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finotti
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Post subject: My Experience with Plasma 5
 Posted: 02.08.2015, 14:04
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Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 493
Status: Offline
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Dear all,
I'd just like to share my experience with the transition to Plasma 5
as an FYI to all. I assume most of my problems are from Plasma, so it
is not a request for support, but if someone else does not have the
same problem or have any suggestion, it would be greatly appreciate it!
I've installed it in a laptop, so some of the issues are specific to
laptops.
I've upgraded with slh's commands, and, unlike some, had not problems
at all with the upgrade itself, except I had to do "apt-get -f
install" once. This was before the current warning about the new
gcc. I'm holding on upgrades for now, of course.
A lot is working well and I like the new look. Performance seems
about the same, but this is not scientific at all. (It feels
the same to me.)
Here are my problems:
- hplip: this was mentioned on slh's post and expected, but
hplip notification icon does not appear and gives an error message
on log in. I don't have a printer here to test, but I assume that
the icon missing and the error message is all that is wrong. Really
not a big deal, if that is the case. (Workaround: install
"plasma-systray-legacy" and maybe "sni-qt". See below.)
- touchpad: after the first reboot, my touchpad was not
working. I used a mouse and got to system setting to see if I could
enable. In "input devices" -> "touchpad", I got a "No touchpad
found" message. But, after log out/log in, my touchpad was working.
I tried to configure it (disable tapping), and the message was still
there (even though it works) and it would not allow me to configure
it. I've installed "gpointing-device-settings", which works only
for a little while, before it reverts back, for some reason. This
is really annoying. (FIXED! See post below.)
- launcher icons: I had some custom launcher icons.
Fortunately I could add them to the launcher, since they showed up
as applications. As far I can tell, there is no way to configure
them anymore. (To be clear, you could right click a launcer icon,
like iceweasel, and change the icon or the command, like adding
optional arguments to the command.) Right clicking and choosing "Icon
Settings" seems to only allow to create a keyboard shortcut.
- videos: for some reason, a few times I could not play
videos (mp4 or DVD) in Plasma. Both vlc and [another player] would
open, but it would only show a black window instead of the video.
The time bar on the bottom showed that it should be playing it...
Switching to a different windows manager worked. It's working again
now, so it seems intermittent. It might be unrelated, I guess, but
I had never had that problem before. (Work around: Open the
file with handbrake, wait for preview and close it. Then, the video
plays without a problem. See below.)
- sessions: it seems to be a known bug that some versions of
Plasma cannot save sessions (your applications with window placement
to be restored on login). It shows you the option in "system
settings", but it does not work. It seems some newer versions in
Fedora fixed the problem, so hopefully there will be a fix for us
soon, but it is a big problem for someone like me, who likes to log
in with lots of konsoles already open (and placed).
- install powerdevil: after installing, there was no
configuration for power management. After a quick search, it seemed
that I need to install "powerdevil", which I did and gave me
configuration options. (See below though.)
- power management: although you can configure it, the
configurations seem to be ignored. For example, I configured it to
only turn off the screen when closing the laptop when powered
(instead of suspending), but it does suspend it. (See below.)
- suspend: suspending seems to work (the laptop goes in sleep
mode), but it seems to crash Plasma/ssdm when restart. Instead of
resuming, it seems to restart sddm, and I have to login again, which
is especially bad since my session is not saved! (See above.) It
does not happen with razor-qt, though. (Work around:
Disabling screen lock seems to fix the sddm crashing. See
below. New Update: Partly working now. See below.)
I've tried a few windows managers as alternatives. My first choice
was razor-qt, which seems nice, but I could not save sessions either
(!) and could not add virtual desktops vertically (in a 3x2 grid,
say).
As someone mention E17, I tried it too, but it seemed a bit too
different for me. (I did not take the time to learn it, though.)
I might try XFCE, but I am so used to KDE applications... We will
see.
As I've mentioned above, a lot works, but some of these problems are a
bit too much for me. I will keep testing, and will try to update this
post as things get fixed (if I have the time and remember it). I
really want to go back to KDE.
My laptop is a Lenovo T510, and none of the above was ever a problem
in until the upgrade.
