Bug 438489

Summary:	Cannot type in search after upgrade to Kubuntu 20.10
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	jd
Component:	Application Launcher (Kickoff) widget	Assignee:	David Edmundson <kde>
Status:	RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Severity:	normal	CC:	jd, mikel5764, nate, plasma-bugs-null
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	5.19.5
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Ubuntu
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description jd 2021-06-12 03:26:38 UTC

I was running Kubuntu 20.04 on both my desktop and laptop and decided to upgrade them both to 20.10. Ever since, on both of them, I can no longer type in the search menu of the application launcher. I can still paste text into it, but only using the mouse. Any keyboard input is discarded, including arrow keys or Escape.

I use the Meta key to open up the menu, but it does the same thing with Alt+F1, or clicking on the icon to raise the launcher.

I can still search for and launch programs through the Alt+F2 menu (KRunner?).

There's nothing in dmesg and all I could find in syslog was:

Activated service 'org.kde.runners.baloo' failed: Process org.kde.runners.baloo exited with status 255


If there's anything I can do to provide more information, please let me know.



plasmashell 5.19.5
Ubuntu 20.10
kubuntu-desktop 1.398
Baloo 5.74.0

Comment 1 jd 2021-06-12 03:34:56 UTC

Well, I feel a bit weird about this one. Since the upgrade to 20.10, there's this new icon in the notification area that popped up, IBus Panel. I don't like to have extra stuff in there so I closed it almost automatically, after adjusting the settings.

It turns out that stops IBus instead of just closing the notification, and IBus MUST be running to be able to type in the search for the application launcher. No other application that I've tried so far requires it. I guess I'll have to leave it running and just hide the icon.

Comment 2 Nate Graham 2021-06-15 22:46:06 UTC

Kubuntu 20.10 ships Plasma 5.19, which is no longer supported. For that matter, Neither is Kubuntu 20.10, since 41.04 was released. I would strongly recommend upgrading.

The Ibus tray widget shouldn't be required for searching or typing; that's extremely strange. Please let me know if it still happens in Plasma 5.21 on Kubuntu 21.04.

Comment 3 jd 2021-06-17 15:34:07 UTC

I've upgraded to Kubuntu 21.04. If I put aside the fact I am no longer able to run Wayland and had to fallback to X11, I'm now on plasmashell 5.21.4.

If I close the IBus tray widget (IBus Panel), I get the same issue, except now it's worse: Konsole also loses all keyboard input, which it didn't do in plasmashell 5.19.5. Of course, this is on top of the application launcher not having any keyboard input. Other applications seemed fine.

I think the issue is that the "Quit" option on the widget is not for the widget itself, but rather to stop IBus altogether. Given it seems like a critical feature, I think it should not close IBus but rather just the notification. Or maybe have the application launcher not depend on IBus and check for presence and fallback if it's not running. I know nothing of the inner workings of that, so I'm purely speculating here.

At this point, I'm starting to think the issue is related to this IBus Panel widget giving the user power it shouldn't have for the good of the system. Especially without warning or anything. More of a UX issue than a bug.

Comment 4 jd 2021-06-17 15:48:06 UTC

I think it wouldn't be such an issue if IBus Panel would honor the "Show icon on system tray" setting when the session starts, but it does not. However, this is a report for another component.