KDE plasma stuck at loading screen

m8 · 2025-10-05 16:08:19

Hello everyone,
I am on KDE plasma and since a recent update, KDE gets stuck at the loading screen and doesn't load. I have tried using both loginctl (what I use normally) and startx. This is not completely consistent, after rebooting often times it works

Here are the journalctl -b -1 from such a boot.
https://pastebin.com/y2sESpJs

I think in that boot I logged in with loginctl, got stuck, switched to another console, logged in (afaik after once mistyping the password), started with startx and got stuck, and then went to a third console and rebooted.

Wozzeck56 · 2025-10-08 13:46:29

First thing....

Always try to log in "console"
If console login fails this means the issue is not PLASMA related
If console login works, this means this is probably linked to PLASMA

When logging in Plasma, check that either plasma-wayland, plasma-x11 are well selected.
I recently ran in such issue, but I wasn't aware the default selection had been modified and SDDM was simply trying to execute another desktop

Be aware that since recent updates, KWIN the plasma compositor has split into KWIN-WAYLAND and KWIN-X11
KWIN-WAYLAND is "normally" (check it) installed by default, BUT NOT KWIN-X11

So if you attempt to run plasma-x11, this won't work before you install KWIN-X11, this may be a clue.....
Split occurred since more than 1 month, but there are some people who are updating their system very rarely, also this is a bad practice. For security reason, any "system" (Linux or not) should be update at less one time per week.

m8 · 2025-10-11 03:08:38

console login works, it only gets stuck when I start plasma (e.g. startx)

I do have kwin-x11 already

seth · 2025-10-11 07:57:16

Oct 05 10:36:46 arch-tuf sddm[610]: Session "/usr/share/xsessions/plasmax11.desktop" selected, command: "/usr/bin/startplasma-x11" for VT 2
Oct 05 10:36:46 arch-tuf systemd-logind[538]: New session '2' of user 'thodoris' with class 'user' and type 'x11'.
Oct 05 10:36:46 arch-tuf sddm-helper[709]: Starting X11 session: "" "/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsession \"/usr/bin/startplasma-x11\""
Oct 05 10:36:47 arch-tuf systemd[717]: Reload requested from client PID 733 ('startplasma-x11')...
Oct 05 10:37:28 arch-tuf systemd-logind[538]: The system will reboot now!
Oct 05 10:37:28 arch-tuf sddm[610]: Authentication error: SDDM::Auth::ERROR_INTERNAL "Process crashed"
Oct 05 10:37:28 arch-tuf login[882]: pam_unix(login:session): session closed for user thodoris
Oct 05 10:37:28 arch-tuf sddm[610]: Auth: sddm-helper (--socket /tmp/sddm-auth-cb90b622-f98e-4ff8-b584-29fb977bdac9 --id 1 --start /usr/bin/startplasma-x11 --user thodoris) crashed (exit code 1)
Oct 05 10:37:28 arch-tuf sddm[610]: Authentication error: SDDM::Auth::ERROR_INTERNAL "Process crashed"
Oct 05 10:37:28 arch-tuf sddm[610]: Auth: sddm-helper exited with 1

Everything after that is just noise from the crashing plasma session triggered by the shutdown.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p2156586 again?

m8 · 2025-10-11 15:22:25

Wow, blessed by another seth reply

Indeed, I didn't have the patience, but KDE seems to eventually load. I will try removing the splash screen, but since this is intermitent, it will take some time to confirm that was the problem.

fwiw, these are the logs of a session that I actually waited to boot
https://pastebin.com/9nwRHhBe

There is a large time discrepancy between the logs from early booting (09:51:30) and later logs (09:51:54) so there seems to be something in between those.

