Kubuntu 19.04 BETA

This month the Beta of Kubuntu 19 was released and after a little fiddling with repositories I managed to get it installed over the top of Kubuntu 18.10.
One of the annoyances at the moment is that after spending time getting the equalizer working for PulseAudio, every time there are system updates, the equalizer wants to update.  And every time it updates it is missing the -gtk files to show the equalizer window.

The pulseaudio-equalizer package in the repositories is missing the required files, and although I tried forcing it, and locking it and even pinning it, the package keeps showing up as an update. As soon as it updates, I get the missing equalizer-gtk error.

A little sideways thinking, and I put a copy of the deb file (pulseaudio-equalizer_2.7.0.2-5_webupd8_xenial0_all.deb) somewhere I can't accidentally delete it, then dragged its icon to a spot on a spare panel.
Now after an update, if the equalizer doesn;t load, and I click the menu item and it comes up with the -gtk error, all I have to do is click the icon on the panel and it will load the version that works.

And I have my custom settings for the sound system I use on the BRIX.

I've also got some - but not all - of my GTK apps (like LibreOffice) running a similar dark theme to the Kvantum theme I am using in Plasma 5. I have the ability to turn transparent windows (like the file icon background in Dolphin etc) on or off with a couple of clicks. But by far the thing I like most about Kvantum is that I can have a dark theme with 3D look buttons and a rounded accent to stuff like buttons and menu highlights.
I'll put some screenshots below.

On a final note, I was having some serious flickering of the cursor and a few other graphical glitches. I wasn't sure if there was a problem with screen refresh, or if my LED TV was dying. Then I remembered I had switched the compositor over to GL 3.1 to check the blur effect in Plasma 5.15 since Cosmic.

It turns out that the onboard iNtel graphics on the BRIX aren't quite up to the stress, which surprises me since xrender these days apparently relies on GL to do some of its work. Anyway, swapping back to xrender seems to have alleviated the problem for now.

Plasma 5 with Dolphin Transparent and 3D Dark Transparency on deektop Theme

A few friends asked me for instructions to create the transparent themes I am using now on Plasma 5 Kubuntu 18.10.
All the themes I use are available online, most through Discover.  The exception is Kvantum, which I detailed a couple of posts previously - and it can also be found by googling.

This post is step by step in pictures.  You could choose your own particular mix.

Please note my monitor is a 50 inch LED at 1680x1050, so my font size choice is 14pt :-)

Note DOLPHIN is set to 'Transparent' in the image Below

I selected a couple of GTK programs to use the Kvantum style - but it had little effect.

Oddly though, Openshot Video Editor picked up the full Kvantum theming including the transparent background area.

Dolphin File Manager Transparent Background and 3D Theme

23th March 2019
BRIX

I had another small win today with my Kubuntu 18 Desktop.  One of the nice features of the latest Plasma 5 is a blurring effect on translucency in window decorations, menus and panels etc.  My discovery of the Kvantum theme engine has taken this a whole lot further, as seen in yesterday's post, but there was still something missing.
For example I had managed to get the blur effect happening in Plasma 5 some time ago, but found I was getting strange artifacts and horrible display flickering whenever I was using GL 3 or GL 2 to drive the compositor using my inbuilt iNtel graphics on the BRIX.  Xrender was working perfectly for translucency or transparency, but blur needs to be rendered using GL.  I was at a loss.

Here is what Dolphin looks like with 3D buttons and translucency, using kvantum and Xrender compositing:

And this is how Dolphin looks like with 3D buttons and translucency, using kvantum and GL3.1 in compositing:

The blur effect makes it easier to read the text against any light colours in wallpaper (obviously not a worry with this view from my balcony).

After previously trying a failing to find a solution to the screen artifacts and tearing problems for ages, I finally had a reason to explore the various options in the compositor section of System Settings.  I even installed wayland - and that was a serious problem.

Here is what finally worked for me.

System Settings > Display and Monitors > Compositor

Then set the Tearing Prevention to 'Full Screen Repaints'.

Now I have a nice stable desktop again, with all my pretty effects working nicely and videos playing perfectly either Windowed or Full Screen.

I hope this helps anyone with Plasma 5 on a lower end system with an iNtel built in graphics adapter who is having trouble running compositing with GL 3 or 2.