[SOLVED] GTK programs appear black in KDE 4

Jason_25 · 01-31-2018, 10:33 AM

GTK programs appear black when running within KDE. I need GTK programs like Linphone, Matchbox-keyboard and Modem Manager combined with the extensive windowing controls of Kwin.

I am having this problem on 32-bit Debian Jessie with KDE 4. I do not see the problem on 64-bit Jessie or 32-bit/64-bit Devuan. I need Debian instead of Devuan because of included support for the Odroid C0 SBC.

The problem is bad enough that I cannot see the content of text messages within Modem Manager.

To troubleshoot I have installed gtk2-engines-oxygen which makes the menu bar area of GTK applications work correctly but all other elements including text fields are still black. All other available gtk2 engines appear black. Changing gtk3 engines has no effect. I have also tried removing the .kde folder and gtk rc dotfiles in the home folder with no effect.

How should I proceed?

BW-userx · 01-31-2018, 10:48 AM

looks like you're speaking of theme issues? whereas the font background colors are blocking you from reading the contents of text within a window? The colors are too close together to see the difference, or some such thing, yes, KDE theme manager might help, looking online for other themes you can use in KDE to correct the situation.

I do not know all that Devuan has within its reops, I do no it is not a lot, so I got rid of it. But hopefully it has that.

https://www.linux-apps.com/content/s...?content=22120

Jason_25 · 02-01-2018, 04:51 AM

I think this is more of a bug because I don't see it with any number of other KDE 4 installations across architectures. I haven't been playing with any settings before this problem appeared either.

If you search for "KDE black windows" you'll see some similar problems. This thread clued me in that it is mainly a problem with GTK programs - here it is solved by deleting the .kde folder which does not work for me:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-...2-start-0.html

I am really just looking for any valid workaround so that I can see text and move forward with my project.

BW-userx · 02-01-2018, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason_25

I think this is more of a bug because I don't see it with any number of other KDE 4 installations across architectures. I haven't been playing with any settings before this problem appeared either.

If you search for "KDE black windows" you'll see some similar problems. This thread clued me in that it is mainly a problem with GTK programs - here it is solved by deleting the .kde folder which does not work for me:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-...2-start-0.html

I am really just looking for any valid workaround so that I can see text and move forward with my project.

well having given it more thought, seeings how this is a distro related incident therefore, it'd be what you said a bug, and reported to the people in charge of the distro. Because it goes wackO on you after you do an update/upgrade so some config files must be getting mangled somewhere, somehow. so yes I would advise reporting it to them as a bug, remember you have to give them the steps preformed, system you're using, and other pertinent details. So they can try to replicate the incident in order to fix it.
System being hardware,make model.

Jason_25 · 02-01-2018, 08:11 AM

I wish I had time to wait a few years or never for someone else to fix this. I still don't have any idea what the problem is but I found a good workaround. For some reason, GTK settings are not being applied to GTK programs and they are instead taking cues from KDE itself. Searching vaguely led me to this answer and one of the last things I tried was looking for the font color settings in KDE. Font by default is set a really dark gray that does not contrast well with the buggy black text boxes. So I set it to a light gray color and apart from that setting causing all text in KDE to become light gray it works fine.

My searches were interfered with this time by posts with nerds who were posting crap about "look and feel" and "integration" and various Gnome rants. I don't care about any of that and I suspect people searching for this problem don't either. Idiotic stuff like that should be booted down the search results but instead we have to wade through the complaints for the small tidbit of information. A bit like this post really, a complaint with a small morsel of workaround information inside.

I don't think I will be marking this as solved because the main problem of (some) GTK applications having black elements in KDE 4 (on this configuration) is not solved. Hopefully this workaround will help someone.

BW-userx · 02-01-2018, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason_25

I wish I had time to wait a few years or never for someone else to fix this. I still don't have any idea what the problem is but I found a good workaround. For some reason, GTK settings are not being applied to GTK programs and they are instead taking cues from KDE itself. Searching vaguely led me to this answer and one of the last things I tried was looking for the font color settings in KDE. Font by default is set a really dark gray that does not contrast well with the buggy black text boxes. So I set it to a light gray color and apart from that setting causing all text in KDE to become light gray it works fine.

My searches were interfered with this time by posts with nerds who were posting crap about "look and feel" and "integration" and various Gnome rants. I don't care about any of that and I suspect people searching for this problem don't either. Idiotic stuff like that should be booted down the search results but instead we have to wade through the complaints for the small tidbit of information. A bit like this post really, a complaint with a small morsel of workaround information inside.

