First of all, I really love the Idea of KDE-Linux and hence downloaded an image in order to install it on a virtual machine (virt-manager). For this i followed the procedure here. Already when booting into the installation image the plasmashell service crashed three times in a row and there was no desktop anymore, just three crash report windows, the installation window, and a blackscreen in the back were left. Since the installation window stayed open, I went ahead and installed KDE-Linux in the hopes that the issue will be gone once some upgrades are performed after installation. Unfortunately, this was not the case, even after upgrading the OS with Discover (which I was able to start through the terminal). When I try to restart the plasma-plasmashell.service it crashes again.
Out of curiosity I loaded the boot image onto an USB stick and booted into it with my desktop computer. This yielded the same behavior.
This is a known issue. We were under the impression that it affected only the live session but not installed systems, so I’m disheartened to hear this isn’t the case for you.
It’s being investigated and appears to be related to ICU’s interaction with the Digital Clock. Thanks for bearing with us!
Thanks for your fast response. I have these (maybe) clock related errors while booting:
Aug 02 18:02:52 archlinux systemd-udevd[200]: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/50-udev-default.rules:13 Unknown group 'clock', ignoring.
Aug 02 18:02:52 archlinux systemd-udevd[200]: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/50-udev-default.rules:34 Unknown group 'clock', ignoring.
I am not sure if these are related with the issue. If there is anything I can help you with (logs, system specs, etc) let me know.
Tanks for the great work you KDE-Devs providing for the community!
I have the same experience. plasmashell crashes on the livecd and on installed system using the 20250805 image. If there’s anything I can do to help please let me know.
I found a fix just now: open a terminal from the crashy session (Control + Alt + T), then edit plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc in your home folder/.config.
Remove the digital clock applet entry in there, and restart plasmashell, it worked for me. Seems like there’s an issue with timezones / the applet itself, removing the applet lets plasmashell start normally
I didn’t see any bug reports for it, and I also can’t reproduce it in the latest few builds) upgrade-installs though, not clean installs). So someone who’s still experiencing it with today’s build should submit a bug report.
