Since the upgrade to 0.11 of plank, my "planks" are at the bottom. I believe all have IconSize=48 from an unknown source.
None of 3 installs has setting "3" in any ~/.config/plank for placement at the bottom of the monitor. All are "Position=2"
Indian summer with LXQT , the bottom has only juffed and pcmanfm as the "always on" icons. Starting a second plank goes up to the top as per .config/planks/dock1/ with Chromium, Abiword, mpv, imagemagick and Clementine as the base icons and are smaller i.e "IconSize=32"
~/.config/plank is populated by zdock2, lxqt and dock1 directories. zdock2 is a renamed dock1. dock1 has only the directory called launchers and has files for the icons found on the top. directory lxqt has launchers for the plank that appear on the bottom.
On a different computer in sdb is paint it black lxqt. /dock1 just contains launcher files. The plank on the bottom at start up contains the launchers from ./config/plank/lxqt with 48 size icons. Starting up a second plank leads to a superimposed plank also on the bottom with 32 size icons from the .../plank/lxqt config.
On the netbook is a debian testing (sparkylinux with plymouth and aptus "add ons" removed - no sparky repos used anymore) dock1 is the only directory in .config/plank. mutt, iceweasel and libreoffice are the icons. The config is set for plank to be on the top, however, it appears on the bottom.
In all 3 cases qterminal hides plank from being seen, mentioned for other programs on #plank.
Yes, I checked on UbuntuOne for this bug and have been watching at #plank.
I did more investigation. It never mentioned that ~/.config/plank is deprecated. I wish that their bugs at UbuntuOne were not listed with a lengthy "wishlists" at the top. Wishlists belong at the bottom.
They have gone to gsettings. apt-get -s remove plank in debian testing will remove 9 binariies.
In 0.10 there was a plank icon available which you could right click and edit for settings - or use cli. In 0.11 I get no plank icon.
Solution for me was to install dconf-tools and use dconf-editor. possibly dconf-cli might work.
edit: There is another way to edit your preferences. "plank --preferences" However for me, with qterminal full screen, it was not popping up, the gui stayed hidden behind other open windows.
Ctl-R click on the plank icon worked for me om 0.10. I lost the plank icon in 0.11 on all 3 machines.
Control - Right Klick brings you the settings