Issues with Plasmashell Not Working Properly on Boot?

[PhysicistSarah]

I've just done a fresh install of Kubuntu 18.04, and was in the process of setting the environment up (Installing new programs, the usual after a fresh install), but plasmashell crashed at some point and I killed it using killall plasmashell, and ever since, it refuses to start.
I typically start it using kstart plasmashell, but this doesn't work. The first line is something about GTX (I didn't get a screenshot), but plasmashell won't start on login anymore either, so I'm not sure what to do. I purged nvidia-* and still no luck.
Is there any way I can fix this? How can I get a screenshot of of kstart plasmashell if I can't get to the terminal because plasmashell doesn't start? I'm on the live USB right now.


A description of the actual process that happens at boot is that the Kubuntu symbol appears then the mouse cursor appears and then nothing happens after that. I can move the cursor, but the screen never emerges from black.

[Bings]

If you press "alt + space" does the krunner bar appear at the top? If so you can type "plasmashell start" in that and/or open applications (konsole included) that way.

[PhysicistSarah]

I've updated the post from SE (https://askubuntu.com/questions/1037...s-doesnt-start) I'll try it, but I've used Alt + F2 and that didn't appear.

[Bings]

As it's a very new install and you can't actually do anything when it loads up, the least hassle way for you is probably to start again from scratch. Also, if you install with btrfs rather than the default ext4 file system, this allows you to create snapshots and if you bork your system you can very quickly return it to the previous state.

A link if you don't already know about it and it sounds interesting:

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...ld-consider-it

[PhysicistSarah]

Beat you to it on the reinstall Just curious if this is a persistent issue with 18.04 and killing plasmashell.

[chimak111]

Beat you to it on the reinstall Just curious if this is a persistent issue with 18.04 and killing plasmashell.

Not for me. Not as a real install or when I was trialling it (in a VM) in the months before it was released.

I think you could explain, in detail, what exactly you did (software you installed/removed, config files you copied over from a previous version, etc) before the crash.

[GreyGeek]

Not for me either. I tried Bionic to see how it ran on my metal, not in Virtual Box. It ran perfectly, and so did my NVIDIA GT 650M.

However, I prefer leading edge KDE so I returned to Neon User Edition. Snapshots made that a piece of cake.

[woodsmoke]

alt+space does indeed produce the krunner in zesty

woodanoldcurmudgeonsmoke

[oshunluvr]

Beat you to it on the reinstall Just curious if this is a persistent issue with 18.04 and killing plasmashell.

Not seen this reported here. More likely has to do with what you did after installation.

Bings: Excellent advice, and that sure is a well written post you linked to!

[jlittle]

Just curious if this is a persistent issue with 18.04 and killing plasmashell.

When I installed 18.04 in March (from the daily) plasmashell occasionally crashed, once or twice a day. But it was usually restarted with minimal impact on anything. The problem went away after a couple of weeks. I've had a couple of crashes since, and with one there was no restart and I used a Linux console to kill KDE and log in again.

The plasmashell crashes usually came after using system settings.

[GreyGeek]

BTW, @PhysicistSarah, as an old retired Physics prof I'm wondering what area of physics interest you?

[PhysicistSarah]

I have the logs if you want to see them. It happens on a fresh install, or even the live version. If I go to terminal right off the bat in the live version and execute killall plasmashell && plasmashell everything returns just fine. But when I go to close that terminal, then everything goes wonky.

[GreyGeek]

I have the logs if you want to see them. It happens on a fresh install, or even the live version. If I go to terminal right off the bat in the live version and execute killall plasmashell && plasmashell everything returns just fine. But when I go to close that terminal, then everything goes wonky.

You are opening up a terminal (Konsole or Alt+Ctl+F2?) from the Plasma desktop, killing the plasma desktop, which leaves the terminal running, and restarting the plasma desktop in that same command sequence. Why? Clear up artifacts or other display driver problems?

[PhysicistSarah]

I would say that I have a broader interest in physics, although any physicist would say that. I'm not a researcher, I'm a student, but I think I'm going to go into orthopedics instead. My major is in computer science at Stony Brook University, and with the things looking they way they are with regards to AI, the large amount of funding and interest in it, the sudden explosion in it's ability to handle various tasks (AlphaGo 0 becoming best algorithm in chess in 4 hours), and the apparent imminent threat of large scale automation as machine intelligence starts to mature, I think I'll be switching to more of a defensive role. I'll still keep physics as a hobby.

I don't trust that the economy will be stable enough for me to compete with other physicists for jobs at companies for physics, and academia is crowded with people in waiting queues for over 10 years just for an adjunct position. I don't see a large increase in the need for physicists any time soon either, as opposed to medicine, which has to scale with population. I've talked to people at Brookhaven National Lab's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, and they say that government funding is barely existent for the type of work that they do, which is crazy considering that they're pretty much the last large scale particle accelerator in the US ever since the Tevatron closed down.

I don't know, the near future (Around 20 years) seems kind of grim to me, with regards to employment. I've learned enough probability theory to know a bad bad when I see one. I'll hedge my bets on the long term with my uncle (Who is an orthopedic surgeon), who said he'll train me when I get out of med school.