Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

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marmistrz

Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

I installed `mint-meta-kde` and `kde-full`, played a while with KDE. Still, I decided to stick with Cinnamon (at least until LM18). When I wanted to log in back to Cinnamon, I had a black screen with some desktop weirdnesses. I removed `mint-meta-kde`, `kde-full`. Cinnamon launched, took some time for it, but launched.

So I removed some libraries related with KDE, nothing related to MATE/Cinnamon was to be removed. At first I launched Cinnamon, but it took a long time to start. The desktop icons were missing, rpm click on the desktop didn't work. So I rebooted. Now whenever I try to login into Cinnamon, I get a black screen. Shades of the elements from the status area are somehow visible but Cinnamon fails to launch.

What's interesting, another user, who's never tried KDE, logs into their Cinnamon session without any problems.

So it seems it's related to something in my $HOME. Do you have any ideas how to fix it? Will removing ~/.kde suffice?

/edit: some more changes noticed: the shell is now displayed with > at the and, not $ (marcin@marcin ~ >)
Linux Mint logo in MDM is blue.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Hoser Rob
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Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by Hoser Rob »

marmistrz wrote:... What's interesting, another user, who's never tried KDE, logs into their Cinnamon session without any problems.
On the same computer?
So it seems it's related to something in my $HOME. Do you have any ideas how to fix it? Will removing ~/.kde suffice?
I think you should just try renaming it to .<whatever>.bak, but I'd definitely try it.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
marmistrz

Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

Yep, on the same computer.

Of course I meant renaming, just wrote "remove" for simplicity
marmistrz

Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

Well, it still takes over 20 seconds to launch Cinnamon. So something is still messed up.
Cosmo.
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Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by Cosmo. »

At first: make sure the second account on the computer is member of the group sudo. Although I do not expect critical problems with the following tip, this is just for the case, that something bad happens.

This is a wild shot in the dark, without any guarantee, that it solves anything: Go into the hidden folder .config in your home (main account). Rename the following files: Trolltech.conf (should be there in any case) and QtProject.conf (is probably not there). Copy from the second acoount the file Trolltech.conf and make sure, that after this the user is the owner of the file and has read- and write-permissions. Log off and back in.
As said, I do not promise anything. But both files are related to the QT-library, that gets used by KDE, so I see a chance.
I am in this case especially interested to read about the result.

Regarding the hidden folder .kde:
You should at first only rename the folder ~/.kde/share/config and leave the rest intact.

Regarding the prompt: Do you have in your home the hidden file .bashrc? Rename it before logging out.
marmistrz

Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

Well, I have a root account set up.

I had both QtProject.conf (small) and Trolltech.conf (very big). Removed QtProject.conf, took Trolltech.conf from the other user, put .kde back, moved .kde/share/config, now rebooting and testing.

the other user has the prompt changed too.
marmistrz

Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

After changes as listed above I rebooted. Unfortunately, the problem persists.

It may be of importance: I used kde-config-gtk-style and set up the themes for gtk apps in KDE.
Cosmo.
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Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by Cosmo. »

Another try (again without promise):

The package mint-meta-kde is a meta-package. This means, it does not itself install any binaries, but lists some packages. (The sense of it is, that the user gets able to (un)install a bunch of packages without the need, to select every single one.) But what really gets (un)installed depends from the already installed packages and from dependencies from other packages.
Open in synaptic the history and compare the packages, that actually been installed respectively removed with this meta-package. Perhaps this clears something (inclusive the prompt issue).

Whether the theme modifications for appearance of apps in KDE did also affect Cinnamon: Only trial and error can tell you, I don't know.
marmistrz

Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

Cosmo. wrote:Another try (again without promise):

The package mint-meta-kde is a meta-package. This means, it does not itself install any binaries, but lists some packages. (The sense of it is, that the user gets able to (un)install a bunch of packages without the need, to select every single one.) But what really gets (un)installed depends from the already installed packages and from dependencies from other packages.
Open in synaptic the history and compare the packages, that actually been installed respectively removed with this meta-package. Perhaps this clears something (inclusive the prompt issue).

