Is there a test suite to find out why multiple graphics programs crash on startup?

[rocksockdoc]

Is it common for multiple graphics programs to crash upon startup (IBM X61 laptop, Ubuntu 10.04)? What do I do about it?

Is there a test suite that can help me identify WHY multiple programs crash upon startup?

Most of my programs (installed using the Ubuntu Software Center) work just fine, e.g.,
- The Gimp 2.6.8
- fotoxx v.8.7
- F-Spot 0.6.1.5
- gpaint 0.3.3
- Inkscape 0.47
- mtPaint 3.31
- Xara Xtreme 0.7
- Xfix 3.2
- XPaint 2.8.13
etc.

But a few others crash immediately upon startup, e.g.,
- KolourPaint
- Krita
- KSnapshot
etc.

Is there a test suite I can run to identify & resolve the cause of the crashes on my computer?

[grief -l]

Look in /var/logs for error reports

[rocksockdoc]

Look in /var/logs for error reports

OK. In the terminal, I cd to /var/log (not /var/logs);
I do an "ls -ltr" to find the last logs written (namely auth.log, mail.err, mail.info, etc.);
So I "tail -f auth.log" to see, realtime, what it's reporting.
I then start up "Applications->Graphics->KolourPaint";
It crashes immediately;
Back in the terminal, I "ls -ltr" to find auth.log is still the last written log.
Bummer.

I try with "Applications->Graphics->Krita", with the same result. The last write of the auth.log was about 10 minutes prior to this test.

Likewise with KSnapshot.

Is there another crash debugging sequence?

(BTW, isn't it strange all the failed programs start with "K".)

[Elfy]

Try running them from a terminal - see what messages you get when they crash.

Also you can see if there any options from the terminal - sometimes ...


ksnapshot --help

[rocksockdoc]

I solved the problem by backing out almost every program I had installed, and, then re-installing the problematic programs.

Whatever it was that was causing multiple programs to crash, disappeared.

Go figure.

Thanks for the help.

I hope this helps others with the same crashes.