[TriLUG] X problems (and happy Easter!)

[Kevin Hunter]

At 9:23pm -0400 on Mon, 13 Apr 2009, Michael Ham wrote:
> In response to the Kubuntu problem, I am running ubuntu 8.10 under
> gnome, so that shouldn't be a factor.

Ah jeez.  I wrote the below, /then/ parsed this.  So the problem happens
under *both* Kubuntu and Ubuntu?  What window manager and display
manager are you using?  Did you install the system partition fresh when
you went to Ubuntu?

> It just happened again, so I tried what Jon mentioned. Xorg is using the
> most memory (I think) but only 4.4%. The only application running was
> firefox at the time, so I killed it. X still is showing the window, and
> is still unresponsive.
> 
> Also, the % wait is at 0.
> 
> Any ideas here?

Ah!  Kubuntu is new information for me.  Is this KDE4?  I had similar
problems that I couldn't pinpoint with Kubuntu Intrepid -KDE4.  Random
slow-downs, after-awhile slowdowns, loss of keyboard or mouse, lots of
lock-ups, the list goes on.  Switching back-and-forth between a tty
(C+A+F1) and the GUI /sometimes/ helped.  Usually it didn't though.

The questions I posed on IRC and readings of bug reports all came back with

- It's a bug in Xorg that KDE has exposed.
- It's a bug in the video driver that KDE has exposed.
- Did you memtest your RAM?
- Ubuntu messed up the packaging of KDE.  Can't get mad at KDE for that.

Of those answers, the only one that I'll buy is the last.  I *did* test
my RAM.  Gnome doesn't seem to have any of these issues.  Even Gnome
running the same /KDE4/ apps doesn't have these problems.

I might buy the last, but that's still a stretch in my mind.  Package
maintainers aren't idiots (quite sharp, actually), and in my experience
are quick to correct errors.  I have a hard time buying that a
distribution has f***ed up that badly.  (Then again, Fedore Core 4
wasn't much to write home about either.)

What I think is more likely is that KDE4 is still a new beast, and as
such, they haven't got the kinks out.  KDE (4) is much prettier, has
some nice new functionalities that could turn out to be awesome, but
suffers from a lack of stability.  There are numerous random bugs across
the entire line of shipped KDE packages that are all stability related.
I imagine you're experiencing one of the myriad of bugs with either kdm
or kwin.

KDE 4.0 was released, but for devs only.  (I found that out *after* it
was released and folks complained about it.)  Then KDE 4.1 was supposed
to be the release for the masses.  Given my experience with Kubuntu
Intrepid, I don't think so.  Jaunty's around the corner; we'll see about
KDE 4.2.

In short, I believe the issue is KDE4.  My solution to the problem was
to switch to standard (gnome) Ubuntu, and hope Jaunty fares better.

Heh.  Now I'll bet you respond that you use KDE3.  Then I got nothing.

Cheers,

Kevin