Whether the theme modifications for appearance of apps in KDE did also affect Cinnamon: Only trial and error can tell you, I don't know.
I have another idea (pseudocode)

Code: Select all

for i in .cache .config .local
do
     move $i 
     test
     put back $i
     if success; then break; fi
done
marmistrz

Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

Well, moved all three at the same time and the problem persists. So it isn't something for these directories.

Code: Select all

marcin@marcin:~ > ls -a | grep '^\.'
.
..
.adobe
.android
.aptitude
.arenamerc
.audacity-data
.bash_history
.bash_logout
.bashrc
.bazaar
.bibledit
.bibletime
.bzr.log
.cache
.cinnamon
.config
.cpanm
.cups
.dbus
.designer
.dmrc
.dudenbib
.dudenbibliothek6
.dvdcss
.FBReader
.filezilla
.fltk
.fontconfig
.FontForge
.furiusisomount
.gconf
.gEDA
.Genymobile
.gervill
.gimp-2.8
.gitconfig
.git-credential-cache
.gitk
.gksu.lock
.gnome2
.gnome2_private
.gnome-commander
.gnupg
.gnuplot_history
.gnuplot-wxt
.goldendict
.gourmet
.gphoto
.gstreamer-0.10
.gtk-bookmarks
.gtkrc-2.0
.gtkrc-2.0-kde4
.gvfs
.hedgewars
.hplip
.ICEauthority
.icons
.idlerc
.install4j
.java
.jdownloader
.kde
.linuxmint
.local
.lyx
.macromedia
.matplotlib
.mediathek3
.mono
.mozilla
.mtab.fuseiso
.nv
.nvidia-settings-rc
.OpenVPN
.pam_environment
.pastebinit.xml
.popper
.profile
.purple
.python_history
.qstardict
.RapidSVN
.recently-used
.rnd
.scid
.selected_editor
.shutter
.Skype
.ssh
.stardict
.subversion
.sword
.texmf-var
.themes
.thumbnails
.thunderbird
.tor-browser-en
.tuxguitar-1.2
.wallch
.WebOS Quick Install
.wgetrc
.wine
.wine-pipelight
.workrave
.Xauthority
.xboardrc
.xchat2
.XCompose
.xinputrc
.xiphos
.xsession-errors
It's user-specific, so it should be something in my home directory. What should I check next from these files or directories?
Cosmo.
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Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by Cosmo. »

The problem is to identify the file or folder. If you create a new account (speaking about LM 17.x Cinnamon), there is only a small number of hidden files and folder, that get created. Do it and you see it yourself. If you log in into an account, a greater number of hidden files and folders get created, if they do not exist.
During usage those files get (partly) altered and other files and folders get added.

I did (some time back) an experiment in a virtual machine and deleted the complete content of a users home, after that I logged into this "empty" account and found, that this does not break anything.

So you could in principle do this (with moving / renaming instead of deleting) on your machine (for safety with another account with sudo-membership at hand). The problem is, that this would eliminate the problem, but you still do not know, where to locate the culprit.

Perhaps a working attempt (but of course only from theoretical thinking): Do would you did with you script for the (alphabetical) first half of the hidden files and folders. If the problem goes away you know, that in those is the culprit. Than you can divide this half into 2 parts and repeat it and at after some tries you hopefully have found it. If with the first half nothing changes, than repeat it with the second half. The problem I see with this attempt is the possibility that settings in 2 files or folders, which are alphabetically far apart, work in conjunction to each other.

A safer approach: Create a new account, than copy all hidden files and folders from the defective account to the new account and make sure, that the new account has the ownership for all of them; when you log in into the new account the problem should appear there. Then you can proceed in the test account as described above. This approach has the advantage, that you cannot create accidentally new problems in your main account.

