This bug has plagued KDE for a while, and in some Plasma releases it's less common, but it resurfaces again nevertheless. Basically, at some point krunner can crash and it never comes back up until re-login.

Running krunner with strace in such cases shows that it's constantly waiting (possibly on some socket?):

Code: Select all

poll([{fd=5, events=POLLIN}, {fd=6, events=POLLIN}, {fd=13, events=POLLIN}], 3, -1) = 1 ([{fd=5, revents=POLLIN}])
read(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 16)         = 8
poll([{fd=5, events=POLLIN}, {fd=6, events=POLLIN}, {fd=13, events=POLLIN}], 3, -1) = 1 ([{fd=5, revents=POLLIN}])
read(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 16)         = 8
poll([{fd=5, events=POLLIN}, {fd=6, events=POLLIN}, {fd=13, events=POLLIN}], 3, -1) = 1 ([{fd=5, revents=POLLIN}])
read(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 16)         = 8
poll([{fd=5, events=POLLIN}, {fd=6, events=POLLIN}, {fd=13, events=POLLIN}], 3, -1) = 1 ([{fd=5, revents=POLLIN}])
read(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 16)         = 8
poll([{fd=5, events=POLLIN}, {fd=6, events=POLLIN}, {fd=13, events=POLLIN}], 3, -1) = 1 ([{fd=5, revents=POLLIN}])
read(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 16)         = 8
poll([{fd=5, events=POLLIN}, {fd=6, events=POLLIN}, {fd=13, events=POLLIN}], 3, -1) = 1 ([{fd=5, revents=POLLIN}])
read(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 16)         = 8
poll([{fd=5, events=POLLIN}, {fd=6, events=POLLIN}, {fd=13, events=POLLIN}], 3, -1) = 1 ([{fd=5, revents=POLLIN}])
read(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 16)         = 8


It happens to me in Debian testing, KDE Plasma 5.12.4. Is there an easy way to get it unstuck without re-login?

Any clues?

I've run into this (or similar) on occasion on plasma 4 (I've taken to using this as an indicator that I should update and restart, though it hasn't been that bad (yet)).

I'd recommend filing a bug to bugs.kde.org where the problem is more likely to get resolved/fixed.

There is apparently some major refactor work being done for krunner which should address this.

Still, I'd appreciate some workaround for the current problem until new krunner will fix it at some future time.