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XZS

Member

Registered: 2011-05-11

Posts: 30

Transparency of vtes in Gnome-Shell 3.10

Since the switch, virtual terminals in emulators based on the vte-library (evilvte, sakura, gnome-terminal and many more) is gone. I recently set up a fresh virtual machine with nothing but gnome-shell and evilvte to confirm that the problem is not located in my configuration, but in the packages. Here is a screenshot of evilvte configured to 50% transparency.

Surprisingly, when I open a modal dialog, for example to adjust the transparency level, everything works just fine as long as the dialog blocks the window.

Transparency adjustments via the slider have immediate effect. After closing the window, the window is completely opaque again. Reopening the dialog makes it temporarily transparent again with the correct opacity level set before.

So the problem does not derive from the deprecation of transparency as this thread suggests. Filing a bug for a deprecated feature nonetheless seems inappropriate.

Is there a solution to make vte terminals transparent again?

XZS

Member

Registered: 2011-05-11

Posts: 30

Re: Transparency of vtes in Gnome-Shell 3.10

Piping the window graphics through some off-screen renderer like Xpra restores correct functionallity at the cost of an additional layer. Displaying via VNC, in contrast, does not have any effect.

Thorsten Reinbold

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2011-12-06

Posts: 353

Re: Transparency of vtes in Gnome-Shell 3.10

Have a look here:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=174474

Edit: Sorry, that was too fast. That seems not to be the problem.

Last edited by Thorsten Reinbold (2014-01-25 17:19:47)

XZS

Member

Registered: 2011-05-11

Posts: 30

Re: Transparency of vtes in Gnome-Shell 3.10

I already saw this, as well as the hint to install vte3-select-text from AUR which also made no difference. The functions to use vte transparency are still there, they are only deprecated. But to foster the issue, they obviously do not work as intended.

Perhaps it has something to do with GTKs move to wayland which roughly fits the time I first experienced this behavior. But I lack an idea how to test this assumption any further.