Hi,

my system is Arch Linux, x86_64 with systemd utilising the systemd.automount (see its man page for details).

When there are unaccessible network mounts during login from KDM, the workspace (plasma?) freezes for cca 10 seconds for each unaccessible share. In my case, it adds up to cca 1.5 minute. I can use skype or switch to console tty, but that is pretty much all.

After the time-outs expire, the workspace (incl. Dolphin) is responsive, it just immediately complains that it cannot access the network mount, when I try to do so.

I have found a similar issue posted three years ago:
viewtopic.php?f=66&t=102310&p=222911&hilit=unresponsive+workspace#p222911
However, in that case it was explained that it is a problem of kernel, which freezes for mounts which happen to be (temporarily) unaccessible. This is still a problem, but it occurs only when the CIFS share has already been really mounted and then the file server "disappears".

In my case, the kernel does not seem to cause troubles/freezes as long as the CIFS share has not yet been mounted (i.e. as long as the file server is down since the boot of my computer).

Any ideas re. possible solution or at least how to debug KDE to identify the bug candidate?

--
Here are some details:

I have some CIFS mounts in fstab like:

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//toillet/videos       /media/Videos           cifs   
credentials=/etc/cifscreds_toillet_mu,gid=users,iocharset=utf8,rw,multiuser,file_mode=0664,sec=ntlmssp,noserverino,noauto,x-systemd.automount       0 0

which are supposed to be mounted only when accessed. However, systemd creates autofs mounts even when the share has not yet been mounted:

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$ mount | grep /media/Videos
systemd-1 on /media/Music type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=26,pgrp=1,timeout=300,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct)

Once the folder /media/Music is accessed, systemd creates the real mounts on top:

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$ ls /media/Videos
Documentary  Family  Funny  Tests
$ mount | grep /media/Video
systemd-1 on /media/Videos type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=25,pgrp=1,timeout=300,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct)
//toillet/videos on /media/Videos type cifs (rw,relatime,vers=1.0,sec=ntlmssp,cache=strict,multiuser,domain=TOILLET,uid=0,noforceuid,gid=100,forcegid,addr=10.11.13.3,file_mode=0664,dir_mode=0755,nounix,noperm,rsize=61440,wsize=65536,actimeo=1)

By the way, when the remote fs is unaccessible since the boot of my computer (and therefore not mounted yet), the system responses immediately:

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$ ls /media/Video
ls: cannot access /media/Video: directory or file does not exist

I assume the problem is that KDE (Solid?) can see the preliminary autofs mount point and tries to access it. Instead of immediately failing, it times out for each share.

Sorry for bumping the post, it seems like I am the only one using systemd automounter and KDE

I will try other automounters and report back.

mount.cifs should default to "soft" mounting (and you've no "hard" option in that list afaics), thus not block.
I guess what tries to access this stuff is either the free space or the remote url notifier.

"kcmshell5 kded" (resp. "kcmshell4 kded") should allow you to stop/disable them to check this.
Stalls in kded may easily block system interaction (since applications may rely on certain daemons and/or try to interact w/ kded)

Thanks for the answer.

I tried to disable the two services (and then also bunch of others), but to no avail: the freeze still takes place.

EDIT: I switched to autofs and KDE Plasma stopped freezing during the log-in phase when the the network shares are not available. Extra benefit is that CIFS shares are not visible as available devices in Dolphin's left side-bar (it was pretty overcrowded in my case) (though there might be another solution to that issue, which I am not aware of atm).