Taskbar Not Hiding Properly – Requires Kill & Restart Frequently

sneh · March 31, 2025, 5:19am

I’ve been experiencing a recurring issue where the taskbar does not auto-hide properly. I haven’t made any external modifications to it. Normally, I can temporarily fix it by manually restarting the process, but this gets frustrating since I have to repeat it often.

Today, the issue was worse than usual, the taskbar wouldn’t hide at all, even after restarting it multiple times. A system reboot finally resolved the problem, but I’d like to find a permanent fix.

Steps to Reproduce:

Enable auto-hide for the KDE taskbar.
Use the system normally for some time.
Eventually, the taskbar stops hiding.
Running killall plasmashell && kstart5 plasmashell usually resolves it, but the issue comes back.
Today, even that didn’t work until I rebooted.

What I’ve Tried So Far:

Restarting plasmashell (killall plasmashell && kstart5 plasmashell).
Checking for running background processes that might interfere.
Searching online and the forums, but couldn’t find a working solution.
Rebooting the system (sometimes helps, but not always).

System Information:

System:
Kernel: 6.13.8-zen1-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
clocksource: tsc
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.3 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland dm: SDDM
Distro: Garuda base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: B550M PRO-VDH WIFI (MS-7C95) v: 1.0
serial: <filter> uuid: c84a3533-a446-7115-a3c8-047c164c0828 UEFI: American
Megatrends LLC. v: 2.E0 date: 03/06/2023
CPU:
Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with Radeon Graphics bits: 64
type: MT MCP smt: enabled arch: Zen 3 rev: 0 cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 3 MiB
L3: 16 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 400 min/max: 400/3901 boost: enabled volts: 1.4 V
ext-clock: 100 MHz cores: 1: 400 2: 400 3: 400 4: 400 5: 400 6: 400 7: 400
8: 400 9: 400 10: 400 11: 400 12: 400 bogomips: 93424
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Cezanne [Radeon Vega Series /
Radeon Mobile Series] driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5 pcie:
speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DP-1 empty: DP-2,HDMI-A-1
bus-ID: 30:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:1638 class-ID: 0300 temp: 42.0 C
Display: unspecified server: X.Org v: 24.1.6 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting
alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :1 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x286mm (20.00x11.26")
s-diag: 583mm (22.95")
Monitor-1: DP-1 model: Acer VG270 S serial: <filter> res: mode: 1920x1080
hz: 165 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 82 size: 598x336mm (23.54x13.23")
diag: 686mm (27") modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi
device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: radeonsi surfaceless: drv: radeonsi x11:
drv: radeonsi inactive: wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.0.2-arch1.2
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (radeonsi
renoir ACO DRM 3.61 6.13.8-zen1-1-zen) device-ID: 1002:1638
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.309 layers: 5 surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 0
type: integrated-gpu driver: N/A device-ID: 1002:1638 device: 1 type: cpu
driver: N/A device-ID: 10005:0000
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info
x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Renoir Radeon High Definition
Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie:
speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 30:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1637 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio
vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s
lanes: 16 bus-ID: 30:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
Device-3: Actions K2 driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB
rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 5-2:2 chip-ID: 10d6:4801
class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
API: ALSA v: k6.13.8-zen1-1-zen status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.1 status: n/a (root, process) with:
1: pipewire-pulse status: active 2: wireplumber status: active
3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
Device-1: MEDIATEK MT7921K Wi-Fi 6E 80MHz driver: mt7921e v: kernel pcie:
speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 29:00.0 chip-ID: 14c3:0608 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp41s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s
lanes: 1 port: f000 bus-ID: 2a:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp42s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: MediaTek Wireless_Device driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.1
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-9:5 chip-ID: 0e8d:0608 class-ID: e001
serial: <filter>
Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.2
lmp-v: 11 class-ID: 6c0104
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.38 TiB used: 10.67 GiB (0.8%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Crucial model: CT500P3SSD8 size: 465.76 GiB
speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: P9CR30A
temp: 36.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Crucial model: CT1000P3SSD8 size: 931.51 GiB
speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: P9CR30A
temp: 37.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-3: /dev/sda vendor: SanDisk model: Cruzer Blade size: 14.34 GiB
type: USB rev: 2.0 spd: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 tech: N/A serial: <filter>
fw-rev: 1.00 scheme: MBR
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 67.96 GiB used: 10.67 GiB (15.7%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/nvme1n1p7
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 548.9 MiB used: 608 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/nvme1n1p4
ID-3: /home size: 67.96 GiB used: 10.67 GiB (15.7%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/nvme1n1p7
ID-4: /var/log size: 67.96 GiB used: 10.67 GiB (15.7%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/nvme1n1p7
ID-5: /var/tmp size: 67.96 GiB used: 10.67 GiB (15.7%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/nvme1n1p7
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 27.29 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 46.1 C mobo: 38.0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 42.0 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
Memory: total: 28 GiB available: 27.29 GiB used: 4.85 GiB (17.8%)
Processes: 407 Power: uptime: 2m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform Init: systemd v: 257 default: graphical
Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1304 Compilers: gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: Sudo (sudo)
v: 1.9.16p2 default: Bash v: 5.2.37 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.37

