I've read about backtraces, core dumps, and using
gdb.
I'm no
programmer, so what is the best way for me to
troublesoot?
$ gdb
(gdb) file /usr/bin/kmail
(gdb) run
<trigger the crash>
(gdb) bt
<you obtain the backtrace>
I don't know if this will be enough, but I'm not an expert
debugger :).
I gave that a go. gdb reported that kmail exited normally. With some trial
and error testing, I copied /usr/bin/kmail and /usr/lib/libkmailprivate.so
from my Slackware 12.2 package and then the problem disappeared. At this
point I can only guess that something in the kmail composer code does not
compile correctly and instead causes the entire app to close rather than
just the composer window.
Darrell