User:Skierpage

I've followed the project for a while, running KDE-Windows under Windows XP (it's amazing that it works at all, that it works pretty well is astounding!)

April 2009 I went and installed Kubuntu on a spare partition. Lots of struggle, documented here.

I then overwrite the first GB of my hard drive, oops, details on that repair at /Disk recovery; the Windows part of it is at /Windows reinstall.

Setup

I've maintained a dual-boot environment, so I mount my C: drive:

/dev/sda1 on /media/WindowsCdrive type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096)

Notes on Kubuntu installation

Here are my notes on Kubuntu installation Notes on Amarok at http://amarok.kde.org/wiki/User:Skierpage

Boot from CD

• Should be a warning that test disk will require a reboot

Install from CD

• The Kubuntu logo screen should say what it's doing.

  "Now loading enough of the Kubuntu operating system and programs to provide you a graphic installer. (Nothing is yet being installed on your disks"

• Install progress bar got about 70% of the way then got some screen flickers and then over 30 seconds with a blank gray screen.

In the installer

• The installer should remind me what the hell it is (AMD64 & Intel EM64T). That would help me in Ubuntu installation guide https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/installation-guide/ to choose the right "architecture of your computer"

Release Notes and web

Running Konqueror to read the release notes is amazing!

• Clicking Release Notes takes me to http://www.kubuntu.org/news. But this has nothing about 9.04 release notes!! It has a news item on 9.04, but that's it.

• The news item ends with

  What's New?

 Kubuntu 9.04 includes an upgraded desktop containing many bug fixes, new configuration options, as well as many new and updated applications. Below are some highlights.
 some white space
 Kubuntu Jaunty KDE 3 Remix Release Candidate

There's no indication that the item is truncated or that there's more info if I click the heading.

• In https://wiki.kubuntu.org/ , the [Titles] and [Text] buttons at the top right for search look funny, with rounded buttons over rectangles with lines. And if the tip of the cursor is on the button text, the button doesn't highlight and is inactive; the button only highlights if the cursor tip is in the top 1/3 of the button,

Back to installer

• The full-screen "Where are you" is impressive. But when I click in the San Francisco Bay Area, it keeps selecting the timezone to the right of it! It seems to be picking the nearest city it knows about (Boise), rather than selecting that timezone. Quite confusing. If you're going to keep this approach, it should highlight the nearest cities as you hover, or always select the nearest city in the same timezone. I can only select my timezone if I click far away near Vancouver or Los Angeles!!

• I chose my Keyboard Layout and clicked [Forward]. A small dialog about filesystems briefly flashed and [Back] and [Forward] disabled. Then nothing. My cursor is not spinning, and the page 3 is active, I can type into the test typing box. What happened??! After more than 50 seconds of this no feedback, it advanced to Step 4.

• In Step 4 I chose partition manually. A small Scanning partitions window appeared for several seconds (didn't it already display this earlier?) That box had a (?) symbol on it with a "Help" tooltip, but it is completely useless, in this dialog and the next "Edit Partition" there's no

Partitioning

I want to keep my first partition for Windows. I had already set aside a 27GB D: partition for Ubuntu. Automatic partitioning wanted to use the entire disk for Ubuntu!

• there needs to be an intermediate "guided partitioning"

So I chose manual partitioning, but that dumps me into choosing file systems and stuff. I read up about home and swap and dual-booting before going into the installer, but I really need help here. Like the _Release Notes_ link at the start of install, there should be a link to a some help here.

I clicked my second partition and the 'Edit Partition' dialog popped up (with another useless (?) help cursor button). I chose "Use as ext4", Format the partition check, Mount point /

• "Use as" is the wrong label, it doesn't match the table column "Type" on the main page; the label should be something like "File system type"
• Having a separate checkmark for format doesn't make sense if I choose a different file system type. If it's NTFS and I set it to ext4, surely the partition needs to be formatted sooner or later.
• I would expect a form item "Use as" to let me choose what is going on the partition, e.g. "Use as main Linux area ('/' or root)", "use as home area (/home directories), etc." That's a lot friendlier than the label "Mount point"

• When I clicked [OK] there was a pause and a cursor and then scanning drives appeared, and then the main window showed "Type" ext4. Had the program formatted the partition yet? It could be clearer.

