# KDE not loading after system update

**URL:** <https://community.thinlinc.com/t/kde-not-loading-after-system-update/1820>\
**Category:** Community Support\
**Created:** [25 December 2025 18:05 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/kde-not-loading-after-system-update/1820 "2025-12-25T18:05:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mscroggi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8edcca/32.png) [@mscroggi](https://community.thinlinc.com/u/mscroggi)\
**Post date:** [25 December 2025 18:05 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/kde-not-loading-after-system-update/1820/1 "2025-12-25T18:05:52Z")

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I have been using KDE desktop over Thinlinc for quite a while.  
Recently there were some updates on the box and now I cannot get KDE plasma to start..

I can get to the profile selection menu.. I select kde… The kde splash logos display.. and I then end up with an all black display with the magnifier app (Magnus) window.. thats it.. no toolbar, menus etc.. all black.

I swear this came up once in the past…and I eventually figured out how to fix it.. but I cannot find any details.. so here I am trying to debug it again. I created a new user on the box and it DOES work for the new user.. so I know it is something in config/caching for my original user. I am running lightdm and everything seems to be fine. Other desktops work fine.. I can connect with XFCE just fine.. its just an issue with KDE.

I tried these things and nothing changed:

Connecting with ‘terminate existing session’

Checked Thinlinc sessions in a separate terminal on the host to see if multiple sessions were in play but only saw the one that is not working.

Clear existing kde configs with  
mv .kde .kde.bak  
mv .config .config.bak  
mv .local .local.bak  
rm -rf ~/.config/plasma\* ~/.config/kdeglobals ~/.config/kwinrc ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc ~/.config/plasmashellrc ~/.config/dolphinrc  
rm -rf ~/.cache/plasma\* ~/.cache/krunner ~/.cache/org.kde.dirmodel-qml.kcache

I am at a loss. I don’t know if it could be something that can be corrected via the Thinlinc apps or if its something in the Linux arena ..

Does anyone have any ideas? Any info would be greatly appreciated!..

 ![kde_probs](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/thinlinc/original/1X/9e0b0c95f59542e0178124e442e87d07850e1726.png)

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**Author:** ![aaron](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.thinlinc.com/aaron/32/13_2.png) [@aaron](https://community.thinlinc.com/u/aaron)\
**Post date:** [25 December 2025 22:13 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/kde-not-loading-after-system-update/1820/2 "2025-12-25T22:13:52Z")

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Nothing I’ve come across before unfortunately, but have you checked the log file at `/var/opt/thinlinc/sessions/<username>/last/xinit.log`? There might be some clues in there.

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**Author:** ![mscroggi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8edcca/32.png) [@mscroggi](https://community.thinlinc.com/u/mscroggi)\
**Post date:** [26 December 2025 16:19 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/kde-not-loading-after-system-update/1820/3 "2025-12-26T16:19:17Z")

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@aaron Thanks for that tip.. Thats some good info!.. I checked out the xinit log and frankly it’s a little hard to determine which reported error is meaningful to my issue. I compared it to the other account I created on the box (which doesn’t have the problem) and it seemed to mostly contain the same messages..

Thinking it was some startup file in the home directory.. I renamed / re-created an empty home directory and it still failed.

With your tip, I started messing with that sessions directory

I renamed folders in the session folder to - 10.1766759384.ended\_old 10.1766765024.ended 10\_old It still would not fix it.. Possibly all the subdirs are searched by Thinlinc for config data and renaming them didn’t actually take the data out of play?

I finally just renamed the entire user directory /var/opt/thinlinc/sessions/ and let thinlinc recreate it and VOILA!

I have no clue what data in the old folder was causing the problem.. but I got it working..

Whew! I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to get that resolved.. 😕

I appreciate your tip Aaron.

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**Author:** ![aaron](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.thinlinc.com/aaron/32/13_2.png) [@aaron](https://community.thinlinc.com/u/aaron)\
**Post date:** [29 December 2025 20:42 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/kde-not-loading-after-system-update/1820/4 "2025-12-29T20:42:00Z")

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Great to hear, thanks for letting us know. I’m not sure exactly what the issue was there, but glad you managed to solve it!
