Warning!!! X11 users

It appears that X11 support for plasma is "maintenance" mode only. As such, the push to latest code base has broken building against X11. Therefore, the last version of the glass effect to support X11 is 0ae94cf5e709a894a9f1f54544cb17deb7f77d58

Warning!!! Translucency effect users

Enabling translucent windows via the translucency effect plugin results in all the blur effect plugins having less effect. This occurs for the default blur plugin, the better blur DX plugin, this glass plugin, as well as the old glass plugin. Using transparency level window rules however do not impact the blur effect. If the blur effect disappears after an update, check to see if you have the translucency efffect plugin enabled and if so, check if the default blur effect plugin is also suffering. If so, raise a bug with the maintainers of the translucency effect plugin.

Glass

Glass is a fork of the Plasma 6 blur effect with additional features and bug fixes.

A dock comparison between this and Apple's liquid glass

4v3ngR's theme patches

• Updated firefox, thunderbird, plasma, color schemes, and helper scripts can be found at my glassOS repo

4v3ngR's application and WM theme

• Glass is a fork of Darkly to complement the improved refraction shader for that liquid refraction goodness.

Features

• Wayland support (X11 support is currently broken)
• Force blur
• Rounded corners with anti-aliasing
• Adjust blur brightness, contrast and saturation
• Tint, glow, and edge lighting (brighter edges)
• Refraction (by @DaddelZeit and @iGerman00)

Support for previous Plasma releases

Currently supported versions: 6.6 (Wayland only)

• big thanks to @dnmodder for providing the patch for 6.6.0

Support for 6.5.x (and X11 builds)

• The last version to support plasma 6.5.x (and X11) is 0ae94cf5e709a894a9f1f54544cb17deb7f77d58

Installation

Important

If the effect stops working after a system upgrade, you will need to rebuild it or reinstall the package.

Packages

NixOS (flakes)

flake.nix:

  {
    inputs = {
      # nixpkgs repository
      nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable"

      # kwin-effects-glass flake module
      kwin-effects-glass = {
        url = "github:4v3ngR/kwin-effects-glass";
        inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
      };
    };
  }

  { inputs, pkgs, ... }:
  
  {
    # alternatively, put the attributes in the list into
    # 'users.users.<name>.packages' or 'home.packages' if
    # using home-manager
    environment.systemPackages = [
      inputs.kwin-effects-glass.packages.${pkgs.system}.default # for KDE Wayland
      inputs.kwin-effects-glass.packages.${pkgs.system}.x11 # for KDE X11
    ];
  }

Arch (AUR)

yay -S kwin-effects-glass-git

Thanks to Avi Tretiak package details

Fedora 43, 42 (copr)

sudo dnf copr enable ama1470/kwin-effects-glass
sudo dnf install kwin-effects-glass

WARNING This copr repo is maintained by AMA147000 rather than the upstream developer and may break on changes. For packaging/updating error please open tickets on the packaging repo instead of this one.

openSUSE Tumbleweed

sudo zypper ar https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/vcalles/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/home:vcalles.repo
sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper install kwin-effects-glass

Manual

Note

On Fedora Kinoite and other distributions based on it, the effect must be built in a container.

Dependencies

• CMake
• Extra CMake Modules
• Plasma 6
• Qt 6
• KF6
• KWin development packages

Arch Linux

Wayland:

sudo pacman -S base-devel git extra-cmake-modules qt6-tools kwin

X11:

sudo pacman -S base-devel git extra-cmake-modules qt6-tools kwin-x11

Debian-based (KDE Neon, Kubuntu, Ubuntu)

Wayland:

sudo apt install -y git cmake g++ extra-cmake-modules qt6-tools-dev kwin-dev libkf6configwidgets-dev gettext libkf6crash-dev libkf6globalaccel-dev libkf6kio-dev libkf6service-dev libkf6notifications-dev libkf6kcmutils-dev libkdecorations3-dev libxcb-composite0-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-shm0-dev

X11:

sudo apt install -y git cmake g++ extra-cmake-modules qt6-tools-dev kwin-x11-dev libkf6configwidgets-dev gettext libkf6crash-dev libkf6globalaccel-dev libkf6kio-dev libkf6service-dev libkf6notifications-dev libkf6kcmutils-dev libkdecorations3-dev libxcb-composite0-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-shm0-dev

Fedora 41, 42

Wayland:

sudo dnf -y install git cmake extra-cmake-modules gcc-g++ kf6-kwindowsystem-devel plasma-workspace-devel libplasma-devel qt6-qtbase-private-devel qt6-qtbase-devel cmake kwin-devel extra-cmake-modules kwin-devel kf6-knotifications-devel kf6-kio-devel kf6-kcrash-devel kf6-ki18n-devel kf6-kguiaddons-devel libepoxy-devel kf6-kglobalaccel-devel kf6-kcmutils-devel kf6-kconfigwidgets-devel kf6-kdeclarative-devel kdecoration-devel kf6-kglobalaccel kf6-kdeclarative libplasma kf6-kio qt6-qtbase kf6-kguiaddons kf6-ki18n wayland-devel libdrm-devel rpm-build

