Bug#1142512: Updating plasma-workspace restarts plasma session, even if it wasn't running in the first place

Hefee <[email protected]> Tue, 21 Jul 2026 18:08:43 +0200
Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.qt-kde
Message-ID	<2103681.PIDvDuAF1L__22277.4283889279$1784650288$gmane$org@tuxin>
Hey,

I could update without any issue - but actually just luck ;) 
Properly because I use a "su -" session to run the upgrade and cannot 
interact with the user systemd and root has no plasma workspace running.
The upgrade from -2 -> -4:

plasma-workspace (4:6.7.2-4) wird eingerichtet ...                                                                     
plasma-baloorunner.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.                                
plasma-core.target is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.                                                                                                                                                                plasma-gmenudbusmenuproxy.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.                                                                                                                                                 
plasma-kcminit-phase1.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.                             
plasma-krunner.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.                                    
plasma-ksplash.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.                                    
plasma-restoresession.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.                             
plasma-startupsound.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.                               
plasma-workspace-wayland.target is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.                           
plasma-workspace-x11.target is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.                               
plasma-workspace.target is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.                                   
plasma-xembedsniproxy.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.                             
Could not execute systemctl:  at /usr/bin/deb-systemd-invoke line 148.   

The underlying issue is that with Debhelper 14 all user sessions get restarted. The upgrade checklist actually tell this for v14:

The dh_installsystemduser tool will default to enabling systemd user units, 
start them on installation, restart them on upgrades and stop them on uninstalling the package.

From the postinst script this got added:

# Automatically added by dh_installsystemduser/14.3
if [ "$1" = "configure" ] || [ "$1" = "abort-upgrade" ] || [ "$1" = "abort-deconfigure" ] || [ "$1" = "abort-remove" ] ; then
·       if [ -z "$DPKG_ROOT" ] && [ -d /run/systemd/system ]; then
·       ·       # Here we reload synchronously, as we really need to block in
·       ·       # order to ensure the following restart also works. Furthermore,
·       ·       # if there is no D-Bus user session, the restart won't work either,
·       ·       # so there's no point if falling back to signals - so either both
·       ·       # of these operations work, or both fail.
·       ·       deb-systemd-invoke --user daemon-reload >/dev/null || true
·       ·       deb-systemd-invoke --user restart 'plasma-baloorunner.service' 'plasma-core.target' 'plasma-gmenudbusmenuproxy.service' 'plasma-kcminit-phase1.service' 'plasma-kcminit.service' 'plasma-krunner.service' 'plasma-ksmserver.service' 'plasma-ksplash.service' 'plasma-plasmashell.service' 'plasma-restoresession.service' 'plasma-startupsound.service' 'plasma-workspace-wayland.target' 'plasma-workspace-x11.target' 'plasma-workspace.target' 'plasma-xembedsniproxy.service' >/dev/null || true
·       fi
fi

Regards,

hefee
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