24 problems and solutions after 24.04->24.10

[chconnor]

Just wanted to document all the trials and tribulations when I did the upgrade. It was rougher than usual. Sorry for the random assortment. I started getting some hard crashes (i.e. maybe video driver) in 24.04 -- those seem to have stopped after the upgrade.

• Edit3: annoying bell whenever an error occurs

System Settings->Accessibility Options->Bell; perhaps also Colors & Themes -> System Sounds -> uncheck (at top right) "Enable notification sounds"

• Edit2: present windows switching not working properly; bug filed.

• Edit: a new one: plasma-systemmonitor taking CPU and filling up all memory every other time it is run... will ask in a separate thread and update here with any solutions. bug filed

• GUI installer would not work: once button was clicked, an error dialog appeared with nothing in it.

To fix: I installed some kept-back packages manually, and uninstalled obs-studio which had some weird dependency problem going on (I reinstalled after upgrading without issue.) I believe I had to reboot before trying the upgrade again, but then it worked.

• UNSOLVED: moving windows now forces them to un-maximize

Bug is here. No workaround, but you can map keyboard shortcuts to move windows to screens (see bug). Currently driving me nuts. Desperately hoping for a hero developer to come along. :-)

• a bug in Discover means you can't access the software sources dialog via GUI

Open the Driver Manager in system settings, which opens the same GUI just on a different tab, then change tabs. [thanks claydoh ]

Alternately: you can run software-properties-qt, but a simple pkexec won't work, so do:

pkexec env DISPLAY=$DISPLAY XAUTHORITY=$XAUTHORITY software-properties-qt

• UNSOLVED: krunner often fails to appear when the hotkey is pressed. Lots of posts about this, see here, and here, and maybe here.

This one is kind of a mess; in the mean time I made a workaround: I map a hotkey to run a custom script, and that makes it open reliably, although slightly slower (for the reasoning behind "--replace", see next issue):

(Update: no longer using the script or --replace, see next issue; instead using the "more appropriate route" described just following.)

#!/bin/bash
QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software krunner --replace​

The more appropriate route is probably to run:

systemctl --user edit plasma-krunner.service

...and add in the appropriate spot:

[Service]
Environment=QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software​

...and then reboot (or restart the service I guess)... but because of the following issue, I used the script above:

• UNSOLVED: krunner periodically starts taking 100% of a CPU

No idea yet on this one. I find some loose threads online, but nothing firm yet. This is a real bummer and I hope I can figure it out soon. I added "--replace" to the script above so that I can hit my krunner hotkey when the fans start spinning. Happens every 10m or so.

Update: I disabled most of the krunner plugins except the ones I really use and it hasn't happened at all today. If I get time to binary search the problematic plugin I will post results here.

Update2: the "Recent Files" plugin is the issue. Disable it, apply, and the problem goes away. Using QT_QUICK_BACKEND as described above and disabling this plugin makes krunner work fine again. Bug filed.

• UNSOLVED: occasional "Pageflip timed out!" warnings in journal: system locks up for maybe 10 seconds, then resumes. Maybe see here and here

...no idea about the prognosis, but it's rare for me, so hopefully I can wait it out until it is fixed.

• Shorcuts are kind of a mess. khotkeys is gone, and under wayland the GUI is still half-baked. Any custom shortcuts that have arguments to the command they trigger will neither show those arguments nor be editable, and you can't make new ones with arguments using the GUI.

The "translated" custom shortcuts are now in ~/.local/share/kglobalaccel/ -- that directory contains all the (UUID-named) .desktop files in question where you can edit if you need to. The shortcut mappings are in .config/kglobalshortcutsrc . To make a new shortcut with arguments, just add a new custom shortcut with the GUI, then apply and close settings and edit the .desktop file manually (Exec line, no quotations necessary, just append the arguments like you would on a command line).

I did have some trouble making new custom shortcuts -- the GUI would complain that it couldn't connect to the backend ("Error while communicating with the global shortcuts service"), and the pane would be left in a broken state. It still happens randomly, but sometimes I can get a new shortcut in there. You can probably figure out how to manually add shortcuts with the config files, but I haven't tried it.

• KWin window rules have always been hit or miss for me: there are always a few apps that ignore the "Screen" and just can't be set via Apply Initially no matter what I do. After the upgrade, the Screen directive seems to be entirely ignored. Also many window classes have changed.

Fortunately, you can use Position to reliably put apps in the right place. If you ever change screen geometry or layout you will have to change your rules. Make sure to check that the window class is still matching properly, as many have changed. The "Detect Windows" dialog can only be moved vertically, which is odd, and seems to have some drawing bugs associated, but it generally works.

• KDE panel resizing/scaling/etc seems pretty buggy and chaotic; managed to beat it into submission but behavior was strange

• UNSOLVED: mouse cursor doesn't respect the hue shift from Night Light.

Numerous posts along these lines... I believe it's a Wayland issue and I was unable to solve it. At night the cursor glows like an emergency flare against the dim orange desktop. I might change to a cursor without a white outline to remedy.

• long (60-90s or so) delay on startup; a bug means that using an encrypted swap causes a timeout (and failure to mount encrypted swap) on boot.

Solution is to install package systemd-cryptsetup. More info here.

