Tackling the Taskbar: the underline of _frustration_!

[vc]

So; after much head-bashing, I now have the beginning of a usable KDE4 desktop.  Vis-a-vis the attached image, however, there are clearly some problems that must yet be wrinkled out - in particular, beginning with this one:

How may the taskbar panel be made completely invisible (as in totally transparent) and borderless?  I have attempted to set the panel background image to one of those little 1-pixel-by-1-pixel transparent images, but that did not produce the desired result.  How may this goal be achieved?

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[vc]

Very well; perhaps I am asking in terms that are too generalised - so; let's concentrate then on something more specific:  the 'tray' portion of the taskbar panel, where Klipper and KMix and KNetwork and UpdateNotifier all live, along with that other thing (whatever it is)... at any rate, its background is appallingly darker - how may the 'tray' background be made to match that of the main panel?  I have been searching, but cannot seem to find any setting for it, nor file to edit.  I look in /usr/share/themes, and see all kinds of gtkrc files in there, but there is no directory at all for the 'Glassified' theme, and the 'Default' gtkrc is nothing more than an empty stub.  In other words:  the more I am looking at it, the less it is making any sense.  Which direction should I be investigating, please?

[T6]

transparent to look like some kde3 desktops?

there are many themes in kde-look.org that could have what you need

also you can edit the plasma themes or even create your own ones, seems to be that you need some knowledge in inskcape(svg files)

in kde control center you can create new themes based on the current ones, never tried to do a completely transparent desktop, i have found that it gives me a disordered desktop feeling but that is just my opinion

[vc]

transparent to look like some kde3 desktops?

Yes, I have done this in KDE3, but while the overall effect was quite nice it still wasn't true transparency.  I see now that KDE4 could overcome that limitation; however, I am encountering an inordinate amount of difficulty and frustration, in attempting to configure it.

there are many themes in kde-look.org that could have what you need

True, but that takes forever.  I wish to configure the appearance directly.

also you can edit the plasma themes or even create your own ones, seems to be that you need some knowledge in inskcape(svg files)

How, please?  I am familiar with Inkscape, but know of no program or app for editing KDE4 themes.

in kde control center you can create new themes based on the current ones, never tried to do a completely transparent desktop, i have found that it gives me a disordered desktop feeling but that is just my opinion

Nevertheless, this is what I am attempting - and KDE4 is definitely not cooperating.

[JohnW_57]

Maybe this tutorial will help: http://techbase.kde.org/index.php?title=Development/Tutorials/Plasma/Theme

JohnW

[Rudge]

There are no settings for "Transparency Level" in KDE4 like in KDE3. (were you could just turn it all the way down and it would be invisible) If that is what you are after.

[T6]

as i said it sounds like a bad idea a transparent taskbar without borders but if there is a svg file that can be edited, it should be a option to make a field transparent or at least that is what i understood from the manual JohnW posted

[vc]

Yes, there should be a 'Transparency' setting.  Yes, the manual is helpful - thank you, JohnW.  However, the problem I'm encountering right now is that I can't even change the existing theme!  I select another theme, but the 'Apply' button never responds and the whole thing remains stuck on 'Glassified'.  Additionally, even the 'Customisable' theme listing seems to be missing:

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[T6]

i never changed the theme there, i did changed the theme from the desktop

it seems to require a logout or restart to take effect

[vc]

i never changed the theme there, i did changed the theme from the desktop

it seems to require a logout or restart to take effect

I remember setting up a desktop like that, 'way back in the Slackware days... edit configfile, restart wm; edit configfile, restart wm; edit configfile, restart wm; edit configfile, restart wm; edit configfile, restart wm; edit configfile, restart wm; edit configfile, restart wm; edit configfile, restart wm..... ad nauseum.  Very primitive - and then along came KDE, promising to change all that, by giving users control over the GUI directly, without any configfile editing, and without restarting.  It was an absolute blessing - until now.  Apparently, things have gone full-circle on me - except now there's *hundreds* of bloody configfiles, and they're no longer in plain text.

