[SOLVED] Apps rendering problem in KDE

LinuxF0x · 2024-07-31 22:27:18

A few weeks ago, I installed Arch Linux with KDE as my desktop environment. After using it for a while, I decided to try the dwm window manager. I really liked it, so I'm using it as my main desktop. Recently, I launched KDE on X11 only to discover that many apps in KDE seem to be broken and can't launch them. I tested it by logging back into dwm, but there everything worked flawlessly - just not on KDE.

But what is the issue? When I try launching one of the "broken" apps, it launches as an empty transparent window; the only visible thing is the outer frame of the window. However, I found out these apps aren't actually completely broken:

- If I hover over the icon of one of these apps on the taskbar, I can see their content in the preview window (so, for example, I can see the Spotify main page).
- It turns out I can even interact with these apps: I started playing music from the Spotify browser and paused it using the Spotify app pause widget (on the preview taskbar window).
- The apps seem to be just invisible, but I'm not able able to click on any of their buttons while tabbed into one of these transparent windows, so there is clearly a problem with rendering them.

Which apps are affected? From my testing:

-Dolphin: exactly the issue I described
-Kate: same issue for this app
-Steam: surprisingly, it works flawlessly
-Firefox: it doesn't have this issue
-Discord: this one does
-KDE settings app: same issue
-Minecraft launcher: also broken
-Spotify: can't launch
-qBittorrent: same issue for this one
-PyCharm: the initial logo displayed correctly, but the app itself did not
-VLC: doesn't work
-SpeedCrunch: broken

What I tried (to no avail):

-Renaming the .config file and rebooting
-Doing the same for .cache
-Launching these apps from Konsole
-Reinstalling every affected app
-Nuclear option: after a few days of frustration, I decided it would be faster to reinstall Arch. I made a backup of important files and installed Arch again (using the normal wiki method). This method worked: I installed KDE and all the apps I had before (including dwm) and everything was working flawlessly. It was the same even after rebooting. I thought it was done, but today I logged back into KDE and the problem came back.

A few facts:

1. The problem exists on X11 KDE but not on KDE Wayland, dwm, or i3.
2. All of these apps seem to be functional but don't display.
3. All my apps and drivers are up-to-date, I'm on plasmashell 6.1.3 and this is my GPU driver:

[f0x@Arch ~]$ lspci -k | grep -EA3 'VGA|3D|Display'
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Navi 22 [Radeon RX 6700/6700 XT/6750 XT / 6800M/6850M XT] (rev c1)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 05d7
        Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
        Kernel modules: amdgpu
[f0x@Arch ~]$

This is a video of this issue I recorded using phone (can't use obs). I recorded it before reinstalling arch, but it's relevant as the problem here is exactly the same. You can also see what happens when you pick up the broken widow and drag around. (Flickering upper part of the screen happens only at 165Hz but not 144, probably also KDE problem).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkkPRtxqCE8

Last edited by LinuxF0x (2024-08-01 09:33:42)

seth · 2024-08-01 06:43:17

1. The problem exists on X11 KDE but not on KDE Wayland, dwm, or i3.

Suspending the compositor w/ SHIFT+Alt+F12 will show your windows?

Please post your Xorg log, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#General and the output of "qdbus6 org.kde.KWin /KWin supportInformation"

LinuxF0x · 2024-08-01 09:32:56

Thanks for the reply!

I have tired changing settings of compositor before, but not to disable it. And then it I thought on something else - "Didn't I installed other compositor for dwm?" - I did - I installed Xcompmgr (for st terminal transparency) and add it to .profile. Turns out it was somehow messing up KDE compositor, because after disabling it, the problem just went away. The problem didn't appear after install dwm like I thought, but after adding Xcompmgr to .profile. Thank you, I have no idea if I could solve it without your help.

Btw This guy problem seems to be exactly the same, and it's unsolved, maybe his situation is the same? https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=289524

seth · 2024-08-01 14:56:52

Their kwin compositor is running, this would not be possible if xcompmgr was running at the same time.

LinuxF0x · 2024-08-02 07:35:10

In my case, I don't know if I had two of them running at the same time - I didn't check, but the KDE compositor clearly was because using 'SHIFT+Alt+F12,' I was able to suspend and unsuspend it, and I also had taskbar animations. So, either xcompmgr was running along KDE compositor, or maybe xcompmgr failed but somehow 'damaged' the KDE compositor process? I have no idea, but it's a good idea to check it (and also move xcompmgr to .xinitrc).

Arch Linux

#1 2024-07-31 22:27:18

[SOLVED] Apps rendering problem in KDE

#2 2024-08-01 06:43:17

Re: [SOLVED] Apps rendering problem in KDE

#3 2024-08-01 09:32:56

Re: [SOLVED] Apps rendering problem in KDE

#4 2024-08-01 14:56:52

Re: [SOLVED] Apps rendering problem in KDE

#5 2024-08-02 07:35:10

Re: [SOLVED] Apps rendering problem in KDE

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