I discovered how to create the problem.
The artifact issue in the toolbar grabber handles appears when using certain widget styles
(KControl, Appearance & Themes, Style).
Several widget styles are affected:
B3/KDE
HighColor Classic
KDE Classic
Keramic
Phase
Rather than a grabber handle, the artifacts display text rather than a grabber handle.
When I increase the konqueror tool bar icon size to 48 pts, I see the following text:
olbar (Ko
With Kedit I see the text:
Toolbar (K
With KLinkstatus:
nksToolB
With QuantaPlus:
oolbar (Q
With Shisen-Sho (game):
lbar (Shis
Hopefully those snippets of text provide a clue from where the text is derived.
This problem affects all apps with toolbar grabber handles. Originally I discovered the
problem with Konqueror, but I can duplicate in any app with toolbars: Kate, KEdit,
Kompare, etc. The problem is universal.
Originally I thought the problem was only with root and only with an existing kde profile.
I can duplicate the problem with non-root users as well as in new Trinity profiles.
I cannot replicate the behavior in 3.5.10.
I hope this helps!
Darrell