Kde plasma freezing occasionally

dodogames · 2023-12-13 17:00

Hi, so i started to experience weird issues with kde plasma and i'm not sure if it's just the entire os or the plasma problem, so one day everything was going fine until freezing started to occur if i left my laptop for too long on lock screen. During this, the entire taskbar freezes and the system itself seems to suddenly become busy thus preventing power options done through the system from being possible and results in a black screen never ending. I could still interact with opened windows but the apps barely become usable.

At the time of writing this, it seems to have been frozen this time when attempting to unmount the usb drive, now opened windows becomes unusable entirely thus leaving the cursor only movable around the frozen desktop. Anyway on how to fix this? I was thinking to switch to trinity to give it a try if it works perfectly on my laptop but i figured that i will ask for help first before straightforward blaming a desktop environment.

Here's my laptop's specs:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU M 350 @ 2.27GHz 2.27 GHz
RAM: 4.00 GB (But only a couple of GB is usable thus leaving only 3 GB of ram being generally used around OSes)
System type: 64 bit system and so does the processor
Storage: HDD with about 320 GB originally...
Extra information: Q4OS was setup using the windows installer

Last edited by dodogames (2023-12-13 17:05)

Rademes · 2023-12-13 17:37

Hello!
Please read this topic: https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3502
And provide all necessary information. It will be very difficult to help you without this information.

dodogames · 2023-12-13 18:21

Alright, thanks for posting that, i will try to publish all of the information as much as possible.

Q4OS-Related:
Install method: Q4OS windows installer
Desktop environment: Plasma (i also have xfce installed as second DE)
Profiler: Q4OS Basic
Version: 5.4.1-n1 (Aquarius)
Base: Debian 12 (bookworm)
Kernel: 6.1.0-15-amd64
Plasma version: 5.27.5

Steps to reproduce the problem:
Do anything such as attempting to unmount a usb drive, or leave the device on lock screen for too long. Watch the entire desktop freeze alongside with applications. Screenshots isn't possible due to the hard freezing.

debug information:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gBG_h0 … 4IN9U/view

I don't think there is a hardware related issue otherwise i might be wrong. Feel free to ask me about the full hardware

Last edited by dodogames (2023-12-13 18:25)

dodogames · 2023-12-14 01:29

I have figured out that this thread will be lost soon so i will just post all of the hardware information as a simple debug file won't result in a helpful and fast response by anyone including the team personally imo, i have cut certain parts of the hardware report like network for privacy reasons:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UVWDhf … drive_link

For context, i think random issues started occurring when the sleep option no longer works. It would usually wake up the laptop by default not bothering to give it a chance to be at sleep mode right now. The second is when things started to freeze sometimes.

Other than that, i will admit that installing a package named plymouth was a mistake on my part as it somehow made shutdown process useless when attempting to unmount the drives (this isn't the black screen issue i mentioned below as it did not stop systemd logging thingy at all!). I'm still clueless on why i started experiencing issues like these however as things were running fine for two months...

Fun Fact: this wasn't the first time when weird things have occurred on this crappy laptop i use. Using windows 10 on it would cause a couple of problems such as flickering thus making the OS unusable entirely which is why i ended up using Linux as it turned out to be more functional than windows 10 in the first place to be honest by the way.

It has been complicated to try and use the laptop and with Linux, it made it stable but now i don't want to just run into the same cycle so forums are only my last resort on what i can personally do

Last edited by dodogames (2023-12-14 01:57)

Rademes · 2023-12-14 18:17

1. I can not access any of your files in google drive. Have you opened public access to them? Also, it is preferable to attach files as forum attachments.
2. Your CPU is very weak and old. KDE Plasma is not made for such old computers. I suggest you to try Q4OS 5 Aquarius Trinity: https://www.q4os.org/dnt02.html
It is much more lightweight and faster than KDE.

hchiper · 2023-12-14 20:33

I'm using Q4OS 4 with Plasma on two machines with CPU (Pentium T4200 and P6000) much more older than yours (i3) and everything runs very smoothly. I'm pretty sure Q4OS 5 would run as smoothly.

Did you install some software using another method than "sudo apt install ..." in the terminal or the Q4OS Software Centre?
It is possible that your KDE (Plasma) profile is corrupted in some way. To check, you could create a new user account, logout, login in that new account and see if the problem persists.

