[Bug 46682] ksplash hangs on initializing system services sometimes if "Start with an empty session" is enabled

[Mark Jenkins]

Public bug reported:

Binary package hint: ksplash

ksplash in Dapper is hanging sometimes at "initializing system
services".

This only happens if "Start with an empty session" from the Session
Manager settings (in KDE Components in System Settings) is the choice
for "On Login". The hang can be skipped by clicking. The underlying
startup process continues as normal during the hang, if you wait long
enough through the hang and then click, a fully ready desktop
environment will be ready. Top doesn't reveal any abnormal cpu or memory
usage.

The hang occurs more often when my cpu is clocked at 600MHz, and less
often at 1.5GHz. I haven't seen it happen when using KDM instead of GDM
at the higher clock rate. At the lower clock rate it doesn't matter
which display manager is being used. The bug is potentially a race
condition.

The hang ends after about 60 seconds on both cpu speeds. The icons after
"initializing system services" don't light up after the hang ends, the
desktop just appears.

I've seen this bug on multiple computers with different graphics
chipsets, in all cases using only the free graphic drivers from main.
I've been able to replicate this on new clean accounts with only the "On
Login" session restore setting changed. I've seen this happen to both
the kde default splash and kde  wheat. In all cases the latest packages
from Dapper were in use.

Sometimes a small white rectangle appears in the top left corner right
after the hang begins.

At high clock rates I have sometimes seen the desktop that you would
expect to see after the splash screen appear first, followed by the
hanging splash screen.

** Affects: kdebase (Ubuntu)
       Severity: Normal
       Priority: (none set)
         Status: Unconfirmed

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ksplash hangs on initializing system services sometimes if "Start with an empty session" is enabled
https://launchpad.net/bugs/46682