[ltp] User processes disappearing while idle

[Jeffrey L. Taylor]

OpenSuSE 11.4, KDE, Lenovo T520: while idle, almost all user processes will
disappear.  Only two daemons (fetchmail and search) and kde4d w/ 2 child
processes remain.  The screen brightens slightly on tapping a key or wiggling
the mouse, but is still dark gray.  I can switch to tty1.

Two questions: Any way to prevent it from happening?  Any way to restart the
desktop environment short of rebooting?

While trying to send this e-mail, the keyboard and mouse clicks stopped
responding.  The mouse could still move the cursor, but nothing else
responded, including the 3 finger salute (reboot shortcut).

TIA,
  Jeffrey