Ugh, Compiz complications

[integr8e]

OK, haven't been in this position in a while: for whatever reason, I cannot open the Compiz configuration manager (Advanced Desktop Effects Settings). When I run the command "ccsm", this is all I recieve:

~$ ccsm
Bus error (core dumped)

I've purged, cleaned, and reinstalled everything compiz related, including the settings manager, but still get the error. A quick investigation in my /var/crash directory revealed a crash report labeled "_usr_bin_ccsm.1000.crash" and dated today. If you're interested, the main part before it goes insane with letters and whatnot describing the actual core dump, looks something like the following:

ProblemType: Crash
Architecture: amd64
CrashCounter: 1
Date: Tue Dec 25 01:30:15 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/ccsm
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.5
NonfreeKernelModules: vmnet vmmon nvidia cdrom
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/ccsm
ProcCwd: /home/[not important ]
ProcEnviron:
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcMaps:
00400000-00521000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 4249649 /usr/bin/python2.5
00720000-00752000 rw-p 00120000 08:06 4249649 /usr/bin/python2.5
00752000-00800000 rw-p 00752000 00:00 0 [heap]
2b853e88e000-2b853e8ab000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 20972286 /lib/ld-2.6.1.so
2b853e8ab000-2b853e930000 rw-p 2b853e8ab000 00:00 0
2b853e930000-2b853e96f000 r--p 00000000 08:06 8511822 /usr/lib/locale/en_US.utf8/LC_CTYPE
2b853e96f000-2b853e976000 r--s 00000000 08:06 29460437 /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache
2b853e977000-2b853e9e9000 rw-p 2b853e977000 00:00 0
2b853eaaa000-2b853eaac000 rw-p 0001c000 08:06 20972286 /lib/ld-2.6.1.so
2b853eaac000-2b853eac2000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 20972303 /lib/libpthread-2.6.1.so
2b853eac2000-2b853ecc1000 ---p 00016000 08:06 20972303 /lib/libpthread-2.6.1.so
2b853ecc1000-2b853ecc3000 rw-p 00015000 08:06 20972303 /lib/libpthread-2.6.1.so
2b853ecc3000-2b853ecc7000 rw-p 2b853ecc3000 00:00 0
2b853ecc7000-2b853ecc9000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 20972292 /lib/libdl-2.6.1.so
2b853ecc9000-2b853eec9000 ---p 00002000 08:06 20972292 /lib/libdl-2.6.1.so
2b853eec9000-2b853eecb000 rw-p 00002000 08:06 20972292 /lib/libdl-2.6.1.so
2b853eecb000-2b853eecd000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 20972308 /lib/libutil-2.6.1.so
2b853eecd000-2b853f0cc000 ---p 00002000 08:06 20972308 /lib/libutil-2.6.1.so
2b853f0cc000-2b853f0ce000 rw-p 00001000 08:06 20972308 /lib/libutil-2.6.1.so
2b853f0ce000-2b853f14e000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 20972293 /lib/libm-2.6.1.so
2b853f14e000-2b853f34d000 ---p 00080000 08:06 20972293 /lib/libm-2.6.1.so
2b853f34d000-2b853f34f000 rw-p 0007f000 08:06 20972293 /lib/libm-2.6.1.so
2b853f34f000-2b853f350000 rw-p 2b853f34f000 00:00 0
2b853f350000-2b853f4a2000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 20972289 /lib/libc-2.6.1.so
2b853f4a2000-2b853f6a1000 ---p 00152000 08:06 20972289 /lib/libc-2.6.1.so
2b853f6a1000-2b853f6a4000 r--p 00151000 08:06 20972289 /lib/libc-2.6.1.so
2b853f6a4000-2b853f6a6000 rw-p 00154000 08:06 20972289 /lib/libc-2.6.1.so
2b853f6a6000-2b853f6ac000 rw-p 2b853f6a6000 00:00 0
2b853f6ac000-2b853f6d7000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 12649485 /usr/lib/python-support/python-gobject/python2.5/gtk-2.0/gobject/_gobject.so
2b853f6d7000-2b853f8d6000 ---p 0002b000 08:06 12649485 /usr/lib/python-support/python-gobject/python2.5/gtk-2.0/gobject/_gobject.so
2b853f8d6000-2b853f8dc000 rw-p 0002a000 08:06 12649485 /usr/lib/python-support/python-gobject/python2.5/gtk-2.0/gobject/_gobject.so
2b853f8dc000-2b853f91e000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 16880461 /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0.1400.1
2b853f91e000-2b853fb1e000 ---p 00042000 08:06 16880461 /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0.1400.1
2b853fb1e000-2b853fb20000 rw-p 00042000 08:06 16880461 /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0.1400.1
2b853fb20000-2b853fb24000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 17095147 /usr/lib/libgthread-2.0.so.0.1400.1
2b853fb24000-2b853fd23000 ---p 00004000 08:06 17095147 /usr/lib/libgthread-2.0.so.0.1400.1
2b853fd23000-2b853fd24000 rw-p 00003000 08:06 17095147 /usr/lib/libgthread-2.0.so.0.1400.1
2b853fd43000-2b853fd4b000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 20972305 /lib/librt-2.6.1.so
2b853fd4b000-2b853ff4a000 ---p 00008000 08:06 20972305 /lib/librt-2.6.1.so
2b853ff4a000-2b853ff4c000 rw-p 00007000 08:06 20972305 /lib/librt-2.6.1.so
2b853ff4c000-2b8540018000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 16880445 /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0.1400.1
2b8540018000-2b8540217000 ---p 000cc000 08:06 16880445 /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0.1400.1
2b8540217000-2b8540218000 rw-p 000cb000 08:06 16880445 /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0.1400.1
2b8540218000-2b8540219000 rw-p 2b8540218000 00:00 0
2b8540219000-2b8540448000 r-xp 00000000 08:06 18069401 /usr/lib/python-support/python-gtk2/python2.5/gtk-2.0/gtk/_gtk.so
2b8540448000-2b8540647000 ---p 0022f000 08:06 18069401 /usr/lib/python-support/python-gtk2/python2.5/gtk-2.0/gtk/_gtk.so
2b8540647000-2b8540694000 rw-p 0022e000 08:06 18069401 /usr/lib/python-support/python-gtk2/python2.5/gtk-2.0/gtk/_gtk.so
7fff6c202000-7fff6c21c000 rw-p 7fff6c202000 00:00 0 [stack]
ffffffffff600000-ffffffffff601000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [vdso]
ProcStatus:
Name: ccsm
State: S (sleeping)
SleepAVG: 87%
Tgid: 17211
Pid: 17211
PPid: 17533
TracerPid: 0
Uid: 1000 1000 1000 1000
Gid: 1000 1000 1000 1000
FDSize: 256
Groups: 4 6 20 24 25 29 30 44 46 104 108 109 115 117 122 124 1000
VmPeak: 32000 kB
VmSize: 32000 kB
VmLck: 0 kB
VmHWM: 3904 kB
VmRSS: 3904 kB
VmData: 1732 kB
VmStk: 104 kB
VmExe: 1156 kB
VmLib: 5620 kB
VmPTE: 72 kB
Threads: 1
SigQ: 0/16372
SigPnd: 0000000000000000
ShdPnd: 0000000000000000
SigBlk: 0000000000000000
SigIgn: 0000000001001000
SigCgt: 0000000180000002
CapInh: 0000000000000000
CapPrm: 0000000000000000
CapEff: 0000000000000000
Cpus_allowed: 03
Mems_allowed: 00000000,00000001
Signal: 7
Uname: Linux kubun2-laptop 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Dec 18 05:28:27 UTC 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip disk floppy kvm lpadmin netdev plugdev powerdev scanner vboxusers video
CoreDump: base64

