[SOLVED] vanishing desktop settings after reboot

[dbaker]

I've just done a fresh install of the user edition of KDE Neon on my HP laptop. First off, I want to say that I absolutely love it, not least because it magically fixed many strange hardware compatibility issues I was experiencing in my prior installation of Kubuntu.
However there is one thing that's bugging me (apart from the UI glitches, mainly in the plasma panel - they're not there in the development edition, which I installed on my other machine, so I'm hoping they'll be fixed soon).

Every time I restart, I lose all the customisations I make to the desktop. Example:
1. I set a desktop wallpaper, choose the folder view, add a "notes" widget to the desktop, move my folder icons around a bit, and turn off the desktop toolbox.
2. I restart.
3. Immediately after hitting the reboot button, I see the plasma desktop reload itself with the default wallpaper, desktop view and toolbox and no notes widget (I think I've only actually seen this happen once, but maybe I just blinked/looked away the previous times).
4. Screen goes black and reboots as normal.
5. The plasma desktop loads with all settings back to default, as described in point 3.

I wasn't able to find many posts about this issue on the internet, although other people do appear to be experiencing it. I read in one place that it's caused by a new Activity being created on boot, with a new ID that doesn't match the one the custom desktop settings are assigned to. But I can't find a solution, or at least not one I understand how to implement.

Can anyone help?
If I find a solution myself I'll be sure to post it here, also.

[Tahaan]

Just some questions to check the obvious:

A) You're definitely not running on a Live USB drive with "Discard on Reboot" ? I.E after installing you actually unplugged the flash-drive?
B) You have installed all the updates?

[GreyGeek]

The desktop configuration is stored in ~/.kde
Under it are (on my Neon guest OS) two subdirectories, "share" and "config". Under "share" is the theme stuff. Under config is "kdeglobals".

(16.04 is different. "config" is under "share", not under ".kde".)

If you make your changes, then back up ~/.kde to, say, ~/.kde_bkup, and then just log out, not reboot, does the configuration change back to what it was before you changed your desktop?

[claydoh]

The desktop configuration is stored in ~/.kde
Under it are (on my Neon guest OS) two subdirectories, "share" and "config". Under "share" is the theme stuff. Under config is "kdeglobals".

(16.04 is different. "config" is under "share", not under ".kde".)

If you make your changes, then back up ~/.kde to, say, ~/.kde_bkup, and then just log out, not reboot, does the configuration change back to what it was before you changed your desktop?

The plasma 5 settings data and configs are in ~./config and ~./local, the only things that may exist in ~/.kde would be anything that is still kde 4, such as Amarok. Neon is the same as Kubuntu and most others using Plasma 5 in this regard.

to the OP:

My question is, have you ever for any reason run System Settings or any part of it with root or admin privileges (such as with sudo via the terminal)?

Sounds like your file permissions are borked as your settings changes are not being written back to disk, which happens at shut down.
This can easily be fixed with a command that changes all files and folders in your user's $HOME to be 'owned' by that user account, and thus writable:

sudo chown -R username:username /home/username

If you want lots of really fast scroling text that may show you which files have been changed back or not, change the -R to -Rv

If you have run things with sudo to change user setting, this sort of thing can happen. Doing so is totally unnecessary, as any of the very few things needing admin rights will automatically prompt for the password

[dbaker]

To address all your points:

- I am definitely not running from a live USB, lol.
- System is fully up to date.
- All files and folders in my home directory are already owned by me and have write permissions (-rw------- at minimum).
- I have been having this problem ever since the install and I've never run any system settings as root.

Some additional info:
- There seems to be an element of randomness to what settings get erased. On one recent restart (I've been restarting a lot to test things), it remembered my desktop wallpaper choice, but nothing else. I think it also remembered my login background a few times. It's hard to keep track!
- I installed the development edition of Neon on my other machine, and it had this vanishing settings issue too - at first. After a few reboots, it suddenly started remembering my settings. I have no idea what happened.

[woodsmoke]

dbaker wrote:

3. Immediately after hitting the reboot button, I see the plasma desktop reload itself with the default wallpaper,

I have observed the defaultint to a the provided wallpaper a LOT on KDE Neon, and WITHIN a session.

I have seen it maybe once on my 16.04 lts since I installed it a week or so ago.

I will say that "bluetooth and jam speaker" have been retained for many reboots, i have to click the BT symbol to connect but it does, indeed, retain all of the other settings.

woodsmoke

[dbaker]

Ok I think I have proof that something mysterious is going on.

It looks like the desktop settings are stored in ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc. I found my wallpaper, desktop preferences and icon sizes and positions, etc all recorded in this file.
So I experimented.

Firstly, a few minutes ago, having set my wallpaper for the umpteenth time, I restarted. This time, the login background AND the wallpaper was preserved.

Then I made some more changes - set the desktop to Folder View, moved icons around, etc. I then copied the config file mentioned above, and restarted again.
This time, ALL my desktop settings were gone (although for some reason the login background remained).

I compared the contents of the config file in ~/.config with the copy of that file I had made before reboot. It was identical. Both files contain my custom wallpaper, hidden desktop toolbox, etc settings. So the settings have been there all along, they aren't being deleted on reboot - they just aren't being applied.

Even stranger, SOME of the settings in that file are being maintained - for example quite soon after installation I removed the "scroll through virtual desktops" setting in the desktop preferences; that setting was lost on one reboot, but ever since has been maintained.

[dbaker]

It seem that a recent update fixed this issue. Desktop settings stay put when rebooting now. Guess it was just a bug!