I've installed KDE/Plasma5 (ver 5.17.0-1) as one of two other desktop environment (the other is XFCE) on my DELL XPS 8910, running archlinux. This is my first attempt with the KDE/Plasma5; I've always been partial to the simple and easy; hence XFCE had always been my go to DE. But this time I thought I'd check out this new toy.

I was beginning to like the KDE/Plasma5; I enjoyed discovering it's capabilities. And then suddenly I lost the lower panel. That was about two weeks ago. I have tried all sorts of solutions to try to get it back -- to no avail. I am here because I am hoping someone might be able to help me sort this out.


Here are some of the things I have already tried:
1) Created a new user.
2) Restarted the machine countless of times.
3) Restarted the plasmashell countless of times.
4) Removed entries from the ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc
5) Deleted the ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc.
6) Deleted and then re-installed the kde/plasma5 on my desktop (pacman -Rs
blah,).

None of the above worked. Indeed, item 6) above raises one additional question: how does one completely uninstall KDE/Plasma5?

TIA

m

Normally, you just need to right- click somewhere on your desktop and click Add Panel >> Default Panel.
But you are saying that even the new user does not have a panel?

Thx for your response, claydoh. And my apoolgies for the late response.

Yes. I have tried getting back my lost panel via the method you suggested. And that dd not work as well.

m

a few other ideas come to mind:

Do you have a dual monitor setup and the panel is on the wrong one, in auto-hide mode or with a wrong screen resolution?
Did you install additional themes or use another task manager (e.g. Latte Dock)?
Are the widgets locked which would also prevent restarting a panel?

I am running Plasma 5.17.1 here and have never had such a thing like a disappearing panel, you must have done something that caused it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGMjv7uwlKw