plasmashell crash-freezing on startup, requires SIGKILL

System Information:
CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990wx
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.14.0
Qt Version: 6.9.0
Kernel: 6.14.6-arch1-1
Platform: X11

I noticed the following behaviour when starting up a plasma session:

If I leave SDDM screen showing for several minutes, I can login and everything works as expected.

If I type type my password in SDDM in less than ~5 minutes, I get a session without an application launcher and a frozen desktop.

I can start a terminal using a keyboard accelerator and then I have to restart plasma-plasmashell user service and as it’s completely frozen, the SIGTERM timeout expires and a SIGKILL actually restarts it after about one minute.

I usually fix it by running the command below, but I want a more permanent solution:

systemctl --user restart plasma-plasmashell.service

I don’t think this is a bug or a configuration issue, because it works after restart with the same configuration. I am thinking it’s a race condition between plasma and something else, but I don’t have enough knowledge to troubleshoot this issue on my own and would appreciate some help, please.

Here’s the journal of such service:

journalctl --no-hostname -b0 --user-unit=plasma-plasmashell.service

initial run:

second run, after restart…

Please let me know if you need more information to help troubleshoot it.

Thank you.

Well, whatever it was, it seems it was related to moving to Wayland, as it seems to have fixed now on Plasma 6.4 with plasma-x11-session (arch/pacman package) installed .

nope… not really, scratch that. Still happening on 6.4.1

Jun 27 17:28:20 systemd[1609]: Starting KDE Plasma Workspace...
Jun 27 17:28:20 plasmashell[1826]: kf.svg: The theme "Aritim-Dark-Flat-Blur" uses the legacy metadata.desktop. Consider contacting the author and asking them update it to use the newer JSON format.
Jun 27 17:28:20 plasmashell[1826]: kf.svg: The theme "Aritim-Dark-Flat-Blur" uses the legacy metadata.desktop. Consider contacting the author and asking them update it to use the newer JSON format.
Jun 27 17:28:20 plasmashell[1826]: kf.plasma.core: The theme "Aritim-Dark-Flat-Blur" uses the legacy metadata.desktop. Consider contacting the author and asking them update it to use the newer JSON format.
Jun 27 17:28:20 plasmashell[1826]: kf.plasma.core: The theme "Aritim-Dark-Flat-Blur" uses the legacy metadata.desktop. Consider contacting the author and asking them update it to use the newer JSON format.
Jun 27 17:28:20 systemd[1609]: Started KDE Plasma Workspace.
Jun 27 17:28:20 plasmashell[1826]: KPackageStructure of KPluginMetaData(pluginId:"org.kde.windowtitle.Fork", fileName: "/home/thiago/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.windowtitle.Fork/metadata.json") does not match requested format "Plasma/Applet"
Jun 27 17:28:20 plasmashell[1826]: kf.svg: The theme "Aritim-Dark-Flat-Blur" uses the legacy metadata.desktop. Consider contacting the author and asking them update it to use the newer JSON format.
Jun 27 17:28:20 plasmashell[1826]: kf.plasma.quick: Applet preload policy set to 1
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:22 plasmashell[1826]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:28:23 plasmashell[1826]: qrc:/qt/qml/org/kde/plasma/extras/ActionTextField.qml:114:5: QML Shortcut: Shortcut: Only binding to one of multiple key bindings associated with 22. Use 'sequences: [ <key> ]' to bind to all of them.
Jun 27 17:30:41 systemd[1609]: Stopping KDE Plasma Workspace...
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: State 'stop-sigterm' timed out. Killing.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1826 (plasmashell) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1852 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1854 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1856 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1858 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1859 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1862 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1866 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1867 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1901 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1902 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1904 (QQmlThread) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1910 (QQmlThread) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1912 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 1913 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 2101 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 2102 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 2127 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 2564 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 2570 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=9/KILL
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: Stopped KDE Plasma Workspace.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Consumed 2min 59.338s CPU time, 328.2M memory peak.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: Starting KDE Plasma Workspace...
Jun 27 17:31:21 plasmashell[5511]: kf.svg: The theme "Aritim-Dark-Flat-Blur" uses the legacy metadata.desktop. Consider contacting the author and asking them update it to use the newer JSON format.
Jun 27 17:31:21 plasmashell[5511]: kf.svg: The theme "Aritim-Dark-Flat-Blur" uses the legacy metadata.desktop. Consider contacting the author and asking them update it to use the newer JSON format.
Jun 27 17:31:21 plasmashell[5511]: kf.plasma.core: The theme "Aritim-Dark-Flat-Blur" uses the legacy metadata.desktop. Consider contacting the author and asking them update it to use the newer JSON format.
Jun 27 17:31:21 plasmashell[5511]: kf.plasma.core: The theme "Aritim-Dark-Flat-Blur" uses the legacy metadata.desktop. Consider contacting the author and asking them update it to use the newer JSON format.
Jun 27 17:31:21 systemd[1609]: Started KDE Plasma Workspace.
Jun 27 17:31:21 plasmashell[5511]: KPackageStructure of KPluginMetaData(pluginId:"org.kde.windowtitle.Fork", fileName: "/home/thiago/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.windowtitle.Fork/metadata.json") does not match requested format "Plasma/Applet"
Jun 27 17:31:21 plasmashell[5511]: kf.svg: The theme "Aritim-Dark-Flat-Blur" uses the legacy metadata.desktop. Consider contacting the author and asking them update it to use the newer JSON format.
Jun 27 17:31:21 plasmashell[5511]: kf.plasma.quick: Applet preload policy set to 1
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:22 plasmashell[5511]: file:///usr/share/ksysguard/sensorfaces/org.kde.ksysguard.textonly/contents/ui/GroupedText.qml:98:21: Unable to assign [undefined] to QColor
Jun 27 17:31:23 plasmashell[5511]: qrc:/qt/qml/org/kde/plasma/extras/ActionTextField.qml:114:5: QML Shortcut: Shortcut: Only binding to one of multiple key bindings associated with 22. Use 'sequences: [ <key> ]' to bind to all of them.
Jun 27 17:31:23 plasmashell[5511]: qrc:/qt/qml/org/kde/plasma/extras/ActionTextField.qml:114:5: QML Shortcut: Shortcut: Only binding to one of multiple key bindings associated with 22. Use 'sequences: [ <key> ]' to bind to all of them.
Jun 27 17:31:25 plasmashell[5511]: qrc:/qt/qml/org/kde/plasma/extras/ActionTextField.qml:114:5: QML Shortcut: Shortcut: Only binding to one of multiple key bindings associated with 22. Use 'sequences: [ <key> ]' to bind to all of them.
Jun 27 17:31:25 plasmashell[5511]: qrc:/qt/qml/org/kde/plasma/extras/ActionTextField.qml:114:5: QML Shortcut: Shortcut: Only binding to one of multiple key bindings associated with 22. Use 'sequences: [ <key> ]' to bind to all of them.
Jun 27 17:31:28 plasmashell[5511]: qrc:/qt/qml/org/kde/plasma/extras/ActionTextField.qml:114:5: QML Shortcut: Shortcut: Only binding to one of multiple key bindings associated with 22. Use 'sequences: [ <key> ]' to bind to all of them.

Not sure it’s the same I’m seeing the background disappearing (desktop? plasma? crashed) every time I login. Kill and restart plasmashell brings it back.

I see some “Cyclic dependency detected” errors in Terminal when it’s restarting…

“This issue has been Solved”? (June 22) Maybe not? (June 27)