Update killed taskbar transparency [Solved]

[jzakiya]

I was forced to reconfigure my kde desktop after the update.
Previously, the taskbar at the bottom of the screen had transparency enabled
but in the update transparency isn't enabled.

How do I turn transparency on the the toolbar again?

I've rebooted with with old .kde config folder and it does come back,
but the taskbar is messed up, so it's easier to use the newer reset kde folder
and everything will be back to as before (on the desktop) once I get this fixed.

[menotu]

Could have a look in

Configure Your Desktop > Workspace Appearance & Behaviour  > Workspace Appearance > Desktop Theme

and see if the Glassified theme works

You've also got the Details tab (same area) which allows more customized control

[jzakiya]

OK, I solved the problem.

I checked and saw transparency was supposed to be enabled.

So I looked at the screen again, and saw the picture I had to re-install
as my desktop background was being cropped at the top and bottom,
so I set the image filter to 'scaled' and it took up the whole screen again.

Man, you learn so much when you have to fix stuff!

[eMeRy]

Could have a look in

Configure Your Desktop > Workspace Appearance & Behaviour  > Workspace Appearance > Desktop Theme

and see if the Glassified theme works

You've also got the Details tab (same area) which allows more customized control

Sorry, what does it mean, Glassified theme works? It is the chosen one for me in all the list (includes panel background item), but there's no transparency on panel.
Strange, PCLOS 2011 installed on my PIII 1.4GHZ computer with working transparency panel. (4,6 KDE I guess) My main PCLOS system (2012) runs KDE 4.8 on better HW, but there's no transparency panel. (It's not so important, but...)
   

[ferry_th]

Could have a look in

Configure Your Desktop > Workspace Appearance & Behaviour  > Workspace Appearance > Desktop Theme

and see if the Glassified theme works

You've also got the Details tab (same area) which allows more customized control

Sorry, what does it mean, Glassified theme works? It is the chosen one for me in all the list (includes panel background item), but there's no transparency on panel.
Strange, PCLOS 2011 installed on my PIII 1.4GHZ computer with working transparency panel. (4,6 KDE I guess) My main PCLOS system (2012) runs KDE 4.8 on better HW, but there's no transparency panel. (It's not so important, but...)
  

Hi, EmeRy. In your main system, have you enabled the desktop effects ? It's one of changes they made in KDE since 4.8 (I think). You have to enable desktop effects to get that transparent panel. Hit Alt+Shift+F12 to activate, or
Configure Your Desktop > Workspace Appearance and Behaviour > Desktop Effect > Check enable desktop effect at startup

I notice in my old hardware activating desktop effects in KDE 4.8 and later version will bring system down to its knee. The system gets very unresponsive . Previously, in KDE 4.6 the desktop effects run just fine in that hardware (wobbly windows, magic lamp, desktop cube etc). That unresponsiveness leave me no choice but disable desktop effects which  make me lose the transparency in panel. Alternative solution I've found work is to use another compositor software, in my case I install compton and its manager - xcompton-tools from repo. It's lightweight, only consume RAM around 480 KB  Type 'compton' in Synaptic search should bring these two result. There should be two shortcuts after installing:  compton-start and compton-settings. To get transparency, just tinker  with Transparency Setting in compton-settings. In my case, I just check and set Opacity for menus and Opacity for window titlebar and borders to 0.85. Hit Save and Autostart to save the config.

KDE 4.9.2 + compton compositing ....

[eMeRy]

Thanks for your help, ferry_th. It was a very simple solution...
Now I haven't recognized any disadvantage as the effects are activated. Anyway, I save your comment, and I'll change to Compton if the system slow down.