• I couldn't figure out how to create logical partitions inside my D: partition. Adjusting the size gave me a scary warning about making immediate changes; are these destructive or not?!

• I read https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/installation-guide/amd64/partitioning.html but it didn't make sense in the context of the installer. E.g. https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/installation-guide/amd64/partition-programs.html mentions several partitioning programs, but I'm in a graphical installer, what the heck is it running?

Thankfully user "Firefishe" helped me out, I wound up with

/dev/sda divided into...
  /dev/sda1  ntfs  83.8 GB hopefully untouched
  /dev/sda2 ext3 / Format? checked Size 20003 MB Used 495MB
  /dev/sda3 ext4 /home Format? checked Size 7994 MB Used Unknown
  /dev/sda5 swap mount and Format blank, Size 2006 MB Used Unknown

Step 6 confirmation

 WARNING: This will destroy all data on any partitions you have removed as

well as on the partitions that are going to be formatted.

 The partition tables of the following devices are changed:
 SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda)

 The following partitions are going to be formatted:
 partition #3 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda) as ext4
 partition #5 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda) as swap

Alas, "Migration Assistant:" is blank, it never detected my C: drive full of Windows stuff.

Scared about the missing sda4, so went back.

Clicking [Back] from step 5 briefly displayed a checking disks window, and then nothing for many seconds.

Step 4 had forgotten my additional partitioning after the root, I had to repeat it.

redo

The /dev/sda5 was because I let it be logical, not physical.

Now,

 /dev/sda1  ntfs  Size 90025 MB (83.8 GB) hopefully untouched
 /dev/sda2 ext3 Mount / Format? checked  Size 20003 MB Used 495 MB
 /dev/sda3 ext4 Mount /home Format? checked  Size 8003 MB Used unknown
 /dev/sda4 swap Mount [blank] Format? [blank] Size 1998 MB Used unknown

Step 6 says

Language: English
Keyboard layout: USA
Name: S Page
Login name: skierpage
Location: America/Los_Angeles
Migration Assistant:

If you continue, the changes listed below will be written to the disks. Otherwise, you will be able to make further changes manually.

WARNING: This will destroy all data on any partitions you have removed as well as on the partitions that are going to be formatted.

The partition tables of the following devices are changed: SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda)

The following partitions are going to be formatted: partition #2 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda) as ext3 partition #3 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda) as ext4

partition #4 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda) as swap

Then went off!

User Firefishe is awesome!!

Who needs decent doc for this step with him or her around!

firefishe @ inbox.com

Kubuntu glitches

Konqueror

• kde bug filed "The [Icon] History in your SideBar "

  I can't tell what the icon is in the black background, and the menu calls it Go > Show History in Sidebar (not 'SideBar).

• I ran into Bug 189761: Middle-clicking does not work in Konqueror if gestures are enabled.

Kubuntu Help

• "Open Add/Remove Programs by going to Application Launcher → System → Package Manager (Add/Remove)."
  1. I have to navigate to the Applications tab first before I see "System"
  2. No such application, it's "Software management (KPackageKit)"
• bug 367224 In Kubuntu System Documentation Index, click "How do I view my Windows partition?", get

  There is no documentation available for /kubuntu/index/kubuntu/hardware/hardware.html.

• bug 367219 Tried to search, nothing but a black box (checkmark?) for Unix manual pages, the installer should have built search index.
• Clicking Build Search Index... didn't work, brought up a dialog with another checkmark "Application Manuals Status Missing"
  • Status missing mis-aligned.
• bug 367215 Clicking build anyway, got error

