kde crashes; possibly involves kglobalaccel5, intel microcode update

[Peter_Brandon]

A number of days ago, I think within the last week, I started having trouble with suspend on my kde-ubuntu computer. A couple times, I suspended and, when I resumed, I got a completely black screen (no signal) despite the computer being active and had to hard power off. I don't believe I had ever seen that before.

A few days ago, I upgraded to Nvidia driver 510, upgraded to the latest intel microcode (actually upgraded earlier, but I hadn't restarted my computer), and made some other changes that probably aren't relevant (updating CUDA, etc.).

When I tried to suspend, the computer consistently did not suspend but went to a login screen and dumped my kde session.

So, I returned to Nvidia driver 470. But I continue to have the suspend issue.

The apport log (see enclosed) suggests that kglobalaccel5 crashed. There's also an apport crash report (/var/crash) regarding kglobalaccel5. However, I don't know for certain that kglobalaccel5 initiates the crash. I also don't know that the apport crash report ever got sent because it looks like my internet connection is down around the time of the crash.

The enclosed also shows an outtake from my systemlog at the time of the crash. It shows the system trying to sleep but then waking up and losing the kde session. Network manager seems to be acting strangely, but, again, this may due to a less visible event.

Another suspect here is the intel microcode update.

Any suggestions on what I should try? Is there a way for me to send the crash report after the system comes back up?

[QIII]

Hello!

What release of Kubuntu are you running?

[Peter_Brandon]

Hi QIII:

My kde info is as follows. If you need anything else, let me know.

$ plasmashell --version
plasmashell 5.18.8 
(base)
$ kf5-config --version 
Qt: 5.12.8 
KDE Frameworks: 5.68.0 
kf5-config: 1.0

[Peter_Brandon]

Incidentally, I downgraded the Intel microcode to the last version, but the suspend problem continued. So, probably not caused by the microcode update.

I wanted to try to remove kglobalaccel5 from my system to see if that would make a difference, but that piece of software is tied into KDE, so removing it would mean removing a lot more.

In any event, I had another crash today. This time there was no crash report for kglobalaccel5. But there were for kactivitymanagerd and plasmashell, with the first of these being reported a full minute before the second. Neither showed up as a crash report before. None of the crash reports mention a segmentation fault. I suspect none have been sent.

I did discover that suspending with pm-suspend does not cause my computer to crash.

[SeijiSensei]

I had various issues with Kubuntu and decided to give KDE Neon a try. So far it's been a great success. Smooth installation and no glitches so far.

https://neon.kde.org/

It's built on top of Ubuntu so you can install the packages you need with apt. No libre-office for instance.

[Peter_Brandon]

Thanks SeijiSensei! Neon sounds interesting. Is there any way to install it on top of my Ubuntu 20.04 (my kde is on top of that)? I looked for but didn't find a ppa for KDE Neon. Also, Neon evidently provides the latest KDE software on top of a Ubuntu 20.04 foundation. Wouldn't the fact that it's the latest software mean that it's less likely to be stable than the older KDE software on Ubuntu?

[Peter_Brandon]

I gather that I could try to install on top of Ubuntu using the following code. Still wondering though why the latest software is likely to be stable.

sudo apt-add-repository http://archive.neon.kde.org/release
wget -q -O - http://archive.neon.kde.org/public.key | sudo apt-key add -

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

[1fallen]

Quote:
Can I turn Kubuntu into KDE neon with a PPA? ��

We recommend that you install a fresh KDE neon from the provided ISO images. But you can indeed add an APT repository to switch from Kubuntu to KDE neon. This is absolutely not tested or supported. If things take a turn for the worse you are expected to be knowledgeable enough to repair your system on your own. A web search should quickly give you relevant information on how to do this.

KDE neon is however not compatible with Kubuntu, as there is vast overlap in the base offerings of both Kubuntu and KDE neon. You can not use both systems at the same time. Installing KDE neon will simply replace Kubuntu.

[Peter_Brandon]

Thanks for the warning 1fallen!

[1fallen]

I gather that I could try to install on top of Ubuntu using the following code. Still wondering though why the latest software is likely to be stable.

sudo apt-add-repository http://archive.neon.kde.org/release
wget -q -O - http://archive.neon.kde.org/public.key | sudo apt-key add -

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

I actually converted Kubuntu to KDE neon, not that I'm telling you to, but it is doable.

sources.list:

Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           1: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal main restricted universe multiverse
           2: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/neon.list 
           1: deb http://archive.neon.kde.org/user focal main
           2: deb-src http://archive.neon.kde.org/user focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/preinstalled-pool.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] file:/var/lib/preinstalled-pool/ focal main restricted universe multiverse