[SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

chrisjoly · 2025-11-26 13:45:24

Hello Arch Community,

I hope you are all well!

My name is Chris. I installed Arch Linux on September 25, 2025. I have been able to solve two system breaking issues on my own. However for this one, I need help!

Here are my system credentials:

chrisjoly
-------------------
OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Kernel: Linux 6.17.8-arch1-1
Packages: 1996 (pacman)
Shell: bash 5.3.3
Terminal: /dev/tty4
Terminal Font: VGA default kernel font 8x16x256
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K (8) @ 4.50 GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 [Discrete]

I also use:
DE: KDE Plasma 6
I have three screens in my NVidia Graphics card, and a fourth screen attached to my CPU's Integrated graphics card

I created my system using UKIs, and have both the regular kernel, and the LTS kernel on my system.

My plasmashell service, when it boots, freezes, and consumes all the way until all the RAM is used, and keeps going until all of SWAP is consumed (100 GiB of Swap)
Plasmashell-consuming-39-GiB

Plasmashell-consuming-all-RAM+Swap

Consulting with the wiki, I also added a .bak to every plasma related file in .config, and the configurations were reset to the default. It didn't help!

I have also seen this when opening Dolphin as well.

Here is what I see on HTOP
HTOP

These are the widget I have installed.
com.github.davide-sd.ip_address
com.github.tilorenz.timeprogressbar
com.himdek.kde.plasma.runcommand
org.kde.plasma.advancedradio
org.kde.plasma.ipaddressplus
org.kde.plasma.pipewiresettings

I've deleted two widgets from my setup:
- Netspeed Widget
- Arch Package Counter
- Minimal Weather

Here is my most recent journalctl output:

Nov 26 16:46:54 cjolyarch kernel: plasmashell invoked oom-killer: gfp_mask=0x140dca(GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE|__GFP_ZERO|__GFP_COMP), order=0, oom_score_adj=200
Nov 26 16:46:54 cjolyarch kernel: CPU: 1 UID: 1000 PID: 6376 Comm: plasmashell Tainted: P           OE       6.17.8-arch1-1 #1 PREEMPT(full)  b229cb54977b6624cce826e2cbd0d8e703fe3921
Nov 26 16:46:54 cjolyarch systemd[1672]: plasma-plasmashell.service: A process of this unit has been killed by the OOM killer.
Nov 26 16:46:54 cjolyarch kernel: [   6376]  1000  6376 67728369 10550125 10544334     5791         0 288206848 25253216           200 plasmashell
Nov 26 16:46:54 cjolyarch kernel: oom-kill:constraint=CONSTRAINT_NONE,nodemask=(null),cpuset=/,mems_allowed=0,global_oom,task_memcg=/user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/plasma-plasmashell.service,task=plasmashell,pid=6376,uid=1000
Nov 26 16:46:54 cjolyarch kernel: Out of memory: Killed process 6376 (plasmashell) total-vm:270913476kB, anon-rss:42177336kB, file-rss:23164kB, shmem-rss:0kB, UID:1000 pgtables:281452kB oom_score_adj:200
Nov 26 16:47:02 cjolyarch kernel: oom_reaper: reaped process 6376 (plasmashell), now anon-rss:316kB, file-rss:448kB, shmem-rss:0kB
Nov 26 16:47:02 cjolyarch systemd[1672]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=9/KILL
Nov 26 16:47:02 cjolyarch systemd[1672]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Failed with result 'oom-kill'.
Nov 26 16:47:02 cjolyarch systemd[1672]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Consumed 4min 59.225s CPU time, 42.2G memory peak, 96.3G memory swap peak.
Nov 26 16:47:02 cjolyarch systemd[1672]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 6.
Nov 26 16:47:03 cjolyarch plasmashell[7031]: KPackageStructure of KPluginMetaData(pluginId:"org.kde.plasma.kweather_1x4", fileName: "/usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kweather_1x4/metadata.json") does not match requested format "Plasma/Applet"
Nov 26 16:47:04 cjolyarch plasmashell[7031]: Applet preload policy set to 1

What should be my next steps?

