Root Terminal will not launch 15.1/KDE

[julian516]

Maybe a bug?  My Root Terminal will launch the very first time I open it after a new boot.  Thereafter during the same session if I close it and try to launch it again there is a slight screen flicker and the terminal does not launch.  If I either log out or reboot I can repeat that behavior.  It is consistent.  I cannot find anything that would account for the behavior.

Here is an inxi report that will help you see what I am running.

System:    Host: Home03 Kernel: 4.4.0-towo.1-siduction-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.3.1)
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.4.3 (Qt 5.5.1) Distro: siduction 15.1.0 Paint It Black - kde - (201601162135)
Machine:   Mobo: System76 model: Kudu Professional v: kudp1
           Bios: American Megatrends v: 1.00.05RS76 date: 08/15/2013
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-4200M (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 9980
           clock speeds: max: 3100 MHz 1: 2500 MHz 2: 2500 MHz 3: 1123 MHz 4: 1616 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.17.3 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.01hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell Mobile GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.1.1 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Card-2 Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:03.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-towo.1-siduction-amd64
Network:   Card-1: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 04:00.0
           IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e000 bus-ID: 05:00.2
           IF: enp5s0f2 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (25.4% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: HGST_HTS725050A7 size: 500.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 20G used: 5.2G (29%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7
           ID-2: /home size: 19G used: 177M (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda8
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 9.16GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 211 Uptime: 55 min Memory: 1110.9/3878.9MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.3.1
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.421) inxi: 2.2.32

My siduc 15.1/KDE is otherwise stable and working well!  Very nice work by everyone involved and thank you.

[devil]

What is a root terminal with KDE? KDE has konsole that starts out as user and you become root by issuing su and giving your root pw. Then there is yakuake, which works the same way. Both work fine here with latest KDE. So please let us know how you start what and what happens.


greetz
devil

[julian516]

Thank you devil, I can do that.  As you point out both Yakuake and Konsole work just fine, so the Root Terminal is not needed, it is a convenience of sorts.  I decided to report only so that you might know that something might not be quite right.

I just start up siduction and log in as any normal user might.  I next click on Application Menu.  Then I go to System.  From there I click on "Root Terminal" on the list of applications.  It asks for my root password.  I do that and I am running the Root Terminal.  So I do something, let's say "apt-get update" and I close out the terminal.  Now if I try to open that terminal again my screen flickers very briefly but the Root Terminal application does not launch.  I cannot launch it again unless I either log out and back in or I restart 15.1.  Either one of those clears the problem.

OK, so let' go back to that icon and click on "edit application".  If I go to the "application" tab  I see:

"gksu /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator"

I do not program or write scripts at all, but might that command need something that is not there?

If the Root Terminal app & icon were not worth fooling with that would cause me no problem.  Either Konsole or Yakuake works just fine, really.

So this is a small problem.  In my short experience thus far with 15.1 the big things are quit right!  Thank your colleagues for me.

[ayla]

There is a root-terminal in K-Menu->System and I have a similar behavior  too since last update. When started it asks for a password, given it, the screen flickers a few times but nothing else happens. On my system it does also not open the terminal the first time. As said -no big thing...

greets
ayla

[piper]

This is a bug going back to 2013 that does not effect everyone

I am testing things out.

I don't use this package, I am a yak user but checked it out and happens here also.


You will have to  kill the
dbus-launch --autolaunch=<hexbase>
daemon running as root

Then check

 ~root/.dbus/session-bus

How many files are in there ?

if more than one, I had three, delete the 2 oldest, either log out or reboot

I haven't logged out or rebooted yet because I am busy and can't at the moment.

[julian516]

Thank you Piper, I will follow up as soon as I can.  At the moment I am on antiX MX-15 because, following a dist-upgrade, I have lost both keyboard and mouse on my siduction system!  Now there has to be a way to fix that but I have just discovered the problem so I have not had time to think about it.  When I do and I am back in I certainly will follow up.  If anybody else reports this a dist-upgrade warning might be in order?

[devil]

Hm, I never realized there was a root terminal in the KDE image Long time yakuake user, like piper.


greetz
devil

[piper]

I can't get this working, I didn't bookmark the thread I was looking at,  but, found something similar.

  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=712104

[dibl]

following a dist-upgrade, I have lost both keyboard and mouse on my siduction system!
....  If anybody else reports this a dist-upgrade warning might be in order?

You probably lost the two xserver-xorg-input packages along with other xorg packages.  See the warning post in the "Upgrade Warnings" forum above.

[julian516]

Yup exactly right and I did not see the warning.  Lesson learned -- again!  (I learn slowly ....)  OK, looks like I reload and start from there.

Thanks dibl

[dibl]

You're welcome.


I did try the KDE root terminal and it did open the first time, just as you observed, and then failed thereafter until a reboot.  When it came up, I noted that it is KDE's konsole, the same package as the user konsole.  So I would say (a) you found a bona-fide bug, and (b) just open konsole as a user and "su" to root, and you get the same result as if the KDE root terminal worked correctly.

[julian516]

Exactly right the root terminal is not critical, I just thought reporting the malfunction was in order.  I don't think it would bother me at all if it were removed.

Meanwhile I had to do a reinstall of 15.1 in order to get back up but that was not difficult and a good lesson learned about upgrade warnings.

I am about to try Piper's solution for the root terminal bug in order to see if it works.

[julian516]

Piper's possible solution did not work for me, assuming I was able to do it correctly.  I used htop to stop the dbus daemon he indicates and then went into session-bus where I found two files.  I deleted what I took to be the oldest of the two, leaving only one.

Root-Terminal then behaved exactly as it has been behaving, so the fix did not work.

BTW the Debian bug-post Piper referenced seems directly relevant, so the bug is known and not yet repaired, evidently.

The good news is that the Root Terminal is a marginal benefit in the first place.  Given that fact I might just choose to hid it on the menu or remove it altogether.

I suppose we cannot mark this thread as "solved" but we seem to have gone as far with it as we can.

[jaegermeister]

This in konsole or any other term will do fine, also with the bonus of running X apps as root:

alias sux='su -l -c x-terminal-emulator'

[julian516]

No apparent effect jaegermeister, but thank you for sharing.