Can't log into KDE, with error: Could not start D-bus, can you call qdbus?

I note the following changelog for libqt4-dbus:

qt4-x11 (4:4.7.3-4ubuntu5) oneiric; urgency=low

  * Move qdbus from libqt4-dbus to qt4-dev-tools, so that libqt4-dbus is
    genuinely multiarch-installable. LP: #825689.

 -- Steve Langasek <email address hidden> Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:46:28 -0700

So I've installed qt4-dev-tools, which functions as a work around.

Err, so we need qt4-dev-tools for normal operation ?

Worked for me to install it, but it's a bit unintuitive to do so. Couldn't this be moved to a separate package? Seems unlogical to install dev tools to run a WM

I can confirm that installing qt4-dev-tools resolves this issue for me too.

This is fixed in qt4-x11 4:4.7.3-4ubuntu6, which splits qdbus into a new 'qdbus' package and updates libqt4-dbus to depend on it for compatibility.

Got the same problem after logging in. Tried to install qt4-x11 but the terminal says "unable to locate package qt4-x11". Installing qt4-dev-tools solved the problem for me.

> Tried to install qt4-x11 but the terminal says "unable to locate package qt4-x11"
You wouldn't install qt4-x11...

The fix that Steve mentioned is to the next release of the 'libqt4-dbus' library, which you should already have installed. When this is released, an update on your machine will install the new version and with it the new 'qdbus' package, which should fix the problem.

Just to confirm, I was able to update, adding the qdbus package, and subsequently remove the qt4-dev-tools package - and everything is working as expected.

Seems broken yet again with symbol lookup error:

qdbus: symbol lookup error: qdbus: undefined symbol: qt_dbus_metaobject_skip_annotations

I dont know if a full rebuild of qt4-x11 and dependencies solve the problem.

Hit the same problem, apt-get install qdbus fixed it. It was 64bit machine, there was qdbus:i386 - update did not finished properly due to samba problems, so I believe this was related..

I have recently updated to kubuntu 13.10 in 4 different computers, with 2 different partitions in each computer = 8 partitions. In two instances out of 8 I encountered this problem. At least one of them was a 64 bit installation.

The first case was a HP notebook, and a pre-release version of 13.10, that I installed in early March. The first upgrade from 12.10 went OK, but then a later update lead to this problem with the qdbus. At that time I got rid of the problem by installing qt4-dev-tools, if I remember right.

Today I encountered the same problem the second time in a 64 bit installation. The distribution upgrade seemed to run normally, but when I started up the coputer in the new version I got this "Could not start D-Bus". This time I fixed it by running

sudo apt-get install qdbus

in tty1, which resulted in the installation of both qdbus and qtchooser and the removal of the old qdbus:i386 and qtchooser:i386.

I just cheecked the first of the two installations that I mentioned above where I first encountered this problem (in the HP-620 notebook). That one is also a 64 bit installation. However, even after the removal of the packages "qt4-dev-tool" it is still working fine.

I also had the same problem as Olof Staffan when updating to kubuntu 13.10. I can also confirm that his solution (of installing qdbus, which removes qdbus:i386) works.

Had the same problem in Kubuntu 14.04 beta: “qdbus” and “qt4-dev-tools” packages were already installed, but I was still unable to log in.
However, removing “qt5-default” helped.

Yeah, if qt5-default is installed but not qdbus-qt5 it will try to use the dbus that does not exist and fail.