Strange behavior (memory corruption?) a few hours after logging into Plasma desktop since last update

Ask Fedora
,
1

This is an issue that has occurred a few times ever since performing a system update last week. After a few hours of doing various tasks on my Plasma desktop, such as playing some videos in mpv, moving some files in Dolphin, and browsing the web in LibreWolf, the following sequence of events would occur:

  1. Icons in the Task Manager panel (the one at the bottom of the Plasma desktop) turn blank as if the icon files are missing
  2. All the items in the Application Menu disappear
  3. Searching for anything in the Application Menu shows random characters below the “no” symbol (circle with diagonal line) instead of “No matches”
  4. All KDE panels become unresponsive, but individual apps’ windows (e.g. LibreWolf) are still responsive
  5. All KDE panels disappear and the wallpaper turns black
  6. Since the desktop is unusable at this point, I do a hard reset (hold down physical power button, then turn it on again)
  7. On next login, my font preferences are no longer applied, as if fonts are missing; I’m seeing Adwaita fonts instead of the Noto Sans fonts I set. System Fonts don’t even appear in KDE’s Font Management anymore; it only shows Personal Fonts. Favorites in the Application Menu are also completely out of order from how I had them placed before.

This reeks of memory corruption, but my machine happens to have ECC memory, and ras-mc-ctl --summary shows no memory errors, so I think this is unlikely to be caused by hardware. journalctl also doesn’t show anything unusual. What’s going on here?

Here’s some system info:

Operating System: Fedora Linux 43
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.24.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.19.9-200.fc43.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 24 × AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12-Core Processor
Memory: 64 GiB of RAM (62.4 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 9070
Manufacturer: ASRock
Product Name: B650M PG Riptide WiFi

2

I have some suggestion for things to try.

Try logging in as a new user and see if the problem exists in that new user’s session.
If it does something in yout .config or .local maybe triggering the behaviour.

Check the user journal specifically for kwin logs.
Check the system journal for amdgpu logs.

Try running with the previous kernel. Does the problem go away?

If so would seem to be a kernel regression and you could report that in the Fedora bug tracker - Making sure you're not a bot!

3

Have you tried to get a console with Ctrl-Alt-F (N = 3 or 4)? If you have a way to connect from another PC or tablet with ssh you may be able to avoid a power off reset. I use termius on an ipad.

You should run one of the many programs that monitors temperatures and memory usage — I use btop.
You can try running journalctl —no-hostname —follow to look for details when signs of trouble first appear.

There may be useful details from previous boots in the journal. If you are not familiar with journalctl see:
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/viewing-logs/.
Note that the journal collects massive detail, so you will need to find “filters” to select entries associated with your issue. If historical journal details are consistently the same, that suggests a software problem. Random failures indicate hardware problems such as a failing power supply.

4

I’m experiencing exactly same issue if i open 4 or greater gui apps.

5

Please try the suggested troubleshooting/data collection. Similar symptoms don’t mean the underlying cause is the same, so if troubleshooting reveals differences, be prepared to start a new topic.

6

This happened a few times today, even after another system update, and I noticed a pattern: It consistently occurs a few minutes after connecting a USB optical drive, inserting a disc, then ejecting the disc. This happens with both DVD and Blu-ray drives. Now it goes like this:

  1. Insert a disc into the DVD/BD drive; the disc will appear in Dolphin file manager without issue
  2. Eject the disc
  3. Wait a few minutes
  4. Motherboard speaker might make a short beep (sometimes it doesn’t)
  5. Plasma desktop becomes unresponsive, except for most app windows
  6. Any terminals (Konsole windows) I have open would say “command not found” even for commands that should be available, such as journalctl and ls
  7. Hard reset is required at this point

As for journalctl, looks like I actually got something somewhat useful for the latest crash, in contrast to the previous crashes which didn’t print any errors. These are the lines between a DVD drive being connected and the end of journalctl --system --no-hostname -b-1:

Apr 03 21:07:00 kernel: usb 2-5: new SuperSpeed USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd
Apr 03 21:07:00 kernel: usb 2-5: New USB device found, idVendor=0789, idProduct=0207, bcdDevice= 1.00
Apr 03 21:07:00 kernel: usb 2-5: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=1
Apr 03 21:07:00 kernel: usb 2-5: Product: LDR USB Device
Apr 03 21:07:00 kernel: usb 2-5: Manufacturer: Logitec
Apr 03 21:07:00 kernel: usb 2-5: SerialNumber: [REDACTED]
Apr 03 21:07:00 kernel: usb-storage 2-5:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
Apr 03 21:07:00 kernel: scsi host7: usb-storage 2-5:1.0
Apr 03 21:07:00 mtp-probe[4276]: checking bus 2, device 2: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/0000:04:00.0/0000:05:0c.0/0000:0e:00.0/usb2/2-5"
Apr 03 21:07:00 mtp-probe[4276]: bus: 2, device: 2 was not an MTP device
Apr 03 21:07:00 mtp-probe[4277]: checking bus 2, device 2: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/0000:04:00.0/0000:05:0c.0/0000:0e:00.0/usb2/2-5"
Apr 03 21:07:00 mtp-probe[4277]: bus: 2, device: 2 was not an MTP device
Apr 03 21:07:01 kernel: scsi 7:0:0:0: CD-ROM            HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GUB0N     L100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Apr 03 21:07:01 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: Power-on or device reset occurred
Apr 03 21:07:01 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Apr 03 21:07:01 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
Apr 03 21:07:01 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 5
Apr 03 21:07:01 nfsrahead[4295]: skipping non-NFS device 11:0
Apr 03 21:07:01 (udev-worker)[4271]: sr0: Process '/usr/sbin/pktsetup -i -d 11:0' failed with exit code 1.
Apr 03 21:07:01 (udev-worker)[4300]: sr0: Process '/usr/sbin/pktsetup -i -d 11:0' failed with exit code 1.
Apr 03 21:07:29 chronyd[1199]: Selected source 69.89.207.99 (2.fedora.pool.ntp.org)
Apr 03 21:09:25 sssd_kcm[3198]: Shutting down (status = 0)
Apr 03 21:09:25 systemd[1]: sssd-kcm.service: Deactivated successfully.
Apr 03 21:09:25 audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=sssd-kcm comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Apr 03 21:09:25 PackageKit[3073]: uid 1000 is trying to obtain org.freedesktop.packagekit.system-sources-refresh auth (only_trusted:0)
Apr 03 21:09:25 PackageKit[3073]: uid 1000 obtained auth for org.freedesktop.packagekit.system-sources-refresh
Apr 03 21:09:30 PackageKit[3073]: refresh-cache transaction /1917_accceadb from uid 1000 finished with success after 4473ms
Apr 03 21:09:31 PackageKit[3073]: get-updates transaction /1918_dbdebdcd from uid 1000 finished with success after 873ms
Apr 03 21:14:35 PackageKit[3073]: daemon quit
Apr 03 21:14:35 systemd[1]: packagekit.service: Deactivated successfully.
Apr 03 21:14:35 audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=packagekit comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Apr 03 21:14:35 systemd[1]: packagekit.service: Consumed 2.992s CPU time, 531M memory peak.
Apr 03 21:15:32 systemd[1]: Starting dnf-makecache.service - dnf5 makecache...
Apr 03 21:15:32 dnf5[4430]: Updating and loading repositories:
Apr 03 21:15:32 dnf5[4430]: Repositories loaded.
Apr 03 21:15:32 dnf5[4430]: Metadata cache created.
Apr 03 21:15:32 systemd[1]: dnf-makecache.service: Deactivated successfully.
Apr 03 21:15:32 systemd[1]: Finished dnf-makecache.service - dnf5 makecache.
Apr 03 21:15:32 audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=dnf-makecache comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Apr 03 21:15:32 audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=dnf-makecache comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Apr 03 21:15:32 systemd[1]: dnf-makecache.service: Consumed 357ms CPU time, 213.6M memory peak.
Apr 03 21:17:50 (udev-worker)[4441]: sr0: Process '/usr/sbin/pktsetup -i -d 11:0' failed with exit code 1.
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: diskerror_eventstore: 0x5643d8786a58
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Add. Sense: Read of scrambled sector without authentication
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 02 00
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 4096 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x880700 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Add. Sense: Read of scrambled sector without authentication
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 01 00
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 4096 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x800000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sr0, logical block 1024, async page read
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Add. Sense: Read of scrambled sector without authentication
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 04 01 00 00 01 00
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 4100 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x800000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sr0, logical block 1025, async page read
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: register inserted at db
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]: Calling ras_mc_event_opendb()
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]:            <...>-4274  [012] .....     0.000087 block_rq_error 2026-04-03 21:18:03 -0700
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: diskerror_eventstore: 0x5643d8786a58