Additional Notes:

The issue is random but happens frequently.
I have not made any external modifications to the taskbar.
A reboot today resolved it, but that’s not a reliable fix.

SGS · March 31, 2025, 6:47am

Please post full garuda-inxi.

After rebooting, post the FULL output of garuda-inxi in the body of the post (not linked externally, or collapsed with the “hide details” feature)

On KDE after updates, restart your system.

We can’t fix it, open issue on KDE

Or just try X11, not Wayland from login screen.

Locutus · March 31, 2025, 8:32am

Typically it’s a process running that for some reason you’re not seeing on the panel and it has focus. If the case you need to ferret out which process is the issue.

sneh · March 31, 2025, 8:39am

I fetched the output after a reboot, as requested. As for KDE, I found an open bug report on this issue (#478797), but it’s been sitting there for almost two years without a fix. If reporting to KDE actually worked, this should’ve been resolved by now. I also found a similar case in the Garuda forums (this post), so it’s definitely not just me facing this.

I originally used the <details> tag just to keep the post cleaner, but I see now that full inline output is preferred. My bad on that. I’ll try X11 and report back if anything changes.

Also, not to be rude, but I really think this issue is worth looking into. Just because one user (me) reports it doesn’t mean it should be left off the fix list, especially when it’s been affecting people for so long.

Just to clarify, I’m not putting this on the Garuda devs, I get that priorities are different. I was just hoping for some workarounds, like the X11 suggestion you mentioned, which I’ll try now : -)

tbg · March 31, 2025, 8:40am

Install and test at least three alternate kernels.

When did this problem start?

Does it behave the same in the live environment?

sneh · March 31, 2025, 8:41am

That makes sense. But in my case, it mostly happens when the screen is left unattended, like if I’m just watching something without interacting with the system, or if it goes into an auto sleep state. That’s when the taskbar gets stuck and refuses to auto-hide.

Is there a way to check what process might be causing this when it happens?

Edit:

It also occurs when I place a PiP (picture-in-picture) video too close to the taskbar. Even after moving it away, the taskbar still won’t hide.

sneh · March 31, 2025, 8:44am

Got it, I’ll test with a few alternate kernels and see if that changes anything.

As for when it started, I actually got the OS just three days ago (maybe ±2), but it’s relatively new, and this issue was there right from the first installation, without modifying anything, straight out of the box.

I haven’t checked in a live environment yet, but I’ll try that as well and report back.

tbg · March 31, 2025, 9:04am

Commands you could test to restart plashmashell & kwin:

For an X11 session:

bash -c 'plasmashell --replace > /dev/null 2>&1 & disown; sleep 5; systemctl --user restart plasma-kwin_x11.service > /dev/null 2>&1 & disown; sleep 2; exit'

For a Wayland session:

bash -c 'systemctl --user restart plasma-plasmashell > /dev/null 2>&1 & disown; sleep 5; systemctl --user restart plasma-kwin_wayland  > /dev/null 2>&1 & disown; sleep 2; exit'

In the above^^^ command restarting kwin_wayland will likely result in losing your currently open programs stored session information.

Using kwin_wayland --replace may allow you to retain your session information.

Further commands you could try:

kwin_wayland --replace

systemctl --user restart plasma-plasmashell

systemctl --user restart plasmashell

plasmashell --replace & disown

plasmashell --replace > /dev/null 2>&1 & disown

plasmashell restart

kquitapp6 plasmashell; kstart plasmashell

kquitapp6 plasmashell && kstart plasmashell > /dev/null 2>&1 & disown; sleep 2; exit

Edited in other command variations.

Locutus · March 31, 2025, 10:08am

For now try what tbg posted and see what you get. If any of that doesn’t do the trick try replacing the panel. I just ran into an issue with my install of the new ISO I’m not seeing anyone else have and the only solution for me was to replace the panel.

EDIT:

You could also play with the settings if you haven’t yet to see if that forces it to behave. Switch to Doge or always shown, logout, run a couple of things, switch back, logout again, and test again.

system · April 2, 2025, 10:09am

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