Summary

  • Chromium 154 creates broken fontconfig cache symlinks, causing KDE Plasma/Qt apps to crash.
  • Symptoms: plasmashell/panel crashes, lock screen issues, and browser lockups reported.
  • Fix: update your Chromium-based browser and system; patch pushed; clear ~/.cache/fontconfig if needed.

If you use KDE on Linux and have noticed it crashing more often than usual, you're not alone. As it turns out, a bug caused people using a Chromium-based browser with KDE Plasma to run into some pretty nasty issues.

Fortunately, it seems a patch has just been pushed out, so update your system and see if that fixes the problem.

Chromium 154 is causing issues with KDE Plasma due to a fontconfig cache bug

Give everything an update for a fix

On the Linux subreddit, a Redditor who goes by the amazing name "vvvwwwwvvwwwvwvvwvvw" posted about what's happening with Chromium-based browsers. It turns out that a recent update to the browser tech is making KDE Plasma's apps crash due to the fontconfig cache:

Spent a good part of today trying to figure out why my KDE Plasma suddenly started breaking.

Plasmashell would crash, the panel would disappear, and I also had issues with the lock screen. Restarting plasmashell brought it back, but the problem could return after reboot/login.

Turns out there is a recent Chromium 154 bug where it creates broken fontconfig cache symlinks in ~/.cache/fontconfig, with older cache names pointing to cache-12 files. KDE/Qt apps can then crash inside fontconfig.

Remember, this is for Chromium browsers, not just Chrome. So if you use a Chromium-based browser (like Brave or Opera), you may also see issues with version 154. Personally, I experienced my entire browser lock up today, something that has never happened before in my months of using KDE Plasma. Time for an update, I think.