Bug 513396

Summary: "Show hidden icons" popup in system tray does not render randomly
Product: [Plasma] plasmashell Reporter: caop12345
Component: System Tray widgetAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status: NEEDSINFO WAITINGFORINFO    
Severity: normal CC: caop12345, kdedev, materka, nate
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 6.5.4   
Target Milestone: 1.0   
Platform: Arch Linux   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments: Screen recording of the bug happening twice in a row

Description caop12345 2025-12-15 13:36:43 UTC 
Created attachment 187664 [details]
Screen recording of the bug happening twice in a row

SUMMARY
Most of the time when I try to view the system tray's hidden icons using the arrow symbol in my panel, it does not actually render a popup, making all hidden symbols inaccessible. Only at the very start of a new session does it actually work as intended, or if I kill and restart plasmashell via terminal.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Click the "Show hidden icons" up arrow in the task bar to open the popup
2. Click the "Close popup" down arrow in the task bar to close it again
3. Repeat 1+2 quickly until the popup does not show up anymore

OBSERVED RESULT
- The popup showing my hidden system tray icons does not appear
- Besides the actual popup, the state is still correct from a tray perspective: the arrow icon points downwards, the tooltip updates to "Close popup", a blue bar renders on top of my system tray icons

EXPECTED RESULT
- Popup with hidden system tray icons does render and state is correct

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: Arch Linux latest from December 14th 2025, linux-zen kernel 6.17.9.zen1-1
KDE Plasma Version: plasma-meta 6.5-1, plasma-workspace 6.5.4-1
KDE Frameworks Version: frameworkintegration 6.21.0-1
Qt Version: 
~ qmake --version
Using Qt version 5.15.18 in /usr/lib
~ qmake6 --version
Using Qt version 6.10.1 in /usr/lib


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
I do not know the exact trigger which breaks the rendering of this popup. I also could not find any relevant logs in journalctl, but it happens with most of my regular desktop activities after some time and is quite annoying. Basically whenever I do want to expand the tray, there's a ~90% chance that it already broke in my session so far (gaming, browsing, chatting, voice calls, etc.).

I have tried to find some steps to reproduce more reliably, which are the ones I added to "Steps to reproduce", but these are not the only way to trigger this problem. It still seems to happen a bit randomly, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. I even recorded it happening twice in a row within a minute to show that this happens regularly, see the attached video. Right before I started recording, it broke on the 2nd time opening the popup. Then it took me 20 seconds of closing and opening during the recording, the next time 5 seconds during the recording.

This bug has been happening to me for quite some time, I do not think it's specific to only my current version. I believe it's been present since the beginning when I started using KDE on my work laptop (~May 2025) although I don't know for sure. I've noticed it a lot more recently on my personal PC when I started using Arch and KDE. My work laptop is using a derivative of Debian testing, so it's likely not only the current latest version that is affected, although I do not know exactly since when.

I can reproduce it even without any open windows and it also doesn't seem to matter which icons I have visible in the tray or not. It also doesn't seem to matter whether I'm using 1 (ultrawide 32:9) or 2 (16:9) external monitors or just an internal laptop monitor.

I am using Wayland and my panel is configured as follows, not sure if it matters: Position bottom, Alignment center, Width "Fit content", Always visible, Opacity Adaptive, floating panel and applets, height 44.
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2025-12-18 21:33:36 UTC 
What kind of GPU do you have?
Comment 2 caop12345 2025-12-19 23:34:07 UTC 
I have a NVidia 3070 Ti. I'm using latest nvidia-open-dkms drivers built from source
Comment 3 caop12345 2025-12-22 13:12:41 UTC 
I've also experienced similar issues with other taskbar components, most noticeably the start menu, but often also the program preview for open programs, which probably contributed to my impression that this happens all the time. I'm not 100% sure if it's the same issue or if it's multiple similar issues.

this is how they behave when in this broken state:
for the start menu: i click it or use the META button on my keyboard, and there's no popup, only the blue bar at the top.
for the program preview: i hover over an open program icon in the taskbar, it highlights the icon, but there's no preview popup 

the only thing which resolves it is restarting plasmashell, same as in the original bug.

They can be broken independently, I just had the start menu and program preview broken, but not the tray expansion.

