Transparency problems with xfdesktop

[bsh]

Hello

Firstly, I think I have reported this bug already with an earlier version of ubuntu (7.04) but now i can't find it anymore. Probably it's been deleted when the support for 7.04 ended, or maybe i'm just too lame. Anyway, the reported bug doesn't sho up under my own bugreports list.

Since then i am using 8.04.2 on different machines, but this bug still remains!
I installed 8.04.2 with default gnome, then installed the whole xfce4 from the repository. (with all xfce goodies, xfce tools, artworks, even the xubuntu-default-settings package)

The problem is, when i use the xfce desktop compositor (ie. i set the "let xfce manage your desktop"), then windows become transparent when i move or resize them, panels become transparent, and the xfce menu is transparent too, despite every transparency slider is set to 0 (ie. no transparency)
The explicit options to set transparency of windows while moved or resized, the transparency of panels etc, do not seem to have any effect. Windows are still transparent.

I have seen this on all the machines i use, with completely different hardware: nvidia video, intel video, ati video -- all the same.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thanks for reporting this bug. I can not reproduce this issue using Xubuntu 8.04.2 installed after Ubuntu was installed. Do you have compiz active? Also, could you try this using a Jaunty 9.04 development livecd. That will not be on top of Ubuntu, but may help us to fix this. Thanks in advance.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

without further information there is nothing we can do. Feel free to reopen this ticket with the requested information.

[bsh (bsh)]

@Charlie:
I don't have compiz.
Since then I've been using 8.04.3, then upgraded to 9.04 and the new XFCE 4.6, and the "bug" is still present.
Windows are slightly transparent on move/resize. I have checked the config files, everything is set to opaque (values are 100), but still, it doesn't matter. I experience this since I first ever used XFCE on Ubuntu Feisty 7.04 (both X86 and X86-64)
I wonder why you can not reproduce it. I don't think this is only happening to me because of a erroneous install or something, since I am seeing this on multiple computers, multiple installs, even the same computer with reinstalls, different versions, etc.
For example, when I do an "administrative task", when the screen "blacks out" (darkens) and asks for an admin password, even that password window is sligthly transparent...
Okay, tell me what kind of information coudl i give you, because i have no idea.

[bsh (bsh)]

still nothing here...?

since then i'm on 9.10, still the same old problem.
see screenshot: everything is set to opaque (including "opacity of windows during move"), and most of these settings still don't work... screenshot shows the settings window dragged around, and it gets transparent, despite it is set to be opaque during move.

[bsh (bsh)]

another screenshot of the xfce menu, it is transparent too...

i can't believe no-one can reproduce and confirm this, as i *always* get this same problem on *every* ubuntu i installed on different machines.

[bsh (bsh)]

ok, so this is my default setting - everything should be opaque.
if i open the window manager effects settings dialog, it shows everything is set to opaque, but moving and resizing is still transparent.
if i change these sliders (or others), the settings are updated and everything reflects the settings in the windowmanagereffects dialog.
if i then move the sliders back to the opaque setting, everything becomes opaque, as it should.
this only works until a logout and login, or a restart.
also, if i open the settings again, without touching anything, the windows become transparent again during moving and resizing, but the settings window still shows everything is set to opaque.
in short: the settings are only applied if i move any of the sliders, and the settings only stay until i restart this desktopeffectssettings or if i log out.

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

Sorry, still not reproducible here, it works as expected... Are you really sure your window manager is xfwm4? BTW, for the panel, it is managed a bit differently, it has its own transparency settings in Settings > Settings Manager > Panel.

[bsh (bsh)]

Lionel, i am sure i'm using xfwm4.
i know the panel is different here, but it is the same problem: transparent, even if set to opaque. (as you see, the panel itself is indeed opaque, but the menu isn't. i am not sure where to control that. all the menus, including the xfce menu and all aplications pulldown menu's are transparent.)

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Could you please open a terminal and run "apt-cache policy compiz" and copy the results to here? This was an upgrade from Ubuntu to Xubuntu originally. Ubuntu did and still does install compiz by default.

Thanks in advance.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

We'd like to figure out what's causing this bug for you, but we haven't heard back from you in a while. Could you please provide the requested information? Thanks!

[bsh (bsh)]

Right, as said, this is a plain Ubuntu install, with Gnome, and XFCE installed on top of it, so there's both. Gnome is using compiz, and xfce is using xfwm4.
So i have no idea what is the abowe apt-cache command is good for, it is obviously saying, compiz is installed:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8 && apt-cache policy compiz
compiz:
  Installed: 1:0.8.4-0ubuntu2.1
  Candidate: 1:0.8.4-0ubuntu2.1
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.8.4-0ubuntu2.1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic-proposed/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:0.8.4-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages

but it is NOT runnin in a xfce session. xfce is using xfwm4.

ps -ef | grep xfwm4
bsh 2444 2308 0 22:29 ? 00:00:02 xfwm4 --sm-client-id 268eb3384-bbc8-4fc7-b9b7-9a76002991c1 --display :0.0

I think I couldn't enable desktop compositing under with the xfce app under xfce. if i wasn't using the xfcm window manager.

Hope this helps.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thanks for reporting this bug and any supporting documentation. Since this bug has enough information provided for a developer to begin work, I'm going to mark it as confirmed and let them handle it from here. Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better!

[Zachary Huff (zachhuff386)]

Your theme may be setting the opacity settings. Try the default theme the opacity should work correctly. The setting is in ~/.themes/THEME_NAME/xfwm4/themerc comment out any line with opacity settings.

#resize_opacity=100
#move_opacity=60
#popup_opacity=90

[Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. It would help us a lot if you could test it on a currently supported Ubuntu version.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xfwm4 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]