Bug 508244 - Too many open files
Summary: Too many open files
Status: RESOLVED DOWNSTREAM
Alias: None
Product: kde
Classification: I don't know
Component: general (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: unspecified
Platform: Debian stable Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Unassigned bugs
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-08-14 13:21 UTC by Ken Mankoff
Modified: 2025-08-14 14:52 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


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Description Ken Mankoff 2025-08-14 13:21:11 UTC
SUMMARY

I'm getting a =Too many open files= error. I believe it has caused a system freeze that required a hard reboot. I see it more often when running =tail -f= or even just =dolphin .= in the terminal.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Use computer for a while
2. dolphin .
3. See: kf.solid.backends.fstab: Failed to acquire watch file descriptor Too many open files

Also, output of =journalctl -b -1= after a hard crash included the same message.


SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows:  n/a
macOS:  n/a
(available in the Info Center app, or by running `kinfo` in a terminal window)
Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 13
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.6
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.13.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2
Kernel Version: 6.12.38+deb13-amd64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 7840U w/ Radeon  780M Graphics
Memory: 128 GiB of RAM (123.6 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon 780M

$ ulimit -a
real-time non-blocking time  (microseconds, -R) unlimited
core file size              (blocks, -c) unlimited
data seg size               (kbytes, -d) unlimited
scheduling priority                 (-e) 0
file size                   (blocks, -f) unlimited
pending signals                     (-i) 505450
max locked memory           (kbytes, -l) 8192
max memory size             (kbytes, -m) unlimited
open files                          (-n) 32768
pipe size                (512 bytes, -p) 8
POSIX message queues         (bytes, -q) 819200
real-time priority                  (-r) 0
stack size                  (kbytes, -s) unlimited
cpu time                   (seconds, -t) unlimited
max user processes                  (-u) 505450
virtual memory              (kbytes, -v) unlimited
file locks                          (-x) unlimited


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

$ sudo lsof > list
$ cut -d" " -f1 list | sort | uniq -c | sort -n| tail 
  17746 ktailctl
  20520 krunner
  27511 Isolated
  35661 slack
  36807 chromium
  48317 konsole
  56572 kwin_wayl
  58080 plasmashe
  70303 ferdium
  82472 firefox-e

$ sudo lsof | awk '$5 == "REG" {print}' > list_REG
$ cut -d" " -f1 list_REG | sort | uniq -c | sort -n| tail 
    596 xdg-deskt
    808 xwaylandv
    853 Isolated
    871 emacs
    985 plasmashe
   1198 kwin_wayl
   1205 slack
   1877 chromium
   2336 ferdium
   3798 konsole


Possibly related, but not yet clear if so: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=502357
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2025-08-14 14:52:04 UTC
The error message is pretty clear: you've got too many open files. You'll have to find a way to have fewer open files, or raise the open file limit on your system. This isn't a KDE problem; it's more of a whole system integration problem, which makes it a distro thing. I'd recommend contacting Debian about it.