Xubuntu 11.10 ( I can't upgrade yet )
Kubuntu Desktop 11.10
KDE 4.74

In my system ( described above ) I can not see the window control buttons ( close, maximize, minimize ) on the right side of the window title bar unless I stretch the window out horizontally, to the maximum of my screen. This is a problem for me as I do not have one of those contemporary wide monitors.
In "system settings" I did find options to configure the window title bars. The problem seems to be very wide spacers in the middle of the bar, regardless of theme. I saw options for adding and removing window control buttons, but none for slimming down the spacers.

Is there a solution?

I've also noticed that the title in the window title bar does not have a bottom margin between the text and the app, making things look smooshed. Is there anything I can do about that either?

Thanks much in advance for any information

Steve

That sounds very strange, can you please post a screenshot?

Hans wrote:That sounds very strange, can you please post a screenshot?

I have screenshots but there doesn't appear to be a way to attach them to this post.

try http://imageshack.us/

Here is a link to a picass album I created.

The first picture is of Krusader with no window control buttons visible. The second is with the window control buttons visible, after the window is stretched horizontally to the full widith of my screen ( not a wide screen monitor ):

Thanks in advance for any help

https://picasaweb.google.com/1151143879 ... uttonIssue

You've got a GPU that is not capable of NPOT textures and there was a bug in kwin about texture offsets which nobody noticed because no developer has such GPU

a) the issue is purely visual. If you suspend compositing (Shift+Alt+F12) it will be immediately gone.
b) "kcmshell4 kwincompositing", in the third tab select xrender as composite backend. NOTICE that this has performance issues with the raster graphicssystem which is default with Qt 4.8 and somewhat longer with ubuntu - run "kwin --graphicssystem native --replace&" but this will e gone with the next login (and you're -in case- using the raster graphicssystem with the xrender backend again)

If you can update: the issue should be gone in 4.8.1 and 4.8 can also autoselect a "sane" graphicssystem for the compsitor backend.

Ah. I had that issue as well, worked around it by placing a script in ~/.kde4/env/ (may be ~/.kde/env in Kubuntu) containing the following:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
export QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=native

Make sure it's executable, log out and log in again. The best solution is of course to update, as mentioned by luebking.

luebking wrote:You've got a GPU that is not capable of NPOT textures and there was a bug in kwin about texture offsets which nobody noticed because no developer has such GPU

What do the terms "GPU" and "NPOT" mean? My system will be 10 years old in March of next year. Still going strong as I had it custom built from high quality parts.

b) "kcmshell4 kwincompositing", in the third tab select xrender as composite backend. NOTICE that this has performance issues with the raster graphicssystem which is default with Qt 4.8 and somewhat longer with ubuntu - run "kwin --graphicssystem native --replace&" but this will e gone with the next login (and you're -in case- using the raster graphicssystem with the xrender backend again)

I did not understand this, but I followed the directions mindlessly and it made the problem go away:). I'm glad as this is the first time I have tried the KDE in years and I have been very impressed.

If you can update: the issue should be gone in 4.8.1 and 4.8 can also autoselect a "sane" graphicssystem for the compsitor backend.

I'm commited to the ubuntu/xubuntu/kubuntu distros. 11.10 is as high as I can go. 12.04 has some hardware compatibility issues with my system. Support for 11.10 ends in April of next year. At that point my system will be 10 years old. I will see if the problem has been resolved and upgrade, get a new PC or go Mac. Either way the problem will be solved.

tinker wrote:What do the terms "GPU" and "NPOT" mean? My system will be 10 years old in March of next year. Still going strong as I had it custom built from high quality parts.

"help! i'm a nerd!"

the gpu is the graphics processing unit - the processor on your graphicscard
npot means NonPowerOfTwo - a 10 year old chip will not support that but at best (or worst...) the texture_rect arb which also does not require 2^n dimensions but uses different metrics and a different texture format

luebking wrote:

tinker wrote:What do the terms "GPU" and "NPOT" mean? My system will be 10 years old in March of next year. Still going strong as I had it custom built from high quality parts.

"help! i'm a nerd!"

the gpu is the graphics processing unit - the processor on your graphicscard
npot means NonPowerOfTwo - a 10 year old chip will not support that but at best (or worst...) the texture_rect arb which also does not require 2^n dimensions but uses different metrics and a different texture format

LOL.

I might be getting a new PC soon ( I was thinking about the Mac, but the KDE 4.7.4 impressed me that much ).

If I get the best NVidia card I can get will I be able to handle anything the KDE has?

About every modern GPU has this capabilities - you don't need some high end GPU for these purposes - every recent integrated chip should do as well.
(eg. i use a GT520 - basic cuda, vdpau, low power demands and the ability to play id tech 4 games is sufficient for me

afaics the nvidia blob currently provides the most reliable opengl and also very fast xrender support and also decent speed with working power management (eg. many ppl reported that the nouveau but also the radeon driver keeps the GPU in full spped mode), but full xrandr implementation is only available in a beta driver (the blob can do about everything xrandr provides, just in a prop. way atm.) and there are reports for low 32bit pixmap allocation speed (if, then big problem with the native, but no problem with the raster graphicssystem in Qt - default since 4. and vertical synchronization issued (which i could never reproduce, they seem related to internal ./. external monitor usage)
also there have been claims (on this board) that the power saving mode would not be sufficient (running kwin) but i cannot confirm that (gpu is at 270/405 clock in adaptive mode and there's no lagging etc.) and also KWin 4.9 has several performance improvements, esp. regarding blurring.

Also you buy into the binary driver (nouveau 3D support is on the road, but not yet end user ready) what *can* turn out a problem when the GPU drops into legacy support, eg. the FX chips (nv30 aka "GeForce 5xxx") from 2003 don't work with current X11 servers and the last driver update has been > a year ago.