Can not disable desktop effects for "Transluency" and "Wobbly Windows"

Help
1

I just upgraded from KDE 6.5 to KDE 6.6.4.

How I have the problem, that the desktop effects for “Transluency” and “Wobbly Windows” don’t stay disabled, when I turn them off. They turn on again automtically when logging in.

Is this a bug or did I miss any other setting to keep these off?

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2

Just to be sure, you do know you have to hit the Apply button in the lower right corner after making changes?
In case you do use the Apply button, do changes at other effects stick, or do they also disappear again?

3

Yes, I am aware that I have to press “Apply”. And the effects then stay off - but only for the current session. As soon as I log out and log in again, the effects get enabled again.

4

To be sure, I tried it again:

  1. Turn desktop effects for “Transluency” and “Wobbly Windows” off and press “Apply”.
  2. The effects are off as expected.
  3. Logout
  4. Login again
  5. Now the effects are still off

Maybe I had to repeat this just often enough - this was the 4th or 5th time. All times before when I tried this, the effects always came back.

I’ll watch this and will report, if it happens again.

5

So, it works now after a couple times trying. Strange, it should work the first time.
But how about my question: do changes at other effects stick, or do they also disappear again?
:+1:

6

Well to troubleshoot, you can look at the kwinrc file, when you turn on/off translucency, you should see it change:

translucencyEnabled=true

It would also be helpful to mention what distribution you’re using… but that looks like a very big update, as if you’ve been missing quite a few in between… is that an LTS distribution?

7

The problem came back :frowning:

I tried to enable another effect to see if it stays enabled - this time “Fall Apart” for closed windows. And “Transluency” and “Wobbly Windows” where OFF when I did this and pressed “Apply”.

The current session was fine. But as soon as I logged out and logged in again, “Fall Apart” was still enabled - but same issue as before: “Transluency” and “Wobbly Windows” are also enabled again. And no, I really did not enable that manually.

8

I upgraded from KDE 6.5 installed on Kubuntu 25.10 using the upstream repositories from KDE to Kubuntu 26.04 LTS with KDE 6.6.

And checking ./config/winrc I can not see anything at all about these settings, eventhough the are enabled:

[Desktops]
Id_1=7d2dde43-39be-4914-9578-e49ae2674a4b
Number=1
Rows=1

[Input]
TabletMode=off

[Plugins]
shakecursorEnabled=false

[TabBox]
HighlightWindows=false

[Tiling][2ddd3945-6f7b-482c-b6ee-060a93fe78df][e0959805-d9a2-4b98-8141-ef540c383058]
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Tiling][5119a425-7664-4cac-b2b2-7c88a5472ba5][e0959805-d9a2-4b98-8141-ef540c383058]
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Tiling][598e1efe-31e3-563c-acd2-71a44f5dcb91]
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Tiling][7d2dde43-39be-4914-9578-e49ae2674a4b][]
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Tiling][7d2dde43-39be-4914-9578-e49ae2674a4b][2d2f65f6-d701-4262-8944-5e4ae98abde4]
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Tiling][7d2dde43-39be-4914-9578-e49ae2674a4b][63abe7cb-f11e-45c8-8593-15b8cdde60ac]
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Tiling][7d2dde43-39be-4914-9578-e49ae2674a4b][9de0aa8e-8a06-47a2-ba2c-35d3a46b1b49]
padding=4
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Tiling][7d2dde43-39be-4914-9578-e49ae2674a4b][cf30212c-ee51-437b-bc93-41c1306c55ac]
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Tiling][7d2dde43-39be-4914-9578-e49ae2674a4b][e0959805-d9a2-4b98-8141-ef540c383058]
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Tiling][a212626b-e870-43a8-9374-a47735570419][9de0aa8e-8a06-47a2-ba2c-35d3a46b1b49]
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Xwayland]
Scale=2

So having these effects enabled is the default if no other setting disables them?

9

I disabled the effects and can see the change in ./config/kwinrc - but it does not say =false but [$d]:

[Plugins]
shakecursorEnabled=false
translucencyEnabled[$d]
wobblywindowsEnabled[$d]
10

That looks wrong.. Can you make a bug report about this odd config?

11

I also disabled wobbly windows, and then relogged, and wobbly stayed off. Here’s the .config/kwinrc pertinent line. No other effects were changed.

[Plugins]
wobblywindowsEnabled[$d]

Edit: Have you tried to move aside .config and start fresh? It might help identify what type of interaction is occurring here. Kubuntu 26.04 release notes recommends this. If you try this, you can use something like meld or kdiff3 to merge back your tweaks.

12

Well, the whole ~/.config folder contains a lot of stuff, not only KDE related configurations. But I renamed ~/.config/kwinrc to ~/.config/kwinrc.old - and it did not change anything.

