Hello,

ever since KDE version 4 started (on Sabayon/Gentoo) I keep having problems how the applications' API are displayed on the desktop. Very frequently when I switch between applications some others can loose the full API look, some parts of the API goes blank or scrambled and I can see the desktop underneath. I don't know whether my explanation is sufficient.
The only way to restore the look is to minimize/restore the application. Is this a KDE bug, or something to do with my Sabayon Linux? My KDE has been constantly updated with all KDE versions and this glitch has never gone away.

On the other had the most recent KDE is not working efficently or nicely as to the previous ones. When I click on an icon on the desktop to start an application, the whole desktop seems to be blinking or flashing. Once or twice during the past week I had a Plasma crash and the desktop has been restored. When I choose the Shutdown option the whole background gets completely scrambled.

I can try and paste the contents of the .xsession.errors file, but are these issues know and being taken care of? Is anyone else having similar experiences?

Thanks,
Richard

If you start kde as a different user do you experience the same problems?
If you turn off desktop effects or change window decorations is the problem resolved?

Could you explain what you mean by API, usually this is taken to be application programing interface

If you start kde as a different user do you experience the same problems?

I haven't tried.

If you turn off desktop effects or change window decorations is the problem resolved?

I have all desktop effects turned of ever since they existed, I don't need such functionality. As a matter of fact when I check my System Settings all options are greyed out.

Could you explain what you mean by API, usually this is taken to be application programing interface

To me it's exactly what it means, when you start any application let's say Audacious, it gets displayed on top of the desktop, so you can navigate in it. And the picture displayed is gets distorted, for example when I go to the KDE menu start button and click on it, or for example when I click on an icon on the desktop to launch an application.

I could post an image, but I can't figure out how to do it on this forum.
Is there a hint somewhere on this forum?

Thanks....

easiest way to post a picture is to use a free image hosting service and post the pic's link - I use imageshack but there's other like picpaste

I posted the images on my Sabayon forum:
http://forum.sabayon.org/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=21857

You will see something like part of the desktop overlapping the application. Sometimes the chunks are smaller, sometimes bigger parts of the application is chunked.

That may be related to an X bug. There was a workaround implemented for it recently but I don't know if it is going in 4.5.2 or 4.6.0.

This could also be a result of me using the Open-source ATI driver:

Code: Select all


x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati
      Latest version installed: 6.13.1
      Homepage:      http://xorg.freedesktop.org/
      Description:   ATI video driver
      License:       MIT


I got some hints on Sabayon how to replace it, but it screwed up my X system and I can't do any changes now until a couple of weeks from now.

Thanks for looking into this.
Richard.

TheBlackCat is correct: it's a yet-unfixed X bug, which IIRC isn't tied to a particular driver. The fix has also been backported to the 4.5.x branch, so it will be in 4.5.2.