6

I've been using KDE 5.35/Plasma 5.8 with Kubuntu 16.04 for quite some time and it was, I think, the 1st ever release which had no problems with multiple displays. Up till now...

For a few weeks already, I've been having problem with Plasma widget and panel (I have only 1 widget + 1 panel). My default configuration is laptop (with its screen on) with a docking station + external display connected via the station's display port. Every few days I need to un-dock the laptop and then I connect a beamer via the laptop's VGA port. Then back to my default configuration.

This has been working for quite some time. But for the last few weeks when I connect the laptop back to the docking station, the widget and the panel are invisible. Seems like Plasma "thinks" it's yet another configuration and wants to display it on yet another screen.

Hard to say when exactly that started to happen.

Any ideas how to debug the problem?

ll .local/share/kscreen/

02b2519f10b073932721cd54471a5d31
0bc0f89da7e951d55bdfa65793aa345a
0faea465ff6c527f2aa69abb7c930e1a
155ff4718615fda4a9282c0b70d2cac2
191c4762f0984fc4cc0152d8105d3326
27017d423df578a745236143e3e26975
2916a81176ce7c981ab06bd0995f026d
3711daa6087565303445e59abd0dab22
42695ce0307127da62aae36c0c605aec
4e60e42f297aa863d831a17b07d96c8e
72d0666c5ae310ce6d8e75380df9a178
72d0666c5ae310ce6d8e75380df9a178_lidOpened
7b64f87a8dcd5140beff328b9eedbacf
8cf9a2afe62c0bb6a53787ccd0b96688
8cf9a2afe62c0bb6a53787ccd0b96688_lidOpened
8fcd01dc21bb29c21ffc70cae0a7eeda
a7bd88cd5eca9730b3ad4e6d34305ab8
b19a6594df416975d9ca6eebcc870b7f
c48ae748aca5918d355ddb5f219317fb
c48ae748aca5918d355ddb5f219317fb_lidOpened
d4da5d828750ea65d3c2966a4ac51ce4
d4da5d828750ea65d3c2966a4ac51ce4_lidOpened
f054a39fc3bd56d8db7b561b2b9b45f8
f572b8dbda3159ff1340e300891c5478
f572b8dbda3159ff1340e300891c5478_lidOpened
f78388f04b63d7028f0cc4fb881bc831
f78388f04b63d7028f0cc4fb881bc831_lidOpened
fbdb4927340a24964629ea70ddfb7ad8
kscreen.log

kscreen-console monitor > kscreen-changes.log

START: Requesting Config
Received config. Took 19 milliseconds
Remember to enable KSRandR or KSRandR11 in kdebugdialog
Screen:
        maxSize: QSize(32767, 32767)
        minSize: QSize(8, 8)
        currentSize: QSize(3520, 1200)

-----------------------------------------------------

Id:  67
Name:  "LVDS1"
Type:  "Panel (Laptop)"
Connected:  true
Enabled:  true
Primary:  true
Rotation:  1
Pos:  QPoint(0,300)
MMSize:  QSize(309, 174)
Size:  QSize(1600, 900)
Clones:  None
Mode:  "77"
Preferred Mode:  "77"
Preferred modes:  ("77")
Modes: 
         "239"    ""   QSize(1600, 900)   40.0399
         "240"    ""   QSize(1440, 900)   59.8874
         "241"    ""   QSize(1368, 768)   60
         "242"    ""   QSize(1360, 768)   59.799
         "243"    ""   QSize(1360, 768)   59.96
         "244"    ""   QSize(1152, 864)   59.9971
         "245"    ""   QSize(1280, 720)   59.9995
         "246"    ""   QSize(1024, 768)   60.0038
         "247"    ""   QSize(1024, 576)   59.9989
         "248"    ""   QSize(960, 540)   59.9991
         "249"    ""   QSize(800, 600)   60.3165
         "250"    ""   QSize(800, 600)   56.25
         "251"    ""   QSize(864, 486)   59.9998
         "252"    ""   QSize(800, 450)   59.9993
         "253"    ""   QSize(640, 480)   59.9405
         "254"    ""   QSize(720, 405)   60
         "255"    ""   QSize(640, 360)   59.9971
         "77"    ""   QSize(1600, 900)   60.0572
EDID Info: 
        Device ID:  "xrandr-unknown"
        Name:  ""
        Vendor:  ""
        Serial:  ""
        EISA ID:  ""
        Hash:  "4e2dbe1d5420b32701f974e2318d6f34"
        Width:  31
        Height:  17
        Gamma:  2
        Red:  QQuaternion(scalar:1, vector:(0.599609, 0.347656, 0))
        Green:  QQuaternion(scalar:1, vector:(0.320312, 0.570312, 0))
        Blue:  QQuaternion(scalar:1, vector:(0.150391, 0.129883, 0))
        White:  QQuaternion(scalar:1, vector:(0.313477, 0.329102, 0))

