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(SOLVED) KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

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mashen
Posts: 27
Joined: 2012-05-15 22:41

(SOLVED) KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#1 Post by mashen »

Hello. I've been unable to boot into my Plasma desktop for the entire day. SDDM just gets stucks after I input my password and does nothing. If I try SDDM autologin with my current user, I just get a black screen with a movable mouse pointer.
If I try starting a session with a new fresh user, I get a dialog message saying kded5 got a segmentation fault.
My installation and KDE desktop was working fine for years before this. I'm posting this from XFCE at the moment.

Things I tried:
  • Starting the desktop session from SDDM
  • From startx (after adding "DEFAULT_SESSION=startplasma-x11" to .xinitrc)
  • Reinstalling all KDE software
  • Reinstalling all Qt libraries
  • Running fsck
  • Running badblocks
  • Deleting .Xauthority (read it helped for startx)
  • Logging in with another fresh user I just created with adduser command
I'm running Debian Bookworm.

Here's the content of .xsession-errors after I try to log in to Plasma

Code: Select all

Xsession: X session started for machine at Tue Oct 19 04:26:17 PM -03 2021
[...]
KCrash: Application Name = kwin_x11 path = /usr/bin pid = 9192
KCrash: Arguments: /usr/bin/kwin_x11 --crashes 3 
KCrash: Attempting to start /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libexec/drkonqi
Please let me know if there's any other command output or information you may need to know what's going on.

This is my work computer and I've got everything set up in my KDE Plasma desktop so I'd greatly appreciate any help!
Last edited by mashen on 2021-10-20 00:10, edited 2 times in total.

mashen
Posts: 27
Joined: 2012-05-15 22:41

Re: KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#2 Post by mashen »

Making a second post since I hit the character limit.

KDE information:

Code: Select all

KDE Plasma Version: 5.23.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.86.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Kernel Version: 5.14.0-2-amd64
Graphics Platform: X11
Last edited by mashen on 2021-10-20 00:10, edited 1 time in total.

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sunrat
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Re: KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#3 Post by sunrat »

How do you have Plasma 5.23? Bookworm still has 5.21 and 5.23 just hit Sid yesterday.
“ computer users can be divided into 2 categories:
Those who have lost data
...and those who have not lost data YET ”
Remember to BACKUP!

mashen
Posts: 27
Joined: 2012-05-15 22:41

Re: KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#4 Post by mashen »

sunrat wrote: 2021-10-19 21:09 How do you have Plasma 5.23? Bookworm still has 5.21 and 5.23 just hit Sid yesterday.
Interesting. Not sure. That's what I got from kinfocenter.
Image

When I run plasmashell --version, I get plasmashell 5.21.5

Most of my packages are at version 5.21, however some (like libkdecorations2-5v5) seem to be at 5.23.

That's consistent with the Debian page of that package.
https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/li ... tions2-5v5
Last edited by mashen on 2021-10-20 00:11, edited 1 time in total.

mashen
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Re: KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#5 Post by mashen »

Solved by downgrading libkdecorations2-5v5 and removing libkdecorations2private9

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Re: (SOLVED) KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#6 Post by sunrat »

These kind of problems are always a possibility in development releases ie. Testing or Sid. If using those you need to make regular full system backups so you can roll back in a few minutes if needed.
“ computer users can be divided into 2 categories:
Those who have lost data
...and those who have not lost data YET ”
Remember to BACKUP!

mashen
Posts: 27
Joined: 2012-05-15 22:41

Re: (SOLVED) KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#7 Post by mashen »

Really? I don't think this is meant to be a normal ocurrence. I've used Testing for years no problem. If there was any bug, it was usually upstream. I would have expected something like this from Sid or experimental, not Testing.

seeker5528
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Re: (SOLVED) KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#8 Post by seeker5528 »

It could be that when you upgraded not all of the packages had made their way into testing yet and you needed to upgrade again to get all of them.
It could there were changes in dependencies and you did the standard upgrade and needed to do 'apt full upgrade' or 'apt dist-upgrade' to get them all.

Ways that testing could get broken are listed in the documentation. In sections '3.1.6. You are talking about testing being broken. What do you mean by that?' and '3.1.7. Why is it that testing could be broken for months? Won't the fixes introduced in unstable flow directly down into testing?'

https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debi ... ng.en.html

mashen
Posts: 27
Joined: 2012-05-15 22:41

Re: (SOLVED) KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#9 Post by mashen »

It was definitely a dist-upgrade. And indeed, the binary packages compiled from kdecoration made their way into Testing before the rest of KDE. This means everyone on Testing that regularly run dist-upgrade have a broken Plasma desktop.

astatine
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Joined: 2021-10-23 20:16

Re: (SOLVED) KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#10 Post by astatine »

Apparently it's not only dist-upgrade. I did a fresh install of testing this afternoon and I'm having the same issues as OP. However I can't downgrade, because there seem to be no older versions available.

mashen
Posts: 27
Joined: 2012-05-15 22:41

Re: (SOLVED) KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#11 Post by mashen »

astatine wrote: 2021-10-23 20:50 Apparently it's not only dist-upgrade. I did a fresh install of testing this afternoon and I'm having the same issues as OP. However I can't downgrade, because there seem to be no older versions available.
You can! Just not through apt-get alone.
Download the previous version of libkdecorations2-5v5
https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/deb ... _amd64.deb
Install it with dpkg

And REMOVE libkdecorations2private9
That solves the issue for now, but I'm not gonna dist-upgrade for a while.

astatine
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Re: (SOLVED) KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#12 Post by astatine »

Much appreciated!
mashen wrote: 2021-10-23 20:54
That solves the issue for now, but I'm not gonna dist-upgrade for a while.
Yeah, but it's still a bit of a trap for everyone who tries to install testing unsuspectingly, at least for now.

mashen
Posts: 27
Joined: 2012-05-15 22:41

Re: (SOLVED) KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#13 Post by mashen »

You're welcome, happy to be of help.
astatine wrote: 2021-10-23 21:34 Yeah, but it's still a bit of a trap for everyone who tries to install testing unsuspectingly, at least for now.
It absolutely is. I don't think this is excusable just because it's the testing branch due to how long it's lasted.

adi1334
Posts: 48
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Location: Timisoara, Romania

Re: (SOLVED) KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#14 Post by adi1334 »

watching this, can anyone report when it is safe to upgrade? I assume when kwin 5.23 hits testing?

adi1334
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Re: (SOLVED) KDE desktop fails to start from SDDM or startx

#15 Post by adi1334 »

[Edit:] not an issue anymore, updated, went ok.


So the tracker https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/kwin
says about kwin:

Code: Select all

excuses:
Migrates after: kscreenlocker, kwayland-server
but then about kscreenlocker, kwayland-server

Code: Select all

excuses:
Migrates after: kwin
As for the 1 RC bug on kwin, it seems to refer to exactly the problem mentioned in this thread. If I understand correctly, that would be not an issue, moving 5.23 version into testing, as the bug is due to the version mismatch.

So what is going on? Can anyone explain, would appreciate it.

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