Features request and bug report from a new user

Hello :penguin:s. I’m newbie in KDE. Had been using version 5 for a year previously and recently installed EndeavourOS with Plasma 6 (using Wayland). It has become much better (HDR support, normal fractional scaling, also want to mention a convenient clipboard manager, settings indexation in Krunner, smooth and appealing window minimizing/maximizing animations and a Russian keyboard with Ukrainian and Belarusian letters, which allows me to have a fewer number of keyboard layouts at the same time and more easily switch between them). I can say KDE’s feature-rich, minimalistic (simplistic) and intuitive at the same time.

I have some problems, though some of them are not related to KDE, like:

  1. In hybrid mode after typing the password everything gets frozen, including pointer (for example, after closing and opening lid or just starting a new session). My workaround so far is using integrated graphics mode. AFAIU it’s related to incompatibility with Nvidia. Same problem remains with any distro I tried (e.g. Ubuntu) and with different laptops (primarily, Lenovo).
  2. Sound is much worse than in Windows as it’s from garage. Also it’s very quiet (12% in Windows is 35% here, 18% there is 50% here).
  3. I have notifications (with sound) set in browser and they not always come with sound. Sometimes it’s very cut-off, I only hear a little noise or just the last milliseconds of the notification or nothing at all. But sometimes they are ok with no changes beforehand. Using Pipewire as by default. It feels like sometimes it’s not enough time to start playing the notification sound (like there is a delay) and that’s why it’s sometimes either only the last part of it or nothing at all.

Feature request:

  1. Add an option to disable animations of “Thumbnail Grid” Task Switcher (and others) in the Task Switcher settings. Because when I alt+tab to not previous but some older task which I don’t remember where it is now in the grid, I need to see its thumbnail (or icon), but since there is an animation (grid enlarging), I need to wait until grid is fully seen and only then see where the app I want to switch to is. Yes, it’s just some milliseconds of time, but it’s not convenient to use it like this, task switcher is supposed to be fast so you can switch tasks instantly. Second reason why I need this option is because when I choose the task I want to switch to using its thumbnail and want to use it right away I still need to wait for the animation (grid decreasing) to end, but I don’t need this animation, I already chose the task and want to see it right away.
  2. Not very important. Add “Icons” Task Switcher. There is “Large Icons” one, but I want icons to be smaller, more space between and no text (task name) under them. Something similar to Ubuntu’s task switcher.

Small features request:

  1. Make Icons-only task manager be in the middle of the panel by default (but leave application launcher on the left).
  2. Disable “Shake cursor” by default. Feels odd.
  3. Make switching keyboard layouts with super + spaceby default (like in MW). Now it’s 3 keys, which is inconvenient for new users.
  4. Spectacle: “last-used capture mode” and “quit after manual save or copy” on by default. So that screenshoting becomes easy. Shift+super+s → choose area → copy → done (no need to close anything).
  5. Floating panel off by default. Don’t see any point why it’s better than regular. Design-wise it’s odd too.
  6. When calling the application launcher remove its icon highlighting (but sadly it breaks UI consistency).
  7. Overall, design is a little off (mostly gaps and rounding). Somewhere gaps are too little, somewhere too big (like, in calendar).
  8. The default application launcher is a little bloated. Doubt too many people use “Places”. Categories are a little off too. What’s really needed: all apps, search, favorites and power actions (shut down, hibernate, etc.). You can remove the left column (with categories and everything else), move hidden power actions to the freed up space in the bottom panel (where were Applications and Places tabs) and move Favorites and All Applications tabs to the new top panel. User icon is a little off too.
  9. Add a new “application” launcher with just power/log (shut down, hibernation, logout, etc.) options in a vertical list (because search is already available with Krunner and favorite apps can be pinned in the bottom panel).
  10. Remove window previews when hovering over tasks in the bottom panel by default. It’s redundant.

Bugs:

  1. Sometimes when I choose a clipboard entry to use and press ctrl+V in Kate it won’t be pasted, but in Firefox and other places will. And If, say, I paste it in Firefox address bar and copy it from there then it will be pasted in Kate. So, Kate somehow doesn’t always work good with the clipboard manager.

  2. It’s probably not really a bug but rather not polished behavior. So, if Bluetooth service is not started and I turn on the Bluetooth toggle in settings, the toggle will turn off by itself. If Bluetooth service is started then the toggle works fine. So there are only the following states of toggle+bluetooth system:

  • Bluetooth service off, toogle doesn’t work
  • Bluetooth service on, toggle works. But then what’s the purpose of this toggle if it doesn’t really do anything in background, it’s just a UI?

The ideal behavior is: I switch the toggle - Bluetooth service is alsao toggled (either started or stopped). So bluetooth UI toggle and bluetooth service correspond to each other. If switching the toggle requires typing a password in a special window, then it’s ok. It’s anyway better than typing it after having started bluetooth service via systemctl in terminal, because in this case this UI is redundant (it should not be able to switch if it doesn’t switch the bluetooth service state).

  1. Some notifications don’t have a timer. So they are there until you close them manually.

  2. In GTK apps, e.g. Bottles, the pointer becomes big and pixelated (like, 200% or 400%).

Hi!

If you’re generally wanting the application transition process to happen faster, you might be interested in adjusting KWin’s Window Open/Close Animations. In System Settings > Window Management > Desktop Effects, you can change their duration or scale from the Configure dialog:

Have you taken a look at the Spacing between icons setting, available when right-clicking on the Icons-Only Task Manager and choosing “Configure…”?

These comments generally seem to be feedback about the Plasma user experience. If you’re interested in contributing to improvements in that experience - whether that’s interface decisions or graphical design - I would suggest checking out the KDE Visual Design Group page at Get Involved/design - KDE Community Wiki

It may help to familiarize yourself with the KDE Bugtracking System (a Bugzilla instance), and how the issue reporting process works. The Community Wiki has a page to help folks get started there: Get Involved/Issue Reporting - KDE Community Wiki

If you’re checking here to see if something is a bug, you’ll generally get more effective feedback with individual topics for each thing that you’re asking about. That way, folks who are most knowledgeable about those applications or system components can easily find your question in the topic list, and can then contribute the knowledge that they have.

A couple things that jumped out at me, though:

This would generally be by design, ex. for notifications like the “Panel Removed” one after deleting a panel, where you wouldn’t want someone to have to race against a clock to click the Undo button if the deletion was accidental.

I suspect you’re running into 493583 – Excessive Cursor Size in GTK4 Applications on KDE Plasma 6 Under Wayland with Scaling Above 100%

Welcome to the community - I hope some of what’s above is helpful :slight_smile:

No, I was talking about animations of the default Task Switcher (alt+tab). And not how to make them faster, but how to remove them.

I was talking about spaces between icons in a Task Switcher which I asked to add (with medium icons and without text), not about Icon-only Task Manager.

I just shared my experience with KDE Plasma overall. I’m ok even with what I have now, if someone knows how to do that they can share if not that’s ok

one of the first utilities i came to find indispensable in linux was

alsamixer

you can use that to raise the PCM volume so that your volume control is more lifelike.

i recommend a value of 84% to avoid clipping.

it should save your setting automatically but if not you will need to dig into the manual and make sure it’s saving things in the right location.