In KDE 4.9.0, the panel sometimes loses transparency when logging in. This results in a brightly colored panel, which is distracting due to its strong contrast compared to the rest of the screen. The problem was not there with KDE 4.8.4. Desktop effects are enabled and OpenGL is active. This happens with a wide range of NVidia drivers, from older 295.* up to the latest 304.32. The drivers and hardware acceleration are all working correctly. I have the panel to the left of the screen. Changing its width sometimes brings transparency back. When resizing it back to near its original size, transparency is lost again. Moving to another screen edge also fixes it, but moving it back to the left makes it lose transp again. The desktop theme is "Air". Reproducible: Sometimes Steps to Reproduce: 1. I don't know how to reproduce. It just happens sometimes when logging in. I'd say about 40% of the time. Gentoo Linux 64-bit. Kernel 3.4.7. NVidia binary drivers (all versions) on a GTX 560 Ti. xorg-server 1.12.3.
I confirm this bug for my system: Arch Linux x68_64. If I delete ~/.kde4/cache-XXXXX/plasma_theme_default.kcache outside of KDE, when I log in again the theme is ok. However, in the change blur effect settings or in next logins the bug reappears. The bug also affects Krunner and many other plasma pop-ups (not all at the same time).
My system have an ATI HD5730 with Catalyst 12.6
(In reply to comment #1) > I confirm this bug for my system: Arch Linux x68_64. We need the exact KDE version for confirmation.
Sorry, Well, it was with 4.9. Right now, with 4.9.1 I still haven't seen the problem. Yet in 4.9 the issue was "intermittent", not always seen. I'l try to report if it happens again.
I didn't see this happening yet with 4.9.1 either (I'm using it since September 5). It looks like it's been fixed. Should I close this?
I would also say it's fixed.
It is not :( I've just rebooted and panel and plasmoids transparency is lost.
Thank you for the feedback.
It's back here too now. So it's still an issue.
Confirmed openSUSE 12.2 with KDE 4.9.3 and below with desktop effects enabled (OpenGL and Qt raster) it's a long existing "bug", randomly appears since I started using KDE in 2007 but is hard to trace what actually happened... sometimes you can make panel transparent again by adjusting its height. sometimes you have to restart plasma-desktop and adjust panel's height. someone on openSUSE forum said it's because panel fails to receive signal from Plasma, other on ArchLinux forum said it dues to blur effect... Marguerite
Problem persists in KDE 4.9.3.
I noticed it seems to happen when the free space on the partition is low (the threshold is around 1Gb here), and plasma_theme_default.kcache needs to be recreated (maybe just updated?) after a reboot. If anyone could confirm/infirm.
(In reply to comment #12) > [...] seems to happen when the free space on the partition is low [...] I have lots of space on my disks -- and am suffering from this bug regardless. I have only noticed this problem with the 'Air' desktop theme, and it is still present on KDE 4.9.3.
I can confirm this bug with KDE 4.9.3 on Gentoo (I have Nvidia, lots of free disk space, in the desktop effects settings: type OpenGL, Qt Raster, use OpenGL2 shaders, use vsync). Changing the height of the panel makes it transparent again, but if you change the height back to the previous (original) height, the panel is suddenly solid again.
This sounds like Plasma caches two different graphics (opaque and transparent) using the same cache key.
The problem started here about two weeks ago right after upgrading to KDE-4.9.4. I am using an openSUSE-12.2 distro on a MBP (64bit intel). KDER49 repository from OBS. Deleting the plasma cache files in the tmp filesystem and a relogin brings back transparency on the panel. But is is gone again after the next logout. This is 100% reprodceable for me. Plasmoids are not loosing transparency, just the panel.
I can confirm the bug with KDE 4.10.2, it started from update to 4.9 Arch x64, nvidia 9200 m gs with 313.30 driver I have a dual monitor setup with panel on the right. After reboot the panel loses transparency and window previews (shown when i place mouse pointer above window list in panel) are displaying text instead of a thumbnail. Relogin fixes this in most cases.
Created attachment 78708 [details] opaque panel This is how it looks like
Confirmed in 4.10.3 - archlinux x64, nvidia 319.17
dup of bug 179042 *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 179042 ***
(In reply to comment #20) > dup of bug 179042 > > *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 179042 *** This is not a dup, because resizing the panel to a different size restores transparency.
I have experianced this bug also on my Arch x86_64 system. KDE is 4.12.0, and I'm using an nvidia graphic card with proprietary drivers installed. As suggested by others, I have tried to move my panel on different screen sides or change its size, but the transparency didn't come back. The blur effect was on, but disabling it didn't help either. As final solution, I have logged out and back in and the problem was gone. The Air theme was only affected, the Air For Netbooks and Oxygen themes were fine.