empty launchers

[oldgeek]

Recently I've been having launcher issues. Several days ago, I lost the Recent Docs/Recent programs listings, which was not a big deal. After today's update (which crashed Discover, so I used the update twins commands) I lost all the listings of installed programs, except the favorites, which is why I can use the internet. Furthermore, I can't use the close X icon for windows, because they've disappeared as well. Is this a bug that came along with the updates, or do I have a more serious problem? I'm using a Kubuntu/Neon developer stable hybrid, still based on 16.04, which has never given me this type of problem before. Should I just wait for the next update? Or do I push the panic button? I do not have btrfs yet.

[oldgeek]

I tried to get into Discover in order to get the exact names of the programs installed so I could run them from the Run command on the screen, but Discover will not load at all.

[GreyGeek]

Use muon instead. It tells you what it is going to do before you commit to doing it. It has a history file on the "View" menu.
And for updates just pop open a Konsole and do the usual
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

[vinnywright]

Humm ,,,,I have pretty much the same setup ,,,,Neon-/dev/stable repo added to what was Kubuntu-16.04 and ran off todays updates right after reading this post , I do NOT have this problem .

do you have any other repo enabled? ,,,like a back port or landing or the such ?

you say Discover crashed ,,,,,,try this in a konsole

sudo dpkg --configure -a

this will run the configure process on any packages that did not get configured when the crash happened , if any.

do this ,,,,,again after that ,,,

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get  dist-upgrade

any errors ?

VINNY

you also say ,,,

Several days ago, I lost the Recent Docs/Recent programs listings

do you remember what you may have done to cause this ? if anything ,,,,,,,have you been starting any apps with sudo ?

[claydoh]

Have you logged out since doing any updates? If not, there may be some bits of the OS still loaded in ram that are the previous versions

Also , using a developer edition, even the "stable" one might still have bugs.

As you lost your program window's "X" button, etc, kwin has likely crashed. You can try restarting it like so:
hit alt-space key combo to open up Krunner. In the box that should appear, enter the following:

kwin_x11 --replace

and see of that brings things back. You can use this box to search for programs, too, even by broad searches -- typing 'internet' will show web browsers, for example. You can use it to log out, too, in the same fashion.

[oldgeek]

Vinny, I tried your suggestions and got this:

W: Target Packages (main/binary-amd64/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target Packages (main/binary-i386/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target Packages (main/binary-all/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-en_US) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-en) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target DEP-11 (main/dep11/Components-amd64.yml) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target DEP-11-icons (main/dep11/icons-64x64.tar) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target DEP-11-icons-hidpi (main/dep11/icons-64x64@2.tar) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target DEP-11-icons-large (main/dep11/icons-128x128.tar) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
N: Skipping acquire of configured file 'main/binary-i386/Packages' as repository 'http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb stable InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'i386'
W: Target Packages (main/binary-amd64/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target Packages (main/binary-i386/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target Packages (main/binary-all/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-en_US) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-en) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target DEP-11 (main/dep11/Components-amd64.yml) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target DEP-11-icons (main/dep11/icons-64x64.tar) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target DEP-11-icons-hidpi (main/dep11/icons-64x64@2.tar) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
W: Target DEP-11-icons-large (main/dep11/icons-128x128.tar) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list:3 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list:4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Discover still won't load (I can live with that), and Aptik, which I installed two days ago, also won't run, not even from the desktop Run command. But my X buttons are back as are my launcher lists, although Recent Programs cleans itself out after I turn off the computer. Last night I added Google Earth Pro to see if my installation processes were working and the program installed successfully, yet most of the messages above deal with Google Earth.

[vinnywright]

those warnings are just telling you you have google repo lists duplicates , and it tells you where ,,,,,,,,disable 1 of them .

VINNY

[oldgeek]

OK, I got rid of the extra repository. But Discover still won't start (segmentation fault). Might this be because my Plasma is now 5.12.90? Perhaps Discover is not yet compatible with this new Plasma (pre-5.13, I guess). Part of the fun of having a developer's edition of Neon, even a 'stable' one. Thanks for your interest and help.

[GreyGeek]

what does
sudo apt update
show?
Does it complain about any problems?

[oldgeek]

No, it just says it's skipping the 'acquire' of the i386 configured file since Google Earth no longer supports it. I suspect I'm probably missing a GUI file, as I uninstalled it then installed it again and may not have put in all the dependencies. I suppose once I go to the new 18.04 based Neon (or Kubuntu) I'll get it all back again if I can't figure it out now. In any case, there's always Muon and the command line.

[oldgeek]

I've just checked the KDE Neon forum and apparently I?m not the only one with this problem, so it must be that Plasma 5.12.90 has a bug in it which I presume will be worked out. So patience, Perseverence Furthers. Here's the link:

https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=309&t=152514