[NTLUG:Discuss] DCOP server & KDE 3.

[MadHat]

On Wed, 2002-11-06 at 19:15, Steve Baker wrote:
> 
> I recently upgraded a number of machines at work and at home to SuSE 8.0,
> using KDE 3.
> 
> Initially, all the systems worked OK - but now I'm getting plagued by
> something called the 'dcopserver' which the KDE startup mechanism
> claims isn't running.
> 
> I'll log in, the KDE progress meter thingy pops up - and then about
> a second later there is a dialog box complaining about the dcop server
> being dead and telling me about a file called /home/{username}/.DCOPserver_{machinename}_:0
> 
> The first couple of times, I managed to get the system to run by removing all vestiges
> of this file - and then rebooting - but this doesn't seem to be very reliable as a
> mechanism and it's a pain in the posterior.
> 
> This doesn't seem to be a SuSE-specific problem - I've also seen it on a Gentoo Linux
> box.
> 
> Can anyone shed any light on what's happening?

We have discussed what DCOP is before, check the archive for links with
more info.  Basically it is a process that manages interprocess
communication for the KDE apps.  Sounds like the one that came with your
distro might be buggy, I recommend checking for updates.  The file
mentioned is a FIFO or a pipe type file that allows other programs to
use it as a pointer to the DCOP program itself.  If the DCOP program
dies it leaves the empty pointer (basically points to nothing).  It
shouldn't cause real problems, as long as DCOP starts back up (it will
create a new pointer when it starts back up).  You should just be able
to delete the file and then exit and restart KDE to get rid of any
problems.  I have not seen this issue in KDE3 on my boxes, but had
problems like that in 2 for a while.  Like I said, check for updates. 
Other than that....  don't know.

-- 
MadHat at Unspecific.com
"Anyone who understands Linux/Unix, really understands the universe.
 Anyone who understands Windows, really understands Windows."
          - Richard Thieme, DefCon 10, 2002