Lock Screen then Blank Black Screen Sometimes

Support KDE Plasma
1

I am on Manjaro Stable, KDE. I have an issue sometimes with the lock screen. Sometimes after I get back to my laptop I find a black screen. I read on the forum someone said that it was sorted out by uninstalling “light-locker” and reinstalling it again.
By the way, I just lock screen upon lid close, no sleep.

I checked and I do not have “light-locker” installed initially. Do I need to install it?
Is this the right solution? How can I do it? Any other solutions you suggest not to get to this black blank screen after screen is locked? this is my system:

    ~  inxi -Fxxx                                                                                     ✔ 
System:
  Host: manjaro Kernel: 6.6.52-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 14.2.1 clocksource: tsc
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.1.5 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_x11 vt: 2 dm: SDDM
    Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: VivoBook_ASUSLaptop X415FAC_X415FA
    v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: X415FAC v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
    uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: X415FAC.202
    date: 07/08/2021
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 31.9 Wh (99.1%) condition: 32.2/37.1 Wh (86.8%)
    power: 2.4 W volts: 7.8 min: 7.8 model: ASUSTeK ASUS Battery type: Li-ion
    serial: N/A status: charging cycles: 45
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i3-10110U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    smt: enabled arch: Comet/Whiskey Lake note: check rev: C cache: L1: 128 KiB
    L2: 512 KiB L3: 4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3300 min/max: 400/4100 cores: 1: 3300 2: 3300 3: 3300
    4: 3300 bogomips: 20810
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel CometLake-U GT2 [UHD Graphics] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-9.5 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:9b41 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: IMC Networks USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-5:3 chip-ID: 13d3:56e6
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: 0000
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.13 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.2
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa
    dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99")
    s-diag: 414mm (16.31") monitors: <missing: xrandr>
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x14d6 res: 1366x768 dpi: 112
    size: 309x173mm (12.17x6.81") diag: 354mm (13.9") modes: 1366x768
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris platforms: device: 0 drv: iris
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: iris surfaceless: drv: iris x11: drv: iris
    inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.2.2-arch1.1
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2)
    device-ID: 8086:9b41
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.295 layers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 0
    type: integrated-gpu driver: mesa intel device-ID: 8086:9b41
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Comet Lake PCH-LP cAVS vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:02c8 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.6.52-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.2.3 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Comet Lake PCH-LP CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:02f0 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlo1 state: up mac: 7c:70:db:e2:29:ee
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth 9460/9560 Jefferson Peak (JfP) driver: btusb
    v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-10:4
    chip-ID: 8087:0aaa class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 31.25 GiB (13.1%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: PC SN530
    SDBPNPZ-256G-1002 size: 238.47 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD
    serial: 2127HE443513 fw-rev: 21106000 temp: 38.9 C scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 238.17 GiB used: 28.11 GiB (11.8%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 299.4 MiB used: 584 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-3: /home size: 238.17 GiB used: 28.11 GiB (11.8%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-4: /var/log size: 238.17 GiB used: 28.11 GiB (11.8%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 84.0 C pch: 61.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 4400
Info:
  Memory: total: 20 GiB available: 19.38 GiB used: 3.67 GiB (18.9%)
  Processes: 235 Power: uptime: 26m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
    wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform Init: systemd v: 256 default: graphical
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1406 Compilers: gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9
    default: Bash v: 5.2.32 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.36
    ~ 
2

Hi @oldtux,

I have no idea if this is related or not, I use Plasma 6 and have never encountered something like this, but

I do realize you have plenty of RAM:

…but maybe swap space makes a difference. I’ve even got swap space:

$ swapon --show
NAME           TYPE      SIZE USED PRIO
/dev/nvme0n1p2 partition 7.8G 1.7G   -2

And I’ve got plenty of RAM:

$ free --human
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            15Gi       7.9Gi       4.2Gi       113Mi       3.9Gi       7.7Gi
Swap:          7.8Gi       1.7Gi       6.1Gi

See:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Swap

2 Likes
3

I just installed and followed the defaults. I didn’t change or decide anything.

I don’t think it has anything to do with this black blank screen as I have enough RAM and never had an issue.

I repeat it happens randomly not every time.
The only solution I saw here was uninstalling and reinstalling this thing mentioned. But lock screen is working anyway so I wonder if I should install it and if it would help.
Thanks @Mirdarthos for your feed back

4

Does the issue also occur when you are logged into a Plasma Wayland session?

