I am relatively new to linux so please be patient with me if you try to help.
During the day I use my computer for work in which I have multiple programs running on a dual monitor setup. Usually, but not always, during the day at some seemingly random time the panel will freeze. I use a VM for work and have Virtual Box fullscreen on the monitor with the panel. This covers the panel so I have never actually seen this happen. I will minimize VB at some point and see that things are frozen. This has been happening since I started using linux as my primary OS, it didn’t just start happening after an update or something. I have just been dealing with it but would love to get help on figuring out what is causing it at least.
I can still use all the open programs without any real issues and I can open new programs using the terminal if I know how to call them and I can use key shortcuts. The only way I know of currently to unfreeze the panel is to reboot. I have tried restarting kwin with some commands I found online but they don’t seem to work. They do claim to be for Plasma 5 and I am on 6 so I assume that is why it isn’t working.
I do use this machine for gaming as well and after playing multiple games for many hours I have not had the same freezing issue. It’s only ever happened while I am working. I can only conclude it has something to do with one of the programs running at the time.
The 6 programs I typically have running are:
Betterbird (Thunderbird fork)
Vivaldi browser (flatpak version)
Dolphin w/split view
Virtual Box
qpdfview
LibreOffice (flatpak)
I have tried uninstalling the flatpak version of LibreOffice and using the non-flatpak version of LibreOffice calc. I tried using Firefox instead of Vivaldi. I tried these separately to keep the variables to a minimum and still got the freezing. I always have Betterbird open, even when gaming. So I don’t think it is any of these three programs. I would assume Dolphin isn’t the issue either since it’s a preinstalled program, but who knows for sure.
I am leaning towards VirtualBox or qpdfview being the culprit. Being relatively new to linux in general I don’t know what logs to look for or where to find them. I do have Gnome Logs installed and got the same 2 things appearing on the logs on two different days at the time of the freezes, based on the log times. There is also an icon that appears on the panel with the KDE icon but nothing pops up on the screen so I do not know what that is. I have multiple screenshots but can only post 1 at a time since I’m a new user. So first up are my specs
I am using Wayland primarily
Sorry for such a long post and sorry if this isn’t the right place to ask for this sort of help.
If you need more logs or info I will provide, but I will most likely need the commands to get said info.
