KDE/Troubleshooting

This article contains various sections to help KDE users troubleshoot their systems.

Opening GUI programs as root when signed in as another user
KDE, along with other desktop environments, include a special command in order to start graphical programs with root privileges. For KDE the command is. It can be used in the following manner:

Be sure to substitute  in the command above with the name of the program. A pop-up window should be displayed containing a text box for the root password. Enter the password and boom: happiness.

Get rid of the KResource Migration Tool pop-up
There have been reports that the KResource Migration Tool pops up on every login. There is no proper solution yet for this, but a workaround is available in.

Rebuilding the application database
If the KMenu lacks any application or the whole application list, the KDE application database probably needs to be rebuilt. This is also a possible fix for any KMenu related issues, like missing icons.

Akonadi complains about the MySQL config
Start by checking the permissions in and. If they're 700, update them to 755 recursively.

If that doesn't solve the error, open the akonadi configuration and change the default MySQL config. If the tray is not running, start, select "Akonadi Server Configuration", activate "Use internal MySQL server" and then press the test button. To use the MySQL server and not the embedded executable, make sure that MySQL is running.

KDM fails to start
Start by checking the permissions in. If they're 700, update them to 755. Check the previous section.

If that doesn't solve the error, check if KDM fails to start with a message like:

If that is the case, uncomment the ServerTimeout line in the file, which can be located on the system as follows:

Be sure to increase the timeout - 60 should work.

Also be sure that the following services are started:

If not, enable them by replacing status with start, and use for every one of them to add them to default runlevel:

Finally, KDM could fail due to errors in xorg.conf. Take a look in the and  logs and fix  accordingly. For additional help, reach out to the Gentoo KDE team on IRC at on Freenode.

The battery applet or solid notifications don't show the relevant info
Make sure to have D-Bus and ConsoleKit running so that the battery applet or other solid notifications can show the relevant info:

If not, enable them by replacing status with start, and use the command for every one of them to add them to default runlevel:

Double-hibernate or crashes after hibernate
KDE 4.6 handles "sleep button" events on its own, and the system correctly hibernates. Disable any other program that would handle these events (such as ) as this might lead to double hibernation and/or system instability.

See also.

Shutdown, reboot, logout does not work
There is some strange interaction between the sound system and the logout mechanism going on. Open the system settings, and disable the "logout sound". Afterwards, logging out will likely work.

See also.

The desktop background covers all windows
In rare cases, after working with several screens the desktop settings are not cleaned up properly. The result is that the desktop background seems to cover all windows. More details plus some manual workarounds can be found in.

See also.

No login possible, hangs at splash screen
After playing with unstable GNOME applications, an incompatibility might come up which results in KDE logon failures as long as  is installed. Unmerge that package to fix the situation.

See also.

Unable to mount devices using KDE Plasma Device Notifier
If the error message "You are not authorized to mount this device." is being displayed when trying to mount devices by clicking them in the KDE Plasma Device Notifier (USB-stick-like icon in the system tray), add the following file to your configurationː

This will allow all users who are members of the plugdev group to mount devices using the Device Notifier.

Use the following command to add users to this groupː

NOTEː a reboot may be required for the changes to take effectǃ