Sincerely,

Chris Joly

EDIT: Marked as Solved

Last edited by chrisjoly (2025-11-27 22:48:47)

twelveeighty · 2025-11-26 15:53:53

One important step is to isolate if this could be a specific applet/configuration problem, not a memory leak in the base tools. Create a brand-new test user, reboot and log in as that user. Without adding any specific further configs, does the problem happen there as well?

Your log snippet points to plasmashell being OOM, but just in case also check your system journal (run journalctl as root) to see if there's anything interesting logged as well.

chrisjoly · 2025-11-26 19:26:10

Hey twelveeighty,

The issue does not occur in a new Admin user I created.

When pulling the journalctl as root, it says:

Nov 26 23:01:09 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: KPackageStructure of KPluginMetaData(pluginId:"org.kde.plasma.kweather_1x4", fileName: "/usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kweather_1x4/metadata.json") does not match requested format "Plasma/Applet"
Nov 26 23:01:10 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: Applet preload policy set to 1
Nov 26 23:01:11 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: requesting unexisting screen geometry -1
Nov 26 23:01:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: Activity added twice "affb785c-b88a-46d2-aef6-714900e81d50"
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: /usr/bin/mysql_install_db: Deprecated program name. It will be removed in a future release, use 'mariadb-install-db' instead
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2654]: Could not open required defaults file: /etc/xdg/akonadi/mysql-global.conf
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2654]: Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2661]: /usr/bin/mysql_install_db: line 434: /usr/bin/uname: Permission denied
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: Installing MariaDB/MySQL system tables in '/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/db_data/' ...
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2667]: Could not open required defaults file: /etc/xdg/akonadi/mysql-global.conf
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2667]: Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: Installation of system tables failed!  Examine the logs in
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: /home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/db_data/ for more information.
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: The problem could be conflicting information in an external
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: my.cnf files. You can ignore these by doing:
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]:     shell> /usr/bin/mysql_install_db --defaults-file=~/.my.cnf
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: You can also try to start the mariadbd daemon with:
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]:     shell> /usr/bin/mariadbd --skip-grant-tables --general-log &
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: and use the command line tool /usr/bin/mariadb
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: to connect to the mysql database and look at the grant tables:
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]:     shell> /usr/bin/mariadb -u root mysql
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]:     MariaDB> show tables;
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: Try '/usr/bin/mariadbd --help' if you have problems with paths.  Using
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: --general-log gives you a log in /home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/db_data/ that may be helpful.
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: The latest information about mariadb-install-db is available at
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: https://mariadb.com/kb/en/installing-system-tables-mysql_install_db
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: You can find the latest source at https://downloads.mariadb.org and
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: the MariaDB discuss email list at https://lists.mariadb.org/postorius/lists/discuss.lists.mariadb.org/
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: Please check all of the above before submitting a bug report
Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2642]: at https://mariadb.org/jira
Nov 26 23:01:19 cjolyarch plasmashell[2690]: /usr/bin/mysqlcheck: Deprecated program name. It will be removed in a future release, use '/usr/bin/mariadb-check' instead
Nov 26 23:01:19 cjolyarch plasmashell[2690]: /usr/bin/mysqlcheck: Got error: 1049: Unknown database 'akonadi' when selecting the database
Nov 26 23:01:19 cjolyarch plasmashell[2692]: /usr/bin/mysql_upgrade: Deprecated program name. It will be removed in a future release, use '/usr/bin/mariadb-upgrade' instead
Nov 26 23:01:19 cjolyarch plasmashell[2692]: FATAL ERROR: Can't execute '/usr/bin/mariadb'
Nov 26 23:01:21 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: qrc:/qt/qml/plasma/applet/org/kde/plasma/kickoff/main.qml:190:25: QML FullRepresentation (parent or ancestor of QQuickLayoutAttached): Binding loop detected for property "preferredHeight":
Nov 26 23:01:21 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: The plugin "/usr/lib/qt6/plugins/kf6/krunner/plasma_runner_marble.so" explicitly states an Id in the embedded metadata, which is different from the one derived from the filename The Id field from the KPlugin object in the metadata should be removed
Nov 26 23:01:21 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
Nov 26 23:01:21 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/contacts/"
Nov 26 23:01:21 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/emailContacts/"
Nov 26 23:01:21 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:01:22 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/contacts/"
Nov 26 23:01:22 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/emailContacts/"
Nov 26 23:01:22 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:01:22 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: currency conversion table data obtained via network
Nov 26 23:01:26 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: Job error:  "" for collection: QList()
