Problem with X and KDE 3.0.2

[Tim Wunder]

Hi, 
Using a base Caldera eW3.1 system with kernel 2.4.18-preempt, Xfree86 4.1.0, KDE 3.0.2 compiled from source, qt 3.0.3. 

I occasionally will get an error when logging out (segfault, the backtrace displays on screen briefly, but too quickly to read -- anyway to capture that?) which then horks X so that kdm won't respawn. I need to Ctrl-Alt-F1 to a console, login as root and manually restart the X server.
I've yet to experience the problem if I close all apps prior to logging out. Unfortunately, I've been unable to consistently duplicate the problem. It happens, say 1 out of every 5 times I logout without closing all the apps. I did not have this problem with KDE 3.0.1.

Could this be a QT problem? X problem? DCOP server problem?

An interesting side effect this morning:
I was switching to a console while KDE was logging out and when I got there, a graphical screen appeared on top of the console (like a faded out picture of the kdm login) that I couldn't get to go away. Nothing I typed would get displayed, just the graphical screen, but I could tell that the session was still active. I was able to login as root and type the commands telinit 3 and telinit 5 to manually restart X "in the dark", so to speak. But I was unable to get a normal text console screen, from any of the 6 virtual terminals. Booting to runlevel 1 and back to runlevel 5 didn't solve the problem, either. The only solution I could think of that I knew would work was to reboot the PC.

Any thoughts on what happened or a more graceful way to fix it?

Thanks, 
Tim

PS I know, drop KDE, but it's that damn inertia thing keeping me there...