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Re: [LUG] KDE crash handler

 

> As promised I looked at the bugs.kde.ord website. There I found a
> report from someone who was having similar problems. The recommended
> cure consisted of just two words  -  remove kat.
> However, I am still a little puzzled. Kat came automatically as part of
> the original installation when I set up my computer six weeks ago
> (using Mandriva2006). I have never actually used it so why should it
> suddenly start causing problems?

Any number of reasons:
1. You installed something that doesn't work well with kat. (This is
likely as the functionality provided by kat is new and some programmes
may simply not like the way that kat touches the data files, causing a
conflict. Either programme can then crash.)
2. You upgraded something that did work with kat but now something in
that package is broken (as above).
3. Kat is relatively new and may simply not have been fully tested with
some of the types of file on your system.
4. Internal bugs in kat could mean that some kind of internal counter is
being trashed or otherwise becomes invalid.
5. kat may have discovered some kind of fault on your system that
doesn't show up anywhere else.

> And secondly, why now? Why did it take six weeks before all this
> started happening? Strange.

kat is constantly running to do it's job, it's not uncommon for a
programme running constantly to crash suddenly when the programmer has
made an assumption that proves to be wrong. When kat is constantly
checking and updating it's data, such a situation can happen at any
time. kat is trying to deal with files that are not under it's own
control, always a difficult role.

> Anyway, since all seems to be well now, why worry? Let's just be happy
> about it and carry on.

Please also note that GNU/Linux does NOT put you into the Windows-esque
world of continual reboots. You do NOT need to restart your system in
situations like these. It *may* be worthwhile logging out of
KDE/Gnome/etc. and logging back in. It *may* be worthwhile restarting X
at the login greeter (Ctrl-Alt-Backspace) if the fault is deeper within
the Xorg server. At all other times, simply use the scripts in
/etc/init.d/ to stop and restart the affected service, using sudo or su.

# /etc/init.d/scriptname restart

ONLY if you KNOW that the fault is within the kernel itself (not a
kernel module, use rmmod) or a problem / change to the bootloader (lilo
or grub) is a reboot required.

-- 

Neil Williams
=============
http://www.data-freedom.org/
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/


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