Plasma Workspace - Unknown application folder

Fresh install of Manjaro where I only installed Chrome, Maple and MATLAB and changed default Global Theme. Now, suddenly the (keyboard) windows button no longer opens the Application Launcher and clicking the “org.kde.discover.plasma” menu bar shows an “Unknown application folder” toast message.
I do not know what happened or how I can fix it. Any ideas?

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

  1. Please read this:
    How to provide good information
    and press the three dots below your post and press the :pencil2: to give us more information so we can see what’s really going on.
    Now we know the symptom of the disease, but we need some more probing to know where the origin lies… :grin:
  2. An inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width would be the minimum required information for us to be able to help you. (Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command)
    Also, please copy-paste that output in-between 3 backticks ``` at the beginning and end of the code/text.

:+1:

Hi @Fabby
Thanks for replying. I am still trying to figure out how to reset the KDE environment.
I put the console command into Konsole and received this output:

[jeppe@jeppe-m ~]$ inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width
System:
  Kernel: 5.10.56-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10-x86_64 
  root=UUID=d0ca7b9d-91a3-4c6c-aaed-9957fcb5d2a0 rw quiet apparmor=1 
  security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3 
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.22.4 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM 
  Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude 7480 v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Dell model: 00F6D3 v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.21.1 
  date: 05/25/2021 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 11.3 Wh (26.3%) condition: 42.9/42.9 Wh (100.0%) 
  volts: 6.7 min: 7.4 model: LGC-LGC7.780 DELL 2X39G type: Li-ion 
  serial: <filter> status: Discharging 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 15.37 GiB used: 2.51 GiB (16.3%) 
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:
  Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-7300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Amber/Kaby Lake note: check family: 6 model-id: 8E (142) stepping: 9 
  microcode: EA cache: L2: 3 MiB bogomips: 21607 
  Speed: 2900 MHz min/max: 400/3500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2900 2: 2900 
  3: 2900 4: 2900 
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon art 
  avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush clflushopt cmov constant_tsc cpuid 
  cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est 
  f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr hle ht hwp hwp_act_window 
  hwp_epp hwp_notify ibpb ibrs ida intel_pt invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm 
  mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe mpx msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat 
  pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts 
  rdrand rdseed rdtscp rep_good rtm sdbg sep smap smep smx ss ssbd sse sse2 
  sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust 
  tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt 
  xsaves xtopology xtpr 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
  Type: l1tf 
  mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, 
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
  Type: tsx_async_abort mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 620 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel 
  bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:5916 class-ID: 0300 
  Device-2: Sunplus Innovation Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
  bus-ID: 1-5:2 chip-ID: 1bcf:2b96 class-ID: 0e02 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: 
  loaded: intel unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0 
  screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2") 
  s-diag: 582mm (22.9") 
  Monitor-1: eDP1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 157 size: 310x170mm (12.2x6.7") 
  diag: 354mm (13.9") 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.1.6 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_skl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9d71 
  class-ID: 0403 
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.56-1-MANJARO running: yes 
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no 
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes 
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.33 running: no 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: kernel 
  port: f040 bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15d7 class-ID: 0200 
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 8265 / 8275 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: f040 
  bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:24fd class-ID: 0280 
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
  broadcast: <filter> 
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
  WAN IP: <filter> 
Bluetooth:
  Message: No bluetooth data found. 
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found. 
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci 
  v: 3.0 port: f060 bus-ID: 00:17.0 chip-ID: 8086.282a rev: 21 class-ID: 0104 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 72.98 GiB (30.6%) 
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Micron model: 1100 SATA 256GB 
  size: 238.47 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
  type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: L003 scheme: GPT 
  Message: No optical or floppy data found. 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 177.43 GiB size: 173.59 GiB (97.83%) 
  used: 38.26 GiB (22.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 maj-min: 8:5 label: N/A 
  uuid: d0ca7b9d-91a3-4c6c-aaed-9957fcb5d2a0 
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 350 MiB size: 346 MiB (98.86%) 
  used: 34.9 MiB (10.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: SYSTEM 
  uuid: 3431-89D8 
  ID-3: /run/media/jeppe/Windows raw-size: 59.18 GiB size: 59.18 GiB (100.00%) 
  used: 34.68 GiB (58.6%) fs: ntfs dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 label: Windows 
  uuid: D8FA3553FA352EDE 
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found. 
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 size: 16 MiB fs: <superuser required> 
  label: N/A uuid: N/A 
  ID-2: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4 size: 1.5 GiB fs: ntfs label: Recovery 
  uuid: 52D43581D435687D 
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 12 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900 
  Device-1: 1-5:2 info: Sunplus Innovation Integrated_Webcam_HD type: Video 
  driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA 
  chip-ID: 1bcf:2b96 class-ID: 0e02 
  Device-2: 1-10:4 info: Broadcom 5880 type: Smart Card driver: N/A 
  interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 0a5c:5832 
  class-ID: 0b00 serial: <filter> 
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 6 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 61.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 3410 
Info:
  Processes: 219 Uptime: 2h 19m wakeups: 13 Init: systemd v: 248 
  tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 clang: 12.0.1 Packages: 1264 
  pacman: 1261 lib: 335 flatpak: 0 snap: 3 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.8 
  running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.06 

