buffy

@buffy@lemmy.world

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Accidentally uninstalled an important package in Debian Sid with KDE, transparency no longer working (lemmy.world)

Hi everyone, I ran apt full-upgrade last month and accidentally deleted a couple packages that weren’t supposed to be removed, due to me not paying enough attention. I could recover most of the system just fine, since most of the missing features and related packages were obvious to me. However, I still couldn’t figure out...

buffy, (edited )

Sadly I am not using BTRFS for my root directory on this specific system. If I end up deciding to reinstall, I will definitely go back to BTRFS to avoid such problems.

Debian actually has a KDE group named kde-full. I reinstalled it but the issue persists, which was honestly surprising to me.


<span style="color:#323232;">~$ sudo apt install kde-full
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Reading package lists... Done
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Building dependency tree... Done
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Reading state information... Done
</span><span style="color:#323232;">kde-full is already the newest version (5:147).
</span><span style="color:#323232;">0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 87 not upgraded.
</span>

The new user idea was really clever, thanks for the suggestion! I will try that now and see.

Edit: the new user also presents the same problem. Actually, it makes sense, since SDDM is affected as well (I should have mentioned that before).

buffy,

I do store regular backups of this machine, but not of /var. I can always reinstall Debian (or whatever other distro), while keeping other relevant configs intact (stored in the backups) and not lose any critical data.

I commented below that I did check /var/log/dpkg.log, but it didn’t help much due to the high number of packages removed that day.

At this point I am more curious to learn more about KDE and what is causing the problem, since other desktop environments (I installed mate) seem to work fine.

buffy,

Thanks for the recommendation! I will definitely do it when I eventually install some other distro in the future.

buffy,

Yeah, I tried installing kde-full but it didn’t solve my problem.

buffy,

The Gentoo sub had such a nice subtitle because it is indeed accurate! Definitely one of the things I like the most about “flexible” distros.

“Gentoo Linux: Because you like it when the power is in your hands”

buffy,

Thanks for the tip! However, I tried apt reinstall kde-full and apt --fix-broken install, but no packages were installed and (unsurprisingly) the problem still persists.

buffy,

If I am not mistaken, I used a Debian KDE live image from the official repository then switched the mirrors from Bookworm to Sid. The system went months without a single issue, then this happen.

Your suggestion will actually be my solution of choice if everything else fails: reinstall / and import relevant files from a backup that I already have.

buffy,

Thanks! Some packages were installed, but it didn’t solve it yet.


<span style="color:#323232;">...
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Install: orca:amd64 (46.0-1, automatic), libpcaudio0:amd64 (1.2-2+b2, automatic), speech-dispatcher-audio-plugins:amd64 (0.11.5-4, automatic), python3-brlapi:amd64 (6.6-5, automatic), xbrlapi:amd64 (6.6-5, automatic), speech-dispatcher-espeak-ng:amd64 (0.11.5-4, automatic), libsonic0:amd64 (0.2.0-13, automatic), sound-icons:amd64 (0.1-8, automatic), python3-speechd:amd64 (0.11.5-4, automatic), libespeak-ng1:amd64 (1.51+dfsg-12, automatic), python3-louis:amd64 (3.29.0-1, automatic), x11-session-utils:amd64 (7.7+6+b1, automatic), xkbset:amd64 (0.8-1, automatic), task-desktop:amd64 (3.75, automatic), libdotconf0:amd64 (1.3-0.3+b1, automatic), xorg:amd64 (1:7.7+23, automatic), perl-tk:amd64 (1:804.036+dfsg1-2+b1, automatic), x11-apps:amd64 (7.7+11+b1, automatic), speech-dispatcher:amd64 (0.11.5-4, automatic), espeak-ng-data:amd64 (1.51+dfsg-12, automatic), task-kde-desktop:amd64 (3.75), xinit:amd64 (1.4.2-1, automatic)
</span><span style="color:#323232;">End-Date: 2024-03-26  17:42:41
</span>
buffy,

I audibly laughed at this. I actually knew I was entering treacherous waters by running apt full-upgrade in Sid, but still thought “well, we’ll see…”

buffy,

I tried reinstalling kde-full, but sadly nothing happened (all packages were already marked as installed).

buffy,

Tasksel seems to be correctly set,


<span style="color:#323232;">~$ tasksel --list-tasks
</span><span style="color:#323232;">i desktop       Debian desktop environment
</span><span style="color:#323232;">u gnome-desktop GNOME
</span><span style="color:#323232;">u xfce-desktop  Xfce
</span><span style="color:#323232;">u gnome-flashback-desktop       GNOME Flashback
</span><span style="color:#323232;">i kde-desktop   KDE Plasma
</span><span style="color:#323232;">u cinnamon-desktop      Cinnamon
</span><span style="color:#323232;">u mate-desktop  MATE
</span><span style="color:#323232;">u lxde-desktop  LXDE
</span><span style="color:#323232;">u lxqt-desktop  LXQt
</span><span style="color:#323232;">u web-server    web server
</span><span style="color:#323232;">u ssh-server    SSH server
</span><span style="color:#323232;">i laptop        laptop
</span>

I tried apt reinstall kde-full, but unfortunately nothing changed.

buffy,

I agree with that. I suspect you might be right. SDDM (Breeze) is also weird with transparency. However, I just installed materia-kde but unfortunately the problem persisted (screenshot attached). Before that, I ran apt purge kde* plasma* libkf* and apt install kde-full. That too didn’t solve my problem.

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/fff3b48b-c8e0-447a-b4d1-6c768c95d29b.png

buffy,

You are absolutely right. I just tried apt purge kde* plasma* libkf* and apt install kde-full followed by a reboot. But sadly, the problem persists.

buffy, (edited )

You are right, I should have made this clear. I am not on Nvidia, I am using an old Thinkpad on Intel Haswell.

I’m glad to know my problem isn’t completely new. I’ll look into it further online. If you ever find a link to a report of a similar issue, I would be happy to see!

Edit: I found this link, the issue reported appears to be very similar to what I’m seeing here …tux.pizza/…/kde_plasma_rendering_problem_black_s…

Edit 2: I finally solved my problem! It was indeed an old problem already reported somewhere.

buffy,

I did check it, yes, but the page doesn’t appear to be relevant or contain much information. Another comment above (or below) mentioned that KDE Plasma can’t run without a compositor.

buffy,

I will very likely migrate to BTRFS on my next install. I’m reading Snapora’s repo now, looks like an awesome tool. Thanks for the tip!

buffy,

Indeed it looks like a bug. I finally found a solution, though. Check the main post edit for details.

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