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Kitty Transparency Issues

Hey All,

I have been using kitty+picom for roughly a year without any issues that weren't self inflicted. This week that may (or may not have changed). When I launched kitty on monday all of my transparency was broken and adjusting the configs did not seem to fix it.

Here is my kitty config (it is just included in the default config):

# Backgrounds & Foregrounds
foreground           #2DE2E6
background           #0D0221
selection_foreground #023788
selection_background #EB095C
url_color            #2SE2E6
background_opacity   0.5
# 
# ############
# Color Table#
# ############
# Bright Colors are above
# Dark Colors are below
#
# White
color0  #E4F2F8
color8  #C1D7E7

# Black
color1  #FF6C11
color9  #FF6000

# Red
color2  #EB095C
color10 #890A51

# Green
color3  #7AF9B8
color11 #52B89C

# Yellow
color4  #FEFE60
color12 #F9C80E

# Blue
color5  #1A8FFF
color13 #023788

# Magenta
color6  #FF00FF
color14 #F706CF

# Cyan
color7  #2DE2E6
color15 #0A8585

Once more, in kitty, this is just included to add my changes.

Here is my picom config:

#################################
#   Transparency / Opacity      #
#################################
 
opacity-rule = [
  "100:class_g    = 'dmenu'",
  "100:class_g     = 'Polybar'",
  "100:class_g    = 'firefox'",
  "100:class_g    = 'thunderbird'",
  "100:class_g    = 'i3lock'",
];

#####################
#  Rounded Borders  #
#####################
corner-radius = 5.0;
round-borders = 1;
rounded-corners-exclude = [
  "class_g = 'Polybar'",
  "class_g = 'rofi'",
  "class_g = 'dmenu'",
];

Here is my loginctl:

Since: Thu 2024-10-24 08:58:01 MST; 1h 10min ago
  State: active
 Leader: 559 (lightdm)
   Seat: seat0; vc7
    TTY: tty7
 Remote: no
Service: lightdm
   Type: x11
  Class: user
Desktop: i3
   Idle: no
   Unit: session-2.scope
         ├─ 559 lightdm --session-child 15 22
         ├─ 604 i3 -a --restart /run/user/1000/i3/restart-state.604
         ├─ 662 /usr/bin/bash
         ├─ 666 kitty
         ├─ 680 /usr/bin/bash
         ├─ 683 kitty
         ├─ 700 /usr/bin/bash
         ├─ 704 kitty
         ├─ 740 /usr/bin/bash
         ├─ 744 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox
         ├─ 818 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -parentBuildID 20241014102019 -prefsLen 35353 -p>
         ├─ 839 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -isForBrowser -prefsLen 35353 -prefMapSize 25665>
         ├─ 865 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -isForBrowser -prefsLen 35456 -prefMapSize 25665>
         ├─ 971 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -parentBuildID 20241014102019 -sandboxingKind 0 >
         ├─ 982 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -isForBrowser -prefsLen 36584 -prefMapSize 25665>
         ├─1064 /usr/bin/bash
         ├─1074 /usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird
         ├─1172 /usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird -contentproc -childID 1 -isForBrowser -prefsLen 12700>
         ├─1249 /usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird -contentproc -childID 2 -isForBrowser -prefsLen 10942>
         ├─1687 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -parentBuildID 20241014102019 -prefsLen 41611 -p>
         ├─2496 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -isForBrowser -prefsLen 36732 -prefMapSize 25665>
         ├─2624 polybar workBar
         ├─2625 tee -a /tmp/polybar1.log
         ├─2626 polybar timeBar
         ├─2627 tee -a /tmp/polybar2.log
         ├─2628 polybar statBar
         ├─2629 tee -a /tmp/polybar3.log
         ├─3129 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -isForBrowser -prefsLen 36732 -prefMapSize 25665>
         ├─5329 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -isForBrowser -prefsLen 36838 -prefMapSize 25665>
         ├─5381 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -isForBrowser -prefsLen 36838 -prefMapSize 25665>
         ├─5407 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -isForBrowser -prefsLen 36838 -prefMapSize 25665>
         ├─5454 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -isForBrowser -prefsLen 36838 -prefMapSize 25665>
         ├─5516 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -isForBrowser -prefsLen 36838 -prefMapSize 25665>
         └─5562 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc -isForBrowser -prefsLen 36838 -prefMapSize 25665>

And the output from kitty cat:

[0.282] Failed to enable transparency. This happens when your desktop environment does not support compositing.
[0.301] [glfw error 65544]: process_desktop_settings: failed with error: [org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown] The name is not activatable
[0.301] [glfw error 65544]: Notify: Failed to get server capabilities error: [org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown] The name is not activatable

My dbus may be broken. Though I do not know how to confirm if that is the case. Any help would be appreciated, I have been casually using this for about a year but my knowledge is mid at best. Thank you beforehand, and if this isn't enough info I can get more.

1
1 comments
  • For anyone finding this after-the-fact, I fixed it by reinstalling picom and adding backend = "xrender" to picom.conf

    I'm not exactly sure what caused the issue as the default for picom is xrender but my transparency works now. Those glfw errors are non-critical and have nothing to do with my issue either.