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| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +title: Plasma Troubleshooting |
| 3 | +summary: Troubleshooting Issues With the Plasma Desktop |
| 4 | +--- |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | +# Plasma Desktop Troubleshooting |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | +This contains fixes for various issues you might encounter with the Plasma desktop environment. |
| 9 | + |
| 10 | +## Desktop no longer responds to clicks, cursor stuck in "move" mode (cross) |
| 11 | + |
| 12 | +This is often caused by a Firefox bug. It can be triggered by various things, like moving Firefox windows. |
| 13 | + |
| 14 | +**Symptoms:** |
| 15 | +- Can't click on anything on the desktop. |
| 16 | +- Bringing up windows with keyboard shortcuts (ex: Super for the app menu, F9 for a drop down terminal) works, but they don't get focused. You can't interact with them. |
| 17 | +- Mouse cursor is stuck in move mode, it looks like a cross. |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +You may not need to reboot to recover from this state. Killing all firefox processes may be all that's necessary. To do so: |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +1. Open a virtual terminal by pressing `Ctrl+Alt+F3`. |
| 22 | +1. Run the following to kill all firefox windows: |
| 23 | + ```bash |
| 24 | + killall firefox |
| 25 | + ``` |
| 26 | + This should close all Firefox windows. |
| 27 | +1. Return to the Plasma session by pressing `Ctrl+Alt+F2`. |
| 28 | + You should now be able to use Plasma normally. |
| 29 | + |
| 30 | +## Application windows look corrupt / incomplete |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +**Symptoms** |
| 33 | +- Application windows look corrupt. For example, NeoChat does not display room or user icons. |
| 34 | +- Menus in an application are blank. |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | +You may be able to fix this by clearing KDE / Plasma cache files. |
| 37 | + |
| 38 | +:::cautionImportant |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +You should not be logged into your Plasma session while deleting the cache files, booting from a live USB is necessary. |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | +::: |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +1. While still logged into your Plasma session, go to your home directory: |
| 45 | + ```bash |
| 46 | + cd |
| 47 | + ``` |
| 48 | +1. Run these commands to back up the following directories: |
| 49 | + ```bash |
| 50 | + cp -av ~/.kde{,.bak} |
| 51 | + cp -av ~/.config{,.bak} |
| 52 | + cp -av ~/.local{,.bak} |
| 53 | + cp -av ~/share{,.bak} |
| 54 | + ``` |
| 55 | + The commands create a copy of the folders. Each copy has the `.bak` extension (Example: `~/.config.bak`). These can be used to recover configuration files, if necessary. |
| 56 | +1. Shut down the system. |
| 57 | +1. Boot from a live USB, which you can create from one of the [Solus installers](https://getsol.us/download/). |
| 58 | +1. [Mount your hard drive's file system](./boot-rescue.md#mounting-your-system). |
| 59 | +1. Change to your user's directory where you mounted your file system. For example, if you used `/mount`: |
| 60 | + ```bash |
| 61 | + cd /mount/home/username |
| 62 | + ``` |
| 63 | + Replace "username" with the username you use for Solus. |
| 64 | + You can make sure the directory is correct by listing the files: |
| 65 | + ```bash |
| 66 | + ls -laH |
| 67 | + ``` |
| 68 | + You should see the files you would usually see in your home directory when logged into Solus normally. |
| 69 | +1. Remove the various caches that Plasma uses. |
| 70 | + Execute the following commands: |
| 71 | + ```bash |
| 72 | + rm -rf .kde |
| 73 | + rm -rf .cache/plasmashell* |
| 74 | + rm -rf .cache/org.kde.dirmodel-qml.kcache |
| 75 | + rm -rf .cache/kioexec/ .cache/krunner/ .cache/ksycoca5* |
| 76 | + rm -rf .cache/krunnerbookmarkrunnerfirefoxdbfile.sqlite |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | + cd ../.local/ |
| 79 | + rm -rf kate/ kded5/ klipper/ knewstuff3/ kscreen/ konsole/ kwalletd/ ksysguard/ kmail2/ kcookiejar/ kactivitymanagerd/ |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | + cd ../share/ |
| 82 | + rm -rf dolphin kate kcookiejar kded5 keyrings klipper kmail2 knewstuff3 konsole kscreen ksysguard kwalletd kxmlgui5 plasma_engine_comic plasma plasma_notes org.kde.gwenview |
| 83 | + |
| 84 | + cd ../.config/ |
| 85 | + rm -f plasma* |
| 86 | + rm -rf kde* akonadi* KDE kconf_updaterc baloo* dolphinrc drkonqirc gwenviewrc kmail2rc k*rc katemetainfos |
| 87 | + ``` |
| 88 | +1. Shut down the live environment and remove the live USB drive. |
| 89 | +1. Reboot back into your regular Plasma session. Verify the issue is fixed. |
| 90 | +1. If you experience system instability, restore the previously backed up folders. |
| 91 | + |
| 92 | + To restore an entire directory: |
| 93 | + ``` |
| 94 | + cp -rav .kde.bak/share/config/ .kde/share/config |
| 95 | + ``` |
| 96 | + After restoring the files or directories, restart your system. |
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