Thanks. I'll give that a try.

I had a similar issue, I re-installed KDE4 and it solved the problem. Here are some of the details:

I am not sure exactly how it happed, I opened ktorrent for the first time and it failed. Then I tweaked the desktop settings, lost the kicker, keyboard, and some of my desktop settings changed. After multiple log-out's and reboots I could not get the keyboard back.

I then logged out, hit xrestart about 4 times until finally I got my keyboard back. Then I logged into IceWM (I always have that as a backup, not sure why but it saved the day...)

First I did updates, found a number of KDE4 updates and a kernel update, but that did not fix it.

Then I ran Jolphil's suggestion
That did not solve the no-keyboard issue, but it remove a messagebus error that was dumped onto the display when restarting.

Then back into IceWM, I uninstalled all the "plasma" stuff, which basically uninstalled KDE. Then did an rm -fR * inside the .kde4 directory. Then installed kde4 again.

Restarted and all is good.

Regards, Eric

Thanks for your reply. I am going to try the messagebus suggestion again. I'm a relative newbie to Linux. What is the best way to reinstall KDE4? I know you mentioned removing plasma stuff but what do I look for to do this? I assume I would do the reinstall from IceWM, right? How would I go about doing it from there?

markw10,

Yes you are right regarding removing and installing kde4 from within the IceWM. IceWM is just one of many, but its a good old stand-by for me.

Here is how I would approach it.

1. Install IceWM using MCC. Its fairly easy to install; use the "find" package search tool at the top and type in "icewm". Select the first main package in the list, and then select apply.
2. Log out, then when at the login screen, use the notepad-looking icon to select the desktop of choice. IceWM should be in the list.
3. Once logged in, go back into MCC Install/Remove. There should be an icon on the task bar for the MCC.
4. From the top left drop-down list, select "Meta Packages". Make sure the other drop-down list shows "All". Then from the left side column select "Graphical Desktop --> KDE". The list of available packages should show a couple of kde4 packages, uncheck all of the kde4 packages and then click on the apply button.
5. Once that is done, go to a terminal window, log in as su. You do this by typing "su" at the prompt. su is root so you will need to enter your root pw. Be very carefull when loged in as root as you can do anything as root.
6. Next change directory to .kde4 by using the following "cd /home/<your name>/.kde4". Double check you are in the proper directory, type in "pwd", this will show the directory you are in.
7. Now to empty all contents of the .kde4 directory type the following "rm -fR *".
8. Next, to install KDE4 is rather simple. Go back into MCC Install/Remove. As described above, using "Meta Packages", select KDE from the "Graphical Desktop" in the left side column. Select all kde4 packages listed, then apply.
9. If all has gone as planned, then I would suggest a restart, double check you have all the updates applied to your system.
10. At the login screen, select KDE, then login. You should have a KDE4 desktop with the default settings.

Step through this one and if there are any hiccups, let me know.

Regards, Eric

Thanks. I'll give that a try.