Plasma login always takes me to plasma media center.

[conman]

Well something screwed up on my shiny 16.04 install. After logging in to a few other desktop environments (xfce4 and then gnome) I went back to plasma and for some reason it takes me straight to plasma media center instead. I've logged out numerous times and confirmed I'm highlighting the correct entry but it takes me to media center instead of plasma proper every single time. I've tried using the console to switch display managers from sddm to lightdm and gdm3 but it makes no difference, I still get logged into media center. I tried uninstalling media center and then it logs into a blank screen and says packages are missing. I can't for the life of me get back to plasma and I have no idea how it got corrupted like this just from using a different DE in the first place. Suggestions please?

[elijathegold]

Until I read this post, I didn't know such a thing existed. Is Plasma Media Centre a separate session or something you run on top of KDE? If the latter is there a way to quit from within the media centre?

[GreyGeek]

If you are not a mechanic don't tinker with the engine! That probably wasn't the advice you were looking for!

You can spend several hours or days trying to unravel the knots you made, even with advice from friends here on the forum, but the easiest and quickest way to resolve your problems in under an hour is to do a fresh install.

[conman]

I'm a mechanic and happy to tinker. However this breakage had nothing to do with me tinkering, but I'd rather tinker to fix it than reinstall since I've been upgrading on the same machine for many kubuntu versions to date.

[conman]

Until I read this post, I didn't know such a thing existed. Is Plasma Media Centre a separate session or something you run on top of KDE? If the latter is there a way to quit from within the media centre?

Plasma media centre comes up as an option in the login manager automatically with the latest kubuntu as an alternative to kde5/plasma by default, just change the dropdown in the sddm menu to media centre from plasma. As for logging out, I couldn't see any icons or menus whatsoever so I just tried ALT-F2 which gave me the command option and I typed in logout which gets me out of there.

That said, I still can't log into regular kde5 plasma any more on that machine...

[elijathegold]

OK, what files are in the /usr/share/xsessions directory? I would expect at least one called kde-plasma.desktop and another relating the the media centre.

Unless it's changed on 16.04 (I can't be bothered to walk all the way across the room to fire up another computer) the kde-plasma.desktop should start with:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=XSession
Exec=/usr/bin/startkde
TryExec=/usr/bin/startkde
DesktopNames=KDE
Name=KDE Plasma Workspace

And continue with a host of translations. If it doesn't then back the one you currently have and make the appropriate changes. Log out and try logging in again.

[conman]

OK, what files are in the /usr/share/xsessions directory? I would expect at least one called kde-plasma.desktop and another relating the the media centre.

Unless it's changed on 16.04 (I can't be bothered to walk all the way across the room to fire up another computer) the kde-plasma.desktop should start with:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=XSession
Exec=/usr/bin/startkde
TryExec=/usr/bin/startkde
DesktopNames=KDE
Name=KDE Plasma Workspace

And continue with a host of translations. If it doesn't then back the one you currently have and make the appropriate changes. Log out and try logging in again.

Still reads the same thing, although both plasma and plasma media center read the same thing.

con@s904:/usr/share/xsessions$ head plasma.desktop 
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=XSession
Exec=/usr/bin/startkde
TryExec=/usr/bin/startkde
DesktopNames=KDE
Name=Plasma
Name[ar]=بلازما
Name[ast]=Plasma
Name[bs]=Plazma
con@s904:/usr/share/xsessions$ head plasma-mediacenter.desktop 
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=XSession
Exec=/usr/bin/startkde
TryExec=/usr/bin/startkde
DesktopNames=KDE
Name=Plasma Media Center
Name[ar]=مركز وسائط بلازما
Name[bs]=Plasma Media Center
Name[ca]=Centre multimèdia del Plasma

[elijathegold]

I'm going to crash in a minute or two but before I do, it occurs to me that you should check the entire content of those files as maybe an exec clause is in there twice.

[conman]

I'm going to crash in a minute or two but before I do, it occurs to me that you should check the entire content of those files as maybe an exec clause is in there twice.

Thanks, I checked but there isn't. I appreciate your responses.

[conman]

No other takers? It's kind of a showstopper when the desktop environment you installed the operating system for doesn't work at all... I even tried startx /usr/bin/startkde from a console and that still takes me to the freaking media centre.

[acheron]

Try...

sudo apt purge kubuntu-desktop kubuntu-settings-desktop plasma-desktop plasma-workspace

then

sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop kubuntu-settings-desktop plasma-desktop plasma-workspace

That will pull back in anything essential that may be missing, where simply 'reinstalling' those packages via muon etc may not.

It that doesn't work, then it's something else interfering with plasma startup. Quick test would be to create a new test user and try logging into plasma with that.

[conman]

Try...

sudo apt purge kubuntu-desktop kubuntu-settings-desktop plasma-desktop plasma-workspace

then

sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop kubuntu-settings-desktop plasma-desktop plasma-workspace

That will pull back in anything essential that may be missing, where simply 'reinstalling' those packages via muon etc may not.

It that doesn't work, then it's something else interfering with plasma startup. Quick test would be to create a new test user and try logging into plasma with that.

Thanks!!!

sudo apt-get install --reinstall kubuntu-desktop

was enough in case anyone encounters this problem again.

[acheron]

Great.

My reply above was absolute super belt and braces approach, but just the desktop meta is usually enough.

[elijathegold]

Thanks!!!

sudo apt-get install --reinstall kubuntu-desktop

was enough in case anyone encounters this problem again.

Glad it's sorted. It's kind of unsatisfying not knowing what caused it though. Not that I'm hinting you should break it again, no sir, not me

[GreyGeek]

I haven't heard of very many computers on which Kubuntu of any flavor cannot be installed, except the ancient legacy boxes.

Your first post was void of any hardware details, and the only info you supplied was that you upgraded to 16.04 from a previous version, but didn't say which one.
And, you want to tinker with a busted install because you are a mechanic. You want us to play but you are holding all the cards. As I suggested in my previous post, if you want a working Kubuntu installation ASAP then re-install, but you said you don't want to do that. And now you are complaining that your desktop environment doesn't work and wondering why no one wants to help.