Also at 09:51:34 lots of things seem to shut down for some reason

Oct 11 09:51:34 arch-tuf systemd[1]: NetworkManager-dispatcher.service: Deactivated successfully.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[1]: Stopping User Manager for UID 969...
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Activating special unit Exit the Session...
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Stopped target Main User Target.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Stopped target Basic System.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Stopped target Paths.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Stopped Submitting pending crash events (file monitor).
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Stopped target Sockets.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Stopped target Sound Card.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Stopped target Timers.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Closed GnuPG network certificate management daemon.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Closed GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (access for web browsers).
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Closed GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (restricted).
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Closed GnuPG cryptographic agent (ssh-agent emulation).
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Closed GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Closed GnuPG public key management service.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Closed p11-kit server.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Closed PipeWire PulseAudio.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Closed PipeWire Multimedia System Sockets.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Closed Query the User Interactively for a Password.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf dbus-broker[663]: Dispatched 275 messages @ 0(±2)μs / message.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Stopping D-Bus User Message Bus...
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Stopped D-Bus User Message Bus.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Removed slice User Core Session Slice.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Closed D-Bus User Message Bus Socket.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Removed slice User Application Slice.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Reached target Shutdown.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Finished Exit the Session.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[647]: Reached target Exit the Session.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd-logind[534]: Removed session 1.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf (sd-pam)[649]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session closed for user sddm
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[1]: user@969.service: Deactivated successfully.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[1]: Stopped User Manager for UID 969.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[1]: Stopping User Runtime Directory /run/user/969...
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[1]: run-user-969.mount: Deactivated successfully.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[1]: user-runtime-dir@969.service: Deactivated successfully.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[1]: Stopped User Runtime Directory /run/user/969.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[1]: Removed slice User Slice of UID 969.
Oct 11 09:51:39 arch-tuf systemd[1]: user-969.slice: Consumed 892ms CPU time, 443.7M memory peak.
Oct 11 09:51:54 arch-tuf systemd[1]: systemd-hostnamed.service: Deactivated successfully.

But still unsure why

Last edited by m8 (2025-10-11 16:17:57)

seth · 2025-10-11 15:31:23

"No worshipping"
Please use [code][/code] tags, not "quote" tags. Edit your post in this regard.

Oct 11 09:52:19 arch-tuf /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal[771]: Failed to create settings proxy: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.impl.portal.desktop.kde: Timeout was reached
Oct 11 09:52:44 arch-tuf /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal[771]: GError set over the top of a previous GError or uninitialized memory.
                                                           This indicates a bug in someone's code. You must ensure an error is NULL before it's set.
                                                           The overwriting error message was: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.impl.portal.desktop.gtk: Timeout was reached
Oct 11 09:52:44 arch-tuf /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal[771]: Failed to create settings proxy: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.impl.portal.desktop.kde: Timeout was reached
Oct 11 09:52:44 arch-tuf /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal[771]: No skeleton to export
Oct 11 09:52:59 arch-tuf systemd[708]: plasma-kcminit.service: start operation timed out. Terminating.
Oct 11 09:52:59 arch-tuf systemd[708]: xdg-desktop-portal.service: start operation timed out. Terminating.
Oct 11 09:52:59 arch-tuf systemd[708]: plasma-kcminit.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Oct 11 09:52:59 arch-tuf systemd[708]: Failed to start KDE Config Module Initialization.
Oct 11 09:52:59 arch-tuf systemd[708]: Dependency failed for KDE Configuration Module Initialization (Phase 1).
Oct 11 09:52:59 arch-tuf systemd[708]: plasma-kcminit-phase1.service: Job plasma-kcminit-phase1.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.
Oct 11 09:52:59 arch-tuf systemd[708]: xdg-desktop-portal.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Oct 11 09:52:59 arch-tuf systemd[708]: Failed to start Portal service.

seems portal…

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=309417 was because of a qt6ct udpate but there's also the gtk portal service showing up (and timing out)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-10-05 16:08:19

KDE plasma stuck at loading screen

#2 2025-10-08 13:46:29

Re: KDE plasma stuck at loading screen

#3 2025-10-11 03:08:38

Re: KDE plasma stuck at loading screen

#4 2025-10-11 07:57:16

Re: KDE plasma stuck at loading screen

#5 2025-10-11 15:22:25

Re: KDE plasma stuck at loading screen

#6 2025-10-11 15:31:23

Re: KDE plasma stuck at loading screen

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