X11:

sudo dnf -y install git cmake extra-cmake-modules gcc-g++ kf6-kwindowsystem-devel plasma-workspace-devel libplasma-devel qt6-qtbase-private-devel qt6-qtbase-devel cmake extra-cmake-modules kf6-knotifications-devel kf6-kio-devel kf6-kcrash-devel kf6-ki18n-devel kf6-kguiaddons-devel libepoxy-devel kf6-kglobalaccel-devel kf6-kcmutils-devel kf6-kconfigwidgets-devel kf6-kdeclarative-devel kdecoration-devel kf6-kglobalaccel kf6-kdeclarative libplasma kf6-kio qt6-qtbase kf6-kguiaddons kf6-ki18n wayland-devel libdrm-devel kwin-x11-devel rpm-build

openSUSE

Wayland:

sudo zypper in -y git cmake-full gcc-c++ kf6-extra-cmake-modules kcoreaddons-devel kguiaddons-devel kconfigwidgets-devel kwindowsystem-devel ki18n-devel kiconthemes-devel kpackage-devel frameworkintegration-devel kcmutils-devel kirigami2-devel "cmake(KF6Config)" "cmake(KF6CoreAddons)" "cmake(KF6FrameworkIntegration)" "cmake(KF6GuiAddons)" "cmake(KF6I18n)" "cmake(KF6KCMUtils)" "cmake(KF6KirigamiPlatform)" "cmake(KF6WindowSystem)" "cmake(Qt6Core)" "cmake(Qt6DBus)" "cmake(Qt6Quick)" "cmake(Qt6Svg)" "cmake(Qt6Widgets)" "cmake(Qt6Xml)" "cmake(Qt6UiTools)" "cmake(KF6Crash)" "cmake(KF6GlobalAccel)" "cmake(KF6KIO)" "cmake(KF6Service)" "cmake(KF6Notifications)" libepoxy-devel kwin6-devel

X11:

sudo zypper in -y git cmake-full gcc-c++ kf6-extra-cmake-modules kcoreaddons-devel kguiaddons-devel kconfigwidgets-devel kwindowsystem-devel ki18n-devel kiconthemes-devel kpackage-devel frameworkintegration-devel kcmutils-devel kirigami2-devel "cmake(KF6Config)" "cmake(KF6CoreAddons)" "cmake(KF6FrameworkIntegration)" "cmake(KF6GuiAddons)" "cmake(KF6I18n)" "cmake(KF6KCMUtils)" "cmake(KF6KirigamiPlatform)" "cmake(KF6WindowSystem)" "cmake(Qt6Core)" "cmake(Qt6DBus)" "cmake(Qt6Quick)" "cmake(Qt6Svg)" "cmake(Qt6Widgets)" "cmake(Qt6Xml)" "cmake(Qt6UiTools)" "cmake(KF6Crash)" "cmake(KF6GlobalAccel)" "cmake(KF6KIO)" "cmake(KF6Service)" "cmake(KF6Notifications)" libepoxy-devel kwin6-x11-devel

Building

git clone https://github.com/4v3ngR/kwin-effects-glass
cd kwin-effects-glass
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Building on Fedora Kinoite

# enter container
git clone https://github.com/4v3ngR/kwin-effects-glass
cd kwin-effects-glass
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
make -j$(nproc)
cpack -V -G RPM
exit # exit container
sudo rpm-ostree install kwin-effects-glass/build/kwin-glass.rpm

Remove the build directory when rebuilding the effect.

Usage

This effect will conflict with the stock blur effect and any other forks of it.

1. Install the plugin.
2. Open the Desktop Effects page in System Settings.
3. Disable any blur effects.
4. Enable the Glass effect.

Window transparency

The window needs to be translucent in order for the blur to be visible. This can be done in multiple ways:

• Use a transparent theme for the program if it supports it
• Use a transparent color scheme, such as Alpha
• Create a window rule that reduces the window opacity

Obtaining window classes

The classes of windows to blur can be specified in the effect settings. You can obtain them in two ways:

• Run qdbus org.kde.KWin /KWin org.kde.KWin.queryWindowInfo and click on the window. You can use either resourceClass or resourceName.
• Right click on the titlebar, go to More Options and Configure Special Window/Application Settings. The class can be found at Window class (application). If there is a space, for example Navigator firefox, you can use either Navigator or firefox.

High cursor latency or stuttering on Wayland

This effect can be very resource-intensive if you have a lot of windows open. On Wayland, high GPU load may result in higher cursor latency or even stuttering. If that bothers you, set the following environment variable: KWIN_DRM_NO_AMS=1. If that's not enough, try enabling or disabling the software cursor by also setting KWIN_FORCE_SW_CURSOR=0 or KWIN_FORCE_SW_CURSOR=1.

Intel GPUs use software cursor by default due to this bug, however it doesn't seem to affect all GPUs.

Credits

• a-parhom/LightlyShaders - CMakeLists.txt files