Wallpaper Engine For KDE (HTML Wallpaper Mouse Click Event Registration Issue)

Brainstorm
1

There’s been an ongoing issue with HTML wallpapers where mouse click events aren’t registering properly in interactive wallpapers. Well, I may have found something that could lead to a fix—or at least point us in the right direction.

I’ve posted a video and opened a bug ticket on the GitHub page for the Wallpaper Engine KDE plugin:
:link: Mouse click is not captured on HTML wallpapers · Issue #406 · catsout/wallpaper-engine-kde-plugin · GitHub

In the video, you’ll notice that when I click on the desktop, I get the standard drag box—so the desktop registers the click—but the wallpaper itself doesn’t receive the click event. (For example, you should be able to click and drag to move the camera in some wallpapers.) Interestingly, when I click and drag in the top panel space, it works as expected. This was an accidental discovery, but as you can see from my post, I’ve been trying to figure this out for a while.

For context, I have the wallpaper plug-in set to Folder View layout. The Desktop layout doesn’t register any mouse events.

Here are a couple of wallpapers you can use to test:

I’m not sure how to formally request a fix or suggest a modification to the KDE Plasma developers, so any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

2

:warning: WORKAROUND - Use at your own risk!!! :warning:

KDE Plasma (Wayland) – Enable Click-Through for HTML Wallpapers in Folder View Layout

This will disable interaction with desktop icons (clicking, right-clicking, selection, etc.), but it enables mouse interaction for HTML wallpapers, like those used with Wallpaper Engine for KDE.

What This Fix Does
KDE’s Folder View Layout uses a MouseEventListener that captures all mouse input — preventing HTML wallpapers from receiving clicks. This workaround disables that listener so mouse events can pass through to the wallpaper layer.

Tested on CachyOS, KDE Plasma 6.4.2, under Wayland

Instructions

  1. Copy the desktop containment plasmoid to your user directory
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.desktopcontainment/
cp -r /usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.desktopcontainment/* ~/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.desktopcontainment/

If the folder doesn’t exist, search for it:

find /usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/ -iname "*desktopcontainment*"
  1. Edit FolderView.qml
nano ~/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.desktopcontainment/contents/ui/FolderView.qml

Search for the MouseEventListener block. At the top of the block, right after MouseEventListener {, add the following:

Modify FolderView.qml adding the visible and enabled flags = false
MouseEventListener {
    id: listener
    // Allow mouse events to pass through to HTML wallpapers
    visible: false
    enabled: false
    // ...rest of the original block remains

Then save and exit the file.

  1. Restart Plasma Shell Or just log out and back in
    Apply your changes with:
systemctl --user restart plasma-plasmashell.service

Confirm It’s Working
Right-click desktop → Configure Desktop and Wallpaper

Ensure Layout is set to Folder View

Set an HTML wallpaper using Wallpaper Engine

Click your wallpaper — buttons/sliders should now respond

To Revert
Remove your user-local override:

rm -rf ~/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.desktopcontainment/
systemctl --user restart plasma-plasmashell.service

Notes
This only affects the Folder View layout

Other layouts (like “Desktop”) still block input entirely - not sure why.

This is a workaround, not an official solution — useful for HTML wallpaper fans on Wayland. I haven’t tested for Scene wallpapers, but I imagine this should also work for them.

3

Revision to the Workaround

Only visible needs to be set to false

visible: false
//enabled: false //disables camera look for HTML wallpapers that use it