F41 KDE panel disappears if built-in display disabled

System:
  Kernel: 6.11.7-300.fc41.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 2.43.1-2.fc41
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.2.3 Distro: Fedora Linux 41 (KDE Plasma)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20M9000CUS v: ThinkPad P52
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 20M9000CUS v: SDK0J40697 WIN
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO v: N2CET72W (1.55 )
    date: 07/24/2024
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 75.9 Wh (100.0%) condition: 75.9/90.1 Wh (84.3%)
    volts: 12.7 min: 11.4 model: LGC 01AV495 status: full
Memory:
  System RAM: total: 32 GiB available: 31.15 GiB used: 4.67 GiB (15.0%)
  Array-1: capacity: 64 GiB slots: 4 modules: 2 EC: None
    max-module-size: 16 GiB note: est.
  Device-1: ChannelA-DIMM0 type: DDR4 size: 16 GiB speed: 2667 MT/s
  Device-2: ChannelA-DIMM1 type: no module installed
  Device-3: ChannelB-DIMM0 type: DDR4 size: 16 GiB speed: 2667 MT/s
  Device-4: ChannelB-DIMM1 type: no module installed
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: Intel Core i7-8850H bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Coffee Lake rev: A cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 1.5 MiB L3: 9 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/4300 cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800
    5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800 bogomips: 62399
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP107GLM [Quadro P2000 Mobile] vendor: Lenovo
    driver: nvidia v: 560.35.03 arch: Pascal bus-ID: 01:00.0
  Display: wayland server: Xwayland v: 24.1.4 compositor: kwin_wayland
    driver: N/A resolution: 1: 3072x1728 2: 3072x1728 3: 1920x1080
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: nvidia,swrast platforms:
    active: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device inactive: device-1
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 560.35.03
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Quadro P2000/PCIe/SSE2
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.296 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland devices: 2
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP107GL High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.1
  Device-3: SteelSeries ApS Arctis Nova 3
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB bus-ID: 1-7.1:16
  API: ALSA v: k6.11.7-300.fc41.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.2.6 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:14.3
  IF: wlp0s20f3 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: kernel
    port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.83 TiB used: 12.5 GiB (0.7%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WD BLACK SN770 1TB
    size: 931.51 GiB temp: 26.9 C
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZVLB512HAJQ-000L7
    size: 476.94 GiB temp: 37.9 C
  ID-3: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO M.2 500GB
    size: 465.76 GiB temp: 34 C
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 475.35 GiB used: 12.01 GiB (2.5%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme1n1p3
  ID-2: /boot size: 973.4 MiB used: 472.7 MiB (48.6%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme1n1p2
  ID-3: /boot/efi size: 598.8 MiB used: 19.3 MiB (3.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme1n1p1
  ID-4: /home size: 475.35 GiB used: 12.01 GiB (2.5%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme1n1p3
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 69.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 406 Uptime: 21h 42m Init: systemd target: graphical (5)
  Packages: 22 note: see --rpm Compilers: gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.32
    inxi: 3.3.36

New install of F41 KDE spin on Lenovo P52 laptop with Nvidia quadro p2000.
Nvidia drivers installed from rpmfusion.
Laptop running in ‘discrete gpu only’ mode, not hybrid.
2 external monitors (same exact model) plugged in to laptop via mini DP and the other with USB-C → mini DP adapter.

Issue:
If the built-in laptop screen is disabled, no matter which display the KDE panel was on, it will disappear completely. If I hit the meta key, I will see the application launcher menu pop up on one of the two external monitors but there is no panel. If I re-enable the built-in screen, the panel will reappear on the laptop monitor.

Under Display Configuration, I can change the primary monitor around in the ‘Change Screen Priorities’ but it doesn’t seem to actually make the display I’m expecting to be the primary when applied. I have to shuffle the priorities around on there and apply until I get the panel to land where I want it. This gets broken again if I try to re-disable the built-in laptop screen which is what I’m ultimately wanting to do.

I have had the desired configuration work on previous OS installs on same hardware under Xorg and Wayland (Mint 22, OpenSUSE TW) but I’m having trouble with it on Fedora 41. I’ve tried a few different search strings but haven’t seen anything similar to this issue. Any ideas?

Added f41, kde, nvidia

I’m not sure if I should add information in additional replies or edit the original post. If there is a proper way to go about this, please let me know.

Additional info:

I have set the built-in laptop screen to disabled, set one of the external monitors as primary, applied settings, and rebooted. Upon startup, the login screen was presented on all three displays. After login, the built-in screen turned off.

However, unlike the previous behavior described in the OP, now hitting meta key does not bring up an application launcher menu. So there is no panel and I’m only able to open applications using KRunner.

I have tried running:

plasmashell --replace &

But it didn’t seem to change anything as far as I can tell.

did you check screen layouts options ?

Are you talking about the options in:
System Settings → Display & Monitor ?
Or perhaps something else? Here is what my display configuration currently looks like:

No widget screen layouts I’m talking about where you can set mirror settings etc …

Thanks for the screenshot. I am able to bring up what looks like the same options via ‘meta +P’ shortcut and it’s currently set to ‘Switch to external screen’.

Side note: While I was trying to reply to you a few minutes ago, both screens went black except for the cursor which I could still move around. During this time, the shortcut for KRunner no longer worked and I had to power cycle to get back to a working system.

After struggling with this problem for a few days, I decided to reinstall F41 with Gnome instead of KDE. I know I could have just installed another DE instead, but I don’t like how cluttered my system ends up in that situation.

Anyway, with the aforementioned new install (including nvidia drivers), everything works as expected. I certainly don’t prefer Gnome over KDE, but a fully working system is obviously more important overall.

Maybe this issue is ultimately due to differences in the compositors. As a side note, I’ve certainly had a lot of stability issues the past couple years with older nvidia cards (980M, 980ti, P2000) running wayland in some form or another.