Last edited by hchiper (2023-12-14 20:40)

dodogames · 2023-12-15 13:18

Rademes wrote:

1. I can not access any of your files in google drive. Have you opened public access to them? Also, it is preferable to attach files as forum attachments.
2. Your CPU is very weak and old. KDE Plasma is not made for such old computers. I suggest you to try Q4OS 5 Aquarius Trinity: https://www.q4os.org/dnt02.html
It is much more lightweight and faster than KDE.

1. Will try to fix that, thanks for telling me, try this one https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gBG_h0 … sp=sharing

For attaching files, i will do that next time. Apologize about that since this was my first time attempting to include information on forums like this one right here.

2. Well yeah, i was forced to live with the CPU, i could barely watch YouTube using it and i could only do simple things such as using Discord and coding using a lightweight text editor

As for trinity, i installed it from Q4OS desktop profiler and things went smooth until mysteriously for some reason, i attempted logging out and was stuck on a black screen with huge overheating coming from my laptop's coolers. The only thing that rather occurred was after trying to use the suspend option and then i got on trinity's lock screen after the suspend strangely enough failed to be honest

Last edited by dodogames (2023-12-15 13:31)

dodogames · 2023-12-15 13:25

hchiper wrote:

I'm using Q4OS 4 with Plasma on two machines with CPU (Pentium T4200 and P6000) much more older than yours (i3) and everything runs very smoothly. I'm pretty sure Q4OS 5 would run as smoothly.
Did you install some software using another method than "sudo apt install ..." in the terminal or the Q4OS Software Centre?
It is possible that your KDE (Plasma) profile is corrupted in some way. To check, you could create a new user account, logout, login in that new account and see if the problem persists.

"Did you install some software using another method than "sudo apt install ..." in the terminal or the Q4OS Software Centre?"

To be frank, i did nothing wrong and all i did was installing xfce manually using terminal. I barely touched Q4OS Software Centre except for some Applications i was curious about. This went fine for quiet long time and even if i installed some heavy plasma theme from kde's user themes, things were running fine.

The only thing that was most likely my fault was installing plymouth package to theme boot screen but that made unmount drives impossible but when i think it about, doesn't it just leaves important boot stuff and only do some GUI stuff?

"It is possible that your KDE (Plasma) profile is corrupted in some way. To check, you could create a new user account, logout, login in that new account and see if the problem persists."

I tried logging into a user account that was made for xfce and everything was fine but it still wasn't safe from fixing the issues and that's how i got pretty confused at this situation.

Normally, i think installing any package shouldn't cause any issue and i have the only assumption that when my CPU gets misused or when attempting to run heavy stuff on it, it would just be impossible to trouble shoot things thus resulting in a force restart done by the power button on my laptop.

Last edited by dodogames (2023-12-15 13:37)

hchiper · 2023-12-15 16:21

dodogames wrote:

I tried logging into a user account that was made for xfce and everything was fine but ...

Not sure I understand you well; maybe I was myself not clear. I meant using another account to log in using the Plasma desktop. If it is what you did and everything seems to be fine, then the assumption of a corrupted Plasma config seems likely. But if you logged in using XFCE, then that means nothing about Plasma config.

Normally, i think installing any package shouldn't cause any issue and ...

That's true if the packages come from trusty repositories, where they are available after thorough testing. It is the case for Q4OS repositories and for the Software Centre. Its' the reason why I asked if you used sudo apt install ... or the Software Centre.
With packages from other sources, there is a risk they are experimental and prone to bugs or sources of issues.

I don't know how much experience you have with Linux, maybe you already knows all that.

dodogames · 2023-12-15 18:18

Not sure I understand you well; maybe I was myself not clear. I meant using another account to log in using the Plasma desktop. If it is what you did and everything seems to be fine, then the assumption of a corrupted Plasma config seems likely. But if you logged in using XFCE, then that means nothing about Plasma config.

I honestly did not think much of it as normally on Plasma, i would just change icons, colors and perhaps even the wallpaper and live with it. I may try that whenever i have a time but i have a strong feeling that things will end up the same so.

That's true if the packages come from trusty repositories, where they are available after thorough testing. It is the case for Q4OS repositories and for the Software Centre. Its' the reason why I asked if you used sudo apt install ... or the Software Centre.
With packages from other sources, there is a risk they are experimental and prone to bugs or sources of issues.

They're technically from Official debian bookworm repos so there shouldn't be an issue about that. After you said that, it wouldn't now make sense for any package from the repos to break the system somehow (unless i messed with them which i did not at all).

