Bug 417157

Summary: colord-kde's functionality only works to a very limited extend on Xorg
Product: [Applications] systemsettings Reporter: David REVOY <info>
Component: kcm_colordAssignee: Daniel Nicoletti <dantti12>
Status: CONFIRMED ---    
Severity: major CC: abhinav, bob.cauthen, dantti12, laguest, marius.parazols, nate, natrinicle-kdebugs, odin.vex, plasma-bugs, postix, xaver.hugl
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: unspecified   
OS: Linux   
See Also: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=433068
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments: Screenshot of the warning/orange tool tip.

Description David REVOY 2020-02-04 16:57:03 UTC
Hi,

I ran various test on Ubuntu based KDE desktop (KDE Neon and Kubuntu 20.04LTS, full install) to get an idea of the state of Plasma for artist/graphist; and it looks like color-management is broken.  On the bright side, the module still appears on the Settings manager and all the GUI buttons still appears and are clickable. What doesn't work more precisely is the core of the module:

- Calibrate a monitor and create a new ICC doesn't work: it launches the wizard (a dialog similar to Gnome2/MATE/Cinnamon) and after replying to the questions/options and pressing 'next' a couple of time to reach the final button, it finally failed and wasn't able to identify the monitor.

- Load/Assign an existing ICC profile to a monitor wasn't working either: The ICC are listed correctly as child of the monitor in the GUI tree, the checkbox can be switched active/inactive to a target profile; but switching and applying it has no consequences on the appearance on the color of the monitor. It also doesn't launch anything at new start-up. (ICC profile created with DisplayCal, ex DispCalGUI, a software who propose to copy the ICC after creation to colord).

So, it feels the module is in a zombie mode; just a GUI without any possibility to use it. It builds, appears on settings as something functional but offers no functionalities. Does someone know how to repair it? That would be great!
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2020-02-05 21:44:58 UTC
> So, it feels the module is in a zombie mode
It probably is. :/
Comment 2 Marius Parazols 2020-03-12 11:45:21 UTC
Hi,

I have similar experience on Kubuntu 18.04 (two monitors, Nvidia GPU with proprietary drivers). :(

I'm using DisplayCal for calibration on both screen but it is returning an error with colord when I try to apply the generated ICC profiles to my monitors (applying system wide or just for my session).

Note that the ICC profiles are fortunately both applied on session startup (DisplayCal seems to have created an entry in "Automatic startup" where I can see : "DisplayCAL ICC Profile Loader" with this command "0launch --console --offline --command=run-apply-profiles http://displaycal.net/0install/DisplayCAL.xml").

Unfortunately I think that I've zero technical knowledge here but I will gladly help with information if needed! :)
Comment 3 David REVOY 2020-08-07 08:53:55 UTC
Created attachment 130700 [details]
Screenshot of the warning/orange tool tip.

I'm reporting a bit of progress here: 

The bug fairy fixed half of the report: Load/Assign an existing ICC profile do works now on Kubuntu 20.04 (full install).

Calibrate a monitor doesn't: A tooltip complain with the message "You need Gnome Color Management installed in order to calibrate devices". I guess the GUI look for gnome-color-manager. But even after a:
$ sudo apt install gnome-color-manager libcolord-gtk1 argyll colord-kde
...a reboot, and plugin my colorimeter -- I still have this message.
Comment 4 Nate Bohman 2020-12-18 18:52:55 UTC
Looking for an answer to this I stumbled across a site that said colord-kde relies on gcm-calibrate from the gnome-color-management. It appears that Richard Hughes removed the calibration tools from this package with the commit

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-color-manager/-/commit/5a1bf35e30ff689c727222fae1f31b0d4be4ae9d

Debian Buster has gcm-calibrate but Debian Bullseye doesn't to give an idea of when it was removed from distro packages.

From the README on the gnome-color-management repo it looks like they're relying on ArgyllCMS to do the calibration going forward.
Comment 5 laguest@archeia.com 2021-04-18 17:08:47 UTC
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=433068
Comment 6 postix 2023-01-16 16:53:32 UTC
Can confirm that this module is rather useless (on openSUSE TW) and the only thing which works, is displaying the list of currently installed color profiles.
Comment 7 Odin Vex 2024-01-22 15:11:38 UTC
I swapped out a graphics card (same model, different vendor (AMD->ASUS (AMD)) and now no profiles load, I can't assign or remove, no devices show an associated profile. I have to assign it via shell. *sigh*
Comment 8 postix 2024-01-22 16:59:59 UTC
I guess this issue has been fixed by moving the setting to kscreen in Plasma 6.0? @Zamundaaa

[1] https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/4555
Comment 9 postix 2024-01-22 17:00:37 UTC
* ...plus heavy refactoring.
Comment 10 Nate Graham 2024-01-22 17:03:07 UTC
Depends on how you look at it. This bug report is about colord-kde, which only works on X11. The new thing you're referring to is Wayland-only, and isn't related to colord-kde. So in principle, their features, limitations, and bugs will differ.
Comment 11 Odin Vex 2024-01-22 17:05:25 UTC
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #10)
> Depends on how you look at it. This bug report is about colord-kde, which
> only works on X11. The new thing you're referring to is Wayland-only, and
> isn't related to colord-kde. So in principle, their features, limitations,
> and bugs will differ.

