Icons-only task manager and multi monitor problems Plasma 5.7.0

Malikos · 2016-07-11 10:15:51

Hi,

I have a few problems with the new version of Plasma, maybe someone has similar and knows how to solve them? Maybe they are known bugs? I couldn't find any reports.

1. Icons-only task manager often forgets "show a launcher when not running option". For example when I close chromium which is "pinned" to the task manager it disappears even though it shouldn't. When I open it again it shows up and the option "show a launcher..." is still enabled.

2. Black icons and "bouncing cursor". When I highlight any entry in, for example, System Settings, my icon looks like this:
https://postimg.org/image/pbzwf16m9/
The "bouncing cursor" which shows up when starting some application is also always black. -> SOLVED (it was my fault, I forgot that I was messing around with effects in advanced icons settings and that changing icons theme does not reset those.

3. Problems with the external monitor. In 5.6 it was very good but now it went to bad.. Last time I connected my laptop to the second monitor panels didn't scale properly, 70% of my panel was on my primary screen while 30% of it just "sticked out" on the external one. Moreover, when I disconnected it I lost my panel completely. I needed to set a new one because it just disappeared and didn't show after reboot, nor after reconnecting that monitor.

Anybody noticed something simmilar?

There are always some problems with every new update of Plasma... I even learned to ignore the flickering (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=213216)

Last edited by Malikos (2016-07-11 17:40:58)

johan.cb · 2016-07-12 05:43:32

Hello,

I haven't tried pinning programs to the task manager so I can't help here.

Point 3. is a common problem in Plasma 5, and still is under 5.7. I am experiencing the same issues. The worst being the taskbar placement which disappears and never comes back when a monitor is unplugged. Creating a second one just destroys all my desktop.

Look at this links:

http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_ … lti-Screen
https://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/ … lasma-5-7/

Concerning your feelings about every release having regressions, I think that Plasma is getting more and more mature after each release. But this a personal feeling

Malikos · 2016-07-12 08:36:07

Hi,
thank you for these links. They really do clarify the situation to some extend

I know that multi monitor is a common problem in plasma 5, however I was greatly disappointed with plasma 5.7 because in 5.6 it worked flawlessly for me.
And don't get me wrong, I don't think that plasma is having regressions. I just think that such features as a simple plasmoid or multi monitor support should be working right now. 5.7 is not a small number and these issues shouldn't be acceptable, nor justified at this point.

What can justify them however is that many of these issues are caused by qt or intel drivers. I can accept that and wait patiently for newer versions, hopefully without such bugs, because I really do like this DE.

johan.cb · 2016-07-12 09:21:22

What's really hard for me to believe are the Intel driver issues since multi monitor worked perfectly for me with Gnome on the same hardware that is now running Plasma 5.7.

All we can do is wait and help by reporting bugs and make Plasma a better desktop environment

Last edited by johan.cb (2016-07-12 09:21:51)

Malikos · 2016-07-12 09:40:02

I think it depends on your CPU and integrated GPU.
I've updated my thread about flickering: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=213216.

Basically, plasma panel was blinking and flickering almost every time when I opened any app. After update to plasma 5.7 I uninstalled the intel driver and went modesetting and now the flickering is gone My CPU is Intel Core i5-4210H. So, this is true, Intel was one of my problems with Plasma.

miku84 · 2016-07-12 09:52:20

I also noticed the first bug you wrote: "show a launcher when not running option"

Malikos · 2016-07-12 09:54:56

I found it also on some Plasma 5.7 beta testing thread. As far as I know 5.7.1 should be released today so maybe they'll resolve this issue.

Last edited by Malikos (2016-07-12 09:55:11)

josephk · 2016-07-12 12:14:27

Try to delete plasma related config files in ~/.config and kscreen related config files in ~/local/share/kscreen and shutdown.
Before rebooting connect your external monitor. Maybe a second reboot could be necessary.
I've found that with every plasma feature release, it is a good thing to delete your KDE related configs and caches in home dir.
Anyway, let's report bugs and wait that everyone does its part (as you can read in m. grasselin last blog post, screen management it's overly complicated stuff).
In truth I just hope to hop in wayland with 5.8 and never ever come back to xorg!

Malikos · 2016-07-12 14:22:27

Well, that was helpful! I've already deleted config files when my panel disappeared the first time I connected my second monitor after update but now I removed also kscreen files, restarted my laptop and voila, it works! Thank you. I've had problems with windows showing on my second screen instead of the primary one and the worst was the disappearing of panels but now it seems that these problems are gone.

The only problem that persists is that after changing the mode of displays (for example from only the second one to the standard, extended mode) the panel scaling is wrong. It is to wide so it sticks out from the first display to the second. However, I can click the "maximize panel" option and it repairs itself.

miku84 · 2016-07-18 09:02:21

miku84 wrote:

I also noticed the first bug you wrote: "show a launcher when not running option"

I still have this issue in Plasma 5.7.1 and KF 5.24.

Malikos · 2016-07-18 09:14:42

I reported a bug about this issue here:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=365617

We need to wait until 19-20 of July and 5.7.2 version of Plasma. If this problem will still persist, I'll open this bug report again.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-07-11 10:15:51

Icons-only task manager and multi monitor problems Plasma 5.7.0

#2 2016-07-12 05:43:32

Re: Icons-only task manager and multi monitor problems Plasma 5.7.0

#3 2016-07-12 08:36:07

Re: Icons-only task manager and multi monitor problems Plasma 5.7.0

#4 2016-07-12 09:21:22

Re: Icons-only task manager and multi monitor problems Plasma 5.7.0

#5 2016-07-12 09:40:02

Re: Icons-only task manager and multi monitor problems Plasma 5.7.0

#6 2016-07-12 09:52:20

Re: Icons-only task manager and multi monitor problems Plasma 5.7.0

#7 2016-07-12 09:54:56

Re: Icons-only task manager and multi monitor problems Plasma 5.7.0

#8 2016-07-12 12:14:27

Re: Icons-only task manager and multi monitor problems Plasma 5.7.0

#9 2016-07-12 14:22:27

Re: Icons-only task manager and multi monitor problems Plasma 5.7.0

#10 2016-07-18 09:02:21

Re: Icons-only task manager and multi monitor problems Plasma 5.7.0

#11 2016-07-18 09:14:42

Re: Icons-only task manager and multi monitor problems Plasma 5.7.0

Board footer