System Tray disappeared. Dual monitor issue. Help please.

[DoubtingT]

Hi,

I've searched but nobody seems to have posted the same problem.

Mageia 6, relatively new install.
KDE Plasma Version: 5.8.7
KDE Frameworks Version 5.32.0
QT Version: 5.6.2
Kernel Version: 4.9.56-desktop-1.mga6
OS Type: 32-bit
Intel I3 M
2.3 GiB of RAM

The system tray (taskbar?) has gone and refuses to come back. I get the triple bar menu option at the top left of the screen. I can use Configure Desktop either through this or a right click, and I get the option of desktop view or folder view, but either way nothing appears at the bottom of the screen.

I've added an Application Launcher which allows me to access programs properly, but adding a new System Tray brings up a square box with three items visible (net applet, clipboard and volume), an almost invisible instant messaging icon, and an arrow that shows hidden icons. Clicking on System Tray Settings inside it just takes me to the Configure Desktop options.

Widgets seems flaky in other ways. The app is currently showing 7 instances of Activity Manager, 7 of Application Menu, 7 Digital Clocks, 7 of Lock/Logout, 7 Pagers etc. as well as numerous instances of others. Nothing shows on the desktop at all.

It's surprising how lack of a system tray depreciates the whole computing experience. I'd appreciate any help you could give me.

Thanks.

[wintpe]

since its a relatively new install, you can probably re setup your desktop.

open a shell (start->tools->konsole)

Code: Select all

mv .config .config.141217


logout and login

this will reset your kde config back to zero, for just this user

it wont effect firefox or apps that have their own config

regards peter

[DoubtingT]

Hi,
Thanks for looking in.

Okay, that code cleared all the multiple instances of non-existent widgets and removed all my personal settings (i.e. wallpaper). I got logged back in to folder view, and after a while I was able to get back to the desktop, but I still have no system tray.

Anything else I can try?

Thanks.

[DoubtingT]

Hi,
I went into System Settings and clicked on 'Look And Feel'. I clicked on 'Breeze' and checked the box for 'Use Desktop Layout from Theme'. The system tray came back. I don't recall changing anything in this area of the system prior to the tray vanishing.

Anyway, it's back. I'll do some more groping around and mark the query as solved if I get it to accept my personal settings and remain stable.

Thanks again for your help. I'm sure the reset code was the key.

Best regards.

[DoubtingT]

Well it turns out that Plasma doesn't want to play ball. No matter what options I choose, a reboot brings an arbitrary splash screen and desktop (and no system tray). Also, the widgets are always locked.

If I unlock them, I can add an application launcher that allows me to enter System Settings. From there I can go to Workspace Theme and re-check the 'Use Desktop Layout from Theme' option, but it doesn't stick.

Can I uninstall and reinstall the Plasma items in MCC? Or would I find the problem replicating itself because of additional settings?

I'd still appreciate help with this.

TIA.

Best regards.

[doktor5000]

Can I uninstall and reinstall the Plasma items in MCC? Or would I find the problem replicating itself because of additional settings?

Reinstalling will probably not help, as the settings in your home folder are unaffected by that.

Does the problem persist if you create a new user?

[Ken-Bergen]

Have you tried locking widgets before logging out?

[DoubtingT]

Hi doktor5000. I set up a new user. The problem came back after the first reboot.

Hi Ken-Bergen. Yes, I tried locking and unlocking. I've now noticed that sometimes the computer reboots with widgets locked, sometimes unlocked. As I say, the behaviour seems totally arbitrary.

I should have mentioned that the computer is a laptop and that I have it feeding an external screen via HDMI. The one thing I haven't tried so far is to disable the external screen and see if that helps. I suspect it won't because I have had two computers set up like this with similar specs (both Acer Aspires, one with an i3 processor, and one with an i5), going back years - at least to Magiea 4, and I haven't experienced any such problems prior to the Magiea 6 (clean) install. The i5 is running fine.

I installed Magiea 6 first on the i5 and then on the i3 (using the same DVD), but I noticed that setting up a Folder View widget on the i5 gave me the option of specifying the Home folder (among numerous others), whereas on the i3 I only get the option to specify one of 3 drives. Maybe this is all linked?

Am I looking at another clean install?

TIA.

Best regards.

[doktor5000]

I set up a new user. The problem came back after the first reboot.

What configuration did you change in between?

[DoubtingT]

Sorry I've taken a long time to reply. I decided I should check to see exactly what I did.

I changed Look and Feel to Oxygen, Desktop Theme to Air, Cursor Theme to KDE Classic, Splash Screen to Oxygen. In Folder View Settings I used a personal photo as wallpaper. Under that user, Folder Settings gives me the option of Home, network, Root, Wastebin, plus three drives.

As both monitors were enabled, I noticed other things when I went through several reboots.

