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