I have a recent laptop with an equally recent Manjaro KDE install (everything stock.) I have an account set up on my laptop for every family member as well as a “gaming” account.
When I switch users the system frequently hangs and I need to hard reset. Sometimes by mashing the ctrl-alt-f1-f2-f3 b buttons I can get a terminal and reboot the computer with a command.
To save you having to search too much, the workaround is to change your session settings:
System Settings → Session → Desktop Session → Session Restore:
Change “On login, launch apps that were open” to:
Start with an empty session
Edit:- You may need to do this for every User of the system.
Regards.
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Hi thanks fot the quick reply and the tips! I implemented the situation you proposed for all users but it did not work. I am able to reproduce the problem however.
Reproducing the problem
Log in as user A.
As user A, switch user → Brought to the login screen → Select and log in as user B.
As user B, switch user → Brought to the login screen → Select and log in as user A.
At this point I have persistent black screen.
Press ctrl-alt-F1. I’m brought to a screen for user B prompting for a password. I’m able to log back in as user B.
As user B, log out. This brings me back to login screen.
Select user A, log in, everything works.
I don’t believe this is the expected behaviour and to my best knowledge this hasn’t been reported yet. I do not have any ideas how to troubleshoot this.
Note This problem started when I was using X11. Switching to Wayland didn’t fix the problem, however after the switch ctrl-alt-F1 became more useful.
and how do you switch users? you select the ‘log out’ or ‘switch user’ in the application menu?
I always use the application menu. If I select log out there are no problems. If I use switch user twice to move to a new user and then back, then I have issues.
so i and also another user on this forum i was helping have the same issue, if i select switch user from the application menu, i got stuck, if i use log out everything works… first time i noticed it was probably over a year ago, but since i dont use multiple users its not an issue for me…
it was an issue with kde and wayland, but i dont know if it was resolved…
try switching to x11 and see if it works there…
I do not use multiple accounts, however, if I understand correctly:
When you switch user to B, user A remains logged in; and if you attempt to then switch user (again) and login to A it will fail. Concurrent logged in users are possible, but the same user cannot be logged in twice.
If my understanding is in any way flawed I’m sure someone will correct me.
Maybe not in the most recent version of Plasma, but it used to be possible in earlier iterations, and it is still possible anywhere else on the system. You can easily log in multiple times at several virtual consoles, and if you use su, you can even nest multiple logins.
This is exactly how I understand it, but why does the login manager not detect the “target” user session is already running (effectively in a “lock-screen state” as I (probably mis-)interpret it?) and switch to that instead of attempting to open a second?
Addendum: I have not encountered this issue so far but rarely switch users. Will post if this happens here.
Yes, this method indeed works. But it defeats the functionality I need. Here is my situation:
I have a laptop I bring home from work and my kids use it for homework. I’ve created separate accounts for my kids.
When my kid takes my laptop, it’s usually suspended and my screen is locked, but they can log in as themselves. Now maybe my kid takes a break and I want to log back into my account and write a quick email. I don’t want to log them out because they have a bunch of browser windows open for their schoolwork.
Is there a way to achieve this? I’m starting to see that switch user doesn’t seem to want to “switch back” to a previously opened (and currently running) session.
so i and also another user on this forum i was helping have the same issue, if i select switch user from the application menu, i got stuck, if i use log out everything works…
Yes this is exactly my issue.
try switching to x11 and see if it works there…
This issue was already present with x11. When I switched to Wayland it actually got better because when I hit ctrl-alt-F1, I actually get to a login window that can get me untangled. With x11, my only option was a hard reset.
@Aragorn, @BG405 Right, so maybe switch user doesn’t do what I think it does. It would be nice to be able to flip between concurrently open sessions.
If your prime concern is not to inconvenience other users, perhaps adopt a habit of logging out of your own account rather than leaving it to suspend and lock. In this way you only need to switch user, do your thing, logout, and switch back to the kid’s session.
I feel that might workaround the issue without much fuss.
Musing:
There are frequent issues concerning black screens (mainly, they seem to be Nvidia related); Search: black screen.
It’s possible that the black screen you observe isn’t strictly a consequence of user switching, and may be related to one of many other issues.
If you happen to experience other black screens in different circumstances, even occasionally, it might be worth searching though those search results to see if any might be applicable to your environment.
Otherwise
Then, that certainly opens an avenue of research.
I haven’t used an Nvidia (anything) for at least a decade, and my graphics issues have been few and far between (using AMD graphics). Most graphic issues I see seem to be Nvidia; that said, there are always exceptions; some claim to be equally as troublefree.
I would suggest not dismissing the reminder given by @nikgnomic previously about the BIOS update. Updating a BIOS can often solve issues you might not even be aware of.
UEFI BIOS v1.18.1
was released on 2024-11-12 and is marked as critical.
I have an older laptop. Also a Dell laptop with KDE+Manjaro. Everything worked as it should… but the system was way out of date (okay a couple months) so I updated via pacman -Syu.
After the update the switch user is now broken on both my laptops. With the non-nvidia laptop instead of a black screen I get a “manjaro” screen with a spinning thing that stops spinning. Again ctrl-alt-F1 gets me to log back in.
After the update switch userno longer immediately brings me to the option to log in to a concurrently opened session.
If the built-in user switching is indeed broken in this iteration of Plasma — and mind you that Plasma 6.2 is just around the corner, probably arriving in the Stable branch in little over a week — then there is obviously no way to make it work now.
However, there is a workaround, i.e. have your children log into a tty, and have their login automatically start a new session on that tty. It’ll require some scripting trickery in their ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc, but it’s doable.
i tested it yesterday and have still the issue … cant switch if i use the switch user option, instead of the log off…
just use the log off option in the mean time, until its fixed…
you can also provide logs, from when the issue happens, maybe something will be there: journalctl -b0 -p5 --no-pager
I’ve found a workaround. It’s using different TTYs as you probably know, will update later when I get home if I think of anything else.
It appears that the primary user’s DE gets switched to TTY1 when a second user logs into a GUI environment (this doesn’t happen with regular TTY logins as far as I know). I’ve usually found it on one of the others (2 or 3?). Maybe this is a clue.
Basically, if I log in as another user, I can switch between them with CTRL + ALT + F… to switch between the logged in users and it doesn’t seem to matter if one has “timed-out” presenting the login screen, in the meantime, upon switching.
I enter the password, it opens. But, there is one TTY which shows a “non-responsive” login screen for the second user. Ignore that; it goes away when the second user is logged out.
I’m sure that’s not how it works in e,g. Xfce, Cinnamon etc.? seems to work as you’d expect it to there.
Edit:
I did have an issue with the log-in screen not functioning correctly when testing this, due to still having an old incompatible theme applied. Fixed by switching to Breath and Breath Dark accordingly, this fixed it.
I was suggesting only that an Nvidia issue might possibly be contributing (in some as yet undetermined way). Likewise the System freeze on suspend issue (apparently caused by a new systemd feature) might also have been contributing. These are guesses, at best.
As it seems apparent that others are now experiencing the same issue, the best that can be done is to wait for the condition to be officially acknowledged and fixed (possibly by KDE).
In the meantime, workarounds have been presented that should minimise the discomfort to some degree.
Updating your BIOS stands as a worthwhile suggestion, regardless.
Thank you all for your input. I also ended up updating my BIOS, since that is indeed a good idea.
I think I’ll just have to wait until KDE Updates. As a matter of personal taste, I’m not a fan of the proposed workarounds as they seem too “hacky” to me.
I have the manjaro-downgrade package installed. Could anybody provide me guidance to revert to an earlier version of KDE with the working functionality? I attempted this once by downgrading plasma-desktop, but the result wasn’t very nice. I’m not sure which other packages need to be downgraded for it all to work again.
Personally, I feel that if an update breaks useful functionality, the right thing to do is to regress to an earlier version and then wait for a further update – unless there is a serious security vulnerability that was addressed.
