Hi!

I've been having problems since this afternoon with kde. It all started when my session stopped working after I had left my computer with my kde session working to go to launch. Just so you know, I use xscreensaver (start with with a desktop file in .kde/Autostart/. I moved it out of there to make sure it wasn't the cause. The problem is still there). When I came back the session was not responding at all (dark screen and stuff.... a lot of latency, etc) so, after a lot of trying to start/restart kdm unsuccessfully on a VT, I just gave up and restarted the computer. Boot goes normally but when I start the kde session I start to see the splash screen and then it goes absolutely dark. A lot of processes start if I check on a VT. Can even start amarok by using the play button so it's obvious kde is actually there but I just can't see a single thing. Also, I tried using the brightness buttons but they provided no visible change. As a test I just created a 'guest' account to make sure it works and it's good (even brightness buttons work correctly). That's how I'm writing this thread.

What could be the cause of this behavior?

I was testing how to get kde to start 'by hand' to see what could be broken. I was able to go into an almost full normal session (with some glitches, for example, no window decorations nor other things) by starting X manually with '-listen tcp' option, then starting konsole from another VT (exporting DISPLAY) and then calling plasma-desktop from konsole. I'll try starting kde now from kdm to see if the behavior is still there. Wait for the update.

Same thing. Screen went black when starting to show splash screen. Is there a place where the 'current brightness' is set when kde is started? Maybe some global values related to screen brightness are broken in the configuration?

Ok... was able to start my session 'manually'. I started X manually (with -listen tcp) option enabled from a VT, then on another VT I exported DISPLAY and ran startkde (and it's my full blown session, nothing missing). This is where I am at the moment. But something tells me that if I try with KDM, it's going to fail as well. Wait for the update.

I must have done something different that time because from kdm it's always going to a black screen and then I tried again going with the manual recipe and I got the same result.

What I'm noticing is that when I run manually I get to see the brightness bar when the splash is showing up right before the screen goes dark and then, bam, black screen. I'm sure it's some configuration problem. I just don't know where or what to look at. I searched for 'bright' in all of .kde and the only file I found with something related (powermanagementprofilesrc) is exactly the same between my normal user and my current guest account.

I found this article and it looks interesting. It says that krunner can set whatever brightness it pleases to but then I checked krunner configuration file and found nothing special:

I see some small differences between this file and the guest's. I see no relation but I'll adjust the file and see if it makes any difference.

Anyone wants to jump on board with some idea?

The article: http://askubuntu.com/questions/15016...tment-interval

Ok.... I compressed in a tarball the .kde directory and removed it. Started the session and I'm back on track so it's definitely something on kde configuration. I won't spend more time on it for now... I'll just set up my desktop to how it was until someone comes up with an idea to try.