KDE screen stays blank/black after some idle time

[Christian Schürer-Waldheim]

Binary package hint: kdebase

The KDE desktop just get useless - the screen is totally black, no windows are shown, although the mouse pointer changes if I e.g. move it over an area where an application with a text field should be, it even seems to open yakuake when I press F12. This happens after I leave KDE running idle for a while. I can switch to a VT but killing the X server is the only way to get a running KDE desktop again.

I know that this report doesn't provide a lot of clues since I couldn't find out more than just seeing that the system is unusable.

[Harald Sitter (apachelogger)]

There a lot information which could help here ;-)
What version of Kubuntu?
What version of KDE?
What version of the xserver-xorg package?
What graphics driver/chip?
Do you use any kind of 3D effects on your desktop?

[Christian Schürer-Waldheim (quincunx)]

Version of Kubuntu: 8.10
KDE: 4.1.2
xserver-xorg: 1:7.4~2ubuntu6
Graphic chip + driver: nvidia - nVidia Corporation G72M [Quadro NVS 110M/GeForce Go 7300] (rev a1)
Desktop effects are enabled.

I think that I've found a workaround: I can get a visible screen back when I unplug the power (notebook). Powerdevil then disables desktop effects.

[Scott Kitterman (kitterman)]

powerdevil -> kdebase-workspace since powerdevil is part of core KDE now.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Could you test with KDE 4.2 beta2 if possible? (See: http://www.kubuntu.org/news/kde-4.2-beta-2)

[Christian Schürer-Waldheim (quincunx)]

this problem as described does not occur any more.

Thanks!

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Great! Thanks for testing.