I did see something in journalctl whenever I hover over a program in the taskbar and trigger the missing programm preview issue, but still nothing for the start menu or the widget tray:

Dez 22 13:57:18 mspc2025arch plasmashell[944]: need a window and a context ToolTipDialog(0x564a9b0a73f0, visibility=QWindow::Windowed, flags=QFlags<Qt::WindowType>(FramelessWindowHint|WindowStaysOnTopHint|WindowDoesNotAcceptFocus), transientParent=0x564a9a8f3710, geometry=1580,913 296x195)

scrolling up in journalctl, there seems to have been something going wrong during plasma initialization on startup which might be related? here's the recent output of "journalctl | grep plasma" in case it's relevant:

Dez 22 13:18:43 mspc2025arch plasmashell[944]: Applet preload policy set to 1
Dez 22 13:18:45 mspc2025arch plasmashell[944]: No QSGTexture provided from updateSampledImage(). This is wrong.
... (several more times the same message) ...
Dez 22 13:18:45 mspc2025arch plasmashell[944]: No QSGTexture provided from updateSampledImage(). This is wrong.
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.collectionattributetable                   OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.collectionmimetyperelation                 OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.collectionpimitemrelation                  OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.collectiontable                            OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.flagtable                                  OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.mimetypetable                              OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.parttable                                  OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.parttypetable                              OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.pimitemflagrelation                        OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.pimitemtable                               OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.pimitemtagrelation                         OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.resourcetable                              OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.schemaversiontable                         OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.tagattributetable                          OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.tagremoteidresourcerelationtable           OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.tagtable                                   OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1208]: akonadi.tagtypetable                               OK
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1210]: This installation of MariaDB is already upgraded to 12.1.2-MariaDB.
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1210]: There is no need to run mariadb-upgrade again.
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[1210]: You can use --force if you still want to run mariadb-upgrade
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[944]: endResetModel called on Akonadi::ContactsTreeModel(0x564a9d9afd90) without calling beginResetModel first
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[944]: endResetModel called on Akonadi::ContactsFilterProxyModel(0x564a9d9af070) without calling beginResetModel first
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[944]: endResetModel called on KDescendantsProxyModel(0x564a9d9b1590) without calling beginResetModel first
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[944]: endResetModel called on Akonadi::EntityMimeTypeFilterModel(0x564a9d9b35c0) without calling beginResetModel first
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[944]: endResetModel called on ContactsModel(0x564a9d9a65b0) without calling beginResetModel first
Dez 22 13:18:47 mspc2025arch plasmashell[944]: endResetModel called on KSortFilterProxyModel(0x564a9d9a5500) without calling beginResetModel first
Dez 22 13:18:49 mspc2025arch systemd[702]: Reached target plasma-workspace-wayland.target.
Dez 22 13:18:50 mspc2025arch plasmashell[944]: Failed to register with host portal QDBusError("org.freedesktop.portal.Error.Failed", "Could not register app ID: Connection already associated with an application ID")
Dez 22 13:19:43 mspc2025arch drkonqi-coredump-processor[977]: "/usr/bin/plasma-systemmonitor" 15574 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasma-systemmo.1000.36a2ca113940485696b3f35d56489519.15574.1763329036000000.zst"
Dez 22 13:19:43 mspc2025arch drkonqi-coredump-processor[977]: "/usr/bin/plasma-systemmonitor" 15630 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasma-systemmo.1000.36a2ca113940485696b3f35d56489519.15630.1763329040000000.zst"
Dez 22 13:19:43 mspc2025arch drkonqi-coredump-processor[977]: "/usr/bin/plasma-systemmonitor" 20856 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasma-systemmo.1000.6261c004d2b94019b35896e1ef6908da.20856.1763490507000000.zst"
Dez 22 13:19:43 mspc2025arch drkonqi-coredump-processor[977]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 32567 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.ce75563ea99443c79c852fa2350c4ed6.32567.1763500851000000.zst"
Dez 22 13:19:43 mspc2025arch drkonqi-coredump-processor[977]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 34781 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.ce75563ea99443c79c852fa2350c4ed6.34781.1763500853000000.zst"
Dez 22 13:19:43 mspc2025arch drkonqi-coredump-processor[977]: "/usr/bin/plasma-systemmonitor" 1383 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasma-systemmo.1000.679136a102924c11b9a22e9c5123dc8e.1383.1764121484000000.zst"
Dez 22 13:19:43 mspc2025arch drkonqi-coredump-processor[977]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 1019 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.8126b5aaa51c407b8f5ce8c286b9693a.1019.1764125918000000.zst"
Dez 22 13:19:43 mspc2025arch drkonqi-coredump-processor[977]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 7404 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.8126b5aaa51c407b8f5ce8c286b9693a.7404.1764125920000000.zst"
Dez 22 13:19:43 mspc2025arch drkonqi-coredump-processor[977]: "/usr/bin/plasmashell" 7422 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasmashell.1000.8126b5aaa51c407b8f5ce8c286b9693a.7422.1764125921000000.zst"
Dez 22 13:19:43 mspc2025arch drkonqi-coredump-processor[977]: "/usr/bin/plasma-systemmonitor" 1974 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.plasma-systemmo.1000.7ffe31616599499483878f1056f19a4e.1974.1764126958000000.zst"
Dez 22 13:32:35 mspc2025arch plasmashell[944]: need a window and a context ToolTipDialog(0x564a9b0a73f0 exposed, visibility=QWindow::Windowed, flags=QFlags<Qt::WindowType>(FramelessWindowHint|WindowStaysOnTopHint|WindowDoesNotAcceptFocus), transientParent=0x564a9a8f3710, geometry=1606,922 296x186)