(7729)/ main: cmdFile: "/tmp/kde-skierpage/khelpcenterqp4796.tmp" (7729)/ main: indexDir: "/home/skierpage/.kde/share/apps/khelpcenter/index/" (7729)/ main: can access (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::IndexBuilder: IndexBuilder() (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::buildIndices: Opened file ' "/tmp/kde-skierpage/khelpcenterqp4796.tmp" ' (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::buildIndices: LINE: "/usr/lib/kde4/libexec/khc_docbookdig.pl --indexdir=/home/skierpage/.kde/share/apps/khelpcenter/index/ --docpath=khelpcenter:kde_application_manuals --identifier=kde_application_manuals" (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::processCmdQueue: IndexBuilder::processCmdQueue() (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::processCmdQueue: PROCESS: "/usr/lib/kde4/libexec/khc_docbookdig.pl --indexdir=/home/skierpage/.kde/share/apps/khelpcenter/index/ --docpath=khelpcenter:kde_application_manuals --identifier=kde_application_manuals"

INDEXDIR: /home/skierpage/.kde/share/apps/khelpcenter/index/

FINDCMD: find /usr/share/doc/kde/HTML/en/ -name index.docbook Creating index for 'kde_application_manuals'

htdig failed

(7729)/: running ("/usr/lib/kde4/libexec/khc_docbookdig.pl", "--indexdir=/home/skierpage/.kde/share/apps/khelpcenter/index/", "--docpath=khelpcenter:kde_application_manuals", "--identifier=kde_application_manuals") failed with exitCode 255 (7729)/: stdout output: "" (7729)/: stderr output: "" (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::sendProgressSignal: IndexBuilder::sendProgressSignal()

(7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::processCmdQueue: IndexBuilder::processCmdQueue() (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::quit: IndexBuilder::quit()

I think because /usr/bin/htdig does not exist.

KPackageKit

• Didn't know about Firefox, unlike what the Kubuntu help said
• Clicking its bottom-left [Help] button popped up Help Center which alerted

  Kioslaves > mbox "The file or folder help:/ does not exist"

InstallingSoftware out-of-date

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingSoftware says "Kubuntu's new and easy method of installing packages is to use the 'Add/Remove Programs' tool." with a screenshot of "adept"

Not there any more! adept not around.

Flash install

Went to flash page, http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ , Konq popped up dialog asking if it should install plugin. Installed a lot of things. But still didn't work. dpkg and aptitude and KPackageKit thought I had flashplugin-installer, flashplugin-nonfree, and konqueror-nsplugins installed, yet no Flash in Konqueror. I quit and restarted, still none.

Answer! After everything auto-installs, you have to do Settings > Configure Konqueror... > Plugins > Plugins tab and click [Scan for Plugins] !

No sound in Flash

E.g. ftp://www.skierpage.com/www.skierpage.com/docs/olpc/flash_tests/embed_car_smash.html

Dog on internet recommended web page with alsa-oss. That didn't help.

aplay -vv /usr/share/sounds/k3b_success1.wav showed the problem, it uses the wrong sound device, my Via chip and not Audigy2 sound card (I edited http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/TroubleShooting to add a section on test playing.)

Pages say "This sucks, use udev rules to fix this" Udev hurts. djktar suggested asoundconf

 asoundconf list

shows V8237 and Audigy2 and asoundconf set-default-card Audigy2 made aplay work, and after I exited and restarted Konq, sound played in Flash!

/usr/bin/package-install

I think Konqueror is popping up /usr/bin/package-install.

• ? How can I find a log of what this did? I don't see a history in KPackageKit (Launchpad bug 371917 filed)
  A: Consult /var/log/dpkg.log
• BUG: kdesudo "/usr/bin/install-package --install NoSUCHFoo"
  no such package NoSUCHFoo , but the dialog says "already installed"

logout thingy

I pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del, got a logout chooser, but I couldn't choose Cancel with mouse or keyboard. I finally started killing processes at random in a shell.

MP3 install

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats suggests `sudo apt-get install kubuntu-restricted-extras` to play MP3s. says 51 newly installed packages/221 MB, seems a lot just to play MP3s in Amarok.

Answer! The minimal is `sudo apt-get install libxine1-ffmpeg`, only 8MB!