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: register inserted at db
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]:            <...>-4274  [005] .....     0.000087 block_rq_error 2026-04-03 21:18:03 -0700
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: diskerror_eventstore: 0x5643d8786a58
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: register inserted at db
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]:            <...>-4274  [012] .....     0.000087 block_rq_error 2026-04-03 21:18:03 -0700
Apr 03 21:18:03 abrt-server[4448]: Not saving repeating crash in '/boot/vmlinuz-6.19.10-200.fc43.x86_64'
Apr 03 21:18:03 abrt-server[4449]: Not saving repeating crash in '/boot/vmlinuz-6.19.10-200.fc43.x86_64'
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: diskerror_eventstore: 0x5643d8786a58
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Add. Sense: Read of scrambled sector without authentication
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 01 00
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 4096 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x800000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sr0, logical block 1024, async page read
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Add. Sense: Read of scrambled sector without authentication
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 04 01 00 00 01 00
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 4100 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x800000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
Apr 03 21:18:03 kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sr0, logical block 1025, async page read
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: register inserted at db
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]:            <...>-4274  [005] .....     0.000087 block_rq_error 2026-04-03 21:18:03 -0700
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: diskerror_eventstore: 0x5643d8786a58
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: register inserted at db
Apr 03 21:18:03 rasdaemon[1203]:            <...>-4274  [005] .....     0.000087 block_rq_error 2026-04-03 21:18:03 -0700
Apr 03 21:18:03 abrt-server[4452]: Not saving repeating crash in '/boot/vmlinuz-6.19.10-200.fc43.x86_64'
Apr 03 21:18:03 abrt-server[4453]: Not saving repeating crash in '/boot/vmlinuz-6.19.10-200.fc43.x86_64'
Apr 03 21:18:04 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
Apr 03 21:18:04 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
Apr 03 21:18:04 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: diskerror_eventstore: 0x5643d8786a58
Apr 03 21:18:04 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Add. Sense: Read of scrambled sector without authentication
Apr 03 21:18:04 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 01 00
Apr 03 21:18:04 kernel: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 4096 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x800000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
Apr 03 21:18:04 kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sr0, logical block 1024, async page read
Apr 03 21:18:04 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
Apr 03 21:18:04 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
Apr 03 21:18:04 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 Add. Sense: Read of scrambled sector without authentication
Apr 03 21:18:04 kernel: sr 7:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 04 01 00 00 01 00
Apr 03 21:18:04 kernel: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 4100 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x800000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
Apr 03 21:18:04 kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sr0, logical block 1025, async page read
Apr 03 21:18:04 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: register inserted at db
Apr 03 21:18:04 rasdaemon[1203]:            <...>-4274  [005] .....     0.000087 block_rq_error 2026-04-03 21:18:04 -0700
Apr 03 21:18:04 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: diskerror_eventstore: 0x5643d8786a58
Apr 03 21:18:04 (udev-worker)[4445]: sr0: Process '/usr/sbin/pktsetup -i -d 11:0' failed with exit code 1.
Apr 03 21:18:04 rasdaemon[1203]: rasdaemon: register inserted at db
Apr 03 21:18:04 rasdaemon[1203]:            <...>-4274  [012] .....     0.000087 block_rq_error 2026-04-03 21:18:04 -0700
Apr 03 21:18:04 abrt-server[4463]: Not saving repeating crash in '/boot/vmlinuz-6.19.10-200.fc43.x86_64'
Apr 03 21:18:04 abrt-server[4464]: Not saving repeating crash in '/boot/vmlinuz-6.19.10-200.fc43.x86_64'
Apr 03 21:19:32 systemd[1]: Starting systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service - Cleanup of Temporary Directories...
Apr 03 21:19:32 systemd[1]: systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service: Deactivated successfully.
Apr 03 21:19:32 systemd[1]: Finished systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service - Cleanup of Temporary Directories.
Apr 03 21:19:32 audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=systemd-tmpfiles-clean comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Apr 03 21:19:32 audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=systemd-tmpfiles-clean comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'

(“Logitec” here is a Japanese PC peripheral brand, not to be confused with the “Logitech” better known worldwide)