• numerous errors per second in journal like: Error in eglSetDamageRegion: 0x3009

Solution was to upgrade outdated thunderbird and firefox to latest versions.

• "xset dpms force off" no longer works

Under wayland, use kcscreen-doctor --dpms off

• qdbus command to detect if session is locked no longer works

Now use dbus-send: dbus-send --session --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver /ScreenSaver org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver.GetActive | grep boolean | awk '{print $2}'

• "xset q" no longer works to detect if monitor is off via DPM

Now use ddcutil as described here.

• mouse hanging up at screen edges and in corners

This is a wayland feature. Maybe I'll like it some day, but for now I turned it off in Settings-> Mouse & Touchpad -> Screen Edges by unchecking "Corner barrer" and setting "Edge barrier" to 0, i.e. None

• xdotool no longer works

...a variety of options exist for wayland. wtype didn't work for me (error about the virtual keyboard API not being present I think?). Install package ydotool, then you have to run:

sudo chmod u+s /usr/bin/ydotool /usr/bin/ydotool

• UNSOLVED: akregator no longer works

...apparently it will work again once libnvidia-egl-wayland1 version 1.1.15 goes to 1.1.16. See here.

• kepassxc PPA doesn't provide packages for 24.10

...it's in the main Ubuntu repositories now, so no need for the PPA. UPDATE: No, the ubuntu repo aren't going to have the latest going forward. Developer recommends using flatpak, and if you don't like those, use their PPA which should be updated when new keepassxc releases happen (but apparently isn't necessarily updated right when new ubuntu versions roll out). The PPA has now been updated to support 24.10. If the PPA is out of date, you can fall back to the ubuntu repo (or AppImage).

• UNSOLVED: deborphan not present in 24.10 repos

It has been removed due to age and lacks a maintainer. [Thanks claydoh]

• UNSOLVED: the proper way to run wayland GUI programs over ssh and the like, akin to what "DISPLAY=:0.0 command" did.

claydoh suggests waypipe as one option; "Some things may need to be run using QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=kde or something similar, but the few things I tried worked as shown above. Even oddballs like virt-manager"

[claydoh]

You have to run software-properties-qt, but a simple pkexec won't work

Open the Driver Manager, which is just a tab in the Software Sources tool, as another workaround.

• UNSOLVED: deborphan not present in 24.10 repos

...is it defunct? Anyone know why it's not there?

Yes, for all intents and purposes, it is defunct, at least currently. It takes a LOT for something to get removed/moved in Debian, and ubuntu gets this stuff from Debian.
Basically, it needs a maintainer if someone doesn't create an alternative.

Any custom shortcuts that have arguments to the command they trigger will neither show those arguments nor be editable, and you can't make new ones with arguments using the GUI.

I did a quick test, adding this:

kdialog --checklist "CHOOSE ONE OR MORE COLORS:" 1 "RED" on 2 "YELLOW" off 3 "GREEN" off

and the name set as 'dialog", and using ctrl-alt-/ as the shortcut. It works here (not the old Plasma 6.1.x, though. 6.2. The ancient 60Gb ssd that I installed 24.10 to seems to be kaput and I can't test it on Oracular atm.)
My simple commands to toggle tailscale off or on seem to work just fine for me.

"Workaround" - create a simple script and point to that.

• KDE panel resizing/scaling/etc seems pretty buggy and chaotic; managed to beat it into submission but behavior was strange

Probably buggles in Plasma 6.1, it is much better in 6.2. The dialog boxes no longer cover the widgets on a panel when trying to move/remove then, etc

the proper way to run wayland GUI programs over ssh and the like, akin to what "DISPLAY=:0.0 command" did.

...any ideas? I find a lot of complicated threads, but still working on this.

Just use x over ssh as you did before? What is running on the desktop has no bearing on what you are doing over the network - it is a different session, if you will.

waypipe might be useful. Need to install it on both systems, iirc

kromey@kromey-book:~$ waypipe ssh claydoh@some-name
claydoh@some-name's password:
claydoh@cubist:~$ kate
claydoh@cubist:~$ audacity
claydoh@cubist:~$ ​exit
kromey@kromey-book:~$

Some things may need to be run using QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=kde or something similar, but the few things I tried worked as shown above. Even oddballs like virt-manager

[chconnor]

Thanks claydoh -- I'll update my first post with your additions.

[re: shortcuts] I did a quick test, adding this:

...yeah maybe it's a 6.1.5 vs 6.2 thing... I'm on 6.1.5 still. Can't add shortcuts as you describe, at least not reliably. Most of the time I just get the "Error while communicating with the global shortcuts service" error.

Just use x over ssh as you did before? What is running on the desktop has no bearing on what you are doing over the network - it is a different session, if you will.

My main use case is to ssh in from remote location to start krfb on the local machine (which is off by default just for paranoid security reasons and to not have usually-pointless things running.) I'll check out waypipe, thanks! But it might not be an option if I'm ssh'ing in from a smartphone, etc. I'll investigate.

[devnulljp]

• Edit3: annoying bell whenever an error occurs

System Settings->Accessibility Options->Bell; perhaps also Colors & Themes -> System Sounds -> uncheck (at top right) "Enable notification sounds"

Thanks for this -- it was driving me nuts