KHelp Center

• Clicking KInfoCenter >IEEE 1394 Devices gives

  There is no documentation available for /kinfocenter/view1394/index.html.

and an alert "The file or folder help:/kinfocenter/view1394/index.html does not exist"

• Clicking "Browse Info Pages" takes you to DIR:top with nonsensical instructions like "Typing "q" exits, "?" lists all Info commands, "d" returns here,"

• help:/khelpcenter/userguide/kicker-configuring.html seems out-of-date:
  • Says "kicker displays some icons next to the K menu. ", but I just have a starred folder icon.
  • Says "To remove an icon, right mouse button-click on the icon, and select Remove application name Button " but the starred folder icon's right-click menu has "Remove this Quick Access"
  • Says "To add a new icon, right mouse button-click on an empty space on the panel, and follow the menu entry Add Application to Panel ." but ther's no empty space, I couldn't do it. Even when there is empty space, there's no such menu item.
• help:/khelpcenter/userguide/kicker-related-information.html says "there is a lot more information on Kicker ... simply entering help:/kicker" But this doesn't work, no such document.

Jockey hardware drivers window crash

367265

ubuntu.com

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Video says

You can back it up:

  cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.old

doesn't work unless you prepend sudo

Font trouble

Click System Settings > Font Installer right-click "AR PL UMing TW MBE", choose Open in Font Viewer", get alert

 Could not read font.

also for other fonts like "AR PL UMing HK[1]

Tried Running KPackageKit

No Firefox in it, despite what KHelpCenter says.

Tried vim. Very confused by + and minus signs. The moment I clicked OK the window vanished, no feedback.

Seele's blog post about its update tab has more comments on it, including mine.

Missing Help

I explored why broken help for KInfoCenter > IEEE 1394 shows up in KHelpCenter. (see /usr/share/kde4/services/kcmview1394.desktop ). Part of mega launchpad bug about docs, https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/284915

Sometimes Help button for KDE Connection Manager

But why does e.g kcmshell4 kcmsolidproc have a [Help] button that doesn't work (goes to help:/ which doesn't work), while `kcmshell4 kcm_solid` knows to gray it out?

Something deep within http://lxr.kde.org/source/KDE/kdelibs/kutils/kcmultidialog.cpp ? KPageDialog ?

strace woes

I tried using strace to debug the KCM mysteries but it kept crashing on me.

 *** glibc detected *** strace: malloc(): memory corruption (fast): 0x0000000002642610 ***  

is another launchpad bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/16762, with possible workaround in bugs.redhat

but sometimes get

 *** glibc detected *** strace: munmap_chunk(): invalid pointer: 0x00000000008107d0

Thunderbird switch

I want to run Thunderbird 3 beta 2 on Windows XP.

• Download the Linux version from http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/early_releases/downloads/
• Read http://tuxicity.wordpress.com/2007/01/24/install-native-mozilla-thunderbird-20-beta-2-on-ubuntu/ for different advice on where to put it.
• Use ark to unpack it to ~/programs
• In theory, ln -s /media/WindowsCdrive/Documents\ and\ Settings/S\ Page/Application\ Data/Thunderbird/Profiles ~/.thunderbird should work to pick up my old profile. But each Thunderbird instance uses a different prefix for profiles like li37qyx.default, so one doesn't find the other.
• Instead run thunderbird -P, click [Create Profile], navigate to Windows profile and open it.

WORKS!! All my old mail.

Thunderbird 3 start-up errors

(thunderbird-bin:32711): Gtk-WARNING **: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libqtcurve.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
GConf Error: Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details -  1: Could not send message to gconf daemon: The name org.gnome.GConf was not provided by any .service files)

but it seems to start.

Thunderbird 3 can't read or send mail

Reading and sending don't work, get can't connect to pop.earthlink.net. Error console says

 Failed to load XPCOM component: /home/skierpage/programs/thunderbird/components/libmozgnome.so

but I do have that component.

I asked on MozillaZine forums. This bug seems to be Mozilla bug 480529

missing components?

Seems like I just need a few missing 32-bit components and this will work.

• Look at ubuntuzilla (won't install a beta).
• Maybe https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FirefoxAMD64FlashJava

Or install a 64-bit version:

• Used to be an Aussie providing 64-bit builds, not any more.

• Try using `ldd`to see what it's missing

cd ~/programs/thunderbird
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd`
ldd components/libmozgnome.go | grep found
       libgnomevfs-2.so.0 => not found
       libgnome-2.so.0 => not found

I have all kinds of gnome/GTK stuff in /usr/lib32 , I think I just need to install these.

Thunderbird 64-bit

Finally found it, the Thunderbird QA test day blog post mentions a "PPA" at https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-daily/+archive/ppa that has a 64-bit TB3 nightly for Jaunty.

Firefox 3 beta 4

Same thing: download it, open with Ark, extract to ~/programs, try running it, get the same warnings about libqtcurve and GConf but it appears fine, but when I try to connect to a website, I get errors, and Error Console has

Failed to load XPCOM component: /home/skierpage/programs/firefox/components/libnkgnomevfs.so
Failed to load XPCOM component: /home/skierpage/programs/firefox/components/libmozgnome.so

likewise, ldd shows these need libgnomevfs-2.so.0 and libgnome-2.so.0.

This Firefox 32-bit problem might be bug 435042, that has "suggested installing 32-bit SSL libraries", but libssl3.so is built-in to Thunderbird/Firefox.

Firefox 64-bit

The solution for Firefox is to skip the beta and go straight to http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/ which has an x86_64 build. Download and run, it works fine! To use my existing Windows profile start it with -P option and create a new 3.2 profile and click to navigate to my Windows Firefox profile directory. All my bookmarks and extensions appear!

getlibs for 32-bit problems

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=474790 says "Automatically solves dependencies for 32-bit programs on 64-bit". Install it (just a single program in /usr/bin), modify all its cp copies to use -i to prompt before destroying.

 /usr/bin/getlibs --verbose libgnome-2.so.0

gets libgnome-2 package and copies just libgnome-2.so.0 in /usr/lib32. Repeated for libgnomevfs-2.so.0, but 32-bit Firefox and Thunderbird don't run any better.

Repeated ldd and it complained about libavahi-glib.so.1, installed that, still no progress. strace showed lack of libgnomeui-2.so. Installed that, no progress. I'm still getting the gconf error on start-up, maybe that needs to be addressed.

This for Lotus Notes lists a ton more libs to install to lib32

Display, display corruption

Sometimes parts of windows get corrupted. Especially Konqueror. Sometimes resizing fixes.

Display driver (RESOLVED, no issues)

I have an ATI 9800 Pro, according to `lspci` it's a Radeon 350 chip. There's a "Hardware" applet that runs a "jockey" utility that says I have no proprietary drivers and displays two blank panes (useless!).

Turns out (see forum thread) that the version of ATI's proprietary fglrx driver for Kubuntu 9.04 doesn't support earlier hardware! I have to use one of the open source ATI drivers, xf86-video-ati or xf86-video-radeonhd together with Mesa. http://www.x.org/wiki/radeon is probably the best explanation of the two drivers.

/etc/X11/xorg.conf has nothing specific. Someone suggested looking at /var/log/Xorg.0.log, which reveals

Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//radeon_drv.so
        compiled for 1.6.0, module version = 6.12.1

I think the xf86-video-ati driver is the best fit with my R350 Radeon 9800 Pro. I think radeon_drv.so seems to be the video-radeon driver, xserver-xorg-video-radeon, also at version 6.12.1. http://www.x.org/wiki/radeon says "Part of xf86-video-ati, ie. also known as the ”ati” driver." Jesus this is so f***ing confusing.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver says how to install it.

in Kubuntu 9.10

Much the same, according to /var/log/Xorg.0.og ati_drv.so, radeon_drv.so, version 6.12.99 get loaded, then later dri/r300_dri.so

display drivers and 3D

2010-03-12 I keep reading about "Gallium3D" awesomeness from Zack Rusin's blog posts aggregated on http://planet.freedesktop.org After some sleuthing:

• Mesa 7.5 integrated the Gallium3D infrastructure, Kubuntu 9.10 has liglu-mesa, libgl-mesa-dri, libgl-mesa-glx all at 7.6.0)
• But the Radeon r300 driver doesn't use it yet. There's an "r300g" driver in development, see X.org's GalliumStatus and RadeonFeature
• Maybe if I force 3D software rendering (export LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1) I'm using Gallium3D
• Kubuntu 9.10 isn't using KMS mode-setting and other cool stuff see the feature tree anyway.