I also took a screenshot of the error message I get when I click the plasma workspace shortcut in the menu bar, but it seems I cannot attach media to this post.

Please read this:

Does this also happen if you create a new user, and log in there?

:thinking:

Did you mean Manjaro Kde Plasma Error Unknown Application Folder · Blog atrasado ?
But it is old

@Fabby
I created a new user and logged in, and the Plasma workspace behaves as normal in that user environment. My OS is not broken or corrupted, it would seem. :smiley:
However, I still do not know what has changed in my primary account and how to undo it.
Here are two screenshots from the workspace:
The broken task manager icon:

The toast messsage error when clicking on the broken icon:

And I am really missing being able to open the start menu with the keyboard shortcut on my Windows key.

1 Like

@Zesko
The issue sounds similar but I do think it is different from my issue at hand. I did not use root as my account and I have no problems booting into the OS.

@Jeppe that is just a dummy application icon. No need to worry. Right click on it and remove form taskbar. Discover is the default application manager in kde. As it is not installed in manjaro it is showing that icon.

@Dinda
I see. Thanks for the explanation. I am new to Manjaro and I am learning to use it still. But I am seeing different behavior between the accounts where I am not able to use Windows key to open the Application Launcher. I just assumed the error message from the dummy icon was somehow related to me possibly configuring the workspace in a bad way. From @Fabby 's advice I created a second account and I can use the keyboard hotkey fine on that account.
That means my final question becomes: How can I get the hotkey to return?
I opened this Application Launcher configuration menu,

It will not accept the Windows meta key as an option

Reassign a shortcut like meta+esc or meta+f1. The meta key alone will work just fine after that.

1 Like

@freggel.doe
Perfect, thank you!

So you have an issue in your user profile and finding out which exact setting you changed is going to take weeks if not months, therefore, we’re going to do the following:

  • Verify that the new user has access to the same groups as your old one by executing groups and comparing the output of both users.

    groups twitty
    groups twitty2
    

    (Where obviously, twitty is your old user and twitty2 is your new one.)
    E.G. if twitty is a member of operator and twitty2 isn’t, execute:

    usermod --append --groups operator twitty2
    
  • Copy all data files from your old profile into your new one

    cp --verbose --recursive --preserve=timestamps /home/twitty/Documents/* /home/twitty2/Documents/
    

    If that worked and you had no errors, remove the documents from your old user:

    rm --recursive /home/twitty/Documents/*
    

    repeat for:

    • Pictures
    • Videos
    • Music
    • .thunderbird
    • .mozilla/firefox/
    • Templates, and everything else that is important to you.
    • Linux games like Battle of Wesnoth have their game data stored under ~/.local/share/ E.G. ~/.local/share/wesnoth/
  • After everything has been copied over, disable the old user so you cannot accidentally log on to it any more:

     usermod --lock twitty
    
  • If you would have theming or other customisations going on, don’t do everything in one day but do this at the rate of 1 application / theme / … per day and if the same issue crops up again, roll back your last change and thus you’ve now pinpointed the exact setting that made your old user misbehave. :thinking:

  • in 1 month delete the entire home directory of your old user, but don’t delete the user itself so that in 6 months time files still owned by that user will still show up under its username.

  • If you ever migrate to a new machine, just don’t migrate the old user: only the new one.

  • From now on, start making backups so you can roll back and never have to do this again:

This topic was automatically closed 2 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.