hi installed kubuntu kde 4.1 packages as instructed on their website and now i have no desktop and a segfault

[Jonah]

i have no panels, taskbars, wallpaper or anything, just a grey screen. having to press alt-f2 to get firefox up to report this, here's the backtrace. please help quick:

[KCrash handler]
#5 0x00007f5a0d502db6 in QAction::setVisible () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#6 0x00007f59fec2f26e in ?? ()
   from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/kde4/plasma_applet_launcher.so
#7 0x00007f5a0f4f44b0 in Plasma::Applet::flushPendingConstraintsEvents ()
   from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/libplasma.so.2
#8 0x00007f5a0e772d35 in QObject::event () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#9 0x00007f5a0da5037b in QGraphicsWidget::event ()
   from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#10 0x00007f5a0d50754f in QApplicationPrivate::notify_helper ()
   from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#11 0x00007f5a0d50c125 in QApplication::notify () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#12 0x00007f5a0f07abd1 in KApplication::notify ()
   from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/libkdeui.so.5
#13 0x00007f5a0e764109 in QCoreApplication::notifyInternal ()
   from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#14 0x00007f5a0e78f3dc in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#15 0x00007f5a0e78cf4d in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#16 0x00007f5a092083d4 in g_main_context_dispatch ()
   from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#17 0x00007f5a0920b6e5 in ?? () from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#18 0x00007f5a0920bbcb in g_main_context_iteration ()
   from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#19 0x00007f5a0e78d3af in QEventDispatcherGlib::processEvents ()
   from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#20 0x00007f5a0d59072f in ?? () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#21 0x00007f5a0e763585 in QEventLoop::processEvents ()
   from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#22 0x00007f5a0e7636db in QEventLoop::exec () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#23 0x00007f5a0ccf9b74 in KIO::NetAccess::enter_loop ()
   from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/libkio.so.5
#24 0x00007f5a0ccfa045 in KIO::NetAccess::statInternal ()
   from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/libkio.so.5
#25 0x00007f5a0ccfa5de in KIO::NetAccess::stat ()
   from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/libkio.so.5
#26 0x00007f5a0ccfa68f in KIO::NetAccess::mostLocalUrl ()
   from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/libkio.so.5
#27 0x00007f59ff88008e in ?? ()
   from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/kde4/plasma_applet_icon.so
#28 0x00007f59ff880e50 in ?? ()
   from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/kde4/plasma_applet_icon.so
#29 0x00007f5a0f51f20b in Plasma::Corona::loadLayout ()
   from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/libplasma.so.2
#30 0x00007f5a0f51f33e in Plasma::Corona::initializeLayout ()
   from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/libplasma.so.2
#31 0x00007f5a0fba2582 in ?? () from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/libkdeinit4_plasma.so
#32 0x00007f5a0fba3863 in ?? () from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/libkdeinit4_plasma.so
#33 0x00007f5a0fba3ff2 in ?? () from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/libkdeinit4_plasma.so
#34 0x00007f5a0fb991f9 in kdemain ()
   from /usr/lib/kde4/lib/libkdeinit4_plasma.so
#35 0x00007f5a0f8391c4 in __libc_start_main () from /lib/libc.so.6
#36 0x0000000000400649 in _start ()
#0 0x00007f5a0f8b8b50 in nanosleep () from /lib/libc.so.6

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately we can't fix it, because your description didn't include enough information. You may find it helpful to read "How to report bugs effectively" http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem.

We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures

At a minimum, we need:
1. the specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem (what insrtructions did you follow),
2. the behavior you expected, and
3. the behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).

Also bare in mind that if you have installed an unsupported package and that is causing a crash, you need to report the crash to the provider of that application instead of Launchpad.
Thanks!

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

You could try backing up ~/.kde4/plasma-appletsrc, removing it, and restarting KDE. This should give you clean default plasma settings and determine if a bug in an older version of plasma messed up the config file.