Created attachment 190021 [details] Screen recording of the issue in action SUMMARY STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Set up charge state profiles on a laptop with 2 external displays 2. Set different wallpapers for the different screens 3. Plug in or unplug the charger OBSERVED RESULT The external displays get swapped in their ordering, but not placement; the background images swap places EXPECTED RESULT Nothing should change except for the power profile SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Operating System: Fedora Linux 43 KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.0 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0 Qt Version: 6.10.1 Kernel Version: 6.18.12-200.fc43.x86_64 (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Processors: 12 × 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1235U Memory: 32 Gibyte of RAM (31.0 Gibyte usable) Graphics Processor: Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics Manufacturer: Dell Inc. Product Name: Latitude 5530 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Changing charge state profile settings also causes the reordering
Created attachment 190022 [details] A recording of the issue occurring The screen recording failed somewhat and shows only a static image, so here it is recorded again, with my phone…
Please attach the output of > kscreen-doctor -o for when they're in the correct order, and for when they're wrong.
I just did a reboot with screen 3 unplugged, and now the issue does not occur. I noticed that the issue only started after the screens accidentally got reordered when the laptop woke up with the lid closed, so I'll do that and see if the issue reappears and otherwise do a reboot with all screens connected. But the screen order has been a little flakey for me since a few months now, this was just the most annoying manifestation of that as the battery going low enough for triggering "low charge" mode swapped the screens around unexpectedly…
Created attachment 190024 [details] `kscreen-doctor -o` output with the screens in correct order Here is the output while the screens are in the correct order. I can also manually put the screens in the wrong order again, but it seems like the automatic reordering only occurs if the system has been hibernated and put to sleep and woken from each several times and the uptime nears one day, not just mere minutes. It's one of those annoying bugs that seem quite random in their root cause…
Created attachment 190025 [details] `kscreendoctor -o` output with the screens manually put to incorrect order Here it is with manual reordering. Hope it at least helps a little…
Created attachment 190026 [details] `kscreendoctor -o` output with the screens in incorrect order I managed to cause the issue again: I manually put the screens into the incorrect order, then unplugged screen 3 (which was now defined as screen 2). Then I clicked around in the screen settings panel a bit, not changing any settings. Just flicked back and forth between the two still-connected screens and observed the little "Main screen" indicator turning on and off below. Then I plugged the screen back in and changed the order back to how I wanted it, with the newly-replugged monitor as screen 3. Unplugging the charger switched screens 2 and 3 again…
Created attachment 190027 [details] `kscreen-doctor -o` output with the screens in fixed order
Hmm, if you the same thing, but close and re-open system settings in between, does it also swap the order? Mostly wondering if it's an issue with the display settings, or actually in KWin.
(In reply to Zamundaaa from comment #8) > Hmm, if you the same thing, but close and re-open system settings in > between, does it also swap the order? > Mostly wondering if it's an issue with the display settings, or actually in > KWin. I mean, the issue also occurs with the settings window closed, but I'll have to completely reboot and then probably do a "hibernate, sleep, wake up with lid closed" dance before the plug-unplug dance will cause the issue again. I can try though if hibernation is actually necessary before the screen plugging shenanegans to cause the issue (to try and get the list of steps to reliably reproduce as short as possible). I'll do a reboot now to fix the issue and report back if I can re-cause it yet again.
Okay, I rebooted with only screen 2 plugged in (and ofc the internal display), the issue was not there after plugging in the 3rd screen. Then I manually reordered them, closed the settings window and unplugged the 2nd screen. Then I plugged screen 3 back in and went back into screen settings to reorder them like I want them again. Unplugging the charger switches screens 2 and 3 around again. So it seems to be either in `plasmashell` (which renders the backgrounds), or more likely actually in KWin (which controls the monitor ordering AFAIK, `plasmashell` only loads that ordering from KWin).
Good, that narrows it down a bit. I haven't been able to replicate it so far though, neither with an autotest, nor manually. > Set up charge state profiles on a laptop with 2 external displays What's the exact things you've set up there? Just screen brightness changes?
(In reply to Zamundaaa from comment #11) > What's the exact things you've set up there? Just screen brightness changes? - Screen brightness changes, - what the lid switch does (at low charge hibernate, in both other states sleep), - lid action enabled even with external screen on low battery, otherwise don't sleep if external screen connected, - screen and keyboard brightness, - duration until automatic screen brightness reduce, screen sleep, computer sleep, - power profile. If you want I can upload screenshots of the exact settings, but because I doubt it'd be useful I'll only do that if you ask.
(In reply to Christian Lampe from comment #10) > […] unplugged the 2nd screen. Then I plugged screen 3 back in […] I just noticed, I typo'd there. I meant "unplugged screen 3" in relation to how I usually want them, though it was by internal definition screen 2 in that moment; when describing plugging it back i I did write it that way. Sorry if that was a little confusing.
Alright, so I think the brightness changes are the most likely cause of the problem. To change the brightness, powerdevil uses libkscreen, which is a tad bit more complex than it needs to be. It happened before that it accidentally reverted some other settings this way. Just to be sure, can you disable the brightness actions, or just stop powerdevil completely (systemctl --user stop plasma-powerdevil), and see if the problem still happens?
Alright, I managed to reproduce it. It's indeed powerdevil.
A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/8876
Git commit ebefbd2903b67ff86007b302e3ef1ed02e31df1e by Vlad Zahorodnii, on behalf of Xaver Hugl. Committed on 24/02/2026 at 06:50. Pushed by vladz into branch 'master'. wayland/outputdevice: schedule a done event for priority changes M +1 -0 src/wayland/outputdevice_v2.cpp https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/commit/ebefbd2903b67ff86007b302e3ef1ed02e31df1e
Git commit cf3b16112e921e4a2d3669e2b0706ffb3619f88d by Vlad Zahorodnii. Committed on 24/02/2026 at 07:42. Pushed by vladz into branch 'Plasma/6.6'. wayland/outputdevice: schedule a done event for priority changes (cherry picked from commit ebefbd2903b67ff86007b302e3ef1ed02e31df1e) Co-authored-by: Xaver Hugl <xaver.hugl@kde.org> M +1 -0 src/wayland/outputdevice_v2.cpp https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/commit/cf3b16112e921e4a2d3669e2b0706ffb3619f88d
*** Bug 516954 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***