My operating system is Linux Mint 22.3, and my desktop environment is Cinnamon 6.6.7.
I understand that application for KDE are designed primarily to operate within KDE. However, I believe most would agree that basic compatibility with other common desktop environments should be a design object.
Unfortunately, the application KDE Connect is essentially unusable within my environment, due to dysfunction of the scroll bars.
In some cases, scroll bars are displayed but completely unresponsive to interaction, whereas in other cases, the scroll bars are omitted from display in a pane that is intended to be scrollable.
As an example, I will describe my observations for the main window provided by KDE Connect SMS. The window features two main panes situated side by side. The left-hand pane shows a list of contacts, while the right-hand pane shows the message history for the contact selected in the left-hand pane.
The behavior I observe is that for the right-hand pane, a vertical scroll bar is displayed, but is completely unresponsive to cursor interaction. Worse, no scroll bar is even displayed for the left-hand pane, even as the full contents exceed the physical height of the pane.
I regret that I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to speculate meaningfully whether the dysfunction should be attributed to KDE Connect, to KDE, or to Cinnamon. However, I do appreciate assistance determining a resolution to the lack of usability in my environment.
I think it is fair to assume that the desktop application should work also when run on a different desktop than KDE Plasma.
Best check if there is already a bug report for this on https://bugs.kde.org/ or, if not, create one for product kdeconnect and component desktop-application.
Additionally, sssuming that there aren’t many Cinnamon users here, it might be a good idea to check on a Mint forum if others have experienced this as well.
Independently or alternatively it might be worthwhile to look into other PC side apps.
GNOME, for example, has a shell extension called GSConnect and Cinnamon might have something similar.
Regrettably, I have not succeeded in finding any existing report in the bug tracker relating to the problem.
Meanwhile, I have concerns that submitting a report would not be received as particularly constructive, since I cannot provide any clear method to isolate or to reproduce the issue.
It is also regrettable that there is no solution particularly appropriate for Cinnamon. GSConnect operates through the GNOME 3 shell, whereas the zaniness of GNOME 3 is among the reasons I have been driven to Cinnamon. There is a deeper issue that GNOME has systemically sabotaged interoperability with any development not ruled by its narrow demands.
You could try with a new user account on your system to ensure it happens with current Cinnamon defaults. That should be sufficient.
Ideally check with the Cinnamon user community to see if others have run into this as well.
A link to such a conversation could reveal more hints.
Ah, I see.
Maybe someone in the wider Cinnamon/Mint community would be able and willing to look into creating a more native UI. Could potentially even use kdeconnectd to do the “heavy lifting” of communicating with the device.
Obviously the KDE app should ideally work on Cinnamon as well, of course, but deeper/better integration with the DE might be a worthwhile goal by itself.