KDE Plasma 5.19.5 + systemd 246.4 = Missing "Switch User" option

For anyone experiencing a missing “Switch User” option under the “Leave” menu after the latest updates,
seems that this is a bug, appearing with the Plasma 5.19.5 + systemd 246.4 versions.

As a workaround,
downgrade systemd
to the previous version (245.6 on my system) + reboot fixed it for me - decided to share.

Thx.

1 Like

:+1: Welcome to Manjaro! :+1:

And thank you for sharing with the community. However could you split that into a question and an answer and then mark your own answer as a solution like this:
Solution
so that the next person that has the exact same problem you just had will benefit from your post as well as your question will now be in the “solved” status.

:innocent:

Just to clear this up.

This is not a fix, but rather a workaround, that might make other stuff not work. Especially if you only downgrade the systemd package, and not the systemd-libs and systemd-sysvcompat packages aswell.

1 Like

Agree, but luckily haven’t notice any problems by doing that . And it was the only option to keep the laptop usable. I was hoping that this problem would be sorted by an update soon, however latest big update did not solve it - just checked - had to downgrade back to 245.6-8 . Beyond me how such bug would pass any QA process but… oh, well …

I am also interested in knowing if this is a bug, a feature and if its something that has a fix more than a workaround.

There is currently a bug in plasma, so just do it the old-fashioned way: (always works even without “switch user”):

  • Switch to TTY2 with Ctrl+Alt+F2
  • log in there
  • type startx
  • now you can switch between user1 and user2 with:
    Ctrl+Alt+F1 and Ctrl+Alt+F2
  • repeat with Ctrl+Alt+F3, F4, … for more users.

:+1:

1 Like

Is there any proper fix for this yet? Switch user has been missing for several months! Can’t understand why a key function has just disappeared.

2 Likes

Yep, please fix this. I’m not smart enough to know where or how this happens, but my wife is pissed when she can’t login because I remained logged on. It used to not be an issue, now that option to switch user is not there.

2 Likes

My apologies, but as people seem to be still bitching and whining upset about this, I’ve marked my simple workaround as a solution because that’s how we used to do things before we had a Switch User button and once you get used to this way, you’ll forget you ever needed such a button…

:innocent:

According to this bug report this should be fixed in 5.20, but the last post there does disagree. Still lets hope this is fixed soon, as my wife regularly wakes me up to get into her session and refuses to learn shortcuts with 3 buttons :sweat_smile:

Just did the upgrade to 5.20.2 released in stable today. I was eagerly awaiting it right because of this annoying issue and hoped that it was solved.

Can confirm it is not yet solved. Downgrade of systemd, systemd-libs and systemd-sysvcompat to 245.7 brings back Switch User on lockscreen and this hopefully breaks nothing else.

However, there are additional posts in this bug report mentioned by @CySlider suggest there are new commits as of Nov 3rd. I do not fully understand what these do but I hope they will solve this once and for all. So now we and our wifes are waiting for 5.20.3 :grin:

It is very sad that this persists for months now without solution. I was mostly hopping desktop environments in recent years because they all keep breaking switch user and then don’t care to fix it forever.

1 Like

I have been eagerly awaiting the 5.20.2 release because of this bug.First thing I checked after installation and reboot: not fixed. So now I will have to wait a bit longer… :frowning:

1 Like

Hi

We have been using this feature as well until it disappeared.
I don’t want to enter into downgrading systemd even if it seems to work but I would not have time to troubleshoot if I face an issue.
So, we log off the current user and log in the other one.
That being said, does the user switch work well for you or do you experiment sometimes to time a black screen or frozen screen while using this feature ?
I am asking because I face a black screen after a few logoff / login (specific post just written) and I wonder whether restoring the switch user feature would fix it ?

Thanks for your insights.

Well since I only upgraded yesterday evening I do not have long term experience on this with Plasma 5.20.2. All I can say is switch user seems to work fine with downgraded systemd and I did not experience any other problems so far.

But could as well be that there will surface problems when the login sessions get older.

5.20.3 was just released on stable. installed it: Switch user is back and works just fine :slight_smile:

3 Likes

It works ! Great news.

Thanks all!

1 Like

Yes, much better. I only notice one shortcoming still.

If I press “switch session” and select “New session” I am in the “choice” menu to pick my user to log in. I can not return to my active session in this view (beside knowing to press ctrl+alt+fx), should I make up my mind.
Even worse, my user is in the list and any normal user assumes he can simply log in as this user again, starting a second session with this user instead, possibly corrupting his profile.

This is still very flaky. Sometimes if you switch to user2 and then switch back to user1 it will hang going back, or it will go back successfully but leave a 100% cpu thread from user2 still there.

Also if you switch user, and then change your mind, it always hangs going back to user1.

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