Hi,
I quite haven’t figured out exactly when this happens, but it seems it happens after I connect an external monitor after logging, instead of logging in with the monitor plugged in.
What happens is that every new window including popups become black. It seems if I turn off the desktop effects it goes away.
I’m using T500 with intel graphics, and tumbleweed with KDE 4.7
On 08/21/2011 05:46 AM, joonpy wrote:
> I’m using … tumbleweed …
would there be a problem to always attach the external monitor prior to
booting? (that way the system can ‘see’ the monitor and plan for its use
during boot!)
or, if you must connect the external after booting, just turn off
desktop effects for that session (or maybe reboot with the external
connected)?
next time please post Tumbleweed questions to the Tumbleweed forum
<http://tinyurl.com/3ljwanm>…you may need to go over there now and
read up…maybe someone else had the problem…AND maybe a Tumbleweed
guru will ask you to log a bug…
–
DD Caveat
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobile” of operating systems!
Thanks. I was not aware of the Tumbleweed forum. Next time I will try there.
It seems once I turn off the effects to get rid of the blacks, turning the effects back on does not reintroduce the problem. (Not 100% sure though) So maybe I just need to memorize the shortcuts to turnoff/on the effects. Hopefully this is the case. In addition, I tried to turn off a couple of non essential effects such as sliding popups, and I hope this helps as well.
Regarding the external monitors, since I have those in my office and home, I kind of have to plug/unplug them after booting. I don’t want to turn off the computer everytime I move around.
You can (probably) use the compositor](http://forums.opensuse.org/english/other-forums/development/programming-scripting/464183-compositor-quickly-sets-unsets-compositing-helps-fullscreen-flash-ati.html#post2375655) script. Then you’ll just have to type compositor to enable/disable desktop effects under KDE. More generally, this script switchs compositing on and off under KDE, Gnome (metacity, NOT compiz), Xfce as well as starts and kills the compositing manager xcompmgr under other DEs.
I originally wrote it because I needed a quick way to enable/disable desktop effects to fix a transparency problem. I’m not using Tumbleweed, but the script works under other distros (among others ArchLinux with kde 4.7). On one of my ArchLinux machines (nvidia + dual screen + Kde 4.7), I have to run compositor in console to disable desktop effects BEFORE logging in into KDE with this command:
compositor kde
Otherwise KDE wouldn’t even work properly (black background and menus).
In KDE4 you can quickly toggle effects with ALT+SHIFT+F12, perhaps this is all the OP need.
On 08/22/2011 01:56 AM, joonpy wrote:
> Regarding the external monitors, since I have those in my office and
> home, I kind of have to plug/unplug them after booting. I don’t want to
> turn off the computer everytime I move around.
i have found it to be a rude surprise to the operating system to wake up
(from sleep/hibernate/whatever) and find a new monitor plugged in…
i’m not sure that gizmo works as smoothly as one might like, yet…
maybe, for now, the only option when you move from work to home (or vice
versa) is to shut down, unhook, move, hookup, boot.
what would that boot vs wake up cost you in time a minute, two?
you have already spent a week’s worth of those ‘saved’ minutes trying to
get around what may not yet be in your hands to solve…
ymmv
–
DD
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobile” of operating systems!
Unless you remap shortcuts to something else … and how do you quickly toogle desktop effects in console before logging in into KDE? But you’re right, it’s probably all the OP needs.