Hey everyone! I'm experiencing a weird problem and could really use some help. While I was working today on my Fedora 43 KDE system (kernel version 6.19.8-200), I clicked on a 'contact mail' link on a business website, and out of nowhere, a bunch of pop-up windows started appearing, asking for authorization to reach that email. Even after rebooting and uninstalling Firefox, LibreWolf, Kwrite, and Calibre, the pop-ups just keep coming, now even in LibreOffice. Is there a way to permanently stop this process using the command line, or will I need to install antivirus software to resolve this? Just a quick note: I'm using an ASUS VivoBook X411U with an Intel Core i7-8550U and 12 GB of RAM on a 1 TB SSD. Thanks!
1 Answer
Uninstalling apps with the package manager doesn't clear out user settings, so make sure to check your home directory for any old config files. But honestly, this behavior is unusual. You could use some antivirus tools, although I doubt they'll fix the underlying issue.
Also, have a look in your autostart directory to spot anything suspicious that might be set to launch on startup. To figure out what processes are running, you can use the `ps` command, though it won’t kill processes itself. It's possible this could be a KDE feature like notifications going haywire. As a test, try creating a new user account and see if the issue happens there!
I attempted to monitor the processes with the `top` utility, but nothing showed any signs of causing these pop-ups.
I made a new user, and thankfully, there aren’t any pop-up problems at all on that account. I also checked my autostart directory and didn’t find anything unusual there, even after further inspection.