I do still have the coredump for this systemmonitor crash on startup, but I'm not sure it's related. here's the stack trace, let me know if you need more info:

       Message: Process 62476 (systemsettings) of user 1000 dumped core.
                
                Stack trace of thread 62476:
                #0  0x00007f2120e9890c n/a (libc.so.6 + 0x9890c)
                #1  0x00007f2120e3e3a0 raise (libc.so.6 + 0x3e3a0)
                #2  0x00007f212436fe57 _ZN6KCrash19defaultCrashHandlerEi (libKF6Crash.so.6 + 0x7e57)
                #3  0x00007f2120e3e4d0 n/a (libc.so.6 + 0x3e4d0)
                #4  0x00007f212386bd5a _Z27qmlAttachedPropertiesObjectP7QObjectPFS0_S0_Eb (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x26bd5a)
                #5  0x00007f210b5b3fa4 n/a (libQt6QuickLayouts.so.6 + 0x1afa4)
                #6  0x00007f212237140e _ZNK17QGridLayoutEngine11fillRowDataEP18QGridLayoutRowDataPKdS3_N2Qt11OrientationEPK24QAbstractLayoutStyleInfo (libQt6Gui.so.6 + 0x57140e)
                #7  0x00007f21223740a8 _ZNK17QGridLayoutEngine22ensureColumnAndRowDataEP18QGridLayoutRowDataP14QGridLayoutBoxPKdS5_N2Qt11OrientationEPK24QAbstractLayoutStyleInfo (libQt6Gui.so.6 + 0x5740a8)
                #8  0x00007f212237456a _ZNK17QGridLayoutEngine8sizeHintEN2Qt8SizeHintERK6QSizeFPK24QAbstractLayoutStyleInfo (libQt6Gui.so.6 + 0x57456a)
                #9  0x00007f210b5ade47 _ZNK20QQuickGridLayoutBase8sizeHintEN2Qt8SizeHintE (libQt6QuickLayouts.so.6 + 0x14e47)
                #10 0x00007f210b5af37f _ZNK20QQuickLayoutAttached8sizeHintEN2Qt8SizeHintENS0_11OrientationE (libQt6QuickLayouts.so.6 + 0x1637f)
                #11 0x00007f210b5b7463 n/a (libQt6QuickLayouts.so.6 + 0x1e463)
                #12 0x00007f21237dcadd n/a (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x1dcadd)
                #13 0x00007f21237e1d23 _ZN3QV414QObjectWrapper14getQmlPropertyEPNS_15ExecutionEngineERK14QQmlRefPointerI15QQmlContextDataEPNS_4Heap6ObjectEP7QObjectPNS_6StringE6QFlagsINS0_4FlagEEPbPPK16QQmlPropertyData (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x1e1d23)
                #14 0x00007f21239ce8d3 _ZN3QV415QQmlTypeWrapper10virtualGetEPKNS_7ManagedENS_11PropertyKeyEPKNS_5ValueEPb (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x3ce8d3)
                #15 0x00007f21237b3234 _ZN3QV46Lookup14getterFallbackEPS0_PNS_15ExecutionEngineERKNS_5ValueE (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x1b3234)
                #16 0x00007f210a076702 n/a (n/a + 0x0)
                #17 0x00007f212384f3e6 n/a (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x24f3e6)
                #18 0x00007f21237967a0 n/a (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x1967a0)
                #19 0x00007f21238f2d14 _ZN24QQmlJavaScriptExpression8evaluateEPN3QV48CallDataEPb (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x2f2d14)
                #20 0x00007f212387e0ca _ZN11QQmlBinding8evaluateEPb (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x27e0ca)
                #21 0x00007f2123884aa9 _ZN11QQmlBinding8doUpdateERKN24QQmlJavaScriptExpression13DeleteWatcherE6QFlagsIN16QQmlPropertyData9WriteFlagEERN3QV45ScopeE (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x284aa9)
                #22 0x00007f212388392d _ZN11QQmlBinding6updateE6QFlagsIN16QQmlPropertyData9WriteFlagEE (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x28392d)
                #23 0x00007f212391cad8 _ZN12QQmlNotifier10emitNotifyEP20QQmlNotifierEndpointPPv (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x31cad8)
                #24 0x00007f21217d6fc2 n/a (libQt6Core.so.6 + 0x1d6fc2)