The fact that the base my Q4OS is using was Debian bookworm (stable) says about it enough however. I would just use apt install from the official repos after all.

I don't know how much experience you have with Linux, maybe you already knows all that.

Well it isn't my first time using Linux as i did a decade ago with Ubuntu on a old computer that originally had Windows xp but somehow stopped working, so it's not like i'm entirely unfamiliar with Linux but i never bothered trying to add strange repos as the official repos of debian, ubuntu and any other known distro were enough for me.

The only thing that's new to me however is getting used to another DE like plasma which i had to deal with for quiet sometime. I kinda tried and managed to get used to it a bit..

Last edited by dodogames (2023-12-15 18:25)

q4osteam · 2023-12-15 18:39

@dodogames
We would also recommend you to perform memory test, intermittent freezing may be an indicator of a hardware issue.

hchiper · 2023-12-15 18:53

dodogames wrote:

Not sure I understand you well; maybe I was myself not clear. I meant using another account to log in using the Plasma desktop. If it is what you did and everything seems to be fine, then the assumption of a corrupted Plasma config seems likely. But if you logged in using XFCE, then that means nothing about Plasma config.
I honestly did not think much of it as normally on Plasma, i would just change icons, colors and perhaps even the wallpaper and live with it. I may try that whenever i have a time but i have a strong feeling that things will end up the same so.

Post back what happens when you use another user account.
Restarting a computer with the power button is not always without causing issues, even if it often seems inoffensive, but I admit it is sometimes the only solution.

dodogames · 2023-12-16 02:45

q4osteam wrote:

@dodogames
We would also recommend you to perform memory test, intermittent freezing may be an indicator of a hardware issue.

I decided to do a memory test and for experimental purposes, i picked up about 200 MB of RAM left from 4 GB of RAM and started the test.

The loop one began with positive results, the loop two however did not go well... the laptop began suffering and overheating started to occur and after sometime of loop 2 finishing up, the laptop unexpectedly got shutdown by itself without waiting for Q4OS to finish it's stuff. I think the conclusion to me is that, my laptop could be pretty weak to say so.

Now i'm pretty much convinced that i should switch to trinity or otherwise perhaps xfce (maybe even another distro with xfce). I'm not sure for now as Trinity went wrong at log out attempt for some reason so i cannot decide properly.

Last edited by dodogames (2023-12-16 02:45)

dodogames · 2023-12-16 02:48

hchiper wrote:

dodogames wrote:
Not sure I understand you well; maybe I was myself not clear. I meant using another account to log in using the Plasma desktop. If it is what you did and everything seems to be fine, then the assumption of a corrupted Plasma config seems likely. But if you logged in using XFCE, then that means nothing about Plasma config.
I honestly did not think much of it as normally on Plasma, i would just change icons, colors and perhaps even the wallpaper and live with it. I may try that whenever i have a time but i have a strong feeling that things will end up the same so.
Post back what happens when you use another user account.
Restarting a computer with the power button is not always without causing issues, even if it often seems inoffensive, but I admit it is sometimes the only solution.

I'm currently doing that for now, everything seems to be fine except for the automatic locking screen that would sometimes not do it's job or otherwise function once again. I do not remember changing the settings upon logging on to the new user account for experiment. I may post back a update if something has occurred anyways.

hchiper · 2023-12-16 09:28

dodogames wrote:

I'm currently doing that for now, everything seems to be fine except for the automatic locking screen that would sometimes not do it's job or otherwise function once again. I do not remember changing the settings upon logging on to the new user account for experiment. I may post back a update if something has occurred anyways.

Sometimes the automatic screen locking doesn't work on my system either (4.12 & Plasma). I suspect Firefox or another program to prevent screen locking sometimes, but I'm absolutely not sure. I also seem to remember that some programs have an option to prevent it.

hchiper · 2023-12-16 10:02

dodogames wrote:

I decided to do a memory test and for experimental purposes, i picked up about 200 MB of RAM left from 4 GB of RAM and started the test.
(...)
I think the conclusion to me is that, my laptop could be pretty weak to say so.