Sometimes the personal settings appeared lost, but it turned out that the two displays acted like an extended desktop. I could run the mouse off the right edge of the laptop display and it would appear on the left side of the external monitor.

My personal settings appeared on the external monitor, with the laptop display showing the standard Oxygen screen and system tray in place. And I could get the personal settings to appear on the laptop display with system tray in place. In all instances, reboot options appear on both screens.

Now I'm back on my primary user and I can get the system tray back if I leave both displays on, but it's very inconvenient. When I click on the Firefox icon in the laptop system tray, the window appears on the external display. When I click on a file in Folder View, it opens on the laptop display - although I can drag it onto the external display.

I've now rebooted a couple of times and the result is the same: with laptop display as primary, I get personal settings on the external monitor, minus system tray, positioning scaled. And I get Oxygen on the laptop monitor, including system tray, scaled and chopped. I don't see an option to put everything on the external monitor and switch off the laptop display.

Also, Folder View only gives me the option of the three drives.

I tried setting the external monitor to primary display. The Oxygen desktop came over. I opened a text file with Libre Office and it showed up on the laptop display. I opened it with Kwrite and it showed up on the external display. Now I open Firefox and it shows up on the external display.

Rebooting sends the system tray back over to the laptop despite HDMI1 still showing as primary display in System Settings. Clicking on laptop screen and then HDMI1 brings it back to the external monitor. In System Settings, dragging the laptop screen icon onto the HDMI1 icon sends the entire system haywire and I have to reboot.

Sorry about the length of this post, but the exploration has taken on a life of its own. Would I be right in assuming that the protocols for dual displays are a bit flaky? I admit I'm stumped. Am I missing something?

I'd appreciate any ideas you might have.

TIA.

Regards.

[doktor5000]

Well, the only idea that I can provide that might help would be to try a different desktop environment in the meantime.
I don't have a multiple display setup at home, and at work we're using a RHEL derivative with other desktops like MATE or cinnamon (as the KDE4 that comes with RHEL is even older then the one we had in mga5 and it has its own issues).

If you want to stick with Plasma5, then I would suggest that you keep your customizations to a minimum, and when you have a reproducible issue then report that upstream as a bug.
You may want to read about some of the complexities involved with multiple display setups, to gain and understanding why some of the things that seem pretty simple from a user point of view are really not simple at all.
https://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/ ... lasma-5-7/
https://vizzzion.org/blog/2016/05/multi ... nd-beyond/

You could also wait for others to comment that have a multiple display setup with plasma5 here who may be able to help with this.

[DoubtingT]

Thanks for taking the time to reply again, doktor5000.

I've done some more scouring around the Internet, and it seems that there are many reports of strange behaviour in Plasma 5 when using dual monitors. There are YouTube videos and a lot of Google material devoted to the subject. When I first posted my request for help, I didn't realise that this was the core of the issue because I had the laptop monitor disabled and therefore couldn't see the system tray lurking on the other screen. Also, I haven't suffered problems like this in the 5 years I've been running laptops as desktops and therefore didn't expect this outcome. Now I know where to look, I guess I can work around it.

People say it may be to do with the Kscreen configuration file, and I've noticed that some YouTubers have posted code to help. I don't feel it's right to post URL's as I wouldn't use third party code to play around with the innards of my own system; however, a little searching will certainly discover the results I found. I may try ARandR, which is in the repository, is GUI based, and promises to solve the stability problems with a couple of mouse clicks. I live in hope. If it gives a result, I'll add the necessary comments.

I'll try to edit the title of my original post to reflect that this turned out to be primarily a dual-display issue. As the Plasma 5 code is still being attended to, I suppose I can't mark the problems as solved.

Season's greetings to you and the others who've been kind enough to help.

Best regards.

[doktor5000]

I may try ARandR, which is in the repository, is GUI based, and promises to solve the stability problems with a couple of mouse clicks.

I don't believe that will help any bit, as your problems are not about xrandr but more about plasma not keeping its configuration. Apart from that KDE has its own xrandr frontend, it's called kscreen and works really well.

[DoubtingT]

Hi doktor5000

You're absolutely correct. I did try it, and it did nothing apart from blanking out the laptop screen. This forced me to open an application launcher widget so that I could reverse the settings I tried.

One other thing I have noticed is that, as mentioned above, double clicking on a text file on my external monitor opened up LibreOffice with a window on the laptop monitor. However, I dragged the window back onto the external monitor and left it there before closing, and now that's where LibreOffice opens up *all* double-clicked files. Strange.

Otherwise, having left both monitors enabled yesterday, everything opened up correctly on boot-up today.

The mystery remains of why the system suddenly decided to act like this. My other computer has been running without issue. I'm away from it at the moment, but it will be interesting to find out if that too is affected.

Best regards.