Nov 26 23:02:08 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: qrc:/qt/qml/plasma/applet/org/kde/plasma/notifications/global/Globals.qml:132: TypeError: Cannot read property 'screenGeometry' of null
Nov 26 23:02:08 cjolyarch plasmashell[2176]: qrc:/qt/qml/plasma/applet/org/kde/plasma/notifications/global/Globals.qml:262: TypeError: Cannot read property 'plasmoid' of undefined
Nov 26 23:02:08 cjolyarch systemd[1898]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Consumed 6.766s CPU time, 638.1M memory peak.
Nov 26 23:02:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[3315]: KPackageStructure of KPluginMetaData(pluginId:"org.kde.plasma.kweather_1x4", fileName: "/usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kweather_1x4/metadata.json") does not match requested format "Plasma/Applet"
Nov 26 23:02:19 cjolyarch plasmashell[3315]: Applet preload policy set to 1
Nov 26 23:03:35 cjolyarch systemd[3031]: plasma-plasmashell.service: State 'stop-sigterm' timed out. Killing.
Nov 26 23:03:35 cjolyarch systemd[3031]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Killing process 3315 (plasmashell) with signal SIGKILL.
Nov 26 23:03:38 cjolyarch systemd[3031]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=9/KILL
Nov 26 23:03:38 cjolyarch systemd[3031]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Nov 26 23:03:38 cjolyarch systemd[3031]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Consumed 1min 17.913s CPU time, 44.9G memory peak, 26.5G memory swap peak.
Nov 26 23:05:07 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: KPackageStructure of KPluginMetaData(pluginId:"org.kde.plasma.kweather_1x4", fileName: "/usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kweather_1x4/metadata.json") does not match requested format "Plasma/Applet"
Nov 26 23:05:07 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Applet preload policy set to 1
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: /usr/bin/mysqlcheck: Deprecated program name. It will be removed in a future release, use '/usr/bin/mariadb-check' instead
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.collectionattributetable                   OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.collectionmimetyperelation                 OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.collectionpimitemrelation                  OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.collectiontable                            OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.flagtable                                  OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.mimetypetable                              OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.parttable                                  OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.parttypetable                              OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.pimitemflagrelation                        OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.pimitemtable                               OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.pimitemtagrelation                         OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.resourcetable                              OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.schemaversiontable                         OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.tagattributetable                          OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.tagremoteidresourcerelationtable           OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.tagtable                                   OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2175]: akonadi.tagtypetable                               OK
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2177]: /usr/bin/mysql_upgrade: Deprecated program name. It will be removed in a future release, use '/usr/bin/mariadb-upgrade' instead
Nov 26 23:05:12 cjolyarch plasmashell[2177]: FATAL ERROR: Can't execute '/usr/bin/mariadb'
Nov 26 23:05:14 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: The plugin "/usr/lib/qt6/plugins/kf6/krunner/plasma_runner_marble.so" explicitly states an Id in the embedded metadata, which is different from the one derived from the filename The Id field from the KPlugin object in the metadata should be removed
Nov 26 23:05:14 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
Nov 26 23:05:14 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:05:15 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:05:15 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/contacts/"
Nov 26 23:05:15 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/emailContacts/"
Nov 26 23:05:15 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:05:15 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/contacts/"
Nov 26 23:05:15 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/emailContacts/"
Nov 26 23:05:15 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:05:15 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/contacts/"
Nov 26 23:05:15 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/emailContacts/"
Nov 26 23:05:15 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:05:16 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Job error:  "" for collection: QList()
Nov 26 23:07:19 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:07:19 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/contacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/emailContacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/contacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/emailContacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/contacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/emailContacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/contacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/emailContacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/contacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/emailContacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:20 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:07:21 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/contacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:21 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/emailContacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:21 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:07:21 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/contacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:21 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Xapian Database does not exist at  "/home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi/search_db/emailContacts/"