I did attempt to edit /usr/share/apps/desktoptheme/Glassified/widgets/systemtray.svg in Inkscape.  Saved the edited result, renamed the original to systemtray.bak, copied the modified file into its proper place and made certain both ownership plus permissions, and got this upon restarting the wm:

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[vc]

I found a way around the editing problem: by opening a Konqueror in root mode I am then able to right-click on a file and consequently open it in an Inkscape instance which also then has root privs.  Several issues have become apparent, though:

- The files in usr/share/apps/desktoptheme/whatever seem to be copied to the actual working location (wherever that is) only when a theme selection is changed and the wm subsequently restarted;

- Inkscape takes a long time to start up (more than a minute) on this machine;

- despite setting pretty much every bloody .svg file to be completely transparent, the taskbar appearance for the most part remains unaffected (with the only real success being the systray background);

- it looks exactly the same, regardless of whether compositing is turned on or off;

- the 'Notifications and Jobs' icon background remains completely independent, and apparently unchangeable:

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[vc]

as i said it sounds like a bad idea a transparent taskbar without borders but if there is a svg file that can be edited, it should be a option to make a field transparent or at least that is what i understood from the manual JohnW posted

Well T6, it may not be your cup of tea, but it certainly is mine.  I have been attempting to obtain this particular look for over two years now - how much longer must I wait?  I've read the manual that JohnW has posted, and already it seems dated - the directories and files that are really found in /usr/share/apps/desktopthemes/Glassified are not laid out as illustrated; the 'opaque' subdirectory, for example, contains only one file and not a full set.  Additionally, the /home/me/.kde4/share/apps/desktopthemes/Glassified folder is nothing more than a stub; it's nearly empty.  I have patiently edited file after file after file in Inkscape, restarting the wm completely following each and every edit, yet still the blasted taskbar background remains totally unchanged.

If the manual that JohnW posted represents the 'official' KDE way of doing things, then it seems to me as if whomever designed the default PCLinuxOS KDE4 theme either didn't read it, or else decided to do it in a completely different, non-KDE way.

So - what am I supposed to do now, then?  Where do I look, if the manual isn't truly applicable?  What file(s) should I really be editing?  To illustrate the problem more clearly, I've changed the desktop background wallpaper to the older KDE3 Minime09 image, as it is darker and so provides a better contrast:

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[T6]

"- Inkscape takes a long time to start up (more than a minute) on this machine;"

in mine too, something is not right with a library but since i don't know alot about this app, can't be sure, one thing i can tell you, it has been behaving like this for at least 5 months

from what you say it seems that you are advancing to this goal so ptience is all i can say

about the two years, under kde3 or kde4?

if you don't like the taskbar, just set it to autohide or remove it and use alternatives, there is a couple of those plasmoids

[Wildman]

Still doesn't allow the knews ticker to run in the task bar like it should! 

[AndrzejL]

"- Inkscape takes a long time to start up (more than a minute) on this machine;"

in mine too, something is not right with a library but since i don't know alot about this app, can't be sure, one thing i can tell you, it has been behaving like this for at least 5 months

from what you say it seems that you are advancing to this goal so ptience is all i can say

about the two years, under kde3 or kde4?

if you don't like the taskbar, just set it to autohide or remove it and use alternatives, there is a couple of those plasmoids

It takes about 15 seconds here and my machine is not even close to be fast... What I have noticed is... IF you have the gtk-oxygen-molecule installed - you have no problem with thunderbird and firefox BUT your gtk applications are taking ages to come up. BUT if you have gtk-qt-engine installed BUT set to use qt-curve instead of KDE theme it all looks nice / you dont have problems with firefox and thunderbird / and the gtk applications are 10 times faster...

Could this be... Dont know... You tell me .

Andy