KDE locks up when I plug in my smart phone

[geezer]

whenever I plug-in my smart phone (Blu Vivo8, Android 7.0) I get a drop down window that is supposed to list the plugged in smartphone. However the window is empty and KDE is locked up.

I can switch desktops using Crtl-Fx. The programs within a window are generally running and I can interact with them. Their screens update, etc., the mouse is operational within the program screen and the mouse moves the cursor within the desktop and I can switch programs on the desktop.

But anything that requires KDE is inoperative. Nothing works on the panel. I cannot switch desktops using the panel, kickoff a program, nothing. All file interactions are frozen and inoperative.

At first I would unplug the smartphone and re-boot Linux. Today I unplugged the smartphone and decided to just wait. After about 4 or 5 minutes KDE became active again.

Is anybody else experiencing anything like this?

Any ideas how to fix?

Is this a known bug?

Running 17.04 or 17.10 don't know exactly which. Webmin lists it as 17.04, but then it never seems to know the difference between xx.04 and xx.10.
Okay, checked on system->info and it shows:
Plasma 5.9.5
Frameworks 5.31.0
Qt 5.7.1
kernal 4.10.0-38

Any ideas?

[oshunluvr]

Try logging in at the terminal - CTRL-ALT-F1 - running "dmesg" - switch back to the desktop - CTRL-ALT-F7 - plug in the phone - switch back to CRTL-ALT-F1 and run "dmesg" again and see what's new.

Note the exact time you plug in the phone. Then you can manually read through some of your log files and see what's happening.

BTW< a reboot wouldn't be necessary to un-lock the desktop. You can go to the terminal mode, log in, and restart the GUI with "sudo service sddm restart"

[geezer]

Try logging in at the terminal - CTRL-ALT-F1 - running "dmesg" - switch back to the desktop - CTRL-ALT-F7 - plug in the phone - switch back to CRTL-ALT-F1 and run "dmesg" again and see what's new.

Note the exact time you plug in the phone. Then you can manually read through some of your log files and see what's happening.

BTW< a reboot wouldn't be necessary to un-lock the desktop. You can go to the terminal mode, log in, and restart the GUI with "sudo service sddm restart"

Thanks, I tried this and when I plugged in the smartphone, Everything worked. I don't trust that this behavior will persist beyond today or even the next hr.

So I'll keep this advice, and follow before and after the next time (tomorrow) I plug-in the smart phone.

for the sddm I can use webmin. I love that program. I get more information about the h/w and s/w all in one place. Just wish It was available on android.

As for the diffs between before and after. I use Jedit and the Jdiff plugin and the only differences between before and after are:

[25838.235842] usb 3-14: new high-speed USB device number 12 using xhci_hcd
[25838.376784] usb 3-14: New USB device found, idVendor=271d, idProduct=3c02
[25838.376788] usb 3-14: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=4, SerialNumber=5
[25838.376791] usb 3-14: Product: Vivo 8
[25838.376793] usb 3-14: Manufacturer: BLU
[25838.376794] usb 3-14: SerialNumber: KFJ7BAP7K7UKWKKG
[25846.691139] usb 3-14: USB disconnect, device number 12
[25847.175344] usb 3-14: new high-speed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd
[25847.315986] usb 3-14: New USB device found, idVendor=271d, idProduct=3c02
[25847.315987] usb 3-14: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=4, SerialNumber=5
[25847.315988] usb 3-14: Product: Vivo 8
[25847.315989] usb 3-14: Manufacturer: BLU
[25847.315989] usb 3-14: SerialNumber: KFJ7BAP7K7UKWKKG
[25856.530946] usb 3-14: reset high-speed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd
[25856.791974] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp5s0: link is not ready
[25876.209924] usb 3-14: reset high-speed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd

Which is messages that the p[hone was plugged in. No news there.

[geezer]

Ok . more experience. The behavior seems to be random - at least I haven't detected any combination of running s/w or actions on my part to trigger it.

In addition, there is more to it than simply plugging in my smartphone (Blu Vivo 8, Android 7.0). Also, if I attempt to open a file in Libreoffice Writer and the file dialog box opens, it freezes KDE and no files ever get listed in the dialog box. I have to click multiple timers on the icon to close the dialog until the system asks if I want to terminate Libreoffice for non-responding.

I can use webmin to restart sddm service and that mostly frees up KDE, but not always.

Really strange.

[geezer]

Solved the problem.

Only solution that worked (so far anyway) is re-installing Kubuntu 17.04

[geezer]

Okay - the re-install didn't solve the problem.

So since I had installed 17.04 fresh I decided to update and then upgrade to 17.10, and dump all of the 17.04 baggage causing the problems.

That has been a huge mistake!!!

I updated every thing and then executed upgrade. HUGE mistake. The upgrade easily took many, many, many, many hours, I am estimating since I gave up waiting and just walked off and left it running and came back about 6 to 7 HOURS later. It still wasn't finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that time was not spent downloading. Downloading took less than 2 minutes!!!!!

The rest of the hours were spent in unpacking and installing and settting up.

Today I had to make the decision to upgrade my laptop.

EASY decision. I simply downloaded the Live Kubuntu 17.10 and loaded on a stick.

Then plugged it into the laptop and installed 17.10. Took a tiny fraction of the time to upgrade even though I then had to re-install a few applications and set them up. I could do all of that about 20 times over in the time it took to do the 17.04 to 17.10 upgrade.

I think in the future I will not upgrade, but simply do a live installation. I used to do that and never did upgrades since that was a very buggy process. So it's back to the future.

[GreyGeek]

...

I think in the future I will not upgrade, but simply do a live installation. I used to do that and never did upgrades since that was a very buggy process. So it's back to the future.

A lesson many of us have learned.
IF you, by chance, happened to use the Btrfs as your root filesystem then your backup and recovery problems are solved. Backup in a couple seconds, restore in 3 minutes.

[geezer]

More information

So . reinstalling did not solve the problem. I tried the dmesg approach suggested above and found something very interesting this time:

Results of dmesg after plugging in the smartphone:

usb 3-14: new high-speed USB device number 10 using xhci_hcd
[ 5027.932338] usb 3-14: New USB device found, idVendor=271d, idProduct=3c02
[ 5027.932339] usb 3-14: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=4, SerialNumber=5
[ 5027.932340] usb 3-14: Product: Vivo 8
[ 5027.932340] usb 3-14: Manufacturer: BLU
[ 5027.932341] usb 3-14: SerialNumber:
[ 5028.325045] FS-Cache: Loaded
[ 5028.329530] FS-Cache: Netfs 'nfs' registered for caching
[ 5028.337139] NFS: Registering the id_resolver key type
[ 5028.337144] Key type id_resolver registered
[ 5028.337144] Key type id_legacy registered
[ 5029.846319] usb 3-14: USB disconnect, device number 10
[ 5030.147591] usb 3-14: new high-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
[ 5030.288385] usb 3-14: New USB device found, idVendor=271d, idProduct=3c02
[ 5030.288387] usb 3-14: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=4, SerialNumber=5
[ 5030.288388] usb 3-14: Product: Vivo 8
[ 5030.288389] usb 3-14: Manufacturer: BLU
[ 5030.288390] usb 3-14: SerialNumber:
[ 5035.512691] usb 3-14: USB disconnect, device number 11
[ 5035.811504] usb 3-14: new high-speed USB device number 12 using xhci_hcd
[ 5035.952253] usb 3-14: New USB device found, idVendor=271d, idProduct=3c02
[ 5035.952254] usb 3-14: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=4, SerialNumber=5
[ 5035.952255] usb 3-14: Product: Vivo 8
[ 5035.952256] usb 3-14: Manufacturer: BLU
[ 5035.952256] usb 3-14: SerialNumber:
[ 5036.269556] usb 3-14: USB disconnect, device number 12
[ 5036.755487] usb 3-14: new high-speed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd
[ 5036.896437] usb 3-14: New USB device found, idVendor=271d, idProduct=3c02
[ 5036.896441] usb 3-14: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=4, SerialNumber=5
[ 5036.896444] usb 3-14: Product: Vivo 8
[ 5036.896446] usb 3-14: Manufacturer: BLU
[ 5036.896449] usb 3-14: SerialNumber:
[ 5041.778327] usb 3-14: USB disconnect, device number 13
[ 5042.075369] usb 3-14: new high-speed USB device number 14 using xhci_hcd
[ 5042.216143] usb 3-14: New USB device found, idVendor=271d, idProduct=3c02
[ 5042.216145] usb 3-14: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=4, SerialNumber=5
[ 5042.216146] usb 3-14: Product: Vivo 8
[ 5042.216147] usb 3-14: Manufacturer: BLU
[ 5042.216148] usb 3-14: SerialNumber:
[ 5064.289184] usb 3-14: USB disconnect, device number 14
[ 5064.590925] usb 3-14: new high-speed USB device number 15 using xhci_hcd
[ 5064.731718] usb 3-14: New USB device found, idVendor=271d, idProduct=3c02
[ 5064.731719] usb 3-14: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=4, SerialNumber=5
[ 5064.731720] usb 3-14: Product: Vivo 8
[ 5064.731721] usb 3-14: Manufacturer: BLU
[ 5064.731722] usb 3-14: SerialNumber:
[ 5078.874361] usb 3-14: USB disconnect, device number 15
[ 5079.450623] usb 3-14: new high-speed USB device number 16 using xhci_hcd
[ 5079.591353] usb 3-14: New USB device found, idVendor=271d, idProduct=3c02
[ 5079.591354] usb 3-14: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=4, SerialNumber=5
[ 5079.591355] usb 3-14: Product: Vivo 8
[ 5079.591356] usb 3-14: Manufacturer: BLU
[ 5079.591357] usb 3-14: SerialNumber:

That notation on using nfs cache after plugging in the smartphone I found to be interesting. I compared my desktop (where problem resides) fstab with my laptop (where no resides) fstab:

desktop mount options:
nfs rw,users,exec,_netdev,auto,fg,hard,async,timeo=50, retrans=5,actimeo=10,retry=5,users,rsize=131072,ws ize=131072,noatime,nodiratime,x-systemd.automount 0 0

laptop mount options:
nfs auto,bg,soft,timeo=50,retrans=5,actimeo=10,retry=5 ,users,rsize=131072,wsize=131072,noatime,nodiratim e,x-systemd.automount 0 0

The biggest difference is Foreground (fg) vs background (bg).

I have changed the desktop options to match those of the laptop. Rebooted.

KDE still takes a timeout when the smartphone is plugged in, but the timeout (when KDE freezes) is on the order of 5 to 10 seconds as opposed to 15 to 30 minutes or more.

5 to 10 seconds is manageable.

Ideally I would like to get it down to 1 second or less.

I never would have associated nfs with usb devices, but there does seem to be a connection through KDE somehow. I read some articles that recommend 'hard' as opposed to 'soft' and asynch as opposed to 'synch'. hard and asynch are the defaults. So maybe I'll just take the 'soft' option out.

OK. Changed the soft in fstab to hard and rebooted and learned something else very interesting. On Android 7.0, when the usb cable is plugged in, a notice is displayed that the smartphone is charging via the usb and to touch the notice to change to file transfer (MTP). What I found interesting and would not have suspected, KDE timed out for about 5 to 10 seconds just by plugging the usb cable into the smartphone and before I changed from charging to file transfer. So it would seem that KDE seems to have some problems with usb devices independent of the nfs/KDE interaction problem.

Well at least I now have the KDE timeout down to something reasonable/manageable.

[jglen490]

Do you have the mtp tools installed?

That resolved a lot of randomness that I was having with my tablet connected to my Kubuntu desktop machine.

[geezer]

Hmm - everything has had overnight to sit and simmer and ripen.

Plugging in my smartphone this morning and no delay at all. As soon as I plugged in the smartphone, it popped up on Dolphin and was working.

Maybe the cache is considered current and so the response is immediate?

[geezer]

Do you have the mtp tools installed?

That resolved a lot of randomness that I was having with my tablet connected to my Kubuntu desktop machine.

I just installed mtp tools. Do not know if that will make any difference since Dolphin was working with the smartphone directories already because of the difference in the nfs mount options. I'll see what happens in the future. Thanks for the suggestion.