The other day I did a quick Slackware 10.1 installation on my Sony laptop. Everything worked perfectly except for my wireless PCMCIA card. (That is a topic for another thread.) I use the KDE desktop.

Then yesterday, I decided to reorganize my laptop, get rid of some stuff, etc. So, I deleted the Slackware partition, and created a new partition for Slackware. The second installation went OK, but when I start KDE with "startx", it freezes at the small window where the icons highlight in turn as services are started. There is a popup window with a message about "try again" but it gets hidden behind the "services" window so I can't read the rest of the message. The system is completely frozen, ctl-alt-bkspc doesn't work, ctl-alt-del doesn't work.

I have re-installed three times, thinking that I am setting some configuration item wrong. Is there a way to change the configuration with out a re-installation?

Any advice will be appreciated, jimbo

PS: I just saw the message, it says: "KNotify crashed while instantiating KNotify aRts sound output. Try again or abort aRts?" There are two boxes for a choice, but everything is frozen, so I can't abort aRts.

Hi

If it is balking at aRts try re-installing or removing it.

Another thing you could try is startxfce4 or startfluxbox then you would know if your X installation was OK.

If it is then just upgradepkg --install-new --reinstall *.tgz in the kde/ directory on CD2

samac

Well, xfce works perfectly, so I guess X Window is OK. I did as you suggested and reinstalled everything in cdrom 2, kde directory. When I startx again, the same freeze occurs, and I get the same message. Just what is aRts anyway? And how do I reinstall it or remove it?

Thanks, jimbo

aRts is a sound server, to remove type the following in a terminal as root
To reinstall you can either use the previous entry as a guide or use installpkg.

Then type startx and if KDE starts then you have another mystery.
Why did arts not work?

Samac

Well, removepkg arts, then reboot, login and startx and KDE loads OK and I am at a KDE desktop.

This is a big mystery! The first installation of Slackware 10.1 on this laptop was a hurry up, accept defaults, just get it done, type installation and everything worked perfectly.

This time I carefully installed and re-installed three times and I always had KDE freeze at that start services window.

So, what do you think? Is there some problem with my sound card? Why would KDE freeze because of a sound server problem?

Thanks for the help, jimbo

More of a brute force and ignorance sort of helper I'm afraid, for more technical problems or the eternal verities I'm afraid you need a higher class sort of thinker.

However your sound card is probably OK, and anyway there is always ALSA.

Try a few sound type things in KDE and if they work there is no need to worry.

Samac