Nov 26 23:07:21 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: Loading Bookmark File: ""
Nov 26 23:17:39 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: qrc:/qt/qml/plasma/applet/org/kde/plasma/notifications/global/Globals.qml:132: TypeError: Cannot read property 'screenGeometry' of null
Nov 26 23:17:39 cjolyarch plasmashell[1956]: qrc:/qt/qml/plasma/applet/org/kde/plasma/notifications/global/Globals.qml:262: TypeError: Cannot read property 'plasmoid' of undefined
Nov 26 23:17:40 cjolyarch systemd[1684]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Consumed 7.121s CPU time, 549.5M memory peak.
Nov 26 23:17:51 cjolyarch plasmashell[3350]: KPackageStructure of KPluginMetaData(pluginId:"org.kde.plasma.kweather_1x4", fileName: "/usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kweather_1x4/metadata.json") does not match requested format "Plasma/Applet"
Nov 26 23:17:51 cjolyarch plasmashell[3350]: Applet preload policy set to 1
Nov 26 23:18:53 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-processor[3383]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 2063 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.7b166035171140fd89d85eb47e985fdd.2063.1761637724000000.zst"
Nov 26 23:18:53 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-processor[3383]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 2011 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.1ef92d03b9bd435aaef327b4cf19b0a7.2011.1761895009000000.zst"
Nov 26 23:18:53 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-processor[3383]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 2007 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.af4f4f9b15dd426f83658dd0056e492f.2007.1762426584000000.zst"
Nov 26 23:18:53 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-processor[3383]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 270889 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.af4f4f9b15dd426f83658dd0056e492f.270889.1762437428000000.zst"
Nov 26 23:18:53 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-processor[3383]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 351158 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.af4f4f9b15dd426f83658dd0056e492f.351158.1762438453000000.zst"
Nov 26 23:18:53 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-processor[3383]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 2018 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.c9dd0c72c140495591026b42c8a91c70.2018.1762523940000000.zst"
Nov 26 23:18:53 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-processor[3383]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 2073 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.350b6fd96b9443209df61166da09bd58.2073.1762710458000000.zst"
Nov 26 23:18:53 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-processor[3383]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 1982 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.589aa3248dca42809d77e17e0229a6ce.1982.1762876175000000.zst"
Nov 26 23:18:54 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-processor[3383]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 2015 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.8ea876ed5ec64c2bbe14536a4f2d8edd.2015.1763194024000000.zst"
Nov 26 23:18:54 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-launcher[5204]: Unable to find file for pid 2015 expected at "kcrash-metadata/plasmashell.8ea876ed5ec64c2bbe14536a4f2d8edd.2015.ini"
Nov 26 23:18:56 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-processor[3383]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 2064 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.a15f672d85144617a15c0223108b9677.2064.1763766522000000.zst"
Nov 26 23:18:56 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-launcher[5543]: Unable to find file for pid 2064 expected at "kcrash-metadata/plasmashell.a15f672d85144617a15c0223108b9677.2064.ini"
Nov 26 23:18:57 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-processor[3383]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 8101 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.6e007f34ee6e43d191edfc3d2753e947.8101.1764142675000000.zst"
Nov 26 23:18:57 cjolyarch drkonqi-coredump-launcher[5600]: Unable to find file for pid 8101 expected at "kcrash-metadata/plasmashell.6e007f34ee6e43d191edfc3d2753e947.8101.ini"
Nov 26 23:22:48 cjolyarch kernel: [   3350]  1000  3350 67511942  9984780  9979537     5243         0 284585984 25432448           200 plasmashell
Nov 26 23:22:48 cjolyarch kernel: oom-kill:constraint=CONSTRAINT_NONE,nodemask=(null),cpuset=/,mems_allowed=0,global_oom,task_memcg=/user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/plasma-plasmashell.service,task=plasmashell,pid=3350,uid=1000
Nov 26 23:22:48 cjolyarch kernel: Out of memory: Killed process 3350 (plasmashell) total-vm:270047768kB, anon-rss:39918148kB, file-rss:20972kB, shmem-rss:0kB, UID:1000 pgtables:277916kB oom_score_adj:200
Nov 26 23:22:48 cjolyarch kernel: oom_reaper: reaped process 3350 (plasmashell), now anon-rss:256kB, file-rss:20972kB, shmem-rss:0kB
Nov 26 23:23:03 cjolyarch systemd[3066]: plasma-plasmashell.service: A process of this unit has been killed by the OOM killer.
Nov 26 23:23:03 cjolyarch systemd[3066]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=9/KILL
Nov 26 23:23:03 cjolyarch systemd[3066]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Failed with result 'oom-kill'.
Nov 26 23:23:03 cjolyarch systemd[3066]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Consumed 4min 19.512s CPU time, 39.5G memory peak, 97G memory swap peak.
Nov 26 23:23:04 cjolyarch systemd[3066]: plasma-plasmashell.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
Nov 26 23:23:04 cjolyarch plasmashell[5814]: KPackageStructure of KPluginMetaData(pluginId:"org.kde.plasma.kweather_1x4", fileName: "/usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kweather_1x4/metadata.json") does not match requested format "Plasma/Applet"
Nov 26 23:23:05 cjolyarch plasmashell[5814]: Applet preload policy set to 1