-----------------------------------------------------

Id:  68
Name:  "DP1"
Type:  "DisplayPort"
Connected:  true
Enabled:  true
Primary:  false
Rotation:  1
Pos:  QPoint(1600,0)
MMSize:  QSize(518, 324)
Size:  QSize(1920, 1200)
Clones:  None
Mode:  "256"
Preferred Mode:  "256"
Preferred modes:  ("256")
Modes: 
         "240"    ""   QSize(1440, 900)   59.8874
         "246"    ""   QSize(1024, 768)   60.0038
         "249"    ""   QSize(800, 600)   60.3165
         "256"    ""   QSize(1920, 1200)   59.9502
         "257"    ""   QSize(1920, 1080)   60
         "258"    ""   QSize(1600, 1200)   60
         "259"    ""   QSize(1680, 1050)   59.9543
         "260"    ""   QSize(1280, 1024)   60.0197
         "261"    ""   QSize(1280, 800)   59.8103
         "262"    ""   QSize(1280, 720)   60
         "263"    ""   QSize(640, 480)   60
         "78"    ""   QSize(1600, 900)   60
EDID Info: 
        Device ID:  "xrandr-HP E242-CNC60901QH"
        Name:  "HP E242"
        Vendor:  ""
        Serial:  "CNC60901QH"
        EISA ID:  ""
        Hash:  "bdb63d1785df48d2cc1cb3ffb2d929eb"
        Width:  52
        Height:  32
        Gamma:  2
        Red:  QQuaternion(scalar:1, vector:(0.65332, 0.332031, 0))
        Green:  QQuaternion(scalar:1, vector:(0.303711, 0.632812, 0))
        Blue:  QQuaternion(scalar:1, vector:(0.150391, 0.0644531, 0))
        White:  QQuaternion(scalar:1, vector:(0.313477, 0.329102, 0))

-----------------------------------------------------

Id:  69
Name:  "DP2"
Type:  "DisplayPort"
Connected:  false

-----------------------------------------------------

Id:  70
Name:  "DP3"
Type:  "DisplayPort"
Connected:  false

-----------------------------------------------------

Id:  71
Name:  "HDMI1"
Type:  "HDMI"
Connected:  false

-----------------------------------------------------

Id:  72
Name:  "HDMI2"
Type:  "HDMI"
Connected:  false

-----------------------------------------------------

Id:  73
Name:  "HDMI3"
Type:  "HDMI"
Connected:  false

-----------------------------------------------------

Id:  74
Name:  "VGA1"
Type:  "VGA"
Connected:  false

-----------------------------------------------------

Id:  75
Name:  "VIRTUAL1"
Type:  "Unknown"
Connected:  false
kscreen: Requesting missing EDID for outputs (67)
kscreen: Requesting missing EDID for outputs (67)
kscreen: Requesting missing EDID for outputs (67)
kscreen: Requesting missing EDID for outputs (67, 68)
kscreen: Requesting missing EDID for outputs (67, 68)
kscreen: Requesting missing EDID for outputs (67, 68)
Improve this question
5
  • What do you have in ~/.local/share/kscreen/? I am willing to bet KDE is a creating a new file in here each time your widget and panel go "missing."
    – Coder Guy
    Nov 9, 2017 at 7:00
  • added the outcome of ll .local/share/kscreen/ How does it help?
    – Artur Stępniak
    Nov 10, 2017 at 9:14
  • Yes, as I thought KScreen is creating a bunch of new profiles. Are there any differences between these files? You can use diff to help. Also run kscreen-console monitor > kscreen-changes.log to track what's happening when you dock / undock the laptop.
    – Coder Guy
    Nov 11, 2017 at 23:11
  • the only difference between the files is that when both laptop and external displays are on the laptop's display has "y": 300. When the external display is disconnected "y": 0. I guess that's ok.
    – Artur Stępniak
    Nov 13, 2017 at 9:01
  • From the source code I've not been able to find any further clues other than a VGA connection may be a factor, and if a display connection happens to be missing both a name and an EDID, but judging from the information you posted it looks like your connections at least have names.
    – Coder Guy
    Nov 20, 2017 at 6:19

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
9

I found a solution on superuser.com.

Here I quote from the above mentioned answer:

Depending on the cause of this issue in your case, you may be able to fix it by editing your plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc file and then performing

kquitapp plasmashell && kstart plasmashell

One cause I've run into is the buggy multimonitor functionality sometimes "losing" the taskbar from my laptop screen after I've connected to an external monitor and later disconnected (this was in plasma 5.5 or 5.6, I think). In this scenario, I've found the problem to be the lastScreen setting in the taskbar configuration. To fix this, find the section of text in plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc that looks like:

[Containments][1]
activityId=
formfactor=2
immutability=1
lastScreen=1
location=4
plugin=org.kde.panel
wallpaperplugin=org.kde.image

(Some of these lines may vary in your configuration. In mine, this section was only a dozen lines down in the file, but I have no idea how much that may vary.)

Setting lastscreen=0 fixed the problem for me. I assume that 0 represents my laptop screen, and 1 is the external monitor.

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4
  • 1
    I've been banging my head against this for the last couple of hours... Thank you, this totally did the trick :-) . In my case when the panel was missing, there was also no network connection. To fix that temporarily just add a new panel with the networking widget to some visible screen.
    – Heehaaw
    Aug 14, 2019 at 7:45
  • Nope, it does not work.
    – SalahAdDin
    Dec 9, 2022 at 16:32
  • This was problem for me when I set "Replica of". So I guess I will just not use this option again :)
    – makkasi
    Jun 7, 2023 at 8:42
  • a panel with lot of launchers on external monitor disappeared and wallpaper on that desktop changed. Copied back plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc and plasmashellrc from backup. Then restarted. Fixed. These files had changed when compared with ~/.config folder.
    – quiet_penguin
    Nov 23, 2023 at 8:53

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