[SOLVED] Desktop keeps booting into folder view

[doctordruidphd]

Starting yesterday, every time I start the system, it winds up in "folder view", with all these junk icons all over the screen, no wallpaper, no widgets, etc. If I bring up "Configure Dekstop" by right clicking the screen, the Layout says it is in folder view. So I change it to Desktop, set a new wallpaper, and it's fine until I shut down and restart, then back to the folder view. This is very irritating because I have a number of widgets I use, and they are all gone every bldody time on bootup. So far I have been unable to figure out how this is being controlled, or where the file that is setting it is. This is more than an iconvenience, I can't use it this way.

I have startup-and-shutdown/desktop-session set to start with a blank sessio0n; I tries changing to start with saved session, makes no difference.

Where is the file or whatever that controls this?

[claydoh]

~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc should be the one.

[doctordruidphd]

Thanks for your reply. I took a look at the file, and also a diff with the same file in bionic, which does boot properly, and I cannot find anything that says whether to boot into folder view or desktop view. Lots of stuff about individual programs, but nothing on what kind of environment comes up. Can't find anything with grep other than program-specific settings.

[claydoh]

Here are sample sections from mine. I have two activities, the default is one. I have one Folder View and one Desktop

My normal Desktop view

[Containments][28]
ItemGeometriesHorizontal=
activityId=e5417cd1-51e6-43e0-888d-783e771ae285
formfactor=0
immutability=1
lastScreen=0
location=0
plugin=org.kde.desktopcontainment
wallpaperplugin=org.kde.image

Folder view

[Containments][37]
activityId=5b3fd3ea-7203-4a49-9c85-3e172f7137dd
formfactor=0
immutability=1
lastScreen=0
location=0
plugin=org.kde.plasma.folder
wallpaperplugin=org.kde.image

I suspect the file itself may be corrupted, or a small possibly of it having the wrong ownership/permissions
If it is not the latter, I suggest resetting the desktop settings by stopping plasmashell, renaming or moving the file, and restarting plasmashell. Then see it changes hold.

alt-f2, then pkill plasmashell
rename or move the file in Dolphin, then alt-f2 again, and enter plasmashell

[doctordruidphd]

OK, some success!

The file has the following permissions, which is the same as in bionic:

greenman@Crynfyd20.04 ~/.config$ ls -l plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc
-rw------- 1 greenman greenman 37451 Sep 5 10:20 plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc

So I guess that is OK. I had the following sections in the old file, which did not change after doing a right-click/configure-desktop change to desktop view:

[Containments][1][Applets][67]
activityId=
formfactor=0
immutability=1
lastScreen=-1
location=0
plugin=org.kde.plasma.folder
wallpaperplugin=

[Containments][1][Applets][67][Configuration]
PreloadWeight=0
activityId=
formfactor=0
immutability=1
lastScreen=-1
location=0
plugin=org.kde.plasma.folder
wallpaperplugin=

I changed the first entry to:

[Containments][1][Applets][67]
activityId=
formfactor=0
immutability=1
lastScreen=0
location=0
plugin=org.kde.desktopcontainment
wallpaperplugin=org.kde.image

and the second entry got changed after rebooting to desktopcontainment automatically (I guess).

I logged in and out several times, and it is coming up correctly now.

Thanks, but it worries me that I still don't know WHY it got messed up and why it doesn't save the changes I make during the session.

[claydoh]

The file may have been physically corrupted. Plasma loads the configs into memory and writes them back to disk periodically or at logout - not sure 100% on the periodic bit. If it can't write to to the (corrupt ) file for whatever reason at logout, changes are not saved.
I think.

[doctordruidphd]

Makes sense. For the moment, it seems to be working right. Thanks.

[Beerislife]

Thank you young man! This seems to have solved a similar problem I was having with the desktop wallpaper reverting to default on every boot! I'm a happy bunny once again...

I had to rebuild my Panel the way I like it but it didn't take long!