I just recompiled everything, looks like I lost my debug info for klibs as it isn't showing line numbers.  but showEvent() doesn't have that many line numbers. 

My origonal post has a fix that got around this core dump, ie doing checks for null pointers.

Thanks for looking into this error.

David


Debug output from running gdb on kword follows:

(gdb) where                                                                  
#0  0xb65ff0d9 in KFileWidget::showEvent () from /home/david/kde/lib/libkfile.so.4
#1  0xb74ca5f9 in QWidget::event (this=0x81f7150, event=0xbfb8681c)
    at /home/david/qt/qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qwidget.cpp:7360
#2  0xb746c95d in QApplicationPrivate::notify_helper (this=0x805cee0, receiver=0x81f7150, e=0xbfb8681c)
    at /home/david/qt/qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qapplication.cpp:3803
#3  0xb746e546 in QApplication::notify (this=0xbfb88b4c, receiver=0x81f7150, e=0xbfb8681c)
    at /home/david/qt/qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qapplication.cpp:3768
#4  0xb7183dad in KApplication::notify () from /home/david/kde/lib/libkdeui.so.5
#5  0xb6e25dc6 in QCoreApplication::notifyInternal (this=0xbfb88b4c, receiver=0x81f7150, event=0xbfb8681c)
    at /home/david/qt/qt-copy/src/corelib/kernel/qcoreapplication.cpp:583
#6  0xb74695d5 in QCoreApplication::sendEvent (receiver=0x81f7150, event=0xbfb8681c)
    at ../../include/QtCore/../../../qt-copy/src/corelib/kernel/qcoreapplication.h:209
#7  0xb74ce902 in QWidgetPrivate::show_helper (this=0x8200558)
    at /home/david/qt/qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qwidget.cpp:6372
#8  0xb74cef46 in QWidget::setVisible (this=0x81f7150, visible=true)
    at /home/david/qt/qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qwidget.cpp:6584
#9  0xb74b1b78 in QWidget::show (this=0x81f7150)
    at ../../include/QtGui/../../../qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qwidget.h:464
#10 0xb74ce69b in QWidgetPrivate::showChildren (this=0x81fff38, spontaneous=false)
    at /home/david/qt/qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qwidget.cpp:6666
#11 0xb74ce740 in QWidgetPrivate::show_helper (this=0x81fff38)
    at /home/david/qt/qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qwidget.cpp:6321
#12 0xb74cef46 in QWidget::setVisible (this=0x81fae90, visible=true)
    at /home/david/qt/qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qwidget.cpp:6584
#13 0xb74b1b78 in QWidget::show (this=0x81fae90)
    at ../../include/QtGui/../../../qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qwidget.h:464
#14 0xb74ce69b in QWidgetPrivate::showChildren (this=0x81ca8b8, spontaneous=false)
    at /home/david/qt/qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qwidget.cpp:6666
#15 0xb74ce740 in QWidgetPrivate::show_helper (this=0x81ca8b8)
    at /home/david/qt/qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qwidget.cpp:6321
#16 0xb74cef46 in QWidget::setVisible (this=0x81bce88, visible=true)
    at /home/david/qt/qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qwidget.cpp:6584
#17 0xb74b1b78 in QWidget::show (this=0x81bce88)
    at ../../include/QtGui/../../../qt-copy/src/gui/kernel/qwidget.h:464