SUMMARY I downloaded an alternative launcher (excalibur) from the download new widgets thing, it was apparently the wrong version and broke the launcher, I could no longer interact with it except to delete the widget. So I deleted the widget and replaced it with the default launcher KDE comes with. That worked except now my meta (windows) key no longer opens the launcher, and I can't set it as a shortcut for the launcher because KDE doesn't allow me to do that. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Install new plasma widget (excalibur version without p59-whatever in the name) 2. Right click current launcher -> Alternatives -> select excalibur 3. It breaks the launcher and doesn't work 4. Remove the launcher from taskbar 5. Replace with new default launcher widget 6. Meta key no longer opens the start menu 7. Consider reinstalling your entire OS because of how often you use the meta key to open the launcher OBSERVED RESULT META KEY DONT WORK!!!! EXPECTED RESULT IT SHOULD WORK SOFTWARE VERSIONS (available in About System) KDE Plasma Version: 5.13.5 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.49.0 Qt Version: 5.11.2 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION This could've been solved if KDE had a way to re-assign the meta key instead of hardcoding it to a single widget and preventing you from ever re-assigning it to anything ever again.
Fixed by setting the start menu shortcut to alt+f1 Steps to reproduce: 1. Right Click start menu launcher thingy 2. Configure Application Launcher 3. Keyboard shortcuts 4. click the gear thingy for a new shortcut 5. press alt+f1 to enter new shortcut 6. Pressing the windows key now opens the start menu again (???) Why that fixes it, idk. I tried a whole bunch of stuff with editing .kwinrc and none of that worked, but this did. I hope my bug report and fix helps other neophyte linux users in the future. Thank god this only took me like an hour to figure out. I can't live without my meta key.