This file was created when I renamed the old one and logged out and back in:

[Desktops]
Id_1=d19838ab-5631-4341-9118-4c288db6c4c3
Number=1
Rows=1

[Tiling][d19838ab-5631-4341-9118-4c288db6c4c3][9de0aa8e-8a06-47a2-ba2c-35d3a46b1b49]
padding=4
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Xwayland]
Scale=2

Then I disabled “Show selected winow” in the task switcher and disabled “Transluency” and “Wobbly Windows” in the desktop effects:

[Desktops]
Id_1=d19838ab-5631-4341-9118-4c288db6c4c3
Number=1
Rows=1

[Plugins]
translucencyEnabled[$d]
wobblywindowsEnabled[$d]

[TabBox]
HighlightWindows=false

[Tiling][d19838ab-5631-4341-9118-4c288db6c4c3][9de0aa8e-8a06-47a2-ba2c-35d3a46b1b49]
padding=4
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Xwayland]
Scale=2

During the session it worked. However, when I login again, the effects are enabled again and the whole [Plugins] section is missing again:

[Desktops]
Id_1=d19838ab-5631-4341-9118-4c288db6c4c3
Number=1
Rows=1

[TabBox]
HighlightWindows=false

[Tiling][d19838ab-5631-4341-9118-4c288db6c4c3][9de0aa8e-8a06-47a2-ba2c-35d3a46b1b49]
padding=4
tiles={"layoutDirection":"horizontal","tiles":[{"width":0.25},{"width":0.5},{"width":0.25}]}

[Xwayland]
Scale=2
13

And as before: after I went through this procedure 3 times, the settings stay now. But I expect them to revert to the default sooner or later. Very strange.

14

Please report on bugs.kde.org

15

I submitted one here: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=519481

Since this is my first bug report for KDE, I hope it is ok this way.

16

Well, the whole ~/.config folder contains a lot of stuff, not only KDE related configurations. But I renamed ~/.config/kwinrc...

Well yes, but that’s why I recommended merging your configs back.

Before proceeding, my guess is if you have a directory called ~/.config/kdedefaults and that env|grep kf[56]-settings show that it is the first in the XDG_CONFIG_DIRS path list. What happens if you log out, set that directory aside, and the sign back in? If that fixes it, you might have a culprit.

This procedure might better identify what is going on:

  1. Create a brand-new user
  2. Copy all configs to a backup directory, e.g. cp -a ~/.config ~/.config.1
  3. Apply the change. Backup again, cp -a ~/.config ~/.config.2
  4. Relog and backup again, cp -a ~/.config ~/.config.3
  5. See if parameter sticks. If so, try to recreate what triggers the bad behavior.
  6. Use meld or kdiff3 to compare directories (.config, .config.1, .config.2, etc) and identify where things broke. Keep an eye on .config/kdedefaults, as something might be going on in there.
  7. Also, report the output of this: env |grep kf[56]-settings

The better one can isolate and report when the breakage occurs, and what data changed when it did, the faster and more likely it will get fixed.

A short-term hack that might work is to edit files like /usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kf5-settings/kwinrc. Any changes be overwritten during updates.

17

Just an update:

It also happens with a new user. Exactly the same behaviour - these two lines in ~/.config/kwinrc disappear after the second or third login with the new user account:

[Plugins]
translucencyEnabled[$d]
wobblywindowsEnabled[$d]

And after I logged in with the original user, the settings got reverted there as well again.

Output of env |grep kf[56]-settings:

XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/home/USERNAME/.config/kdedefaults:/etc/xdg:/usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kf5-settings

I will now do all copy/diff as well to see what changed beside the three lines in kwinrc.

18

It also happens with a new user

That is so odd. Thank you for looking into this. I can try here later with a different hardware platform.

19

Unfortunately, the problem is not easy to reproduce. I can log in multiple times without any issue at all - and at some point the settings get reverted.

However what always “work” is to enable the “Fall Apart” effect without enabling “Transluency” and “Wobbly Windows” followed by a logout and login again. Then the “Transluency” and “Wobbly Windows” will always get enabled.

I verified the files when “Fall Apart” was enabled but “Transluency” and “Wobbly Windows” were disabled. However more than 20 files differ between these two states, it’s a bit hard to isolate what exactly happens.

However in .kwinrc the change was like this:

First - OK:

[Plugins]
translucencyEnabled[$d]
wobblywindowsEnabled[$d]

Then I enabled the “Fall Apart” effect as well:

[Plugins]
fallapartEnabled=true
translucencyEnabled[$d]
wobblywindowsEnabled[$d]

And after logout and login again:

[Plugins]
fallapartEnabled=true

I will add the lines to disable the two plugins to ~/.config/kdedefaults/kwinrc, so it will be like this:

[TabBox]
LayoutName=org.kde.breeze.desktop

[Plugins]
translucencyEnabled[$d]
wobblywindowsEnabled[$d]

[org.kde.kdecoration2]
NoPlugin=false
library=org.kde.breeze
theme=Breeze

And then try to trigger the issue again by enabling the “Fall Apart” effect, logout, login etc…

20

I verified the files when “Fall Apart” was enabled but “Translucency” and “Wobbly Windows” were disabled. However more than 20 files differ between these two states, it’s a bit hard to isolate what exactly happens.

Thanks to your research, I think you can confidently state that this problem results from the writing of kwinrc on or before logout, and when that occurs, these local settings are omitted. Then on relog, your configs are not restored because they are simply gone. Values found later in the XDG_CONFIG_DIRS list are inherited instead as illustrated below:

#> /home/dev/.config # This is where your kwinrc setting used to be

sed 's/:/\n/g' <<< "${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS}";

# This is where local default are saved by kde
#> /home/dev/.config/kdedefaults

# Some system configs further up the list
#> /etc/xdg

# Kubuntu defaults; kwinrc is here among others
#> /usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kf5-settings

A summary of this would probably be good to add to the KDE bug ticket.