I'm running Q4OS 4 / Plasma on one of my old laptops, with 4 GB RAM too (see my signature), without freezing issue.
So, as far as you RAM might be concerned, I believe it has an hardware failure, as q4osteam suggested, and in that case I don't believe switching to Trinity would solve anything.

dodogames · 2023-12-16 15:56

hchiper wrote:

dodogames wrote:
I decided to do a memory test and for experimental purposes, i picked up about 200 MB of RAM left from 4 GB of RAM and started the test.
(...)
I think the conclusion to me is that, my laptop could be pretty weak to say so.
I'm running Q4OS 4 / Plasma on one of my old laptops, with 4 GB RAM too (see my signature), without freezing issue.
So, as far as you RAM might be concerned, I believe it has an hardware failure, as q4osteam suggested, and in that case I don't believe switching to Trinity would solve anything.

It seems to me that the freezing stopped on the new kde user account, this gave me hope that my laptop's hardware is fine, just sensitive for some reason. Everything turned out to be stable on there and even the sleep power option now works properly as if everything went back to normal. This made me think that stuff on my main user account was corrupted by doing something.

Either way, the laptop works fine with plasma despite the CPU being weak and old. I'm glad that this ended up well.

hchiper · 2023-12-16 17:20

Now, if you want to use this new account instead of the old one, you should know that it will probably not allow you to issue "sudo" commands. Try an innocent command like "sudo ls" to see what happens. After entering your password when requested, you will likely get a message telling you that your user account is not in the sudoers list.
To correct this, log in into your initial account, open a terminal and type

$ sudo usermod -aG sudo <your_new_username>

Be sure to type the 'a' letter in front of 'G': it is to add your new username to the sudo group, otherwise its membership to all the groups he belongs will be removed and he will be member of the sudo group only. Type the command carefully.

You will almost certainly want to copy your files from you old home directory to your new one. Don't copy everything: doing that, you would also copy the presumed corrupted config file(s). The simplest advice I would give is to copy NEITHER hidden files NOR directories and their contents (hidden file or directory has a name beginning with a dot).
The drawback is that no one old config for the programs you are using will be available for you new user account. Migrating them can be sometimes simple, sometimes tricky (for example the Firefox profiles), but not impossible.

In any case, for safety, I would recommand to copy (not move) your files / directories, and to keep your old user account for a sufficient time. This way, if something goes wrong with your new account, you'll be able to start over.

You might also consider searching the web with keywords like "linux copy files from one user to another user".

dodogames · 2023-12-18 16:06

hchiper wrote:

Now, if you want to use this new account instead of the old one, you should know that it will probably not allow you to issue "sudo" commands. Try an innocent command like "sudo ls" to see what happens. After entering your password when requested, you will likely get a message telling you that your user account is not in the sudoers list.
To correct this, log in into your initial account, open a terminal and type
$ sudo usermod -aG sudo <your_new_username>
Be sure to type the 'a' letter in front of 'G': it is to add your new username to the sudo group, otherwise its membership to all the groups he belongs will be removed and he will be member of the sudo group only. Type the command carefully.
You will almost certainly want to copy your files from you old home directory to your new one. Don't copy everything: doing that, you would also copy the presumed corrupted config file(s). The simplest advice I would give is to copy NEITHER hidden files NOR directories and their contents (hidden file or directory has a name beginning with a dot).
The drawback is that no one old config for the programs you are using will be available for you new user account. Migrating them can be sometimes simple, sometimes tricky (for example the Firefox profiles), but not impossible.
In any case, for safety, I would recommand to copy (not move) your files / directories, and to keep your old user account for a sufficient time. This way, if something goes wrong with your new account, you'll be able to start over.
You might also consider searching the web with keywords like "linux copy files from one user to another user".

Alright! Thanks for the advice. I have been late recently due to irl stuff so i couldn't reply to you just in the time... I have given the new user account admin already earlier when i first created it so. I will keep my old kde user account in case something went wrong, tho.

hchiper · 2023-12-18 17:08

You're welcome.

Q4OS Forum

#1 2023-12-13 17:00

Kde plasma freezing occasionally

#2 2023-12-13 17:37

Re: Kde plasma freezing occasionally

#3 2023-12-13 18:21

Re: Kde plasma freezing occasionally

#4 2023-12-14 01:29

Re: Kde plasma freezing occasionally

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Re: Kde plasma freezing occasionally

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Re: Kde plasma freezing occasionally

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Re: Kde plasma freezing occasionally

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Re: Kde plasma freezing occasionally

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Re: Kde plasma freezing occasionally

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Re: Kde plasma freezing occasionally

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Re: Kde plasma freezing occasionally

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Re: Kde plasma freezing occasionally

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Re: Kde plasma freezing occasionally

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