Can't launch Kate the "ordinary" way (LM18 KDE)

L_Carver · 12-01-2016, 01:07 PM

For a few weeks now, through an uninstall and reinstall of both kate and kwrite, I get this dialog (see attached). I may be reading it wrong, but I think kate was re-installed along a different path than the one along which it "arrived" on my system during install (from live-cd).

Any considered advice appreciated, per norma.

Carver

frankbell · 12-02-2016, 08:47 PM

No solutions, but some troubleshooting suggestions:

Try using a file search, such as the locate command, or a file manager's search feature to determine whether the files listed are indeed installed on your system and, if so, where they are located.

Try running Kate from the command line ("kate"). Perhaps it will throw a more useful error message to the command line.

Do updates run properly or do you get errors about broken packages? If the latter, try

Code:

sudo apt-get -f  <---for "fix-broken"

to fix them.

L_Carver · 12-03-2016, 11:30 AM

Like so:

Code:

$ /usr/bin/kate

It gave these errors to stdout:

Code:

QObject::connect: invalid null parameter
QObject::connect: invalid null parameter
QObject::connect: Cannot connect (null)::returnPressed() to KUrlRequester::returnPressed()
QObject::connect: Cannot connect (null)::returnPressed(QString) to KUrlRequester::returnPressed(QString)

I also tried "sudo apt-get -f" but it showed me there's no -f option in my apt-get. I normally fix broken packages with apt-get update && apt-get upgrade.

The messages don't appear to match the error in the dialog I screen-shot. I have yet to do a search on the files mentioned in that dialog. As for running apps lunched from command-line, I regularly launch Viewnior that way, sometimes gedit and KWrite as well.

I'm further along than I was, but I think the search for those supposedly missing items will be the make-or-break of this thing.

Carver

frankbell · 12-03-2016, 09:24 PM

I fear that those error messages are outside of my experience. I use Kate on Mint frequently and consider myself lucky not to have run into this, as it is my favorite GUI text editor.

I just fired up a VM of Mint and got the same result you did when I tried to run

Code:

sudo apt-get -f
sudo apt-get --fix-broken

Yet, the man page for apt-get includes both those options. As my old boss used to say, This Is Not Right.

Try firing up Synaptic. On one of its menus is a "Fix Broken" option. Let us know whether that works.

You might also try

Code:

sudo aptitude -f

That seems to work, but the window it opens looks quite complex and I don't have the time to learn my way around it tonight.

Maybe someone who knows what he is doing will deign to join this thread, he said hopefully.

L_Carver · 12-04-2016, 08:51 PM

I try it and get the message:

Code:

E: Command line option 'f' [from -f] is not understood in combination with the other options.

A version line reads:

Code:

apt 1.2.15 (i386)

And I have yet to see a 'Fix Broken' option in my current install of Synaptic, nor do I see a "Mark upgrades" button, which I remember seeing in Ubuntu 11.04 and in Trinity in Q4OS.

Carver

frankbell · 12-04-2016, 09:34 PM

Try Synaptic-->Edit-->Fix Broken Packages. That's what I'm seeing in my VM.

L_Carver · 12-07-2016, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by L_Carver

I have yet to do a search on the files mentioned in that dialog.

Well, I just did that search, and no such file comes up for libkdeinit5_ksystraycmd.

Is there some way I could find that file in a package and/or shoehorn it in at the right place for Plasma to see it and use it? Launching Kate from KRunner is better for me than doing so from Konsole; there's no terminal prompt to free up and no nohup overhang (clear-able with Ctrl-C) after I quit the app in the usual ways. But it's still not kosher, since I have Kate in two places in my K menu. Neither of which is Favorite Apps, gratefully; a slip of my mouse pointer there would have me reading that dialog box more often than anyone should have to.

So again, closer to a solution, but not quite there yet.

Carver

L_Carver · 12-15-2016, 06:38 PM

...solved it, and now Kate launches both ways fine.

This forum post explained that the default launch string for Kate, short as it was, was unnecessary.

So good to have Kate back the way it was supposed to be.

Carver