Sometimes, my KDE starts without the "taskbar"
When I boot my Arch Linux machine, about 1/10 times the "taskbar" is missing. (Do you still call it a taskbar?)
All I see it desktop icons, the background and the mouse cursor. I'm using NVIDIA proprietary drivers.
Do you guys have any idea what's with that? It's hard to troubleshoot because it only happens sometimes.
@linux #linux #KDE #plasma #ArchLinux #askfedi #NVIDIA #troubleshoot
11 Comments
MsDropbear@kolektiva.social · 2 pts · 3y
@fell @linux
>Taskbar
It's the Plasma Panel.
>NVIDIA proprietary drivers
It IS possible that this is the core of the problem, as historically NV has been a major PITA for Linux, especially #KDEPlasma #Wayland. Lately, i've read many peeps mentioning large improvements, but afaik it might still depend on your specific GPU HW model & driver version. I don't use NV, so cannot help directly on that, but i have some suggestions:
If your current Plasma session is Wayland, try logging in an X11 session. Or, vice versa.
It might be corruption of a KDE/Plasma config file. A quick easy initial test is to create a 2nd user account in Plasma, then log into that.
If that behaves correctly, it increases the probability of corruption [of your original user]. You can reset to default all those, via the following:
To backup existing plasma config:
cd ~/.config
for j in plasma*; do mv -- "$j" "${j%}.bak"; done
This command will rename all Plasma related configuration files to *.bak (e.g. plasmarc.bak) of your user and when you will relogin into Plasma, you will have the default settings back. To undo that action, remove the .bak file extension. If you already have *.bak files, rename, move, or delete them first.
To backup existing cache:
mv ~/.config/Trolltech.conf ~/.config/Trolltech.conf.bak
mv ~/.cache/ ~/cache.bak
mkdir ~/.cache
kbuildsycoca5 --noincremental && kbuildsycoca4 --noincremental
Good luck.
fell@ma.fellr.net · 0 pts · 3y
@MsDropbear @linux That's really helpful advice. I'll try making a second user account and see if it happens again. As I said, it only happens every 10th boot or so, so I'll have to give it a week. Might be nice to start with a clean home directory. I tested different desktop environments before I settled with plasma. I deleted the old config files, but it's certainly possible I forgot something.
MsDropbear@kolektiva.social · 0 pts · 3y
fell@ma.fellr.net · 0 pts · 3y
@MsDropbear @linux I am running X11. Wayland is incompatible with the NVIDIA drivers. Last time I ran Wayland I only saw half the screen.
MsDropbear@kolektiva.social · 1 pts · 3y
fell@ma.fellr.net · 1 pts · 3y
@MsDropbear @linux I'll give it a shot. Maybe the information "Wayland doesn't work with NVIDIA" is outdated.
I got my GPU very cheap from a colleague, otherwise I would never buy NVIDIA again. It works, but ugh it's such a hassle with #linux.
MsDropbear@kolektiva.social · 1 pts · 3y
finder@fosstodon.org · 1 pts · 3y
@fell @MsDropbear @linux
It's pretty luck based from my experience. Personally, I've had a lot of issues with NVIDIA + Wayland combo.
gnuplusmatt@fosstodon.org · 1 pts · 3y
@fell when it does this what happens if you pull up krunner and run plasmashell - - replace
?
@linux
ISOmorph@feddit.de · 1 pts · 3y
That is indeed odd. Maybe try to rebuild your taskbar? Go into /.config and delete plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc and reboot. Be aware that all plasmoids will be deleted though.
DragonZlaver@noc.social · 1 pts · 3y
@fell @linux i never had this problem of taskbar won't start i only ever had that happen in xfce but in kde plasma under wayland on amd hardware it just works fine under endeavouros
laubblaeser@ruhr.social · 1 pts · 3y
laubblaeser@ruhr.social · 1 pts · 3y
fell@ma.fellr.net · 1 pts · 3y
@laubblaeser @opensuse @linux Thank you for that insight. I don't have time to switch distributions right now, but I'll consider it.