Edit: Not being a "bug buster", I'm not really sure how to read this, and would appreciate any help anyone can give me.

[integr8e]

Re: Ugh, Compiz complications

Brainstorming here:

Googling around hasn't yet turned up anything relevant to this specific situation, but I did find this bug report describing a similar situation with "nvclock". The solution provided therein is to delete the ~/.nvclock file, but ~/.compiz does not exist (~/.emerald does, however). Cutting to the chase, does anybody know where CF keeps its config files?

[Snowhog]

Re: Ugh, Compiz complications

Try running from a console (from the root directory):
sudo find -name ccs*
sudo find -name compiz*

[integr8e]

Re: Ugh, Compiz complications

Well, that approach didn't get me anywhere; the search turned up two results: ~/.kde/share/config/ccsrc & ~/.config/compiz/. I temporarily moved both of them to my desktop and restarted X. When I logged back in, Compiz recreated the config files as expected, but I still couldn't open ccsm; at least - thanks to your help - I found where Compiz keeps it's config files. Any ideas?

[Snowhog]

Re: Ugh, Compiz complications

What had you done immediately prior to running ccsm and getting the Bus error (core dump)?

[integr8e]

Re: Ugh, Compiz complications

I'm trying to remember; the crash report was 1st created 12/22 (Saturday), and recreated yesterday when I tried to open ccsm. As far as I can remember, all I did was my usual: read some out of Bibletime, put on some music with KMPlayer, and opened Firefox to check my mail and the forum. The last time I opened ccsm was last week, and the error was 1st detected Saturday, so I'm not really sure what happened. I finally broke down and bought a refurbished laptop last week, and it came preinstalled with Vista; Friday and Saturday, my main project was trying to configure my Vista partition to run in a virtual machine from Kubuntu (which I've decided can't be done - I'm going to try to convert my Vista partition into a virtual disk, which I can run from Kubuntu). The main thing I messed with then was VMWare Player/Server, Virtualbox, and I tinkered a little with KVM. Other than that, I don't know...

[integr8e]

Re: Ugh, Compiz complications

I dunno', maybe it's just a fluke occurrence with this particular installation. If I'm successful in converting my Vista partition to a virtual disk, I'm planning on backing up and nuking the whole HDD. That way, I can incorporate the entire hard drive for Kubuntu, and just run virtual machines whenever I want to play around with another system (I kinda' occasionally need Windows for school stuff, but that's really it other than poking around figuring out what does what). I didn't have any problems with CF on my desktop PC, so maybe a new installation will fix them all.

[integr8e]

Re: Ugh, Compiz complications

I'm writing now from my new installation, and everything's working great! I wish I knew what the deal was before, but that's OK (if it happens again, I'll be more determined to get to the bottom of it). Anyway, thanks for all the help you've given me, and thanks for showing me how to use the "find" command.