Here is some info:
Code:
root@t510[/home/finotti]# infobash -v3
Host/Kernel/OS "t510" running Linux 4.1.0-3.slh.1-aptosid-amd64 x86_64 [ sidux 2010-01 Ύπνος - kde-full - (201006131622) ]
CPU Info 4x Intel Core i5 M 520 @ 3072 KB cache flags( sse3 ht nx lm vmx ) clocked at [ 2133.000 MHz ]
Videocard NVIDIA GT218M [NVS 3100M] X.Org 1.17.2 [ [email protected] ]
Network cards Intel 82577LM Gigabit
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200
Processes 202 | Uptime 1day | Memory 2146.2/7849.9MB | HDD C300-CTFDDAC128M Size 128GB (76%used) | GLX Renderer Gallium 0.4 on NVA8 | GLX Version Yes | Client Shell | Infobash v3.49
Code:
root@t510[/home/finotti]# apt-cache policy plasma-desktop
plasma-desktop:
Installed: 4:5.3.2-2
Candidate: 4:5.3.2-2
Version table:
*** 4:5.3.2-2 0
500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ sid/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
Feel free to add your own problems and comments to this thread!
Best to all,
Luis |
Last edited by finotti on 28.10.2015, 15:43; edited 5 times in total
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vinur
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Post subject: RE: My Experience with Plasma 5
Posted: 02.08.2015, 22:00
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Joined: 2010-09-11
Posts: 83
Location: Lake Oswego
Status: Offline
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Hello Luis,
I have had and have some of these issues which i hope as well to comeback as plasma matures.
down your list, that which applies to my system as well as yours:
Launcher icons - any custom application icon went away - I recreated those from the menu but they are very basic and can't as yet be customized with the proper representative picture.
video - It was intermittent and black screen with sound in Kaffeine. I re-Installed ffmpg which seemed funny to have been missing as it was there but was no longer?? I can't explain as i do a lot of it anyway it all worked again.
sessions - same,
power management - same, seems gone.
suspend - was true - I don't have a "screen-saver" it was there, slide-show. That is gone now, but I cured the log out after five minutes which was a real nuisance, I never just let the system go to sleep. so I found new controls for it and shut off the forced auto log out but the system still want's to go to sleep but at least it wakes up with out my needing to log back in.
The defaults on this have always been something I changed immediately. Power-management control freaks I suspect.
I am tolerant but it is not as I would like. I genuinely think all of this will comeback as it should as the new plasma 5 is still pretty young.
some latency issues and semi hangs with applications with some kind of random factors I can't define as they come and go.
system seems slow but I think the latency issues is the cause. Videos on you tube are a little jerky sometimes.
I have ADSL so that could have an influence so other factors could be at work with internet speeds.
more soon as time will tell. |
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titan
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Post subject: Re: My Experience with Plasma 5
Posted: 03.08.2015, 09:20
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Joined: 2010-09-11
Posts: 101
Status: Offline
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finotti wrote:
I've tried a few windows managers as alternatives. My first choice
was razor-qt, which seems nice,
As someone mention E17, I tried it too, but it seemed a bit too
different for me. (I did not take the time to learn it, though.)
Luis
I can't comment on Plasma as I stopped using KDE years ago but razor-qt is now being developed with lxde as lxqt and it works very well. I use the siduction lxqt repro ( on aptosid) it uses qt5.
E17 is also a good alternative, what is there to learn it just works. For a simple window manager to see you through the Plasma transition i3 maybe worth a try, very simple but very actively maintained with excellent documentation but not for all tastes. |
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finotti
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Post subject: RE: Re: My Experience with Plasma 5
Posted: 04.08.2015, 14:32
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Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 493
Status: Offline
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It seems I could fix the toucpad issue. (See https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=344958.)
I've installed xserver-xorg-input-libinput and removed my old 10-synaptics.conf from /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/. Seems to be working now! |
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finotti
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Post subject: RE: Re: My Experience with Plasma 5
Posted: 10.08.2015, 01:58
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Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 493
Status: Offline
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finotti
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Post subject: RE: Re: My Experience with Plasma 5
Posted: 10.08.2015, 20:14
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Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 493
Status: Offline
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As vinur mentioned, disabling screen lock seems to fix the problem of resuming from sleeping crashing ssdm. (Thanks, vinur!)
It's a bit of security problem, though... |
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vinur
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Post subject: RE: Re: My Experience with Plasma 5
Posted: 11.08.2015, 21:19
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Joined: 2010-09-11
Posts: 83
Location: Lake Oswego
Status: Offline
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Greetings finotti and all,
system hangs from a number of causes unknown do seem to be accumulative with the changes, even though I stopped Upgrading  , anything. It is getting to the point were I am depending on a backup system to get work done and what would be my main system is sputtering, sometimes long hangs, as a normality of operation.
I really hope we can get back to something the semblance of normality.
