Plasmashell often breaks and/or dies, requires plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc reset

Help
1

Hey guys, I’d love to report this one as a bug at https double slash bugs.kde.org, but I’m honestly not sure how to most helpfully describe it or what to look for to ascertain that it hasn’t been reported before.

I just switched to CachyOS a few weeks ago after 9 years on Mint (and 17 years on Linux in total). Arch and KDE are new to me. Perhaps somebody more knowledgeable than me can share some technical insights or help me gather info to turn this into a valuable bug report?

Does anybody know if anything like this has been reported before? Any pointers?

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Install CachyOS with KDE desktop
  2. Set up a top and a bottom panel as described in “This is my panel config” below
  3. Work with it for a few days or weeks

Observed Result:

KDE’s Plasmashell will at some point randomly start exhibiting either of these two behaviours:

  1. Extreme lag and random responsiveness when right-clicking on desktop or clicking on panels or opening and interacting with Application Dashboard. The lag is so intense that it’s very hard to click on anything and get a reaction. However, open windows are completely unaffected by that. Next time this happens, I’ll be sure to record a video.
  2. 15-25 second black screen right after login. The system will then work for about a minute and then autmoatically log out, at which point another login is impossible.

Expected Result:

Smooth operations.

Repro Rate:

Random. I don’t know how to reliably trigger this. The only pattern I’ve been able to see so far is that it tends to happen after I interact with the Temperature Monitor widget, mostly after I change its configuration.

Workaround:

  1. Delete $HOME/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc
  2. Restart PC
  3. Set up panels from scratch

After step 3, you can backup the working plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc and re-use it next time KDE / Plasmashell breaks.

This is my working plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc (sorry, not allowed to post links):

https [colon double slash] nx30954 [dot] your-storageshare [dot] de/s/nyns32kiiypxy6J

My setup:

I have 3 screens connected to this ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 SE laptop. One via HDMI (run through a 7.1 surround AVR), two via USB-C with DP capability. xrandr output:

Screen 0: minimum 16 x 16, current 7040 x 1440, maximum 32767 x 32767
DP-1 connected 2560x1440+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 708mm x 398mm
2560x1440 59.91*+
1920x1440 59.90
1600x1200 59.87
1440x1080 59.87
1400x1050 59.86
1280x1024 59.89
1280x960 59.94
1152x864 59.78
1024x768 59.68
800x600 59.86
640x480 59.38
320x240 59.29
1920x1200 59.88
1680x1050 59.85
1440x900 59.89
1280x800 59.81
1152x720 59.75
960x600 59.63
928x580 59.88
800x500 59.50
768x480 59.38
720x480 59.71
640x400 59.20
320x200 58.14
2048x1152 59.90
1920x1080 59.88
1600x900 59.82
1368x768 59.88
1280x720 59.86
1024x576 59.90
864x486 59.45
720x400 59.27
640x350 59.28
HDMI-A-1 connected 1920x1080+5120+177 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 621mm x 341mm
1920x1080 59.96*+
1440x1080 59.99
1400x1050 59.98
1280x1024 59.89
1280x960 59.94
1152x864 59.96
1024x768 59.92
800x600 59.86
640x480 59.38
320x240 59.29
1680x1050 59.95
1440x900 59.89
1280x800 59.81
1152x720 59.97
960x600 59.63
928x580 59.88
800x500 59.50
768x480 59.90
720x480 59.71
640x400 59.95
320x200 58.14
1600x900 59.95
1368x768 59.88
1280x720 59.86
1024x576 59.90
864x486 59.92
720x400 59.27
640x350 59.28
DP-2 connected primary 2560x1080+2560+177 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 798mm x 334mm
2560x1080 143.82*+
1440x1080 143.80
1400x1050 143.78
1280x1024 143.79
1280x960 143.86
1152x864 143.75
1024x768 143.66
800x600 143.83
640x480 143.30
320x240 142.05
1680x1050 143.88
1440x900 143.86
1280x800 143.67
1152x720 143.77
960x600 143.72
928x580 143.50
800x500 143.68
768x480 143.69
720x480 143.35
640x400 143.37
320x200 141.40
1920x1080 143.80
1600x900 143.81
1368x768 143.77
1280x720 143.67
1024x576 143.62
864x486 143.63
720x400 143.29
640x350 143.57

System specs from Info Centre:

Operating System: CachyOS Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.19.2-2-cachyos (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-12950HX
Memory: 64 GiB of RAM (62,4 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU
Graphics Processor 2: Intel® UHD Graphics
Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
Product Name: ROG Strix G733CX_G733CX
System Version: 1.0

inxi -Fz:

System:
Kernel: 6.19.2-2-cachyos arch: x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.6.0 Distro: CachyOS
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: ROG Strix G733CX_G733CX v: 1.0
serial:
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: G733CX v: 1.0 serial:
Firmware: UEFI vendor: American Megatrends LLC. v: G733CX.318
date: 03/11/2024
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 74.3 Wh (100%) condition: 74.3/90 Wh (82.6%)
CPU:
Info: 16-core model: 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12950HX bits: 64 type: MCP
cache: L2: 14 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/2300:1700 cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800
4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800 13: 800
14: 800 15: 800 16: 800
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-HX GT1 [UHD Graphics 770] driver: i915 v: kernel
Device-2: NVIDIA GA103M [GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile] driver: nvidia
v: 590.48.01
Device-3: Logitech 罗技高清网络摄像机 C930c
driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB
Display: wayland server: ``X.org`` v: 1.21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9
compositor: kwin_wayland driver:
gpu: i915,nv_platform,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: 2560x1440~60Hz
2: 2560x1080~144Hz 3: 1920x1080~60Hz 4: 2560x1440
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: iris,nvidia,swrast
platforms: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 25.3.5-arch1.2
renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU/PCIe/SSE2
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.341 drivers: nvidia,intel surfaces: N/A
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi
wl: wayland-info x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Device-2: NVIDIA driver: snd_hda_intel
Device-3: C-Media Anua Mic CM 900 driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
type: USB
Device-4: Logitech 罗技高清网络摄像机 C930c
driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB
API: ALSA v: k6.19.2-2-cachyos status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.10 status: active
Network:
Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi
IF: wlan0 state: up mac:
Device-2: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE driver: r8169
IF: enp108s0 state: down mac:
Device-3: ASIX AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet driver: cdc_ncm type: USB
IF: eth0 state: down mac:
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel AX211 Bluetooth driver: btusb type: USB
Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 state: up address: N/A
RAID:
Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller driver: vmd
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 5.5 TiB used: 1.98 TiB (35.9%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 990 PRO 4TB size: 3.64 TiB
ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZVL22T0HBLB-00B00
size: 1.86 TiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 62.18 GiB used: 28.23 GiB (45.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme1n1p9
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 328 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/nvme1n1p7
ID-3: /home size: 273.01 GiB used: 27.32 GiB (10.0%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/nvme1n1p8
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 62.42 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
ID-2: swap-2 type: partition size: 5.86 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
dev: /dev/nvme1n1p6
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 44.5 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0
Info:
Memory: total: 64 GiB note: est. available: 62.42 GiB used: 5.95 GiB (9.5%)
Processes: 411 Uptime: 46m Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.40

This is my panel config:

Top Panel Widgets (left to right)

  • Application Dashboard
  • Margin Separator
  • System Tray
  • Panel Spacer (max)
  • Colour Picker
  • Panel Spacer (10px)
  • Digital Clock
  • Panel Spacer (10px)
  • Weather Report
  • Panel Spacer (max)
  • Notifications
  • Margin Separator
  • Thermal Monitor – Sensors: Max CPU, 2xGPU, 2xSSD

Bottom Panel

» Center alignment
» Width: Fit Content

  • Icons-Only Task Manager
2

Woah - a bit of TL;DR there.

Start with a default desktop and see how stable it is, then apply customisations one by one.

For me, Plasma is very stable (has been over 9 years with a few minor hiccups)…

I’d go with simplifying the setup first until it’s stable - then slowly adding elements.

2 Likes
3

Yeah, I get that. Not gonna lie, it’ll be hard for me as a designer to live without the colour picker :-/ But I see where you’re coming from.

Right now, everything’s working well, but when the issue happens again, I’ll reset the desktop and leave it untouched that time around.

Until then, if anybody has any ideas, I’d appreciate them.

4

@mr.matt.eastwood:

Please post the output either of the CLI command “kinfo” or, the English system summary which the “kinfocenter” Plasma application provides.

5 
Operating System: CachyOS Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.19.2-2-cachyos (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-12950HX
Memory: 64 GiB of RAM (62.4 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU
Graphics Processor 2: Intel® UHD Graphics
6

Stock plasma widgets should definitely not cause such problems, feel free to use them.

Please check your system log with journalctl –-reverse after this happens, and post anything that might be relevant here.

7

@mr.matt.eastwood:

Do you have SELinux enabled?

  • If yes, please post the output of the CLI command “sestatus”.
1 Like
8

Thanks! Nope, it’s not enabled.

bash: sestatus: command not found

9

I have the colour picker hidden in my top panel, never an issue with that… but no weather report or thermal monitor; not sure why they would cause issues though.

Also I use Colourful Digital Clock 'cos it works nicely with the colour picker :wink: but I don’t use Cachy, so I can’t say much more.

1 Like
10

@mr.matt.eastwood:

Then, it’s something else – not SELinux …

  • What happens if, you setup a new, fresh, test user and, login to the system with that user?

If another user doesn’t experience the issues you’re experiencing then, the culprit is possibly the contents of your user’s ‘~/.cache/’ directory – you’ll have to clean out the contents of that directory …

If, that’s not the case, then it’s something else –

11

Thanks so much for the details. I am installing a new SSD in my PC this weekend and will re-install Windows 11 and CachyOS. Will keep an eye on this when everything is running again.

Quick question - that unstable repo is something I have to deliberately enable, right? It doesn’t come pre-enabled on any OS? Also, does the question about the unstable repo apply to Arch-based distros at all?

12

Yes, correct but, only if you really want to be involved with testing beta and release-candidate KDE Plasma applications.

  • If you’re not someone who’s comfortable with software testing then, it’s better to wait until the latest versions are officially released.
13

Understood, thanks. I like testing software, worked in video game QA for a good long while, but ngl, I’m reluctant to do it on my daily driver :slight_smile:

14

Hourly snapshots and regular backups take some of the bitter taste away.

15

I am installing a new SSD in my PC this weekend and will re-install Windows 11 and CachyOS. Will keep an eye on this when everything is running again.

2 weeks later and the problem never re-appeared. :slight_smile: