new install won't load KDE

[uncle mark]

This is very strange. I pulled an older Dell out of mothballs with the intention of doing another MX-KDE setup. Everything works fine until I install KDE Standard. It flat won't load the KDE desktop. The splash screen comes up and progresses until the last big KDE icon appears, and that's where it stops. (I am on the machine now, from Xfce.)

This is the second bare metal install. Same thing happened before. In fact, in between, I did an install of Mint KDE 17 and experiended the same thing. After that happened, I zeroed the drive with dd and started again with this install, but experinced the same results.

If it's related at all, I did comment out the b44 Broadcom blacklist from this post:

http://forum.mepiscommunity.org/viewtop ... 27#p353027

and also did the interfaces edit from the manual:

http://www.mepiscommunity.org/user_manu ... ection-3.4

Any ideas?

Hardware specs:

Code: Select all

nexdoor@dell-mx14:~
$ inxi -F
System:    Host: dell-mx14 Kernel: 3.14-0.bpo.2-686-pae i686 (32 bit) Desktop: Xfce 4.10.3
           Distro: MX-14.3 Symbiosis 03 December 2014
Machine:   System: Dell product: Dimension C521
           Mobo: Dell model: 0UT226 v: A01 Bios: Dell v: 1.1.2 date: 11/08/2006
CPU:       Single core AMD Sempron 3400+ (-UP-) cache: 256 KB speed/max: 1000/1800 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA C51 [GeForce 6150 LE]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.12.4 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1440x900@59.9hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NV4E GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.5
Audio:     Card NVIDIA MCP51 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: ALSA v: k3.14-0.bpo.2-686-pae
Network:   Card: Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX driver: b44
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:13:72:33:a6:cb
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 160.0GB (4.5% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST3160812AS size: 160.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 20G used: 3.7G (20%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: /home size: 58G used: 264M (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 3.15GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 30.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 121 Uptime: 3 min Memory: 194.5/1959.2MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.2.16 
nexdoor@dell-mx14:~

[Stevo]

Maybe this solution: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KD ... sh_loading

I notice in reading kwinrc that the 6150 is blacklisted for one or more effects...

The thread linked to in the Arch wiki notes that once he was able to start KDE, he was able to isolate the one desktop effect that was hanging the startup, so was able to still enjoy the rest of the effects.

[Paul..]

can you drop to console when it hangs and run 'dmesg | tail' as root to see if there's anything obvious?

[uncle mark]

Maybe this solution: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KD ... sh_loading

I notice in reading kwinrc that the 6150 is blacklisted for one or more effects...

The thread linked to in the Arch wiki notes that once he was able to start KDE, he was able to isolate the one desktop effect that was hanging the startup, so was able to still enjoy the rest of the effects.

It's definitely graphics. I lost my mouse pointer in Xfce. More to come...

[joany]

FWIW, I have the same graphics card as U.M. (6150 LE). KDE and all of its effects work perfectly on my machine. If the problem is indeed graphics-related, I'd try a different driver.

[Jerry3904]

Mare to come...

Got a whole stable there, huh?!

[uncle mark]

Was able to shut down and boot again into Xfce (got my mouse pointer back), ran the nVidia driver installer, and all seems to be in order. Posting from KDE. Weird. Have seen a bunch of oddball stuff over the years, but that was a new one.

This machine is a problem child enough with the Broadcom NIC; now the 6150 nVidia...

Now back to the stables...

[entropyfoe]

I used to have a board with integrated 6150.
I always had to install with the VESA video option
or I could not boot.

Then had to usually edit xorg.conf or use sgfxi/sxmi