I don't think I will be marking this as solved because the main problem of (some) GTK applications having black elements in KDE 4 (on this configuration) is not solved. Hopefully this workaround will help someone.

it should still be reported to them as a bug so they can look into it. regardless if you find a work around, and as I suspected it is a theme'ing issue. KDE is keeping control over the entire thing, that is why I like using other than Gnome, or KDE they are too saturated. but do have little bites of apps that work nicely in WMaker. I tend to install a xfce4 desktop distro then put WindowMaker on it they work nicely together.

the one I am in now well it is Bluestar an Arch knockoff that is using KDE Plasma and how it is sell up it too is only partly working. so just to say, you're not the only one that has issues with knock offs.

As you stated you are looking into KDE's theme'ing controls to try and correct the situation whereas I just suggested gnomes. I usually getting rid of the desktop, that came with it, or no longer use it, and put WMaker or Fluxbox on it instead. Which is what I am in the process of doing with this Bluestar Arch Linux Knock off. Even though I do like Plasma, so .. who knows, they do not even have much of a reop in here to work with. But Arch does things there way. but at lest they are standardized in their methodology. where kock offs tend to go off the beaten path, so you're stuck doing what you're going through, and I am going through, fixing it, or at least trying to. Even though Debian is not a knock off I stopped using them a long time ago.

kilgoretrout · 02-01-2018, 08:32 AM

Have you tried looking in System Settings>Application Appearance>GTK? For the GTK3 theme, I'm using FlatStudioLight and I'm getting white text on a dark background in my GTK3 applications in Kubuntu 14.04. IIRC I did have similar font problems with a GTK update until I switched to that GTK3 theme.

ondoho · 02-01-2018, 02:49 PM

the description sounds like a gtk3 version / theme mismatch.
i had that once, and the solution was either downgrading gtk3 or using one of the few themes that works.
yes, it's a pita and it's the main reason why people hate gnome/gtk3 - they break their own software twice a year, expecting everyone to keep up.
i use oomox nowadays to save me some hassle and still get some sort of customisation.

Jason_25 · 02-02-2018, 02:44 PM

The problem appears with both Gtk 2 and 3 applications. I have tried various themes from the KDE Gtk control panel. The Gtk oxygen theme for both version 2 and 3 improves things but areas like text boxes and a few other elements still appear black. Gtk 2 applications are being controlled by KDE by default and Gtk 3 applications are being controlled by KDE when I configure Gtk 3 to use the Gtk oxygen theme. I never had to know or go through any of this on any previous installation of KDE on any system. Only with Odroid C0 on 32-bit Debian Jessie with KDE 4 do I see this. One other thing I noticed is that Mozilla thunderbird does not display this behavior.

ondoho · 02-03-2018, 04:38 PM

i suspect some sort of misunderstanding, but i can't really pin it down.
i guess the best would be if you could tell us exactly what applications display that behavior, and what don't, and if they're gtk2/3 based.

here's alittle script that can tell you:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

function do2 {
    echo -e "\ngtk2\n----"
    for F in *; do 
        objdump -p $F 2> /dev/null | grep gtk-x11-2.0 > /dev/null
        if (( $? == 0 )); then echo -e "  $F"
        fi
    done
}

function do3 {
    echo -e "\ngtk3\n----"
    for F in *; do
        objdump -p $F 2> /dev/null | grep gtk-3 > /dev/null
        if (( $? == 0 )); then echo -e "  $F"
        fi
    done
}

cd /usr/bin

case $1 in
2) do2
    ;;
3) do3
    ;;
*) do2
    do3
    ;;
esac

PS:
if this is somehow KDE related i won't be able to help much.

Jason_25 · 03-01-2018, 12:18 AM

I wanted to get back to this because I noticed xinput_calibrator shows a black screen and that is a critical program to calibrate the touchscreen. The problem has gone from being annoying to serious.

I tested installing this third party theme with screenshots and obvious metal-like color implications:
https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1216298/
It instead turns out looking all black for gtk2 applications. As I said previously the gtk2 oxygen theme is mostly black also but at least the menu bar is white.

I am looking for any available solution so that I may continue.

edit: This problem is system-wide and affects the XFCE desktop also.

edit 2: Problem solved.

This thread had me thinking it was more graphics related:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=961781

This thread again confirmed that and remined me I am using fbdev driver:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/v...37c86&start=25

This thread shows the fbdev driver sometimes has trouble with gtk colors:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugr...cgi?bug=338241

This thread shows odroids sometimes have trouble with graphics and gtk:
https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=136&t=23855

This thread shows my hero grmume hinting that color depth is the problem:
https://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewt...hp?f=60&t=8276

32 bit depth was the default. 24 bit lead to grayscale bugginess. 16 bit looks generally fine but leaves a small moire pattern on the desktop. More importantly the bug is worked around with 16 bit color!