Plasma keeps losing most of my desktop environment settings

English Install/Boot/Login
1

This is my normal desktop.

https://paste.opensuse.org/70271623

But, for the past week Plasma keeps changing most of my desktop environment. see link below

https://paste.opensuse.org/76070058

I change everything back, but after a few logins it gets changed and it lags really bad.

Operating System: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20210222
KDE Plasma Version: 5.21.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.79.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Kernel Version: 5.10.16-1-default
OS Type: 64-bit
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i7-4810MQ CPU @ 2.80GHz
Memory: 31.0 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa DRI Intel® HD Graphics 4600

2

This is probably because of something that you are doing. But I am unable to guess what.

I’ll just note that I set my desktop to startup from a saved session. Then I set it up the way that I like, and save that session.

The default it for Plasma to save things as you logout, and restore them on login. So what you get depends on what your desktop looked like at your last logout.

3

Yes, I have always had it set to restore previous saved session, but let me see what happens when i start with an empty session.
Also, check out this other issue. I made a video showing the lag issue that’s been going on this week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MCiEpgxzFI&feature=youtu.be

4

It has happened again. Pay attention to the times that are in the read circle and I did have the system set to restore previous saved session.

Setup the desktop again
https://paste.opensuse.org/89598058

After rebooting it has changed again.
https://paste.opensuse.org/25385109

Also, the lag is back. :’( :’( :’(

5

To fix the lag issue I’ll change the setting to start with an empty session again. :’(

6

I had to change the Desktop Session settings to start with an empty session in order to stop it from lagging.

https://youtu.be/CZdStScNqmY

7

jonzn4SUSE here… back at it again with another video. ;D
In this video you will see Plasma responding normally and then I’ll make a change and you see the lag start.
Again, to fix the issue I have to change my desktop session to start with an empty session.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwTa_cPJxd0

8

Check memory usage (with, for example, the “free” command in a konsole). Is there a difference in memory usage when you have lag problems?

Check for looping processes – running “top” in a terminal is useful for that.

9

[FONT=monospace]Just noticed that lag issue affects both regular users, but not root.
When logged in as root, I can make the same desktop changes as the regular user with no issue.
I can log out of the regular user(lag issue) and then into root, log out of root and back into the regular user the lag issue is gone.
If I make the same changes again as the regular user the lag returns.

I’ll make a change and post the result of free and top.

[/FONT]

10

First off never ever log into a GUI as root. You can damage things accidentally

Perhaps you have file indexing on that can cause serious lagging at least initially or if something went sideways with the index files

same problem with a different user other then root. (root is special!!)??

try clearing ~/cache

11

That’s ~/.cache, and everything in it that is kde/plasma-related, if not all. That’s always the first thing to try when Plasma gets strange or otherwise misbehaves. It must be done while not logged into Plasma. Do it from an IceWM session, or from a vtty or a root login.

12

Clearing the ./cache(1.5G) did not work. Made the changes and the lag started again.
Here is what I saw in the logs before and after the change.

https://paste.opensuse.org/37976514

2/28/21 5:35 PM systemd Started System Settings - System Settings —> Lag sarted 2/28/21 5:35 PM kwin_x11 kwin_core: XCB error: 10 (BadAccess), sequence: 14387, resource id: 457, major code: 142 (Composite), minor code: 2 (RedirectSubwindows)

This was in the logs when I logged in and made no changes with no lag.

https://paste.opensuse.org/89754091

13

Here are the logs for root making the same changes as the regular user and has never had the lag issue.

https://paste.opensuse.org/15328455

14

Nothing different about sys stats during the issue.

https://paste.opensuse.org/88768523

15

That image shows TW20200917. Could it be that some old QT/KDE/Plasma packages remain installed, or an optional repo is creating runtime conflicts noted in the logs?

zypper --no-refresh se -si | grep 'tem Pac' | grep -v plication
zypper lr -u
16

That’s just an image of what my desktop looks like before all the issues started last week. KDE keeps forgetting my session and bringing up this desktop instead that I never set before.

https://paste.opensuse.org/76070058

17

So just last week is when you upgraded TW from 20200917 to 20210222? I still suggest to check for stale packages.

You should also try IceWM (and/or any other installed session type) to see if you encounter any lagging. That will limit the problem location to either the Plasma session itself and its autostarts, or something deeper.

18

Let me install something…