Desktop Settings - Plasma fails to work

[alpreston]

After updating 3 systems to 18.04, I've run into a problem with the desktop settings on all of them. When I right click on the desktops and get the Desktop Settings - Plasma window, it shows a message saying Layout changes must be applied before other changes can be made, followed by an Apply Now button. Clicking on the latter does nothing. I'd like to change my desktop image, but this is preventing me from doing so. I also can't select the other items in the menu such as mouse actions or tweaks.

Does anyone know of a fix for this?

[chimak111]

I did a clean install of Kubuntu 18.04 and don't have the problem. It may be that something went off the rails during your upgrades.

Anyway, I made a change from Desktop to Folder View and checked to see which local files were modified. These are the two:

~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc
~/.config/plasmashellrc

Are both those files owned by you? Sometimes, files get owned by root and then can't be modified. Just guessing!

[ringel05]

After updating 3 systems to 18.04, I've run into a problem with the desktop settings on all of them. When I right click on the desktops and get the Desktop Settings - Plasma window, it shows a message saying Layout changes must be applied before other changes can be made, followed by an Apply Now button. Clicking on the latter does nothing. I'd like to change my desktop image, but this is preventing me from doing so. I also can't select the other items in the menu such as mouse actions or tweaks.

Does anyone know of a fix for this?

One possible fix, one definite fix.

If you upgraded (not a clean install) then the old kernel and some settings are still on your system and could be causing the issue. Open Konsol (or whichever terminal you prefer) and do a autoremove/purge.

sudo apt autoremove --purge

If that doesn't work the back up all your personal data, documents, etc (which should be done anyway) and do a clean install.

[claydoh]

I've seen reports on this in various distros, including arch and opensuse, so it is not a kernel issue. I haven't found yet any reports of it on KDE's bug tracker. I've not seen it myself.

My guess is a problematic config file.
Try moving or renaming ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc This is where the desktop layout settings are stored.
You may have to do this from outside of Plasma, or at least kill plasma beforehand, and some of your desktop settings will revert to stock.


Oops chimak111 beat me to it