P.S. (and quite another thing):
I found that you use aptitude. There is nothing wrong in general with aptitude. The problem is the fact, that synaptic, software manager and update-manager use apt-get as backend. apt-get and aptitude use separate databases to make sure, that the packet management stays consistent. Using both side-by-side will lead to problems (sooner or later), so only one of both should be used exclusively - but if you decide for aptitude it would mean, that you have to give up the mentioned graphical programs and as a consequence the leveling system of the update-manager.
marmistrz

Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

1. I'm not using aptitude. I don't know why the directory is there. It was probably installed by default
2. I created another account and the problem occurs on this account too. So it has to be something with some system template which is used to populate new $HOME
3. If I log into Cinnamon for the first time, it takes a long time but succeeds. If I log out, log in - then I get a black screen with only system tray elements (partially visible). If I do ctrl+alt+bksp to kill Xorg and login into Cinnamon, then the login is instant, as it should.
4. Synaptic shows nothing interesting, almost nothing at all for the last two months since I'm using apt exclusively.

Any further ideas?
Cosmo.
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Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by Cosmo. »

marmistrz wrote:1. I'm not using aptitude. I don't know why the directory is there. It was probably installed by default
No, it is not installed by default. Together with KDE? I don't know, but I doubt.

My suspicion: As this folder is there out of a reason, aptitude has at a time in the past been used and incontinences in the package management are the consequence.
marmistrz wrote:2. I created another account and the problem occurs on this account too. So it has to be something with some system template which is used to populate new $HOME
In your first post you wrote the opposite. A misunderstanding?
What's interesting, another user, who's never tried KDE, logs into their Cinnamon session without any problems.
Because of my suspicion for #1 and with the surprising new result in #2 I think, that a complete new install is the only solution.
marmistrz

Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

Cosmo. wrote:
marmistrz wrote:1. I'm not using aptitude. I don't know why the directory is there. It was probably installed by default
No, it is not installed by default. Together with KDE? I don't know, but I doubt.

My suspicion: As this folder is there out of a reason, aptitude has at a time in the past been used and incontinences in the package management are the consequence.
Removing aptitude breaks stuff:

Code: Select all

 sudo apt-get purge aptitude
[sudo] password for marcin: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  cinnamon-themes dconf-cli folder-color-switcher fonts-noto
  mint-backgrounds-rebecca mint-kernel-info mint-upgrade-info nemo-emblems
  nemo-folder-color-switcher nemo-share python-nemo
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  aptitude* mint-artwork-common* mint-artwork-gnome* mint-meta-cinnamon*
  mint-meta-core* mintdesktop* mintsystem* tasksel* tasksel-data*
  ubuntu-system-adjustments*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 10 to remove and 13 not upgraded.
After this operation, 22,8 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.
I don't remember using aptitude explicitly since my install.

Cosmo. wrote:
marmistrz wrote:2. I created another account and the problem occurs on this account too. So it has to be something with some system template which is used to populate new $HOME
In your first post you wrote the opposite. A misunderstanding?
What's interesting, another user, who's never tried KDE, logs into their Cinnamon session without any problems.
Because of my suspicion for #1 and with the surprising new result in #2 I think, that a complete new install is the only solution.
Explaining again.

1. I created account `marcin`. I was using it for a looong time. Installed Cinnamon (originally I was running) MATE.
2. Created account `other` for another user. The user was running both Cinnamon and MATE successfully. This user has an instant login, as they should.
3. Installed KDE, played around with it using the account `marcin`. This broke Cinnamon for user `marcin`. MATE works as previously, without any new problems
4. Created a brand-new account `test`. This user has the same problems logging in as `marcin`.

Conclusions: the reason is a system-wide template for something that resides in $HOME. While user `other` was created the template was ok. While installing/using KDE the template was modified. This modified template was used to populate $HOME for the user `test`
marmistrz

Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

Does this give any clue: http://paste.ubuntu.com/11761939/ ( ~/.xsession-errors)
/var/log/Xorg.0.log: http://paste.ubuntu.com/11761946/
syslog for the boot process: http://paste.linuxmint.com/view/4rpr

Are there any more logs I should provide?

