Bug 499585

Summary:	Dragging a rectangle handle snaps the rectangle itself to the mouse position
Product:	[Applications] Spectacle	Reporter:	Sybren Stüvel <sybren>
Component:	General	Assignee:	Noah Davis <noahadvs>
Status:	RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Severity:	normal	CC:	kde, kdedev
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	23.08.5
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Ubuntu
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Sybren Stüvel 2025-02-06 10:23:58 UTC

SUMMARY

When adjusting the rectangle to screenshot, by moving one of the handles, the edge/corner of the rectangle itself snaps to the mouse position.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Press PrtScr to open Spectacle
2. Configure it to capture a rectangular region
3. Draw a rectangle on the screen
4. Note the position of the top-left corner.
5. "Grab"  the top left handle (the dot) by pushing down the left mouse button with the cursor positioned on the dot.
6. Move the mouse by a pixel.

OBSERVED RESULT

The top left corner of the rectangle snaps to the mouse position.

EXPECTED RESULT

The top left corner moves by a pixel.

I expected that the offset between the handle and the rectangle would remain constant, and that any motion applied to the handle would be applied to the rectangle.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS

Operating System: Kubuntu 24.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.11
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.0
Qt Version: 5.15.13
Kernel Version: 6.8.0-51-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: offscreen
Processors: 32 × AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-Core Processor
Memory: 62.7 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080/PCIe/SSE2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Comment 1 TraceyC 2025-08-06 00:40:01 UTC

Thanks for the bug report.

However, Plasma 5.27.11 and Spectacle 23.08.5 no longer receive updates or maintenance from KDE; active versions are 6.4.3 (for both) or newer. Please upgrade to an active version as soon as your distribution makes it available to you. Plasma is a fast-moving project, and bugs in one version are often fixed in the next one.

If you need support for Plasma 5.27.11, please contact your distribution, who bears the responsibility of providing help for older releases that are no longer receiving updates from KDE.

If this issue is still reproducible in Plasma 6.4.3 (the latest released version), feel free to re-open this bug report.

Thanks for understanding.

Comment 2 Sybren Stüvel 2025-08-06 12:02:41 UTC

I'm a bit disappointed that this report is closed without any further inspection from the Plasma team. For me, as an outsider just running Plasma via Ubuntu's packaging, it's not doable to quiickly test with a new Plasma version (like I would download the latest version of Blender, for example). However, for the Plasma team it should be very easy to reproduce. Just press Print Screen and drag the rectangle.

If I want to reproduce, but don't want to change my system packages, what would be the recommended approach?

Comment 3 TraceyC 2025-08-06 16:54:51 UTC

(In reply to Sybren Stüvel from comment #2)
> I'm a bit disappointed that this report is closed without any further
> inspection from the Plasma team. For me, as an outsider just running Plasma
> via Ubuntu's packaging, it's not doable to quiickly test with a new Plasma
> version (like I would download the latest version of Blender, for example).

I understand your frustration. The Kubuntu maintainers, as the people responsible for maintaining these older versions of Plasma and Spectacle,  should be able to do the testing you're looking for. You can file a report with them directly
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kubuntu/Bugs/Reporting

> However, for the Plasma team it should be very easy to reproduce. Just press
> Print Screen and drag the rectangle.

While it may be technically possible for myself or other KDE maintainers to test this, the reality is that it would be  a large time sink to test and re-test things in unmaintained software versions that may already be fixed. We have limited time and people, so our focus is to investigate and fix bugs in current versions we maintain. If a distro makes the choice to ship older versions of software, they take on the maintenance burden of that choice.

> If I want to reproduce, but don't want to change my system packages, what
> would be the recommended approach?

Unfortunately, I don't find Spectacle available as a snap or flatpak.

The quickest option is to use a live ISO on your system, or create a VM with KDE Neon, which is built on Ubuntu but has the latest KDE software.

For the software you currently have installed from Ubuntu, the version provided to you is the one they feel comfortable shipping. If you feel that this version is too old long term, there are a few options:

Get a newer version of the software from Flatpak or Snap. This is the best solution for apps, but it not applicable for Plasma itself.
Use a PPA/COPR/OBS repo etc to overlay a newer version packaged from somebody else on top of your distro-provided version. This is not recommended as it tends to cause problems updating the system later.
Compile a newer version of the software yourself; see https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved/development. This is an advanced option that's not recommended for people who aren't software developers or technical experts.
Switch to a different distro and offers software updates on a faster schedule. This is often painful but generally the correct solution if you discover that the distro you chose doesn't have a software update schedule that matches your preferences.