Bug 509906 - Secondary monitor sometimes shows black, unclickable desktop after login or wake from sleep
Summary: Secondary monitor sometimes shows black, unclickable desktop after login or w...
Status: RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Desktop icons & Folder View widget (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 5.27.5
Platform: Debian stable Linux
: NOR crash
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords: multiscreen
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-09-25 03:17 UTC by Gonzalo
Modified: 2025-09-25 03:33 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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


Attachments
Output of journal and related directories (13.72 KB, text/plain)
2025-09-25 03:17 UTC, Gonzalo
Details

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Description Gonzalo 2025-09-25 03:17:14 UTC
Created attachment 185235 [details]
Output of journal and related directories

SUMMARY
On Debian Stable with KDE Plasma, one of the screens (randomly HDMI-0 or DP-1) sometimes shows a black background and does not accept mouse interaction on the desktop (cannot click anything. Icons, context menu, nothing appears but a black background). Panels and application windows continue to work normally on that monitor.

If I open System Settings → Display and deactivate the affected monitor, Apply, then Undo (reactivate it), the desktop background, icons, context menu and everything appears, gets clickable and get back to normal.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Start KDE Plasma with two monitors (HDMI-0 and DP-1).
2. Occasionally, one monitor shows only black where the desktop should be, and it is not interactive. There's no icons, no context menu window.
3. Panel and windows still render fine.

OBSERVED RESULT

* Affected screen is black.

* Desktop containment is missing, cannot click or interact.

* Journald shows errors like:
```bash
org.kde.plasma.containmentlayoutmanager: Error: cannot change the containment to AppletsLayout
file:///usr/share/plasma/wallpapers/org.kde.image/contents/ui/main.qml:XX: TypeError: Cannot read property 'configuration' of null
```

EXPECTED RESULT

Both screens should consistently show the desktop and allow interaction without manual deactivation/reactivation.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONSLinux/KDE Plasma: 
Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 12
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.103.0
Qt Version: 5.15.8
Kernel Version: 6.1.0-37-amd64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: offscreen
Processors: 6 × Intel® Core™ i5-9400F CPU @ 2.90GHz
Memory: 15.6 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030/PCIe/SSE2


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Session Type: X11
Output of `journalctl --user -xe | grep plasmashell)` and related directories are on "output-screen-crash.txt" attachment.
Workaround: Disable and re-enable the monitor in Display Settings
Comment 1 Bug Janitor Service 2025-09-25 03:33:40 UTC
Thank you for the bug report!

Debian advises users to not submit bugs upstream (https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting), and Plasma 5.27.5 is no longer eligible for support or maintenance from KDE. It's possible that the issue exists only in Debian at this point.

Could you report the bug to Debian using the report bug utility (https://packages.debian.org/stable/utils/reportbug)? If necessary, the maintainer of the package will forward the bug upstream.
Thanks for understanding!

Thanks again!