SUMMARY STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Set panel to auto-hide and set opacity to adaptive. 2. Open a window that is behind this panel OBSERVED RESULT Panel remains translucent EXPECTED RESULT Panel should become opaque SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Windows: KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.2 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.16.0 Qt Version: 6.9.1 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Probably adaptive setting is tied to "touching windows" and an auto-hide panel cannot technically touch a panel, but it would drastically improve legibility for people such as me who love transparency, so use the shell with disabled background contrast option, but would like the opaque setting, when windows are behind the panel.
Created attachment 183328 [details] Screenshot
I verify this behavior on git-master. What I observed is that the panel is still transparent both when - When a window is maximized - When a window is behind it but not maximized
Fixed by https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/new?merge_request%5Bsource_branch%5D=work%2Fniccolove%2F454950
Git commit fb800eb5240194cedb6de2eac5a06252686aa567 by Niccolò Venerandi. Committed on 26/08/2025 at 08:14. Pushed by niccolove into branch 'master'. Make adaptive transparency work for non-normal panels Previously, there was an exception that made all non-normal panels ignore adaptive transparency. This was implemented because the same variable was used by float/defloat behavior, and non-normal panels should never de-float. This commit separates the two behaviors, so that non-normal panels do implement adaptive transparency. M +14 -6 desktoppackage/contents/views/Panel.qml https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/commit/fb800eb5240194cedb6de2eac5a06252686aa567