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My system is a Mageia 6 system running 64 bit software with all known patches installed.

The uname command reports:
Linux HIvyTower 4.9.50-desktop-1.mga6 #1 SMP Wed Sep 13 23:14:20 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

About half the time my system will boot, and I log in to a Plasma workstation; and the window control bar is missing from the top of all of the application windows.
My terminology may not be correct, and I apologize.
The missing window control bar normally contains an application logo, a window title, and icons to iconify, maximise, or close the window. That bar is missing.
Another symptom seen in a Firefox browser, is that a right mouse click on a browser link does not display a menu; containing options like "Open Link in a new tab".


What symptoms should I collect to aid in solving the issue?
What terminology is correct?
What kinds of keywords should I search on the internet to find posts of users with the same problem?
(I tried searching, but my terminology drew a blank.)
Where should I report this bug? (Probably a good place to search for a solution.)

If you / can you log into a different DE, does the issue persist? (DE specific issue?)

Can you login as a new / different user and does the issue persist (user config issue?)

What is your graphics card, may be a driver / hardware issue.
try a generic driver if using proprietary one or vice versa.

What you are missing seems to be the window manager, it is responsible (among others) for drawing the window decorations, like the window title bar.
Can you check whether kwin is running, and if you have something in journal logs from kwin? As root

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ps auxwww|grep -v grep|grep -i kwin
journalctl -ab|grep -i kwin

I ran the commands requested. Here are the results.

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[hank@HIvyTower ~]$ sudo ps auxwww|grep -v grep|grep -i kwin
[hank@HIvyTower ~]$ sudo journalctl -ab|grep -i kwin
[hank@HIvyTower ~]$


If it helps at all, the window control bar did not disappear until the second time I logged into the plasma environment after I booted the system.

Here are the results for the same commands when the control bar is present. This is initially after rebooting the system.

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[hank@HIvyTower ~]$ sudo ps auxwww|grep -v grep|grep -i kwin
hank      3189  1.1  2.1 3118608 84488 ?       Sl   23:16   0:04 kwin_x11
[hank@HIvyTower ~]$ sudo journalctl -ab|grep -i kwin
Sep 30 23:16:32 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-effect.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:32 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-effect.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:32 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-effect.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:32 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-effect.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:32 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-effect.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:32 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-effect.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:33 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-script.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:33 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-script.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:33 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-script.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:33 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-effect.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:33 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-script.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:33 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-script.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:33 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-effect.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:33 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-effect.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:33 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: kf5.kcoreaddons.desktopparser: Could not locate service type file kservicetypes5/kwin-effect.desktop, tried ("/home/hank/.local/share", "/var/lib/plasma5-profiles/common/share", "/usr/local/share", "/usr/share")
Sep 30 23:16:39 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 1315, resource id: 67108866, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
Sep 30 23:16:40 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 1600, resource id: 48234500, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
Sep 30 23:16:42 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 1629, resource id: 77594625, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
Sep 30 23:16:42 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 1633, resource id: 77594626, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
Sep 30 23:16:42 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 1888, resource id: 20971528, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
Sep 30 23:16:44 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 1982, resource id: 83886081, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
Sep 30 23:16:44 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 1986, resource id: 83886082, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
Sep 30 23:16:44 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 1990, resource id: 83886081, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
Sep 30 23:16:53 HIvyTower kwin_x11[3189]: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 2390, resource id: 12582934, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
[hank@HIvyTower ~]$



You would probably have to enable debug logging for kwin via kdebugdialog, and then check if e.g. ~/.xsession-errors or journal log has some indications why kwin is not running anymore ...

Also, kwin should restart itself when it crashes...

The command kdebugdialog launched the graphical interface, KDebugDialog window.
The "Disable all debug output" button was on, and most of the window was grayed out. Selecting the button turned it off, and allowed the rest of the window to be active. A bunch of KDebug areas were also active.

I did the following:
1. Selected the "Deselect All" button.
2. Entered "kwin" in the Search field. [Four areas were still listed below the Search field.
3. Selected the check box in front of "1212 kwin".
4. Selected "OK".

I will report on results and symptoms as they happen.

The problem happened again. I had enabled debug logging for kwin.
Who do you recommend should see the .xsession-errors file, about 556KB, and how should I send it to them?

I had been running my system for over a week without problems.
The mouse died, and all of the windows locked up.
With control-alt-F3, I opened a terminal window and looked at processes.
As best I could tell, all of my applications with a window open had terminated.
I shutdown the system, turned it off, and restarted it.

The system came up with out having to run fsck, or reprocess the file system journal log.
(That implied to me that the file systems all were clean and up to date at shutdown.)

The system came up trying to restart the window applications that were running at the last shutdown.
But the window control bars were missing.
I copied .xsession-errors to .xsession-errors-01.log to save the contents, about 556KB.
I logged out, and shutdown the system, turned it off, and restarted it again.

The system came up with out having to run fsck, or reprocess the file system journal log.
(That implied to me that the file systems all were clean and up to date at shutdown.)

The system came up trying to restart the window applications that were running at the last shutdown.
Now the window control bars were present.

There are problems with plasma (or KDE5 or whateverthehell it is...) that seem to revolve around the window manager. These problems are upstream of Mageia; I see the same problems on my laptop that is running OpenSUSE Leap 42.3.

We can only hope that KDE fixes their issues. But for now the easiest thing to do is just to start kwin when it crashes. If it won't restart, or keeps crashing, reload your desktop session.

To just restart kwin, enter Alt-F2 which will give you the command launcher window. If kwin is running, but acting up, enter this command into that window:

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kwin_x11 --replace

and your window manager will be restarted

If the window manager is dead before you try this, then enter

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kwin_x11

and it will be started.

If you cannot reach the launcher window with ALT-F2, or if kwin keeps crashing, or if anything else persistently malfunctions, then you need to restart your desktop session. The easiest way to do this is to hit CTRL-ALT-F2 in order to get to a console window.

Log in as root at that console window; enter your username (root) and hit ENTER. At the password prompt, enter your root password.

Then type the command: "service sddm restart" which will restart your entire session.

Also, using the tool ksysguard, look for instances of kwin_x11 that are running. There should be only one. If you find more than one, probably your "extras" will be running away, sucking up CPU. Kill them.

You also can do this from a bash shell or a console shell: enter the command "ps ax | grep kwin" and see what you see. If there is more than one kwin_x11 that shows, kill the one(s) that should be dead. If you can't tell which should be left, just kill them all with the command "killall -9 kwin_x11" then start a new instance using the ALT-F2 task launcher.

This is a PITA, and I have to deal with it a couple times a day. But it works.

I'm having the same problem, which makes Plasma unusable in practice.
Reported it to Bugzilla: https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22115