I have tried a complete new install of 11.4 and 12.1 formatting both root and home both times, the problem is that after the install everything looks great (icons desktop etc) and everything works. But after a while the desktop graphics go bad! The Icons do not form properly They sometimes are cut in half with the right side on the left, sometimes have lines through them.
///Home/steve/Documents/snapshot4.png
(Hope the pic comes out in the post)
The graphics card is nVidia G98 (GeForce 8400 GS) and the driver is Nouveau. I cannot get the nVidia driver to work
Any Idea’s would be great.
edit: ok I also need some help on how to get the image into the post
With regard to nVidia driver, with the 12.1 install I got it to run with the same result ie broken icons, but the machine would randomly freeze. After much googling and reading it seems as if this freezing is related to kernel 3.xxx and my patience ran out. Since this new machine is intended to replace my old 11.3 work machine, I decided to rather install 11.4 with the older more stable kernel. so to see the same desktop problem is quiet disappointing.
With the 11.4 install I could not get X to start after the nVidia driver was installed.
The problem does not seem to be there if I start in safe mode.
I don’t think any idea is great. “But after a while” … “sometimes” , “sometimes”. Is this right after the same clean install? Is it OK after every reboot, then degrades? If so, my 2 cents are on a videocard that’s about to give up.
Some things you could do to see what happens:
Run the live CD for a couple of hours, see if the problem shows up
Connect the monitor to another computer, see if it’s OK there
Try another videocard (BTW I’ve never seen so many issues reported as on the 8400 GS, I had two of them, both dead).
After reverting back to 11.4 the first time /home was not formatted and the bad screen was there, I then installed again and formatted /home. I have tried removing .kde4 folder from home that results in a clean desktop (expected) but after a while the icons change.
I’d seriously consider trying a different graphics card.
I’ve seen them do some funny things.
My Son had one go flaky on him: It worked in Linux but not in Windows
We went round the houses a bit before we pulled my card and tried it in his machine. Then he decided to buy a new one.
As earlier posts indicate this problem is completely random, I am inclined to think, (agree) graphics card. I noticed yesterday that the issue seems to happen after the machine has been on for a while. When I started up yesterday morning everything was fine and I had the machine on all day before I started getting corrupt icons. Possibly heat is an issue. anyhow I will get my hands on another card and try it later today and see if that resolves the problem.
I think these icons are held in in a file somewhere and not new ones. I have noticed that when I hover the mouse over a broken Icon it changes to a correct icon, this however does not happen with all broken Icons.
We removed all the plasma-desktop settings to a folder OldPlasmaFiles in your homedir
Now, hit Ctrl+D to jump back to login prompt
Hit Ctrl+Alt+F7 to return to the graphical login screen
Login with username and password and you’ll logon to a default KDE desktop. Don’t worry, your program settings etc will remain.
Please let us know if this improves things.
Of interest when I logged back in moving the plasma files, the desktop was exactly as before, I had expected a new blank desktop. I have previously tried removing completely the /.kde4 and restarting this results in a blank desktop which has to be populated again.
The desktop icons however seem fine, the problem is the icons in the different programs (circled in red in the snapshot)
