bit and I updated to KDE 4.10 and the minor kernel update to 3.5.0-23 and I use the Intel HD4000 graphics. I hope you can post a screenshot. I wish I had taken one when it did happen.

[atomicben]

Here are links to 3 images of the problem. Sorry for the lack of quality but I can take a screen shot when the problem occurs because opening a new program (or closing one) fixes the problem. I had to use my camera.
Please forgive my spelling and grammar on the first image. lol

http://i1359.photobucket.com/albums/q79 ... 927f82.jpg
http://i1359.photobucket.com/albums/q79 ... f6ac21.jpg
http://i1359.photobucket.com/albums/q79 ... f3c963.jpg

[KDoug]

I noticed the same type of thing on my Nadia x86 using both KDE 3.95 and now 4.10.2. It seemed that if I had made any changes to the panel settings then problems would occur (overlapping, spacing, crashing), So I just add a new DEFAULT panel at the top of the screen, delete the buggy one at the bottom, then move the new default one down. So far the default panel is behaving itself.
Hope this helps

PS Just discovered a crash when trying to ADD WIDGETS under New Activity

[atomicben]

Thanks for the reply KDoug. I was just doing a bit of reseach and I found a 'possible' alternate solution.

This Mint Forum Post http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/333
explains how to return the panels to default with this command:
gconftool --recursive-unset /apps/panel

The thing is that I had played around a bit but I would remove my changes as the default is great just the way it is. However, perhaps some config somewhere had some garbage in it.
Anyway, I just ran that command. I didn't see anything change so only time will tell if it worked. If it crashes again, I'll try your method. Needless to say, I will report my findings.

**side note**
This type of error/bug/WhateverYaWannaCall it is very serious AND most importantly, I can reliably recreate it, so there's got to be more people out there with a similar problem but info seems scarce, I wonder why???

Anyway, thanks again.

[atomicben]

Well... that didn't take long. I submitted that post and clicked a terminal task I had open and BAM. Lights out. I'll try your suggestion now.
Damn this is so frustrating. I just can't work like this. Whether I'm trying to do budgets or working on my resume or just listen to some music there's always the thought that a crash is imminent. Ugh.... I had resorted to ONLY changing open programs with ALT+TAB which seems to work flawlessly but damn...this thing should just work. I mean, IT'S THE MAIN CONTTROL PANEL for the whole operating system, how can it be so buggy???

[atomicben]

AHHHH.... what a nightmare (sorry for screaming but I'm about to start banging my head off the keyboard).
So I added a default panel as you suggested but I cannot remove the bottom one. When I "remove thie panel" the crash happens - every single time. I've tried 3 times now.
Do you know of a way to remove the bottom panel without actually clicking the damn thing and saying "Remove"?

This is what I have now:
http://i1359.photobucket.com/albums/q79 ... 9e9443.jpg

[atomicben]

My BS workaround and some thoughts:

To work around this aweful issue I removed all the wigets from the bottom panel, shrunk the panel width down to it's lowest, moved it to the lower right corner and told it to Auto Hide. Ugh... Here's the result with a mouse-over the panel.
http://i1359.photobucket.com/albums/q79 ... 612d89.jpg

Possible solution but I'm scared to do it:
According to another forum (hXXp://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-kde/ ... 00071.html)
the location of the config files are here:

~/.kde4/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc

The contents of the file are to follow... Is there anything in there that you folks might recognize as the bottom panels settings? I mean, I'd be willing to delete some lines from this file but nothing jumps out at me saying "Hi, these are the settings for that annoying buggy bottom panel, Delete Me and we're golden." I'd appreciate any thoughts on this. I don't really feel comfortable renaming the file and rebooting to see what happens. I don't want to find myself relegated to a terminal and trying to put it back.

Code: Select all

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[atomicben]

Possible fix - NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART:

Because this problem interfered so much with my productivity I just dove in. I made a backup of the file and deleted the original and rebooted.
After login I was presented with only a black screen and a "New Activity" button in the top right of the screen. I just about pooped (which means getting a fresh copy of ubuntu and reinstalling over Mint/KDE); I figured that either this was going to work or I was DONE with KDE/Mint14.
I hit new activity and was able to add the default panel which appeared at the bottom of the screen *phew*. Then I right clicked the (still) black desktop and was able to change my desktop settings back to normal.
This panel looks more like the default one I had previously added to the top of my screen.
Furthermore, my little workaround panel was gone.

I've only been up for a few minutes but I've tried some of the things that would usually crash this SOB - so far, so good.

Can it be? Can it really be? Do I really have an environment that I can be productive in without being constantly in fear of an X crash? Only time will tell.

I have made a backup of the new ~/.kde4/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc file in case I need it again in the future.

I have a feeling the problem is solved. I will check back with an update and confirm or deny after a couple days.

Thanks for the suggestions folks. Without them I think I would have just given up. You gave me the courage to try a few things and I appreciate it.
Now I'm gonna have a few beers and see if I can break this thing. lol j/k

Peace, friends!

[atomicben]

CRASHED AGAIN. FML.

[atomicben]

I submitted a bug to KDE, they are aware of the bug. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=290712#c17