Comment 2 for bug 254347

Reviewing https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage gave me some insight into looking for evidence of what's happening. I looked at my .xsessions-errors file, filtered through grep on kate and found interesting things! I moved the file and logged out and rebooted. This ensured a new .xsession-errors file would be created. When I logged in through KDM and the desktop loaded, kate launched seven instances - up by one since I logged this bug. I killed them all and then made a copy of the new .xsessions-errors file, which is attached (xsession-errros200808022151). It also contains interesting entries, like these:

kate(6226): createDoc
kate(6227): createDoc
kate(6229): createDoc
kate(6225): createDoc
kate(6228): createDoc
kate(6230): createDoc
kate(6226) KateSessionManager::KateSessionManager: LOCAL SESSION DIR: "/home/pa
ul/.kde4/share/apps/kate/sessions"
kate(6226) KateApp::initKate: Setting KATE_PID: ' 6226 '
kate(6227) KateSessionManager::KateSessionManager: LOCAL SESSION DIR: "/home/pa
ul/.kde4/share/apps/kate/sessions"
kate(6227) KateApp::initKate: Setting KATE_PID: ' 6227 '
kate(6225) KateSessionManager::KateSessionManager: LOCAL SESSION DIR: "/home/pa
ul/.kde4/share/apps/kate/sessions"
kate(6225) KateApp::initKate: Setting KATE_PID: ' 6225 '
kate(6229) KateSessionManager::KateSessionManager: LOCAL SESSION DIR: "/home/pa
ul/.kde4/share/apps/kate/sessions"
kate(6229) KateApp::initKate: Setting KATE_PID: ' 6229 '
kate(6228) KateSessionManager::KateSessionManager: LOCAL SESSION DIR: "/home/pa
ul/.kde4/share/apps/kate/sessions"
kate(6228) KateApp::initKate: Setting KATE_PID: ' 6228 '
kate(6230) KateSessionManager::KateSessionManager: LOCAL SESSION DIR: "/home/pa
ul/.kde4/share/apps/kate/sessions"
kate(6230) KateApp::initKate: Setting KATE_PID: ' 6230 '
kate(6226) KateSession::init: Warning, session file not found: "default.kateses
sion"
kate(6227) KateSession::init: Warning, session file not found: "default.kateses
sion"
kate(6225) KateSession::init: Warning, session file not found: "default.kateses
sion"
kate(6229) KateSession::init: Warning, session file not found: "default.kateses
sion"
kate(6228) KateSession::init: Warning, session file not found: "default.kateses
sion"
kate(6230) KateSession::init: Warning, session file not found: "default.kateses
sion"
kate(6229) KateViewDocumentProxyModel::updateBackgrounds: false
kate(6228) KateViewDocumentProxyModel::updateBackgrounds: false
kate(6227) KateViewDocumentProxyModel::updateBackgrounds: false
kate(6230) KateViewDocumentProxyModel::updateBackgrounds: false
kate(6225) KateViewDocumentProxyModel::updateBackgrounds: false
kate(6226) KateViewDocumentProxyModel::updateBackgrounds: false
kate(6226) KateMainWindow::KateMainWindow: *************************************
*************************************** 0x81d1440
kate(6226) KateViewDocumentProxyModel::updateBackgrounds: false
kate(6228) KateMainWindow::KateMainWindow: *************************************
*************************************** 0x8108398
kate(6229) KateMainWindow::KateMainWindow: *************************************
*************************************** 0x81d11c8
kate(6229) KateViewDocumentProxyModel::updateBackgrounds: false
kate(6228) KateViewDocumentProxyModel::updateBackgrounds: false

I think/hope that the contents of this file helps point to where the problem is originating.