kde4 on 8.3 and laptop

[Brian W.]

On May 29, 2012 10:28 PM, "Gary Aitken" <freebsd at dreamchaser.org> wrote:
>
> On 05/29/12 22:15, Jim Pazarena wrote:
> > I had kde3 running just fine on 8.2 on my laptop.
> >
> > I have now installed 8.3 -and- kde4 on my laptop, and the kde system
> > will not work as expected.
> >
> > when I type kdm (which is at /usr/local/kde4/bin/kdm)
> > I get the expected login screen (however the mouse dies), and after I
login,
> > all I get is a small cli window in the top left corner. The mouse has
gone
> > dead, and the keyboard doesn't respond, altho there is a prompt in the
cli
> > window.
> >
> > All I can do at this point is hold the power button in to reboot.
> > If I do not try running "kdm", the normal cli works 100%, the ethernet
works,
> > and the mouse always seems alive (altho in the cli the mouse is of no
value).
> >
> > Suggestions would be very appreciated.
>
> I don't know about the mouse dieing.  I'm running 9.0 and I've seen that
once or twice when first setting up X.  You don't need to reboot.  Do
<alt><Fn> to switch to a different vty.  Log in on that vty, do a ps to
find the process you used to start kdm, (ps -ax | grep kdm) and kill -TERM
that process.  That should get you back to a regular prompt on the original
vty.  Do <alt><F1> to go back to that screen.
>
> Gary

Ctr-alt-shift-backspace has also killed many a stuck x session.