KDE right click, desktop context menu difference between systems
 

I have several KUbuntu 20.04 LTS desktops. But one shows less 'options' than the others.

Here is the one:

KRunner
...
Customize Layout
Lock Screen
Leave
Configure Desktop


The others have:

Create New
Icons
Paste Clipboard contents
Undo Trash
Refresh Desktop F5
KRunner
...
Customize Layout
Lock Screen
Leave
Open with Dolphin
Configure Desktop


Ran into this and tried a few searches but came up blank. Any ideas how to fix? The one that has less options has been upgraded several times rolling thru several releases until 20.04 LTS where I landed. That is the only difference as the others were clean installs.

Perhaps the reduced menu is caused by something specific to that one login. Have you tried creating a new user or logging in as a different user? If that works, then there is some kruft in one of the user's config files. Possible in a file under $HOME/.config. That might be able to be narrowed down by diff'ing or by resetting settings to the defaults.

Thanks. Not sure why I didn't check that to begin with. The new user has the extended context menu. So has to be some config file specific to user.

{edited - still looking for which config where.... }

Found 'a' file that seems to affect it. .config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc .

If I replace the file (and change owner/permissions) with the other user the context menu shows up properly. But then all my icons are gone and replaced with some old ones (weird in that they don't show on the other users desktop..., but fixable) as well as the scaling decrease for the task bar. Ie. everything is tiny again (fixable). That's how I know it has something to do with the file. At the top where right button defined, they are exactly the same though.
So still at a lose still of what is actually causing the menu to downsize its items. I changed back the config file so my look and feel is back as everything is ok... except for the context menu of course :) . Still poking at the issue, but taking a break for awhile.

This is a shot in the dark, but, if you still have both versions of the plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc file, you could maybe do a diff or meld to compare them, then modify the one you wish to use in a text editor.

That way, you may be able avoid rebuilding your configuration. But, as always, keep backups.

Yeah, I would at least give that ago before starting from scratch. If you need a GUI side-by-side diff, there is KDE kompare.