Kwin is unstable

[Dan Falconer]

After upgrading to Kubuntu 9.10, it seems that kwin has become unstable.  I rebooted yesterday--I don't reboot often, preferring to just close the lid and let it hibernate--and immediately got a box stating "kwin is unstable" stating that it crashed several times.  The first time it only gave me the option to "switch" with an option list that contained only kwin.

danf@skittles:~$ systemsettings
danf@skittles:~$ kwin: ../../src/xcb_io.c:542: _XRead: Assertion `dpy->xcb->reply_data != ((void *)0)' failed.                                     
Application::crashHandler() called with signal 6; recent crashes: 1      
KCrash: Application 'kwin' crashing...                                   
kwin: ../../src/xcb_io.c:542: _XRead: Assertion `dpy->xcb->reply_data != ((void *)0)' failed.                                                      
Application::crashHandler() called with signal 6; recent crashes: 2      
KCrash: Application 'kwin' crashing...                                   
kwin: ../../src/xcb_io.c:542: _XRead: Assertion `dpy->xcb->reply_data != ((void *)0)' failed.                                                      
Application::crashHandler() called with signal 6; recent crashes: 1      
kwin: unable to claim manager selection, another wm running? (try using --replace)
KCrash: Application 'kwin' crashing...
kwin: ../../src/xcb_io.c:542: _XRead: Assertion `dpy->xcb->reply_data != ((void *)0)' failed.
Application::crashHandler() called with signal 6; recent crashes: 2
KCrash: Application 'kwin' crashing...
kwin: ../../src/xcb_io.c:542: _XRead: Assertion `dpy->xcb->reply_data != ((void *)0)' failed.
Application::crashHandler() called with signal 6; recent crashes: 3
KCrash: Application 'kwin' crashing...
kwin: ../../src/xcb_io.c:542: _XRead: Assertion `dpy->xcb->reply_data != ((void *)0)' failed.
Application::crashHandler() called with signal 6; recent crashes: 4
KCrash: Application 'kwin' crashing...
Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Clearlooks": Failed to find a valid file for theme Clearlooks

^C
danf@skittles:~$ killall systemsettings
danf@skittles:~$

 I removed then installed, then did a forcible reinstall of kwin, but to no avail.  I did find some pages online (which I can't find anymore) about using a different window manager.  I installed metacity, which initially crashed unexpectedly but then seemed to be pretty stable.  Gnome and Window Maker both work great (though the latter seems to lack a utility for connecting to wireless).

Once again I have been struck with a video driver problem.  I don't know that the issues are related, but I can no longer run any desktop effects or anything.  In case they are related:

danf@skittles:~$ lspci | grep ATI
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M56GL [Mobility FireGL V5200]

As always, any help would be greatly appreciated.  Even insight or pointers would be great.  Thanks in advance!

--
Best Regards,


Dan Falconer
http://CrazedSanity.com || http://www.Buzzkill.org

[Dave McCarty]

There seems to be a lot of issues with ATI this time around. Maybe
something in this thread will be of help to you.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1305349

Dave

[Dan Falconer]

Just an update:

I'm sure I've done a lot of things that have contributed to the fix, but it seems that I've gotten kwin to once again become stable.  After doing some reading this morning, I clicked through some links from news stories regarding Karmic Koala... I found one message that seems to have done the trick.

Something else that I've noticed is that my system is running 2.6.28-16-generic instead of 2.6.31-14-generic... I noticed a running theme in many of the articles about kernel version being tied to the problem, something I'd not thought of before.  Anyway, I'm now running kwin again (instead of metacity) for my window manager.  Still no desktop effects, but at least switching desktops & the CTRL+ALT+ESC thing to kill apps, among other things, works again.