Leap KDE - Reboot after (kernel?) updates ends without desktop panel

Hi again!

Have here a headless i7 box (TigerVNC) with Leap 15.2 KDE, nothing special. Since months now (and sometimes before, iirc) the box comes back from rebooting after updates without the desktop panel. I usually add the panel again and individualize it again (turn off updates and so on), which takes me some minutes and is quite frustrating to do every week to month…

lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 08)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] (rev 07)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 08)
00:08.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/v6 / E3-1500 v5 / 6th/7th/8th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)
00:14.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device 9d30 (rev 21)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Thermal subsystem (rev 21)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 (rev 21)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 21)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 21)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)
00:1f.3 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio (rev 21)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)
00:1f.5 Non-VGA unclassified device: Intel Corporation Device 9d24 (rev 21)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 07)

 inxi -G -c0
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] driver: i915 v: kernel 
           Display: server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1135~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 9.0.1 256 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 19.3.4 

https://paste.opensuse.org/02ae377f

Any idea where to start searching for the cause?

PS: the identical hardware with Tumbleweed KDE has no such problem…

You ask us what update you installed six month or more ago to identify the culprit?

@suse_rasputin:

Are you absolutely certain that, the contents of the files (X11 settings) located in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ are absolutely current and, valid?

Ehm, how could I? :slight_smile:

I suspect what may be happening is the panel is being dropped below screen line 1135 on your 1600x1200 screen.

Inxi is showing a peculiar screen resolution (1920x1135) that’s inconsistent with what Xorg.0.log reports (1600x1200). I would try confirming that screen resolution with xdpyinfo | egrep ‘dimen|ution’. ‘kcmshell5 xserver &’ run from Konsole or Xterm will include the same information. I expect running xrandr in Konsole will show the same modes as Xorg.0.log. The line where ***** appears indicates the current mode. The line where + appears indicates the display’s reported native/preferred mode. Check to see.

It looks like your display is an old 4:3 model (1600x1200 native). If it’s really being run at 1920x1135, I’d try to find out why, unless you already know, and turn that off, letting it run in native 1600x1200 mode. Inxi could simply be lying, as the old version provided by openSUSE repos has a lot of -G bugs that have since been fixed.[1] The current version, which is simply an elaborate data collection shell script, can be had and installed from its author’s site. Another release was made less than a week ago. The upstream version provides a -U switch that causes it to update itself. openSUSE’s inxi packager disables that switch.

If you’re not sure the resolution thing is anything you’ve done purposely, try this:

  1. goto “system settings” background services and deselect “KScreen2” and apply
  2. log out of your Plasma session
  3. Ctrl-Alt-F3 and log in
  4. rm -R .cache/*
  5. rm .config/plasma*appletsrc
  6. if /etc/X11/xorg.conf exists, rename it, e.g.
sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf01
  1. if in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ you find any of
    ]50-device.conf]50-monitor.conf*]50-screen.conf

exist and have any lines that are not simply comments, rename those file(s). If any other files in that directory exist that affect your display, rename them too. Any for mouse, keyboard, touchpad or other input devices leave alone. 1. chvt 7; exit

  1. login normally
    At this point you’ll need to recustomize your panel, but hopefully future updates won’t be hiding or removing your panel any more.

If you like, jump from step 4 to step 8. If it hasn’t helped, start over and jump from 5 to 8, and if no help, from 6 to 8…

If you open MC after completing step 3, as I would, you may find the subsequent steps simplified.

[1] See https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1181966.

Hi and thanks!

There is an old 1600x1200 monitor attached to the machine, but as I said, it is used headless via TigerVNC. If the panel is “slipping below the lower edge of the monitor” I use for VNC (notebook with 1920x1200) it would re-appear if I choose a VNC-window size smaller than the total screen. But after these reboots the panel is really gone.

I have here:

xdpyinfo | egrep 'dimen|ution'. 'kcmshell5 xserver &' 
grep: kcmshell5 xserver &: No such file or directory

and

xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 32 x 32, current 1920 x 1135, maximum 32768 x 32768
VNC-0 connected primary 1920x1135+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1920x1135     60.00*+
   1920x1200     60.00  
   1920x1080     60.00  
   1600x1200     60.00  
   1680x1050     60.00  
   1400x1050     60.00  
   1360x768      60.00  
   1280x1024     60.00  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1280x800      60.00  
   1280x720      60.00  
   1024x768      60.00  
   800x600       60.00  
   640x480       60.00

(as the 1920x1200 notebook screen used for VNC has a panel at the bottom, so not the full 1200 can be used for height)

and furtermore:

