Comment 34 for bug 70240

I just changed wallpapers (Kubuntu 8.04 with KDE 3.5.x). After the new wallpaper was used (4 MB in size!), I kept getting the above error and my desktop icons weren't displayed. After I replaced the huge wallpaper with a smaller one, everything went back to normal. This behaviour is just what I would expect (see my post above). I think there is some race condition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_condition) that has so many inputs that it almost isn't possible to predict which one(s) cause(s) the error.

Workaround for all people having this issue:
1. Remove all removable drives from their trays/slots/interface
2. Change display settings: No/small wallpaper, small (but still usable) screen resolution
3. Make sure your network is up before kdm is started

And the error won't happen