/edit: one more interesting observation: if I log in into MATE, log out and log into Cinnamon, Cinnamon takes ~7 seconds to run. If Cinnamon is launched straight after boot - it takes ~20 seconds.
marmistrz

Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

Created a bootchart, do you see anything in here?

http://postimg.org/image/b4anarnfd/
MtnDewManiac
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Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by MtnDewManiac »

Assuming you used Synaptic Package Manager to install KDE, it should have, in its history, a list of the exact file installs and removals that were performed. (If you used that other one, I think it's called Software Manager(?), I can't remember if it has a history function or not; I would hope so - as I consider such a thing to be a basic troubleshooting and information tool, but IDK.) Use said history function to see if anything was removed that you failed to reinstall (both during the KDE installation process and the KDE removal process - by the latter, I'm speaking of anything that wasn't installed with KDE but might have been removed by it (you never know).

Also, I hope you used the "completely remove" KDE instead of the "remove" KDE when you removed it.

KDE uses KWin as its window manager and I would guess that Cinnamon uses something else. Might your system still be configured to use KWin and it's either not there or not working correctly with Cinnamon? Alternately, might you be once again configured to use Cinnamon's window manager, but it was uninstalled at some point during the KDE installation or removal procedure?

Have you tried marking the Cinnamon meta-package for reinstallation via Synaptic Package Manager (NOTE: You do not have to uninstall it first.)? If your issue is as simple as a missing file, I would generally expect that to fix things.

Out of curiosity, does the MATE DE that you originally started with still work, or did it get pooched, too? I realize that you mentioned being able to log into it, but is it all there and functioning as per normal expectations?

Interesting that Cinnamon loads quicker after a visit in MATE. This might be explained by some files that would get loaded regardless of which of the two DE choices you make, if they are already resident in memory when you switch to Cinnamon. Like everything else in this post, lol, that is merely speculation on my part.

Have you checked the release notes for whichever version of Mint you have to see if there is anything that might have any bearing on this? IOW, some kind of issue when using KDE stuff in Cinnamon or vice versa (you'd want to check both the Cinnamon and KDE editions of whichever version it is, I suppose...)?

Regards,
MDM
Mint 18 Xfce 4.12.

If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, and spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat.
marmistrz

Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

I did not use Synaptic. I used apt-get.

When removing KDE I used

Code: Select all

apt-get --purge autoremove mint-meta-kde kde-full
plus removed some remaining packages with kde in the package name using apt-get --purge autoremove. Besides, I purged any remaining config files on my system with dpkg.

I filtered "cinnamon" in Synaptic, now I'm reinstalling everything shown by this filter (which was already installed). I'll post any results here.

Yes, MATE works as it has always done.
MtnDewManiac
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Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by MtnDewManiac »

marmistrz wrote:one more interesting observation: if I log in into MATE, log out and log into Cinnamon, Cinnamon takes ~7 seconds to run. If Cinnamon is launched straight after boot - it takes ~20 seconds.
I was just glancing at the "New Features in Linux Mint 17.2 Cinnamon" web page. I saw this:
Clem wrote:Loading times were also reviewed (this covered Cinnamon and MDM) and found to be excellent, except for the case where Cinnamon is loaded for the first time after a computer restart or shutdown. Whereas a normal Cinnamon initialization would typically take between 0 and 2 seconds, the very first one could take up to 40 seconds on some of our test systems. The reason was a lack of HDD read-cache, especially when it came to Gio appinfo and icon themes data. To reduce this initial load time, Cinnamon 2.6 introduces a preload mechanism which loads themes and app info asynchronously earlier on during the boot sequence. Distributions using non-standard icon themes can add them to /etc/cinnamon/preload/iconthemes.d/.[/code]

I find myself wondering if the potential (relative) slowness of loading he mentions in the current Mint Cinnamon might have something to do with why it's taking you so long to get to the Cinnamon desktop - and if, possibly, MATE is taking care of "The reason was a lack of HDD read-cache, especially when it came to Gio appinfo and icon themes data. To reduce this initial load time, Cinnamon 2.6 introduces a preload mechanism which loads themes and app info asynchronously earlier on during the boot sequence." ? IDK.

Regards,
MDM
Mint 18 Xfce 4.12.

If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, and spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat.
marmistrz

Re: Installing KDE broke Cinnamon

Post by marmistrz »

Hmmm... It might be.

Is it a good idea to do this: http://mintguide.org/system/448-early-u ... faela.html
Or should I rather wait for final?
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