Widgets won't stay in the same place after reboot

[Daedalus 1979]

Not sure where to put this : Trusting on Admins to move this if necessary!!

Hello, new to Kubuntu forums, not so new to linux.

I have just upgraded my old laptop with an ssd drive. did a clean and fresh kubuntu installation. Ran all the updates just to notice that the latest kernel (4.18.0-14-generic) gives problem during boot (it hangs) so removed the kernel and all works well.

After installing the nvidia drivers, i could see the kubuntu splash screen - after that it went dark. Tried typing the password (you never know, it is still linux ) and Plasma loaded up. Tried google but could not find a quick solution so i set plasma up to not use a password on boot/login and all works fine.

with the nvidia drivers the screen looks a lot better with a better resolution etc etc.

So i went to set up various widgets, CPU load monitor / Hard Disk I/O monitor / system load and updates. Made it look good by setting it to the most right of the screen from top to bottom. But after a reboot, thing are all messed up all over the desktop. figured that maybe the positions were not saved and tried it again. with same result. Then i tried locking the widget, no result. then i tried to log out, and log in fresh without reboot so that changes were saved. Then the widgets stay the same. But then after reboot it is messed up again.

Anyone any tips tricks or where to look at?

Running kubuntu 18.10
KDE plasma 5.13.5
KDE framework 5.50.0
QT 5.11.1
kernel 4.18.0-10-generic
OS type 64 bit

[Nasty7]

For starters, in my opinion, anyone new to Kubuntu or linux for that matter should be using an LTS=Long Term Support.

Kubuntu 18.10
The latest version of the Kubuntu operating system for desktop PCs and laptops, Kubuntu 18.10 supported with security and maintenance updates, until July 2019..

Kubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
The latest Long Term Support (LTS) version of the Kubuntu operating system for desktop PCs and laptops, Kubuntu 18.04 LTS supported with security and maintenance updates, until April 2021.

But after a reboot, thing are all messed up all over the desktop.

You already Locked the Widgets, so now Lock the Icons on the Desktop:
Right Click Desktop and choose "Icons" Go to the bottom and tick "Lock"

[jlittle]

Anyone any tips tricks or where to look at?

If the files or directories where KDE saves the widget placements are root owned, they'd be unwritable, and you'd get that result. It's quick to check, in a konsole:

$ find . '!' -user $USER

There should be no output, but if you've run a GUI programme with sudo there can be a mess.

[Daedalus 1979]

For starters, in my opinion, anyone new to Kubuntu or linux for that matter should be using an LTS=Long Term Support.

You already Locked the Widgets, so now Lock the Icons on the Desktop:
Right Click Desktop and choose "Icons" Go to the bottom and tick "Lock"

Like i said, new to Kubuntu, not so new to linux. Although i am not a very large experienced user, i do have a home server running with ubuntu, which has had troubles over time with samba, mounting and other stuff, i am working at the moment to get my mi-lights working with google home using a thread from hackaday. i have been using ubuntu/mint/budgie/kubuntu for a long time now. Within that time i think i have may have levelled up from novice to a bit more experienced, not afraid to use the command line doing stuff. choosing the 18.10 version with more cutting edge software which may cause trouble is just fun. Especially when you get things to work.

[Daedalus 1979]

the code returns nothing that seems related to the desktop settings. > also locking the icons did not help.

something else i noticed : when i put the widgets in the top left of the desktop - after a reboot the remain on the same position > widgets locked ur unlocked. moving a widget to the right side makes the widget pop up on the middle of the screen after a reboot.

It may look like it may have something to do with how the desktop expands > if you assume it grows from the left top to the right bottom, it may look like the widgets are loaded before the expanding is done so that leaves them in the same pattern after a reboot

or that the desktop resolution has not been set to the actual settings so the widget are loaded when it is still set at 640x480 or something, and then the nvidia drivers say hey, i need to set display to 1600x900 so the widgets have been locked already to a different position leaving them on the middle of the screen.

[jlittle]

In my cosmic, widget positions are saved in ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc. It's a bit cryptic. I added an analog clock widget, and by searching for clock I found:

[Containments][29][Applets][89]
immutability=1
plugin=org.kde.plasma.analogclock

This tells me the clock is applet 89. Further down, there is the line

ItemsGeometries=Applet-85:64,0,32,288,0;Applet-89:752,192,304,304,0;

For the clock, 752 is the number of pixels from the left, and 192 the number down from the top. If I move the widget, the file is rewritten with the new numbers. You might have a look to see what your widgets do, and after logging out, use Ctrl-Alt-F2 to start a linux console and inspect the file. If your idea about the Nvidia driver is correct you might diagnose it better.

[Edit] You might get a black screen on pressing Ctrl-Alt-F2. The nomodeset mentioned below might help with that.

It sounds like this may be caused by your startup video problem. Many years ago, (it was 12.04, so 6½) on an old Athlon II system that had on-board Nvidia graphics, I had video problems if I installed without nomodeset. After installation, I couldn't find a way to change anything, some video failure was baked in during the install. You might try that (ask if you don't know how); it sounds much like grub and Linux are starting in the wrong video mode. I imagine there's a linux command line incantation (set by editing /etc/default/grub) that might change your problem. Removing "quiet splash" might reveal something, too.

Some people would blacklist the nouveau driver years ago, but I have no experience with that.

[Daedalus 1979]

Good Evening!

Thank you for helping me out.

Doing some research on the topic i was executing commands that would "fix" the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file (which was not there on forehand) which would do something with the nvidia driver was the way to go, or so i thought it would. But, if i tell you i have just freshly installed kubuntu again, because it was a fresh installation anyway i think that answers your question if that was succesfull

After the fresh install i noticed that my screen resolution was the same as with the nvidia driver, so the differences that i thought it had were nonsense and defenitly had no influence on my desktop view. so i decided to leave the video driver untouched and now all widgets stay in place like you would expect them to be.

So yes, i think it is related to nvidia drivers, but no, at the moment i cannot be bothered to figure out why nvidia boots to a black screen for login, and why nvidia messes up the desktop widget unless somebody is reallllyyyyy interested

However, i will look at the files you mentioned to see if i can find any of these settings you mentioned. just for the sake if it

[Daedalus 1979]

I could see the stuff that you mentioned in the same file as well. i'll think about it if i can save a copy of the file, and then install nvidia, putting the file back. that may work right? If it doesnt, no need to worry, ill see if i can get it fixed again

[jlittle]

Cool.

About the black screen thing, I had thought that need for nomodeset was past us, and the installer used to make it easy to turn on (press F6...) and now it doesn't, but this morning I was watching a Youtube video about running steam on Ubuntu on a new AMD graphics card and he gets a black screen and has to use nomodeset until a new driver is installed, after installing a new 4.20 kernel the driver needs.