Discover have Problems with Update KDE - Widgeds , Add-Ons etc. pp

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1

Hi,

I wanted to report this problem because I searched but unfortunately found nothing on the subject, meaning apparently no one else has reported this issue here.

The problem is that Discover is running on my system under CachyOS with a KDE desktop. It starts up fine. The add-ons I have from the KDE Store are displayed in Discover, but when I try to update them, I always get an error message. It doesn’t matter if I select 20 or just 1.

The error message reads: “There was a problem updating or installing. Please try again later.” Then I can view the technical details. It says that /tmp/qsvgdv-AndromedaLauncher.tar.xz cannot be installed. The new package has a different type than the old version that is already installed. I get this or a similar error message for almost every package that I try to update via Discover in that section.

I’ve also checked all the other updates, but they always go through smoothly, whether from the AUR, PICO, Flatpak, etc. I don’t have any other problems.

Apparently, this only happens with these add-ons via Discover. Is there a workaround for this problem?

Thank you for your help.

2

It looks like this is not a Discover issue itself, but rather a KPackage / KDE Store metadata mismatch after a Plasma or Frameworks update.

The important part is this message:

“The new package has a different type than the old version already installed.”

That usually happens when the package format or metadata changed between versions. Discover then sees the updated add-on as a completely different package type and refuses to replace the old one.

This is especially common after:

  • Plasma major upgrades
  • Plasma 5 → Plasma 6 migrations
  • Frameworks updates
  • old KDE Store add-ons installed manually
  • leftover metadata/cache from previous versions

Since your normal system updates work fine (AUR, pacman, Flatpak, etc.) and only KDE Store add-ons fail, the problem is most likely isolated to KNewStuff/KPackage handling.

A few things you can try:

1. Fully clear Discover + KNewStuff cache

Close Discover completely, then run:

rm -rf \~/.cache/discover

rm -rf \~/.cache/knewstuff\*

rm -rf \~/.local/share/knewstuff3

rm -rf \~/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/\*

rm -rf \~/.local/share/plasma/wallpapers/\*

rm -rf \~/.local/share/kwin/scripts/\*

After that reboot or restart Plasma.

2. Reinstall the affected add-ons manually

For example, if “AndromedaLauncher” fails:

  • remove the currently installed version first
  • then reinstall it directly from KDE Store

Many old Plasma add-ons still contain outdated metadata and Discover cannot safely upgrade them in-place anymore.

3. Refresh KPackage registration

Run:

kpackagetool6 --list-types

If that gives errors or missing types, reinstall the Plasma support packages:

sudo pacman -Syu plasma-workspace plasma5support kpackage kirigami discover

(Names may differ slightly on CachyOS.)

4. Check whether old Plasma 5 widgets are still installed

Some widgets/themes were never properly ported to Plasma 6 but still appear in Discover. Those often trigger exactly this error because the package type changed internally.

5. Try installing/updating from the terminal instead of Discover

Some users reported Discover fails while the CLI tools work:

plasmapkg2 --upgrade path/to/package

or

kpackagetool6 --install package

6. Verify permissions and duplicate installations

Sometimes the same widget exists both in:

  • ~/.local/share/

and

  • /usr/share/

That can confuse Discover during updates.

You can search duplicates with:

find \~/.local/share/plasma -type d | sort

find /usr/share/plasma -type d | sort

Personally, I suspect this is mainly caused by old Plasma 5 metadata conflicting with newer Plasma 6 package definitions. CachyOS moves very fast with KDE updates, so stale third-party widgets/themes can easily break Discover’s upgrade path.

In many cases, removing the old add-on completely and reinstalling the latest version fixes it permanently.

3

Hello,

First of all, thank you for your detailed reply.

I’ve always been on Plasma 6 since installing CachyOS.

However, it’s quite possible that some of the store add-ons were still for Plasma 5; unfortunately, I can’t really verify that now.

Since I didn’t have any other problems with the application, I simply went to the listed add-ons and removed them, so the problem is solved for now. I’ll see when an update is available for these add-ons and whether I can then update them. I’m curious.

And thank you again for your support.