I keep seeing "only works on X11" but I've been running Wayland out of box for nearly 4 years and had no issues with colord-kde "working". No X11 server installed (X over Wayland if I recall). It's only since swapping out a GPU from one vendor to another (same model GPU) that I have to use colormgr now because the UI won't enable "Assign Profile".
Comment 12 Nate Graham 2024-01-22 17:09:10 UTC
It was not designed to work on Wayland and anything that does work is accidental. Regardless, that's not relevant here since the point is that for Wayland we have a totally new thing that does not involve colord-kde at all.
Comment 13 postix 2024-01-22 17:09:48 UTC
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #10)
> is about colord-kde, which only works on X11

Oh I always thought it's simply broken - also on Wayland as it it's displayed there in the System Settings without a hint that it's supposed to work only under X11.
Comment 14 Odin Vex 2024-01-22 17:51:17 UTC
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #12)
> It was not designed to work on Wayland and anything that does work is
> accidental. Regardless, that's not relevant here since the point is that for
> Wayland we have a totally new thing that does not involve colord-kde at all.

I hope it works at the login screen, I really need it for some displays.
Comment 15 abhinav 2024-03-22 08:34:38 UTC
colord-kde, if I understand correctly, creates an ICC profile from EDID data on startup. I don't think the Wayland implementation has this functionality yet. Maybe this should be preserved or ported over? Not sure if a new issue should be made for this so I am posting here.
Comment 16 Zamundaaa 2024-05-22 13:23:33 UTC
I think it would be good to clarify what this bug report is about. Is it about colord not working on Xorg, or it not working on Wayland?
If it's the latter, that is fixed by KWin no longer having colord integration and instead supporting ICC profiles directly, and this bug report should be closed.
Comment 17 David REVOY 2024-05-22 13:28:50 UTC
@Zamundaa: In all the case, it was related to Plasma 5.x and X11. A similar feature doesn't exist ( possibility to Profile and Calibrate from the System Settings) in the current Wayland panel to apply color profile. Afaik, the new system can only apply an existing profile to a device.
Comment 18 Odin Vex 2024-05-22 13:36:28 UTC
REVOY is correct as far as I've been able to tell. When I first upgraded to KDE 6 I couldn't get Color Management to even work as it did (with Wayland, it worked on my system for some reason). Instead I -accidentally- found color profile assignment in the Display Configuration settings. Color Management is where any/all of that should be, just like every other system. This way we can calibrate/assign profiles to any/all devices, not just displays. I'm not sure who moved it and why but it makes no sense whatsoever to put the option on the Display Configuration and only for displays.
Comment 19 Odin Vex 2024-05-22 13:37:37 UTC
I'd angle for ColorD-KDE to be updated supporting Wayland just as it used to X11 and continue to use Color Management as a means to change display/device calibration, just as it's always been used.
Comment 20 Zamundaaa 2024-05-22 13:55:22 UTC
(In reply to David REVOY from comment #17)
> @Zamundaa: In all the case, it was related to Plasma 5.x and X11
Okay, then let's keep this open.

> A similar
> feature doesn't exist ( possibility to Profile and Calibrate from the System
> Settings) in the current Wayland panel to apply color profile. Afaik, the
> new system can only apply an existing profile to a device.
Display settings will have a way to profile the displays, once argyllcms doesn't rely on X11 gamma ramps anymore and can produce correct profiles on Wayland - or we have an alternative.

(In reply to Odin Vex from comment #18)
> REVOY is correct as far as I've been able to tell. When I first upgraded to
> KDE 6 I couldn't get Color Management to even work as it did (with Wayland,
> it worked on my system for some reason). Instead I -accidentally- found
> color profile assignment in the Display Configuration settings.
Colord support for displays will not be revived for kwin_wayland, as its way of operating is inherently incompatible with the per-surface color management system in Wayland and it causes apps to produce wrong colors.

> Color Management is where any/all of that should be, just like every other system.
> This way we can calibrate/assign profiles to any/all devices, not just
> displays. I'm not sure who moved it and why but it makes no sense whatsoever
> to put the option on the Display Configuration and only for displays.
For now, the colord settings page will stay in place for non-display devices, but I don't think keeping it that way makes a lot of sense in the long term. People don't configure the abstract "color management" concept, they configure a display, or a printer, or a scanner, and the color management settings for them should be in the settings pages for those devices.
Comment 21 Odin Vex 2024-05-22 13:57:05 UTC
Joy, more 'find the thing you're looking for' to go through. KDE's settings is a marvel mess as it is.
Comment 22 David REVOY 2024-05-22 14:08:58 UTC
> > @Zamundaa: In all the case, it was related to Plasma 5.x and X11
> Okay, then let's keep this open.

I think this issue can be closed, as I don't think a Plasma 5.27.x point release (can it still happen? for LTS operating systems?) will reopen a complex topic like this one and invest time in fixing a Colord/X11/Plasma5 dilema opened in 2020 :-)

Let's hope argyllcms will quickly move on this topic.