Bug 505844

Summary: With multiple stacked panels on one screen edge, any that are Auto-Hide or Dodge Windows will overlap with visible panels
Product: [Plasma] plasmashell Reporter: xLasTRoniNx
Component: PanelAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED INTENTIONAL    
Severity: minor CC: nate, niccolo.venerandi, q23456yuiop, st.hayes, v3q6ifmfj
Priority: NOR Keywords: regression
Version First Reported In: 6.4.0   
Target Milestone: 1.0   
Platform: Arch Linux   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments: in edit mode panels show correctly side by side
panels automaticaly overlaps another one

Description xLasTRoniNx 2025-06-20 14:29:13 UTC
After the latest update for Plasma 6 my panels started differently. Before the update I was using 2 panels stacked at the bottom, I was using one the panel as a normal taskbar and the other on top of it as dock. I was doing it because there no default dock widget in KDE plasma 6 and there was no updated plugin dock widget either. I was able to use it like this for months. The way the dock panel behaving was dodge windows and it was working perfectly but after the update it is completely broken now. What is happening is now is dock panel is getting right on top of the bottom taskbar instead of standing higher in like a floating position. No matter what setting I changed it does not work like how it used to work before. So my dock is just obstructing the taskbar now. I also noticed a lot my plugins are not working anymore such as snap helper  with this update too.
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2025-06-20 16:36:32 UTC
Can reproduce with the issue with this specific setup
Comment 2 q234rty 2025-06-20 17:44:49 UTC
For me, the panels on the same side of the screen overlap even when both are set to "always shown".
Comment 3 v3q6ifmfj 2025-06-20 19:32:33 UTC
Created attachment 182442 [details]
in edit mode panels show correctly side by side
Comment 4 v3q6ifmfj 2025-06-20 19:33:11 UTC
Created attachment 182443 [details]
panels automaticaly overlaps another one
Comment 5 v3q6ifmfj 2025-06-20 19:33:56 UTC
same here: two panels should be side by side, but after 6.4 they overlap each other
Comment 6 Nate Graham 2025-06-26 13:29:26 UTC
I talked with the developers, and unfortunately this was an intentional change.

The problem is this: with the current infrastructure, it's impossible to support the use cases of "adjacent panels sharing a screen edge" and "stacked panels sharing a screen edge" at the same time. In Plasma 5, we only supported adjacent panels, but then later, starting in Plasma 6, we only supported stacked panels. That garnered a *lot* of complaining, so for 6.4, we went back to only supporting adjacent panels.
Comment 7 Steve 2025-07-09 18:16:08 UTC
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #6)
> I talked with the developers, and unfortunately this was an intentional
> change.
> 
> The problem is this: with the current infrastructure, it's impossible to
> support the use cases of "adjacent panels sharing a screen edge" and
> "stacked panels sharing a screen edge" at the same time. In Plasma 5, we
> only supported adjacent panels, but then later, starting in Plasma 6, we
> only supported stacked panels. That garnered a *lot* of complaining, so for
> 6.4, we went back to only supporting adjacent panels.

That's unfortunate. Prior to upgrading from 6.2 to 6.4, I had a nice classic Windows taskbar feel with a quicklaunch bar neatly stacked above it. Upgrading has forced me to either make my quicklaunch auto-hide, or put it on a different screen edge.

I do hope the devs are able to combine both functions some day, and have some sort of toggle for individual panel behaviour.