I am sorry to have walked into it, for me it was just a matter of bad timing to be one of the first to run into issues. Nobody's fault save but my own need to upgrade.
Hang ten in big surf, get hit in the back of the head with your surfboard. |
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slh
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Post subject: RE: Re: My Experience with Plasma 5
Posted: 11.08.2015, 21:37
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Joined: 2010-08-25
Posts: 962
Status: Offline
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With the gcc-5 transition being in progress, there simply is too much changing at the moment and not in all cases the package dependencies prevent crashes (these are bugs, but that doesn't magically prevent them from happening; known specimens of this kind are e.g. breeze and upstream's default phonon backend).
But please keep these gcc-5 problems you're currently suffering from in a separate thread from this one (as those will (hopefully) magically disappear once the transition is through - yes, this will still take a while), which started out with listing problems or regressions introduced with KDE5. |
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finotti
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Post subject: Re: RE: Re: My Experience with Plasma 5
Posted: 21.09.2015, 17:16
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Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 493
Status: Offline
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finotti wrote:
I was also having problems with "plasmashell --shut-up" taking a lot of CPU. I had some widgets to monitor CPU, memory, etc. Removing them "fixed" the problem. See: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=345696 and https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=346134.
It's too bad... They looked nice and would have been helpful...
It seems that this bug is fixed now. The process "plasmashell --shut-up" now takes about 1% of CPU after a reboot. After running for three days, it went up to about 3%. (I have no idea what it is for, so maybe the increase was independent of the widgets.)
One more small step... |
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finotti
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Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Re: My Experience with Plasma 5
Posted: 21.09.2015, 17:39
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Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 493
Status: Offline
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It seems that the screen lock crashing plasma/kwin when coming back from suspending is gone. But, when the laptop resumes, the screen gets flickery and scrambled. I can enter my password and unlock, though. The result is mixed. I've had it so that the wallpaper is gone a few times, but not always. Other graphics get scrambled, like the menu. When I tried to get a screenshot, the menu went back to normal.
I am not entirely sure this is a plasma issue or something else. I've got a bunch of this in my kernel.log when it happened:
Code:
Sep 21 13:27:51 t510 kernel: [442756.322342] nouveau E[kwin_x11[25520]] fail set_domain
Sep 21 13:27:51 t510 kernel: [442756.322349] nouveau E[kwin_x11[25520]] validating bo list
Sep 21 13:27:51 t510 kernel: [442756.322355] nouveau E[kwin_x11[25520]] validate: -22
As you can see, I'm running nouveau. Here is some more info:
Code:
Host/Kernel/OS "t510" running Linux 4.2.0-0.slh.4-aptosid-amd64 x86_64 [ sidux 2010-01 Ύπνος - kde-full - (201006131622) ]
CPU Info 4x Intel Core i5 M 520 @ 3072 KB cache flags( sse3 ht nx lm vmx ) clocked at [ 1866.000 MHz ]
Videocard NVIDIA GT218M [NVS 3100M] X.Org 1.17.2 [ [email protected] ]
Network cards Intel 82577LM Gigabit
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200
Processes 211 | Uptime 5days | Memory 1810.1/7850.0MB | HDD C300-CTFDDAC128M,INIC-1610P Size 448GB (78%used) | GLX Renderer Gallium 0.4 on NVA8 | GLX Version Yes | Client Shell | Infobash v3.49
For now, I will assume it is a problem with plasma. If anyone think otherwise, please let me know.
Best,
Luis |
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finotti
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Post subject: hplip problem workaround
Posted: 22.10.2015, 15:04
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Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 493
Status: Offline
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| It seems that there is a workaround problems with systray icons which haven't been updated to work with Plasma 5: install "plasma-systray-legacy". (I think I also had to install "sni-qt", but I am not sure it was necessary.) Now both hplip and wpa_gui systray icons appear without problems. But, from what I've heard, it does not work for all applications. |
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finotti
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Post subject: video problem
Posted: 28.10.2015, 15:40
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Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 493
Status: Offline
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It seems I've found a workaround the video problem.
Again, intermittently, video would open showing only a black square, in vlc, kaffeine and the infamous censored player. (Note: I also use the infamous media repository! So, there might be a chance it is related to that, but I never had problems before Plasma 5.)
Also, note that it doesn't seem to be video/format related: any video in any format will show only the black screen.
If I open the same file with handbrake, wait for a preview, and then close it, the video (and all others) play back without a problem (with any program).
Found it by accident and I have no idea why it works, but it has worked every single time... |
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