Common problems

Basic diagnostic steps for common Octlitch desktop, networking, package-management and hardware problems.

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

Collect basic system information

When reporting a problem, it is useful to include information about the system, kernel and desktop environment.

cat /etc/os-release

uname -r

fastfetch

Hardware information can be inspected with:

lspci -k

The system does not reach the desktop

If Octlitch stops during boot or remains on the splash screen, switch to a text console with:

Ctrl + Alt + F3

Check for failed system services:

systemctl --failed

Check the login manager:

systemctl status plasmalogin --no-pager -l

Inspect errors from the current boot:

journalctl -b -p err

To inspect the Plasma login manager specifically:

journalctl -b -u plasmalogin --no-pager

Check Plasma package versions

A partially updated Plasma stack can prevent the graphical session from starting.

rpm -q \
kwin \
kwin-common \
kwin-libs \
kscreenlocker \
plasma-workspace \
plasma-workspace-libs \
plasma-login-manager \
libplasma

Important Plasma components should belong to the same update level. If they do not, synchronize the installed Fedora packages:

sudo dnf distro-sync --refresh

Restart afterward:

sudo reboot

Discover is stuck on “Fetching updates”

Octlitch uses Flathub as its Flatpak application source.

Check configured Flatpak remotes:

flatpak remotes --show-details

A normal Octlitch installation should use Flathub. If an old Fedora OCI Flatpak remote is present and Discover hangs while refreshing it, disable that remote:

sudo flatpak remote-modify --system --disable fedora

If everything works correctly afterward, the unused remote can be removed:

sudo flatpak remote-delete --system fedora

Restart Discover:

killall plasma-discover 2>/dev/null || true
plasma-discover

Flathub is missing

Check available remotes:

flatpak remotes

Add Flathub for the current user if it is missing:

flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists \
flathub \
https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Flatpak applications will not update

Refresh and update installed Flatpak applications:

flatpak update

Remove unused runtimes afterward if required:

flatpak uninstall --unused

Show detailed remote information:

flatpak remotes --show-details

DNF cannot download packages

First check basic network connectivity:

ping -c 3 fedoraproject.org

Check DNS resolution:

getent hosts fedoraproject.org

Check enabled repositories:

dnf repolist

Clear cached repository metadata and try again:

sudo dnf clean all
sudo dnf --refresh makecache

Networking is not working

Check NetworkManager:

systemctl status NetworkManager --no-pager

Show detected network devices:

nmcli device status

Show active connections:

nmcli connection show --active

Restart NetworkManager if necessary:

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

DNS is not working

Check whether names can be resolved:

getent hosts fedoraproject.org

Check the resolver configuration:

ls -l /etc/resolv.conf
cat /etc/resolv.conf

If the system uses systemd-resolved, inspect its state:

resolvectl status

Graphics problems

Identify the detected graphics hardware and active kernel drivers:

lspci -k | grep -EA3 'VGA|3D|Display'

Check graphics-related kernel messages:

journalctl -b -k | grep -Ei 'drm|gpu|amdgpu|i915|xe|nvidia'

Check the current display session:

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

On a normal Octlitch Plasma session this should usually report:

wayland

NVIDIA driver problems

Verify that the NVIDIA packages are installed:

rpm -qa | grep -i nvidia

Check whether the kernel module is loaded:

lsmod | grep nvidia

Check NVIDIA status:

nvidia-smi

Check Secure Boot:

mokutil --sb-state

Rebuild the NVIDIA kernel module if necessary:

sudo akmods --force

See the dedicated NVIDIA chapter before making more extensive driver changes.

Audio is not working

Check the PipeWire user services:

systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber

Restart the audio services:

systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber

Available audio devices can also be inspected with:

wpctl status

Bluetooth problems

Check the Bluetooth service:

systemctl status bluetooth --no-pager

Restart it if necessary:

sudo systemctl restart bluetooth

Check detected Bluetooth devices:

bluetoothctl list

A Plasma setting is behaving incorrectly

Log out and sign in again first. This restarts the Plasma session without rebooting the entire machine.

For more detailed diagnostics, inspect user-session errors:

journalctl --user -b -p err

Plasma-related processes can be inspected with:

ps aux | grep -E 'plasmashell|kwin_wayland|kded6'

Check disk space

Package installations and updates can fail when the root filesystem is full.

df -h

Check Flatpak storage usage:

du -sh ~/.local/share/flatpak 2>/dev/null
sudo du -sh /var/lib/flatpak 2>/dev/null

View system logs

Errors from the current boot:

journalctl -b -p err

Kernel messages:

journalctl -b -k

Follow new system messages in real time:

journalctl -f

Reporting an Octlitch problem

If the problem appears to be specific to Octlitch, report it through the project's GitHub issue tracker.

Include the Octlitch release, relevant hardware information, commands you ran, error messages and the steps needed to reproduce the problem.

Do not include passwords, private keys, authentication tokens or other secrets in logs or screenshots.

Open the Octlitch issue tracker →