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Add Plasma Troubleshooing Page (#440)
* Add Plasma Troubleshooing Page Create initial page for troubleshooting Plasma Add sections for desktop not responding, clearing Plasma cache --------- Co-authored-by: Tracey Clark <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: David Harder <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: Aldair <[email protected]>
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docs/user/troubleshooting/plasma.md

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---
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title: Plasma Troubleshooting
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summary: Troubleshooting Issues With the Plasma Desktop
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---
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# Plasma Desktop Troubleshooting
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This contains fixes for various issues you might encounter with the Plasma desktop environment.
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## Desktop no longer responds to clicks, cursor stuck in "move" mode (cross)
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This is often caused by a Firefox bug. It can be triggered by various things, like moving Firefox windows.
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**Symptoms:**
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- Can't click on anything on the desktop.
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- 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.
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- Mouse cursor is stuck in move mode, it looks like a cross.
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You may not need to reboot to recover from this state. Killing all firefox processes may be all that's necessary. To do so:
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1. Open a virtual terminal by pressing `Ctrl+Alt+F3`.
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1. Run the following to kill all firefox windows:
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```bash
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killall firefox
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```
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This should close all Firefox windows.
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1. Return to the Plasma session by pressing `Ctrl+Alt+F2`.
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You should now be able to use Plasma normally.
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## Application windows look corrupt / incomplete
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**Symptoms**
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- Application windows look corrupt. For example, NeoChat does not display room or user icons.
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- Menus in an application are blank.
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You may be able to fix this by clearing KDE / Plasma cache files.
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:::cautionImportant
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You should not be logged into your Plasma session while deleting the cache files, booting from a live USB is necessary.
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:::
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1. While still logged into your Plasma session, go to your home directory:
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```bash
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cd
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```
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1. Run these commands to back up the following directories:
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```bash
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cp -av ~/.kde{,.bak}
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cp -av ~/.config{,.bak}
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cp -av ~/.local{,.bak}
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cp -av ~/share{,.bak}
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```
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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.
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1. Shut down the system.
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1. Boot from a live USB, which you can create from one of the [Solus installers](https://getsol.us/download/).
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1. [Mount your hard drive's file system](./boot-rescue.md#mounting-your-system).
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1. Change to your user's directory where you mounted your file system. For example, if you used `/mount`:
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```bash
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cd /mount/home/username
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```
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Replace "username" with the username you use for Solus.
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You can make sure the directory is correct by listing the files:
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```bash
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ls -laH
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```
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You should see the files you would usually see in your home directory when logged into Solus normally.
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1. Remove the various caches that Plasma uses.
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Execute the following commands:
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```bash
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rm -rf .kde
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rm -rf .cache/plasmashell*
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rm -rf .cache/org.kde.dirmodel-qml.kcache
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rm -rf .cache/kioexec/ .cache/krunner/ .cache/ksycoca5*
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rm -rf .cache/krunnerbookmarkrunnerfirefoxdbfile.sqlite
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cd ../.local/
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rm -rf kate/ kded5/ klipper/ knewstuff3/ kscreen/ konsole/ kwalletd/ ksysguard/ kmail2/ kcookiejar/ kactivitymanagerd/
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cd ../share/
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rm -rf dolphin kate kcookiejar kded5 keyrings klipper kmail2 knewstuff3 konsole kscreen ksysguard kwalletd kxmlgui5 plasma_engine_comic plasma plasma_notes org.kde.gwenview
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cd ../.config/
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rm -f plasma*
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rm -rf kde* akonadi* KDE kconf_updaterc baloo* dolphinrc drkonqirc gwenviewrc kmail2rc k*rc katemetainfos
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```
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1. Shut down the live environment and remove the live USB drive.
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1. Reboot back into your regular Plasma session. Verify the issue is fixed.
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1. If you experience system instability, restore the previously backed up folders.
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To restore an entire directory:
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```
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cp -rav .kde.bak/share/config/ .kde/share/config
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```
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After restoring the files or directories, restart your system.

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