Plank dock not working at all [Solved]

[Catalin-]

Hello again community,

It seems that I have a problem with Plank Dock which I've been using for more than a year now.
I selected some options in preferences, the one which requires force/push/thrust mouse into the side of the monitor to make it stand out (I keep it on the left)

But now the dock is un-clickable. It does appear but I cannot left click it or right click it.
I did:
1. Reset KDE plasma from tweaks
2. sudo apt purge plank
3. sudo apt autoremove plank
4. Manually deleted config file from home
5. Uninstall/reinstall multiple times
6. Backrolled with timeshift a couple of days

Still the same, I cannot click it. What can I do?

Code: Select all

Snapshot created on: 20220901_2022
System:    Kernel: 6.1.0-7mx-ahs-amd64 [6.1.20-1~mx21+1] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-7mx-ahs-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet 
           splash init=/lib/systemd/systemd 
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.20.5 tk: Qt 5.15.2 info: plank wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: SDDM 
           Distro: MX-21.3_KDE_x64 Wildflower April 9  2022 base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: B365M H v: x.x serial: <filter> 
           UEFI: American Megatrends v: F3 date: 09/05/2019 
CPU:       Info: 6-Core model: Intel Core i5-9400F bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Kaby Lake note: check 
           family: 6 model-id: 9E (158) stepping: A (10) microcode: F0 cache: L2: 9 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 34798 
           Speed: 1152 MHz min/max: 800/4100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1555 2: 1602 3: 1636 
           4: 1636 5: 1779 6: 1600 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT disabled 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: mmio_stale_data mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled 
           Type: retbleed mitigation: IBRS 
           Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: IBRS, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling, 
           PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected 
           Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA TU117 [GeForce GTX 1650] vendor: Gigabyte driver: nvidia v: 525.116.04 
           bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1f82 class-ID: 0300 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.14 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: loaded: nvidia 
           display-ID: :0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3600x1080 s-dpi: 90 s-size: 1016x301mm (40.0x11.9") 
           s-diag: 1060mm (41.7") 
           Monitor-1: DP-0 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 90 size: 544x303mm (21.4x11.9") diag: 623mm (24.5") 
           Monitor-2: HDMI-0 res: 1680x1050 hz: 60 dpi: 90 size: 474x296mm (18.7x11.7") 
           diag: 559mm (22") 
           OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 525.116.04 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 200 Series PCH HD Audio vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a2f0 class-ID: 0403 
           Device-2: NVIDIA vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.1 
           chip-ID: 10de:10fa class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.1.0-7mx-ahs-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Gigabyte 
           driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d000 bus-ID: 07:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.13 TiB used: 593.73 GiB (51.4%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Kingston model: SA400S37240G size: 223.57 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> 
           rev: B1D2 scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-60WN4A1 
           size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD 
           rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> rev: 1A03 scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 70.11 GiB size: 68.45 GiB (97.64%) used: 23.91 GiB (34.9%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 512 MiB size: 511 MiB (99.80%) used: 580 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat 
           dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 
           ID-3: /home raw-size: 150 GiB size: 146.59 GiB (97.72%) used: 119.79 GiB (81.7%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 20 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 27.8 C mobo: 16.8 C gpu: nvidia temp: 50 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 0% 
Repos:     Packages: 2826 note: see --pkg apt: 2797 lib: 1552 flatpak: 29 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           3: deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/librewolf.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http://deb.librewolf.net/ bullseye main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/megasync.list 
           1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/meganz-archive-keyring.gpg] https://mega.nz/linux/repo/Debian_11/ ./
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
           2: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ bullseye ahs
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/onlyoffice.list 
           1: deb https://download.onlyoffice.com/repo/debian squeeze main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teams.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/ms-teams/ stable main
Info:      Processes: 296 Uptime: 6m wakeups: 0 Memory: 15.56 GiB used: 4.68 GiB (30.1%) 
           Init: systemd v: 247 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: UEFI

[Stevo]

Is it working if you create a new user with MX User Manager, log into that new account, and try the dock there? If so, there must be an additional configuration file you've missed in your own home folder.

[Stevo]

There's also the KDE native latte-dock you can try--we have the current 0.10.9 release in the MX 21 test repo, too.

[Catalin-]

Latte dock, from my experience, is very buggy and I had issues with it on multiple distributions before settling down on MX.

Is it working if you create a new user with MX User Manager, log into that new account, and try the dock there? If so, there must be an additional configuration file you've missed in your own home folder.

I created a new user and within it the dock works!

But I deleted - plank folders - from config and cache folders in home, what else is there left?

[CharlesV]

To my knowledge only .config, .cache and .localshare

You also might use MX Cleanup to see if there is a cache issue there. ( Application cache )

[Stevo]

Arch wiki has this info for Plank settings:

Although the preferences of each dock is stored in the dconf database and not in plain text, sometimes it makes sense to get and store that information anyway and then feed it back at some point. Eg. backing up the settings or migrating the settings, etc.

Therefore one may want to save all the docks:

$ dconf dump /net/launchpad/plank/docks/ > /path/where/to/save/plank/docks.ini

And then one may want to reload the saved settings:

$ cat /path/where/saved/plank/docks.ini | dconf load /net/launchpad/plank/docks/

So you could dump the new user's working plank settings, then reload them into your broken user's dconf database. Hope this works in the Debian ecosystem.

[Catalin-]

Thanks for the answers guys but in the end I went for a plasma panel on the left. I already had a top panel and plank was also on the left side.

Now it looks like I would be on Unity and that's okay with me. It fits my style and workflow. You have to love the customization of Plasma.

Can't wait for next MX release on Debian 12.