I just wanted to add this to the forum in hopes that someone else will benefit from this thread.

After upgrading to KDE 3.4.1, and making no known configuration changes I noticed that I had a strange problem with the new desktop.
After about 4 or 5 minutes of inactivity ( no mouse or keyboard use ) the desktop would freeze. Whatever process was running, continued to run. However, the screen refused to update. Even the Clock down in the kicker window didn't update itself.

I thought this was just some nagging problem , maybe due to my neglect or choice of update method, and decided to just live with the problem. That is until I logged in as root the other day, and noticed the problem was not present.

So, today I check out my desktop settings, and discover that in my screen saver settings, the checkbox was selected to start a screensaver after 5 minutes of inactivity, but no screensaver was selected to start. I assume that I may have poked around there and inadvertently selected the checkbox myself, but hadn't made any choice of screensaver.

Therefore, KDE would see the time lapse but since there was no screensaver to start, the desktop would appear to be frozen. As I said before, moving the mouse, would return the desktop to the current state.


Talk about making someone feel like a


Anyway, the problem isn't hard to duplicate, and like I said at the beginning, I hope this helps - even if it's not earth shattering.


(hahaha - at least my clock updates without playing with my mouse)

(Replying to stop this being bumped as an unsolved problem)

Always useful - KDE has plenty of little quirks to get your head round, so we can add this one to the list.