I've been having this problem with all installations since KDE 4.1. I should really change my nickname to Dances with Plasmoids.

What happens is this; after i log out of my system the icons and plasmoids on the panel at the top of my screen will play musical chairs and when i log back in they will be completely mixed up. A few are never affected (kicker/show desktop/quickacces). The rest could end up anywhere on the panel.
Ive deleted my .kde4 folder several times but the problem persists.
Is there any way to solve this or is this a know issue?

Im using KDE 4.3 QT 4.5 on Opensuse 11.1

Does it happen under a new user?

Just created a new user to test this and yes, it does happen with new users.

Can you reproduce under KDE 4.2? ( Or trunk if you can ) openSUSE has repositories in the Build Service for them.

bcooksley wrote:Can you reproduce under KDE 4.2? ( Or trunk if you can ) openSUSE has repositories in the Build Service for them.

I'm not going to revert back to KDE 4.2 (i'm on a slow connection for the coming weeks) but yes, i did have the same problem then. I installed the Opensuse 11.1 remix which comes with 4.2. I've had the problem with every release between 4.1 (where it was actually worse) and 4.3.

Oops. I was misreading your post.

Unfortunately I do not have many ideas on why this could be happening, however is your monitor being disabled before Plasma has finished shutting down? Also, which graphics drivers are you using?
You may also wish to verify you are actually running KDE 4.3, since YaST can select the updates repository over the OBS repos sometimes.

bcooksley wrote:Oops. I was misreading your post.

Unfortunately I do not have many ideas on why this could be happening, however is your monitor being disabled before Plasma has finished shutting down? Also, which graphics drivers are you using?
You may also wish to verify you are actually running KDE 4.3, since YaST can select the updates repository over the OBS repos sometimes.

"My Computer" says that i'm using
4.2.88 (KDE 4.2.88 (KDE 4.3 >= 20090527)) "release 127"
Should be KDE 4.3 no? Either way, things like this should not be happening. What are the OBS repos?

Is my screen being disabled before plasma **** down? I've no idea. I'm on a laptop, would that affect anything?

Graphics driver is 1.4 Mesa 7.2 for the intel 965GM chip.
Compositing (via Kwin) usually works without a hitch so i did not suspect the drivers.

Thanks for the help BtW, i would like to get to the bottom of this. It's the one serious issue i have with KDE4.

I've been noticing some other instabilities in plasma BtW. When i switch compositing on/off or change the desktop theme the top panel sometimes changes thickness. The colour of two of the plasmoids (CPU and Network) are also unstable. Usually the background lines are red, but sometimes they turn white (which i like better to be honest)

Which plasmoids do you normally use on your desktop? Your KDE install could still have outdated components since KDE is ABI/API compatible between releases ( regardless of what the "My Computer" says, it is just reading the KDELibs version, Plasma might be from KDE 4.2 for instance )

bcooksley wrote:Which plasmoids do you normally use on your desktop? Your KDE install could still have outdated components since KDE is ABI/API compatible between releases ( regardless of what the "My Computer" says, it is just reading the KDELibs version, Plasma might be from KDE 4.2 for instance )

The stock CPU and network status plasmoids, YAWP, a folder view and notes.
Here's a picture.
The plasmoids on the desktop are fairly well-behaved though, it's the ones on the top panel that play musical chairs.

EDIT: Oh, and if it helps, the desktop activity is a folder view.

Can you check that the two panels are colliding over the same section of screen real estate?

bcooksley wrote:Can you check that the two panels are colliding over the same section of screen real estate?

I don't understand, how can they collide? One is at the top of the screen, one at the bottom.

Oh, the bottom panel auto-hides while the top panel has been set to "windows go below"(great feature BtW). But i had the same when it was set to auto-hide and when it was set to "windows can cover".

Oh, I thought those Plasmoids on the side were on a panel. Oops.
You could try testing to see if removing one particular Plasmoid solves the moving about problem ( Although testing such as that will not be easy... )

bcooksley wrote:Oh, I thought those Plasmoids on the side were on a panel. Oops.

nope, just on a black background

bcooksley wrote:You could try testing to see if removing one particular Plasmoid solves the moving about problem ( Although testing such as that will not be easy... )

hmm, i'll give that a try i guess. Will let you know when i find anything.

Caracalla wrote:

bcooksley wrote:You could try testing to see if removing one particular Plasmoid solves the moving about problem ( Although testing such as that will not be easy... )

hmm, i'll give that a try i guess. Will let you know when i find anything.

I've tried various combinations of plasmoids but if there is a patter i do not see it. The plasmoids keep dancing no-matter what i do.

Is there any change if you delete the panel and re add it?