Use export LIBGL_DEBUG=1;glxgears -info to see what's going on. THe good news is it normally uses Mesa DRI to talk to my R350 card and gets high FPS -- "17500 frames in 5.0 seconds"

Display glitches on resume from suspend

I think with the KDE 4.3.1 packages, I got a default login screen.

On that, after I resume from suspend, the screen around the password dialog often appears in a groovy mottled pattern. Sounds like Launchpad bug #272969

Sometimes no video on LCD after resume from suspend

I filed launchpad bug #425968 Sounds a bit like Launchpad bug #339336.

TODO:

Next time it happens, I should boot from CD and look at the logs like /var/log/pm-suspend.log. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Quirks#ATI%20AGP%20Mode%20Quirk and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingKernelSuspendHibernateResume

Need to run https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/SuspendResume

Test session

I pressed power button Sept. 8 at 04:30am, went into suspend. Next day around 1pm, pressed power button but also pressed the arrow keys a lot. System appeared to hang (d'oh, did I have power off??!). So rebooted into Kubuntu Live CD and mounted partitions.

cat var/lib/pm-utils/status

suspend

var/lib/pm-utils/resume-hang.log

several days old, lists a bunch of processes from days ago

var/log/pm-suspend.log

timestamp dates from my suspend, but the last lines in it are:

 Save video state failed
 success.
 /etc/pm/sleep.d/action_wpa suspend suspend: success.
 Tue Sep  8 04:38:40 PDT 2009: performing suspend

I couldn't find any files in var newer than the suspend time. ??!

While in LiveCD I tried sudo test-suspend --server from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/SuspendResume. System suspended, but never came back! I had to press the power button and then it came back fine. Logs are in ~/debugging/test-suspend_manual_resume/ . I reproted the failure in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/SuspendResumeTesting/Feedback

Lockups

So far in a week I've had two complete lockups. No cursor tracking, no keys work. I have to hold down the power switch. WTF!?

Screeching noises

If I do anything else while Flash is playing sound, it screeches. 64-bit Flash, 64-bit browser. I tried asoundconf set-pulseaudio but that stopped sound from working, got

% aplay -v -v /usr/share/sounds/k3b_success1.wav 
ALSA lib pulse.c:272:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused 

Hmm? Next steps are to try with Konqueror, maybe try my built-in sound instead of fancy Audigy card, maybe try PCI tricks.

Wrote all this up

It's on my blog FIXME

Disaster, I trashed it all!

Following the dangerous instructions at rawhide-XO FIXME, I overwrote my hard drive whenI meant to overwrite my Secure Digital flash card. More nightmare at /Disk recovery.

Sound problems again

2009-12-26, just after Christmas, sound stopped working in vlc and Flash and aplay -vv /usr/share/sounds/k3b_success1.wav

• Still works in System Settings > Multimedia and Amarok.
• Still works if I name a device with aplay -D 'front:CARD=Audigy2,DEV=0' /usr/share/sounds/k3b_success1.wav

So something in the default Alsa-PulseAudio layers is messed up.

pactl/pacmd stat says "Default Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_0d.0.analog-stereo which is my Audigy2 card.  ?!??? http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/TroubleShooting all seems OK, alsamixer looks OK, http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/CLI doesn't help. WTF??!

My last updates in /var/log/dpkg.log were thunderbird and "mountall", ureadahead, and man-db. Earlier was vlc 1.02, libc-bin, but I'm pretty sure I played sounds back then.

Solution: remove PulseAudio

There's no evidence of a PulseAudio install in /var/log/dpkg.log* at all. Maybe it got installed when I tried to get Sugar-jhbuild (the Sugar UI is developed on Fedora and so requires a lot of stuff that isn't in Kubuntu).

aptitude why shows pulseaudio was pulled in as an optional package by gnome-desktop or something. aptitude remove pulseaudio warned about removing 12 mystery packages with {u} after their names as well as a few pulseaudio glue packages. So I removed pulseaudio and pulseaudio-utils in KPackageKit, KPackageKit warned about removing just some other pulseaudio glue, I let it remove them, and now sound is fine!

Firefox early exit

See /Firefox early exit