Guake Transparency Issue

[chasha420]

Hi, I've been having problems with Guake for quite a long time. The problem is not any thing that hampers it's basic functionality but often I see that when let's say I make a fresh install...there is pseudo transparency in guake. In other words, it's like a glass (see through) so that you can see other stuff going on in your desktop through guake itself.

Recently a week ago it automatically got fixed, but after the new update today it went into being pitch black without any hint of pseudo transparency. Now I don't know if there is any option to fix this, or if this is a technical bug...anyway let me know if anyone has a work around to this problem.

Thanks.

[Fitzcarraldo]

As I'm sure you know, to change the pseudo-transparency in Guake you right-click on the Guake window, and select Preferences from the pop-up window. Click on the appearance tab. Under the Effects header, move the Transparency slider to the left to reduce transparency, and to the right to increase transparency. Move it completely to the left if you want no transparency. I believe the transparency is also affected by whether or not you have enabled compositing.

If the transparency is being changed after you do an update, I suspect the file containing the Guake configuration is being overwritten by a new version. If you can use the above method to return the transparency to the way you had it before, and it stays that way, then it is likely just to be that. I suppose it is the same as any other update which involves configuration files. If you use e.g. equo update (Entropy) or e.g. etc-update (Portage) then, unless you explicitly decline the updates, the new versions of the config files will overwrite the existing (old) ones. You are probably experiencing something like that.

[micia]

I agree with Fitzcarraldo, I noticed that KDE4 is unable to do any pseudo-transparency (the traditional effect that emulates transparency by using a snapshot of your desktop background), it uses true transparency, but it involves having compositing effects turned on. Did you make sure to have the compositing effects active?
You can check if this is the problem by running konsole and trying to setup a transparent background there,

I doubt that this is a configuration file issue, since those preferences are usually on per-user basis, so they are stored in the user's home directory, which should not be touched by portage or entropy.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I have found out how to get true transparency without needing to resort to running Compiz. Enter the following command in a Terminal, and Guake (and other Terminals) will have true transparency:

Code: Select all

$ gconftool-2 -s '/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager' --type bool true

I've just tried that command in SL 6 GNOME in VirtualBox (as I'm a KDE user) and it works.

[chasha420]

Hmmm....I only had problem with transparency when I was using Compiz

I didn't realise when I first switched to KDE that KWin is quite similar to Compiz and in some cases faster. I've gone for KWin on my new Sabayon install and it seems to be pretty good with native support and everything...and there seems to be no issue with pseudo transparency on Guake at the moment. May be it only takes affect while on Compiz?