                #25 0x00007f21239e1d22 _ZN17QQmlVMEMetaObject8metaCallEP7QObjectN11QMetaObject4CallEiPPv (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x3e1d22)
                #26 0x00007f2123936883 n/a (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x336883)
                #27 0x00007f21237e6173 _ZN3QV413QObjectMethod11callPreciseERK18QQmlObjectOrGadgetRK16QQmlPropertyDataPNS_15ExecutionEngineEPNS_8CallDataEN11QMetaObject4CallE (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x1e6173)
                #28 0x00007f21237f0ecd _ZNK3QV413QObjectMethod12callInternalEPKNS_5ValueES3_i (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x1f0ecd)
                #29 0x00007f212380e6bd _ZN3QV47Runtime18CallPropertyLookup4callEPNS_15ExecutionEngineERKNS_5ValueEjPS4_i (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x20e6bd)
                #30 0x00007f210a30f3c4 n/a (n/a + 0x0)
                #31 0x00007f212384f3e6 n/a (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x24f3e6)
                #32 0x00007f21237a4336 n/a (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x1a4336)
                #33 0x00007f21237a4916 n/a (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x1a4916)
                #34 0x00007f21238757ac n/a (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x2757ac)
                #35 0x00007f2123875c8f _ZNK11QQmlPrivate18AOTCompiledContext28callQmlContextPropertyLookupEjPPvi (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x275c8f)
                #36 0x00007f210b69727b n/a (libKirigamiLayouts.so.6 + 0x4127b)
                #37 0x00007f2123847791 n/a (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x247791)
                #38 0x00007f212384f0e6 n/a (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x24f0e6)
                #39 0x00007f212379c72b _ZN3QV48Function4callEP7QObjectPPvPK9QMetaTypeiPNS_16ExecutionContextE (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x19c72b)
                #40 0x00007f21238f30f0 _ZN24QQmlJavaScriptExpression8evaluateEPPvPK9QMetaTypei (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x2f30f0)
                #41 0x00007f212388a04b _ZN25QQmlBoundSignalExpression8evaluateEPPv (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x28a04b)
                #42 0x00007f212388f56d n/a (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x28f56d)
                #43 0x00007f212391cad8 _ZN12QQmlNotifier10emitNotifyEP20QQmlNotifierEndpointPPv (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x31cad8)
                #44 0x00007f21217d6fc2 n/a (libQt6Core.so.6 + 0x1d6fc2)
                #45 0x00007f21239e0133 _ZN17QQmlVMEMetaObject8metaCallEP7QObjectN11QMetaObject4CallEiPPv (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x3e0133)
                #46 0x00007f212386a2a6 n/a (libQt6Qml.so.6 + 0x26a2a6)
Comment 4 caop12345 2025-12-22 13:17:43 UTC 
Actually, sorry about that, I misread something. Disregard the last stacktrace, that's a systemsettings crash which happened 30 minutes later, not the systemmonitor coredump during startup. the systemmonitor one doesn't seem to be in my coredumpctl list
Comment 5 TraceyC 2025-12-24 19:04:21 UTC 
This may be happening because Vulkan rendering might be enabled on your system.

In a terminal, run

kcmshell6 kcm_qtquicksettings

Make sure the Rendering Backend is set to Automatic or OpenGL, and the Render loop should be set to Automatic too. Also uncheck GL Core Profile.
Then log out and log in again, or reboot.

Let us know if the bug still happens with those settings. Thanks!