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
cat: /etc/X11/xorg.conf: No such file or directory

and all thes 50- files are comments only:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d> ls -al
total 64
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 Mar 13 16:56 .
drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 4096 Jun 26  2020 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  447 Sep 20  2019 00-keyboard.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1099 May 16  2020 10-evdev.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  489 Oct 10 02:57 10-libvnc.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1350 Mar 13 16:56 10-quirks.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  484 May 16  2020 11-evdev.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  975 May 16  2020 40-libinput.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  529 Jul  1  2011 50-device.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  199 May 16  2020 50-elotouch.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  264 Mar 13 16:56 50-extensions.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  527 Jul  1  2011 50-monitor.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  491 Jul  1  2011 50-screen.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1913 May 16  2020 70-synaptics.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  115 May 16  2020 70-vmmouse.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 2747 May 16  2020 70-wacom.conf
cat 50-monitor.conf 
# Having multiple "Monitor" sections is known to be problematic. Make
# sure you don't have in use another one laying around e.g. in another
# xorg.conf.d file or even a generic xorg.conf file. More details can
# be found in https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430.
#
#Section "Monitor"
#  Identifier "Default Monitor"
#
#  ## If your monitor doesn't support DDC you may override the
#  ## defaults here
#  #HorizSync 28-85
#  #VertRefresh 50-100
#
#  ## Add your mode lines here, use e.g the cvt tool
#
#EndSection

cat 50-screen.conf 
# Having multiple "Screen" sections is known to be problematic. Make
# sure you don't have in use another one laying around e.g. in another
# xorg.conf.d file or even a generic xorg.conf file. More details can
# be found in https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430.
#
#Section "Screen"
#  Identifier "Default Screen"
#
#  Device "Default Device"
#
#  ## Doesn't help for radeon/radeonhd drivers; use magic in
#  ## 50-device.conf instead
#  Monitor "Default Monitor"
#
#EndSection
cat 50-device.conf 
# Having multiple "Device" sections is known to be problematic. Make
# sure you don't have in use another one laying around e.g. in another
# xorg.conf.d file or even a generic xorg.conf file. More details can
# be found in https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430.
#
#Section "Device"
#  Identifier "Default Device"
#
#  #Driver "radeon"
#
#  ## Required magic for radeon/radeonhd drivers; output name
#  ## (here: "DVI-0") can be figured out via 'xrandr -q'
#  #Option "monitor-DVI-0" "Default Monitor"
#
#EndSection

inxi related:

sudo inxi -U
[sudo] password for root: 
Starting inxi self updater.
Using tiny as downloader.
Currently running inxi version number: 3.1.00
Current version patch number: 00
Current version release date: 2020-04-22
Updating inxi in /usr/bin using main branch as download source...
Successfully updated to main branch version: 3.3.03
New main branch version patch number: 00
New main branch version release date: 2021-03-17
To run the new version, just start inxi again.
----------------------------------------

Starting download of man page file now.
Downloading Man page file...
Download successful. Compressing file...
Download and install of man page successful.
Check to make sure it works: man inxi

and afterwards:

inxi -G -c0
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] driver: i915 v: kernel 
           Display: server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1135~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 9.0.1 256 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 19.3.4 

:slight_smile:

The period was the end of the sentence containing the first command. Try this way:

xdpyinfo | egrep 'dimen|ution'
kcmshell5 xserver &
xdpyinfo | egrep 'dimen|ution'
  dimensions:    1920x1135 pixels (507x299 millimeters)
  resolution:    96x96 dots per inch

as well as

kcmshell5 xserver &
[1] 7526

Couldn't load plugin "kcms/kcm_info" : "The shared library was not found."  -- falling back to old-style loading from desktop file


…and then a small window pops up named “X-Server”. Anthing needed as screenshot? :slight_smile:

I don’t know what to do about that. At this point I think it’s unimportant anyway.

…and then a small window pops up named “X-Server”. Anthing needed as screenshot? :slight_smile:
Is it empty? The only interest here is if its content matches xdpyinfo output. It’s just KDE’s way of capturing portions of xdpyinfo’s copious output it thinks you’d like to know about.

Because of the VNC environment I think these things are as expect, OK. So, go ahead and try the list of 9. Plasma seems to have occasional bouts of cache corruption for some users. Others say it never happens. I’ve lost Plasma panels on various installations on both openSUSE and Fedora. Usually cache clearing and or removing the panel’s RC file solves it, but not always. And, I keep KScreen disabled. When I want to deviate from display defaults, I use global settings, so that they apply no matter which DE session type I log into.

Hmm, list of 9…

What do you mean by

“If you open MC after completing step 3, as I would, you may find the subsequent steps simplified.”

?

I had a look .config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc

this is a mess, kind of?

I don’t want to loose all the icons, desktop settings etc…

And the .cache I remove on a regular base with bleachbit on this machine.

Hi
Not sure if this will work (don’t do much remote desktop any more) but use to just use xrandr -s zzzz x yyyy (~/.profile) on login to set the screen dimensions.

Hmm, I thought the screen dimensions are no problem, as if I set the VNC window to “not maximized” the panel does not reappear…

Ok, I took the final, remaining step and renamed this “plasma*appletsrc” to .old and rebooted. Had to reconfig the desktop, but now the file is only 5.5 kB, instaed of 378 kB and the Desktop panel survives a reboot :smiley:

Many thanks for pointing me in the right direction… :slight_smile:

Glad to see you got there! :slight_smile: