I am having KDE problems on all four of my laptops, which all exhibit the same symptoms. Note that I have been using NixOS for going on three years and I never experienced this issue, up through v25.05. After 25.05 became EOL, I migrated my machines to the unstable channel and the problem started immediately thereafter. I them moved a couple of machines to 25.11, which did not solve the problem, nor, in fact, did it change anything.
Issue: Parts of KDE crash whenever my captive portal lease expires.
Machines affected: Various Dell, Acer and ThinkPad laptops, all running either 25.11, or unstable. All of which were upgraded from 25.05. All are making a captive portal connection via wifi.
Pattern: The problem occurs whenever my captive portal lease expires, regardless of whether the machine is running, or not.
Machines which run 24/7 and the browser is also runng:
When I wake these machines from sleep, the panel will be gone and the wallpaper will also be gone, leaving only a blank, black display. I am able to alt-tab between any running applications. Usually, three to four KDE Crash Handler windows will pop up, but they are incapable of submitting a report, even after a new captive portal lease has been obtained. After I have a new captive portal lease, however, it is possible to click on the “Restart” button on one of the Crash Handler Windows and the panel and wallpaper will then reboot / reappear.
If, on the other hand the machine is running, but not sleeping when the captive portal lease expires, the problem does not exhibit itself. Instead, I simply have a captive portal interface tab pop up in my browser, prompting me to apply for a new lease.
Machines which run 24/7 and the browser is NOT running:
If the captive portal lease has expired, it is necessary to launch the browser from the terminal, so that a new captive portal lease may be secured. I have found no other way to reboot / restart the panel and wallpaper, without a working Internet connection. Even a reboot of the machine will not fix things, without first securing a working Internet connection.
Machines which are routinely shut down:
I have KDE configured to automatically launch the Kitty terminal when booted. If the captive portal lease is valid, there are no problems upon boot. If the captive portal lease has expired, the machine will immediately boot into a crashed scenario, with no panel and no wallpaper. It is necessary to launch the browser from the terminal, and once the browser launches, I can secure a fresh captive portal lease. I can then click the “Restart” button on one of the KDE Crash handler windows to reboot / restart the panel and the wallpaper.
When this issue occurs, it is frequently (but not always) accompanied by the same chime that sounds when a USB drive, or SD card is inserted into the machine. Instead of the chime sounding once, however, it sounds continuously until a new captive portal lease is secured.
Apparently there is a known KDE bug (#514348) which can cause KDE to crash when connecting to a captive portal, but I have never had any issues connecting. My issue is strictly related to the captive portal lease expiration event.
Here are the logs (both in reverse order), paired with the latest Crashed Process Viewer report from two different machines, beginning (presumably) from the time that the captive portal lease had expired. I have quite a large collection of Crash Handler reports now, since 25.05 went EOL, but I know of no way to submit them to anyone, apart by dropping them into Pastebin and sharing them this way. Whenever this problem occurs, the Crash Handler also does not function correctly and is incapable of submitting a report. It would be useful if a crash report could be selected and submitted via the Crashed Process Viewer itself, eh? But sadly, AFAIK, it does not posses this functionality.
Machine 1:
Machine 2:
Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!