I am running Slackware 14.2 and KDE. After rebooting a day ago I got a message after the login screen, "HPLIP Status Service / No System tray detected on this system / Unable to start, exiting." I have no idea why this message started appearing. I had not updated any software. After clicking OK, I got a blank screen, nothing.

From the initial login screen I am able to select other window managers, but not KDE or KDE failsafe.

Based on some posts in this and other forums I removed the hplip package (removepkg hplib). I don't really use that anyway. Now, after logging in and the Disk > Tool > World ... "progress" bar finishes, there is no "tray" message, but the screen is completely blank, and stays that way.

ps ax shows a couple of interesting processes:
killing 2190 does nothing.

I have upgraded to the latest Slackware 14.2 and have rebooted, doesn't help.

What is wrong and how do I fix this? I'm stuck unable to get to my desktop.

I don't think this problem is related to hplip. I've removed that. The Problem: after logging in I get a black screen, the cursor moves.

I can get a desktop using e.g. XCFE, but I want to use KDE.

How do I fix this black screen phenomenon with KDE?

Just some thoughts that might help. Have you tried logging to KDE as a different user? There are some files that are saved on log out, some temp files may he hosed up.

You could also try re-installing kde. Its a big hammer, but it could save you some time.

Cliff - thanks for the ideas, but I had already deleted ~/.kde ~/.cache ~/.local ~/.config and when I re-logged in the black screen phenomenon was fixed, but all my settings/favorites were gone. I haven't done anything else yet due to being out of town, but I plan on restoring these as of my backup from before this all happened.