Plasma 6 KDE with X11 on Tumbleweed

Next step from KDE desktop styling and usability problems 1 ... I do need to be able to document each step, and perhaps now is the time to get the bug tracking package for bitweaver working again. I certainly need it for tracking the code development stuff that is simply not appropriate to track using github.

The trigger for making some progress was a post re the font sizes in myrlyn which were being problematic. "You need to log in as root to change the font size as myrlyn runs as root". Now the first problem with that at one time is that SUSE would actually prevent logging in as root as a 'security measure'. An annoyance at time, but then one can use sudo to do most things so should not need to actually log in? It is also irritating that one has to keep typing in the root password when doing a sequence of things that keep asking, where logging in as root would be quicker, and currently that is not a problem. As soon as I logged in I realised that a number of the problems I'd been fighting no longer existed, and then trying a wayland session things were somewhat better. So just how do you clear down all the dross when logged in as the user? With difficulty, so instead I simply created a new user! A clean desktop and initially I avoided using X11 at all at which point wayland's previous annoyances simply vanished. Perhaps I should create another user which only sees X11 was the next thought, but I applied all of the cribs I'd already documented and got the wayland desktop looking reasonable. STILL a problem with pop-up screens such as message searxh in thunderbird, but many of the niggles that appeared when switching the old user from X11 to a wayland session where fixed. Even the start bar was displaying properly, although I now think this may also be affected by the 'theme' being used. I'd stuck with Breeze and of cause non of the other downloaded themes were present as they were in the old user space.

The only think really remaining was the problem of the displayport driven monitor going blank from time to time. The fun with the hardware is documented in the blog although I think some if that may have been unnecessary now I have established ... X11 is stable wayland is not! The new user is now configured to X11 formats and has been stable since I switched over. Toggled back to wayland earlier and the right hand monitor stated blanking and with 'display configuration' up you can see it's mimic going on and off. So something software wise is getting messed up when talking to the hardware which X11 is perfectly happy with. I do wish now I had not 'followed the advise' and even tried wayland. I can see a couple of possible plus features, but now I am better in control, I've got the same results in X11 which also does not have the problem of small font size on thunderbird search and other pop-up windows.

Part of the problem here IS the way switching a monitor off affects the rest of the setup. Something that M$ annoyingly copied in windows. Many of my machines out in the field were being used to drive multiple screens, and the 'desktop' was in a screen that did not need to have a monitor attached. VNC is STILL the best way to remote access these types of machine, and the same applies on Linux. The fix was a dongle that emulated a monitor and had a pass through where the monitor was the other side of a KVM switch. Today, while I can see stub dongles for 4k monitors, there is no similar pass-through device, but what we ideally need is a means to 'lock' the display channel on so that is can still be viewed remotely, and is ready to go when switching the KVM back. Both X11 and wayland push things on the inactivated screen to - for example - overlay the copy of thunderbird still running on the right hand monitor. So you can't see new messages while working on the windows box via the KVM. Current kludge is just to close windows on the central monitor before switching.

One little plus is that the wireless mouse is working a lot better than any of the wired ones I'd used, even a new one just bought, although just how old that stock is may be questionable. Right click has always been intermittent on the desktop, something that was put down to the mouse, which is why I'd tried a number without a fix, but the wireless one is working crisply so there may be something in it. Occasionally the pointer does jump a long way from where I'm using it. I've put a clean sheet on the mousemat, but it's still doing it, so as long as it does not happen too often I can live with it. The keyboard is a lot crisper as well and most of my time is there rather than on the mouse anyway.

My next step I think is to clean up the crib sheets for the applications I am using. Only active ones have been moved to the new user although just when one is installed in user space rather than system space seems random? I also need to document just where the user settings are for some of the key applications. thunderbird is easy and the profile is in system space anyway. Perhaps a move to do the same with some of the others would be appropriate, then if I get in a mess again I can simply reinstate 'lester' over 'lsces' and have another clean sheet.