Sincerely,

Chris Joly

seth · 2025-11-26 20:39:21

Nov 26 23:01:18 cjolyarch plasmashell[2661]: /usr/bin/mysql_install_db: line 434: /usr/bin/uname: Permission denied
Nov 26 23:01:19 cjolyarch plasmashell[2690]: /usr/bin/mysqlcheck: Got error: 1049: Unknown database 'akonadi' when selecting the database
Nov 26 23:01:19 cjolyarch plasmashell[2692]: FATAL ERROR: Can't execute '/usr/bin/mariadb'

installed Arch Linux on September 25, 2025. I have been able to solve two system breaking

Log into a console (ctrl+alt+F3)

sudo LC_ALL=C pacman -Qkk |& grep -v ', 0 altered files' | grep -v backup > /tmp/howbadisit.txt
cat /tmp/howbadisit.txt | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

And post the link you get.
Also

mv /home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi /home/abushik/.local/share/akonadi.gone

The database might be byte-trash

Is there a parallel windows installation, do you experience hard-reboots or do you power off the system by holding the power button or stuff like that?

chrisjoly · 2025-11-27 18:46:03

Hi Seth,

The result from the commands: http://0x0.st/K4u1.txt

I did the move of akonadi.

Usually, I conduct reboots using the terminal, typing in sudo reboot, or sudo systemctl poweroff.
There hasn't been times that the computer did a hard reboot on its own.
There have been times I needed to press the off botton.
I have a Windows 10 partition, but it's on a separate SSD.

twelveeighty · 2025-11-27 19:34:23

If the issue is not present on the newly created test user account, then it has to be an applet or something configured on the troubled account. I am making the assumption that the logs you posted in post #3 happened when logged into the problematic account, correct?

Akonadi is automatically started when an applet or application uses it. For example, the Digital Clock panel. For reference, see Disabling the Akonadi subsystem.

Let's do some sanity checks: 1) does /usr/bin/mariadb actually exist on your system?:

$ stat /usr/bin/mariadb
$ file /usr/bin/mariadb

And 2) post a full journal from a fresh boot up to the point of failure: reboot, wait until it fails, reboot again and then as root

# journalctl -b -1

chrisjoly · 2025-11-27 19:49:49

Hey twelveeighty,

Here is the results from the stat and file of mariadb

  File: /usr/bin/mariadb
  Size: 5241360   	Blocks: 10240      IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 0,37	Inode: 2540856     Links: 1
Access: (0755/-rwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2025-11-27 23:43:02.066349174 +0400
Modify: 2025-11-18 19:43:26.000000000 +0400
Change: 2025-11-22 03:08:46.089318197 +0400
 Birth: 2025-11-22 03:08:46.079318341 +0400

/usr/bin/mariadb: ELF 64-bit LSB pie executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, BuildID[sha1]=4a2b94806c1abc96b7c76359ea3b997df9de38f0, for GNU/Linux 4.4.0, stripped

seth · 2025-11-27 20:04:59

I have a Windows 10 partition, but it's on a separate SSD.

The location doesn't matter, see the 3rd link below. Mandatory.
Disable it (it's NOT the BIOS setting!) and reboot windows and linux twice for voodo reasons.

However the integrity check doesn't look overly suspicious.
Since you've usr/bin/maria but it fails to execute:

pacman -Qikk mariadb mariadb-libs
ldd /usr/bin/maria

Did anything change after moving away the akonadi database?

chrisjoly · 2025-11-27 20:32:43

Hey twelveeighty,

Here is the results from the stat and file of mariadb

  File: /usr/bin/mariadb
  Size: 5241360   	Blocks: 10240      IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 0,37	Inode: 2540856     Links: 1
Access: (0755/-rwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2025-11-27 23:43:02.066349174 +0400
Modify: 2025-11-18 19:43:26.000000000 +0400
Change: 2025-11-22 03:08:46.089318197 +0400
 Birth: 2025-11-22 03:08:46.079318341 +0400

/usr/bin/mariadb: ELF 64-bit LSB pie executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, BuildID[sha1]=4a2b94806c1abc96b7c76359ea3b997df9de38f0, for GNU/Linux 4.4.0, stripped

User journal: http://0x0.st/K4Su.txt

Root journal: http://0x0.st/K4SS.txt

I hope this helps!

Sincerely,

Chris Joly

seth · 2025-11-27 20:39:57

Nov 28 00:07:15 cjolyarch kalendarac[3155]: FATAL ERROR: Can't execute '/usr/bin/mariadb'
Nov 28 00:07:15 cjolyarch akonadiserver[2839]: Running DB initializer
Nov 28 00:07:15 cjolyarch akonadiserver[2839]: DB initializer done
Nov 28 00:07:15 cjolyarch akonadiserver[2839]: Updating index failed:
                                               Sql error: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near '2' at line 1 QMYSQL: Unable to execute query
                                               Query: ALTER TABLE PimItemTable DROP FOREIGN KEY 2

Bogus query…

seth wrote:

Did anything change after moving away the akonadi database?

chrisjoly · 2025-11-27 20:40:47

Hey Seth,

Fast Start has been disabled in the BIOS settings. I haven't had a chance to look at it in Windows 10. Will look at it soon!

Maria DB first command results: http://0x0.st/K4S2.txt

Running the ldd command for /usr/bin/maria returns No such file or directory.

If anything changed from moving the Akonadi database, there are no changes I've noticed. It had no effect on the plasmashell issue.

Sincerely,

Chris Joly

seth · 2025-11-27 20:51:30

sorry, "ldd /usr/bin/mariadb" - but the error is coming from the bogus query by akonadi, not any execution issues wrt mariadb itself.

If it's not your plasma config and

I have also seen this when opening Dolphin as well.

Do you have an folder view on your desktop?
Any chance there's a circular symlink or so in your $HOME?

find ~ -follow -printf ""

chrisjoly · 2025-11-27 21:16:24

Hey Seth,

When I try to run Dolphin it doesn't come up on the screen, it shows up in the process list, and RAM usage rises in the same way.

I ran the find command, and it's been running for 30 minutes and counting. Most of the symlinks I saw are referring to something in the Trash.

Sincerely,

Chris Joly

seth · 2025-11-27 21:19:03

kill dolphin

strace -f -o /tmp/dolphin.strace dolphin

Wait like 5s, kill dolphinm check the size of /tmp/dolphin.strace and if it's not too big™ you can upload it

cat /tmp/dolphin.strace | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

chrisjoly · 2025-11-27 21:27:38

Hey Seth,

Dolphin Strace: http://0x0.st/K4QH.txt

Sincerely,

Chris Joly

seth · 2025-11-27 21:39:07

It's raccooning around in your trashcan

du -hs /home/chrisjoly/.local/share/Trash
sudo mv /home/chrisjoly/.local/share/Trash /home/chris_trash # ie. out of your $HOME

chrisjoly · 2025-11-27 21:56:24

I did the commands. There was 11G in trash, which I moved

However, when running dolphin again. It still gather's RAM.

2nd STrace: http://0x0.st/K4Q3.txt

Sincerely,

Chris Joly

chrisjoly · 2025-11-27 22:06:19

I did an strace for plasmashell: http://0x0.st/K4Ql.txt

Hopefully it is helpful!

seth · 2025-11-27 22:12:27

From dolphin: With /home/chrisjoly/Desktop/n8n.desktop loads /home/chrisjoly/Scripts/n8n/n8n_icon.png and then dav1d (dav1d-worker, that's a video decoder) is losing it.

=> move away the n8n stuff, /home/chrisjoly/Scripts/n8n/n8n_icon.png looks esp. suspicious

du -h /home/chrisjoly/Scripts/n8n/n8n_icon.png
file /home/chrisjoly/Scripts/n8n/n8n_icon.png

chrisjoly · 2025-11-27 22:48:16

The n8n scripts are ones I wrote. the icon I downloaded myself. They are legitimate.

I renamed the Scripts folder to Dockers, and then rebooted, and rebooted once more. That solved the issue for now. I will monitor and if the issue persists, I will create a new forum post.

The lesson is: NEVER have a folder in your home folder that is called scripts, unless you know what it does.

Thank You twelveeighty and seth for both of your help!

Edit: [SOLVED]

seth · 2025-11-27 22:54:38

NEVER have a folder in your home folder that is called scripts

I doubt that's it.
Do you mind uploading the icon? (It's not the scripts or so, the .desktop gets parsed and dolphin and probably plasma want to show it with the designed icon and then the try to render that icon and that somehow involves https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/dav1d/ - which is an AV1 decoder and should™ absolutely not be involved in loading a png.

twelveeighty · 2025-11-28 01:51:48

Renaming the directory from ./Scripts to ./Dockers (sic) is a curious fix. My suggestion would be that the 'n8n.desktop' launcher now points to a non-existing 'exec', since you renamed the directory and that the actual problem is/was the script itself and it isn't running anymore. Is 'n8n' autostarted, by chance?

By the way:

seth wrote:

it's raccooning around in your trashcan

Is the funniest thing I read today. Back when I still ran KDE/Plasma, I tried hard to get rid of that stupid file crawler, but it always managed to find its way back onto my system. It even crawls inside compressed files, I believe. <shudder>.

chrisjoly · 2025-11-28 05:32:33

Hey Seth,

Here is the icon: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1alUzAq0TaWuoyYY_NsGmNWSyt71vgpjB/view?usp=sharing

chrisjoly · 2025-11-28 05:37:15

Hey twentyeighty,

the n8n script doesn't autorun. The actual script's name is run_n8n_docker.sh which contains n8n's recommended docker code to run an n8n docker instance.
My goal with putting it in a folder called n8n and then the icon is to have an n8n.desktop shortcut ready so I can double click and it runs it without me going to the terminal.

it's raccooning around in your trashcan

It's a great visual!

seth · 2025-11-28 08:24:07

◉ file n8n_icon.png                    
n8n_icon.png: ISO Media, AVIF Image
                
◉ identify n8n_icon.png                    
n8n_icon.png AVIF 350x350 350x350+0+0 8-bit sRGB 4796B 0.000u 0:00.000

It somehow *is* an avif, *not* a png.
How did you create that? Why?

You probably should also take this to bugs.kde.org - I installed kimageformats and then photonic shows the image w/o problems, so it's not the QImageReader (plugin) that seems to go wild on this.

http://0x0.st/K4Lt.png is it converted to an actual png for a cross-test.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-11-26 13:45:24

[SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#2 2025-11-26 15:53:53

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#3 2025-11-26 19:26:10

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#4 2025-11-26 20:39:21

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#5 2025-11-27 18:46:03

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#6 2025-11-27 19:34:23

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#7 2025-11-27 19:49:49

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#8 2025-11-27 20:04:59

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#9 2025-11-27 20:32:43

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#10 2025-11-27 20:39:57

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#11 2025-11-27 20:40:47

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#12 2025-11-27 20:51:30

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#13 2025-11-27 21:16:24

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#14 2025-11-27 21:19:03

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#15 2025-11-27 21:27:38

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#16 2025-11-27 21:39:07

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#17 2025-11-27 21:56:24

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#18 2025-11-27 22:06:19

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#19 2025-11-27 22:12:27

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#20 2025-11-27 22:48:16

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#21 2025-11-27 22:54:38

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#22 2025-11-28 01:51:48

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#23 2025-11-28 05:32:33

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#24 2025-11-28 05:37:15

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

#25 2025-11-28 08:24:07

Re: [SOLVED] Plasmashell maxes out my RAM

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