5

As far as I’m aware, that is anyway not installed with KDE, so I doubt itt. As far as I know, KDE uses kscreenlocker:

Edit:

It might bed the theme.

According to this page:

This seems to be a bug of Breeze Plasma theme. I tried Oxygen theme and some 3rd party themes, lockscreen all works under them. The black screen problem only appears under Breeze.

So try something other than Breeze.

6

Thanks @scotty65
I don’t know if it is wayland or not, but as you see in my inxi, I have only KDE Plasma.

What I don’t understand is that not every time it happens it does this. It is random.

7

You are logged into a Plasma X11 session:

Log out, and at the bottom of your SDDM login screen you should see the option to choose your session type. Click on that and select the Plasma Wayland session. The inxi -Fxxx for a Plasma Wayland session looks like this:

Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.1.5 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland

8

So the problem os related to x11 and it does not happen on wayland?

If this is the case and if @Mirdarthos is on wayland I hope you tell me.

If so how would I change my default to wayland?

9

SDDM defaults to whatever session you last logged into.

If you use autologin to skip the SDDM screen and log in automatically, then you can change the session type via your System Settings GUI. Just type sddm into the settings search box, select “Login Screen (SDDM)”, click on the “Behavior” button at the top, change the “Automatically log in:” session to Plasma Wayland, and apply the change.

2 Likes
10

So I will try wayland as you suggested.
I still hope @Mirdarthos would tell me if he is on wayland or x11. I an not sure honestly about other users who reported this issue in the forums here.
Thank you @scotty65

11

I would, but I’m still on X11, testing Wayland periodically, but still on X11. But I don’t use either a laptop nor the Breeze theme, so there’s no way for me to have come across this, from what I can tell.

1 Like
12

I just installed and followed defaults. I didn’t change the theme.

I will see then first if changing the theme to something else would help first then try wayland if it persisted.

Thank you @Mirdarthos

13

And, I’m outta this thread… (muting it & ignoring the OP for a few months).

If the OP refuses to follow the one piece of advice that will most likely fix the issue, I just can’t be bothered wasting my time anymore. Their last topic was like this too - it just went on, and on, and on, and on, and on. Of their 4 most recent topics, the number of replies have been: 119, 11, 61 & 11. I just don’t have the time or patience to waste hours & hours.

14

Sorry @scotty65 For sure I did not mean to ignore your advice or underestimate it by any means.

It is just curiosity to try another suggested solution as I am trying to learn not just solve a problem.

Thank you for your tip.

1 Like
15

Okay. Un-ignored & un-muted. It is good that you are learning, but please try to remember that everyone providing advice here is giving up their time for free to help other users, and a request for support should be about fixing an issue as quickly as possible (albeit with a good solution), not trying to find out the total number of alternative ways that might or might not fix the issue.

16

Thanks @scotty65 for understanding.
This is me unfortunately or fortunately.

I care much more about learning rather than just solving an issue.

Edit: Just changed the theme to Breath Dark. I will see how it goes.
I saw on the link [PARTIALY SOLVED] Blackscreen on lockscreen after upgrading to plasma6 / Applications & Desktop Environments / Arch Linux Forums that @Mirdarthos that changing the theme sorted it “a little” not final. that is it occurred again.

17

You could first give it a try, if your problem related to the newest existing KDE bug.

If you still prefer to use X11, this could total make sense.

I have one system with a Nvidia GPU (X11) and another system with a AMD GPU (Wayland).

But how a Intel GPU performs is another story.

We still in a gray zone where we can’t to 100% recommend Wayland, it depends on the GPU and the program’s that you are using.

Some Tools may still works better on X11.

18

Thanks @Kobold
As I said I changed the theme, and I will se how it goes.
Who knows maybe as @Mirdarthos mentioned about the theme, maybe it is related to the theme.
Who knows maybe a theme is problematic with x11 but not problematic with wayland, and maybe another theme has no problem with x11.

AFAIK, Intel graphics are the best supported in Linux. I never had a problem with its drivers or the display.

AFAIK x11, is supposed to be more stable than way land and less bugs.
But I understand that Wayland is a bit more advanced and feature rich (this is way too techie for me), I am just a normal home user, using just browser, VLC, Libreoffice spreadsheets and writer and pCloud for cloud storage. Nothing much and no special purpose apps

Last night and this morning I had this issue quite a few times.

I will wait and see.

19

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