Now this is interesting...

[SteveRiley]

there used to be several windblows things that were purposely not named correctly so that people couldn't fiddle with them.

Doesn't just about every Linux distribution do exactly the same thing, for exactly the same reason?

Hint: think .file or .directory

(You know I just have to keep tweaking all of you guys about this kind of stuff...hehehehe)

[bra|10n]

When the not-so-straight-forward becomes just plain ridiculous...

Thanks for the suggestions here but the continued hassal with this specific is not worth persuing.

If the concept for 'plasma themes' is based on svgz images and a coresponding colors file then either one or both of the following is true:

1. The default theme is broken and cannot be further manipulated, i.e does not adhere to the guidelines of KDE's themes.
   
2. Or, as was somewhat inferred above, someone is not being totally upfront with ordinary users here.

I asked this question over at KDE-Forums and received this response from a dev;

"Instead of removing the files, try editing the one from the theme you use and setting it to be mostly transparent. Don't know whether it works, but generally if you change it, it should replace the blue glow-bar with whatever you put in there (for example, slim-glow doesn't have it blue, but gray)"

Now I'm not having a shot at the dev, I don't know what he develops but I appreciate his reply regardless. Let's look at what he says though.

If I download and install Slim-Glow plasma theme it should solve the issue of the blue glow. No.

Substituting the existing svgz image from Slim Glow into 'Air'. No.

Instead of deleting instances of glowbar.svgz images, I instead render them 100% transparent. No.

Editing the 'Air' colors file to anything but blue. No.

Deleting the images outright. No.

Editing system colors themes in the feint hope this would make a difference. No.

Having cleared caches, updated, switched between themes, and where possible also in the 'root' account leaves not much left that I can think of right now.

All that's rattling in my head is how, without the offending images present anywhere on this system are my task items still glowing blue?

[SteveRiley]

What exactly is the blue halo effect you're seeing on the task bar? Mine has no blue at all. Just grays.

[GreyGeek]

I'm running the default Oxygen theme on my Precise and when I open an app it is, like Chromium is right now, it has a faint blue glow an all four edges. I believe the glow is only on the active task. I like it.

[SteveRiley]

Right...but if I understand bra|10n's OP, the question is about a blue glow on the taskbar. Upon closer examination, I think it's this:



Notice the very subtle blue glow around the taskbar button. This appears only when I actively mouse over the buttons, and the blue glow surrounds whichever button the cursor hovers over.

[GreyGeek]

Oh, that. I noticed that when I was running the 3.2.0-20 kernel. Also, when I opened an app it had a black, semi-transparent band about 1/4" wide on all four sides as I moved or re-sized it. When I dropped it the band diminished to about the size of the blue glow surrounding the apps but it was still transparent black. With the -19 kernel the artifact you mention is no longer present on my tasksbar.

[SteveRiley]

I think the taskbar blue glow isn't an artifact but in fact is supposed to happen.

Regarding the artifact you noticed when moving windows around, I'm not seeing that -- but I'm on the -19 kernel from Xorg-Edgers. I'll upgrade to the -20 kernel and see if it happens. BRB...

[SteveRiley]

sriley@SRiley-T410:~$ [B]uname -a[/B]
Linux SRiley-T410 3.2.0-20-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 23 00:49:39 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

...from Xorg-edgers. Works fine, no visual artifacts. Using drivers from the same PPA:

sriley@SRiley-T410:~$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel
xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installed: 2:2.18.0+git20120317.e31d9dac-0ubuntu0sarvatt~oneiric
  Candidate: 2:2.18.0+git20120317.e31d9dac-0ubuntu0sarvatt2~sna~oneiric
  Version table:
     2:2.18.0+git20120317.e31d9dac-0ubuntu0sarvatt2~sna~oneiric 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/sarvatt/intel-sna/ubuntu/ oneiric/main amd64 Packages
 *** 2:2.18.0+git20120317.e31d9dac-0ubuntu0sarvatt~oneiric 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/xorg-edgers/ppa/ubuntu/ oneiric/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:2.15.901-1ubuntu2.2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-proposed/main amd64 Packages
     2:2.15.901-1ubuntu2.1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates/main amd64 Packages
     2:2.15.901-1ubuntu2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main amd64 Packages

Alas, while the SNA driver works fine on my X1, it doesn't on my T520.

[GreyGeek]

How do your CPU temps under -20 compare with what they were under -19? Mine were 10F and more HIGHER!

[SteveRiley]

I don't have a fancy thermal gun like yours, so I can't offer that kind of measurement.

Right now, sensors says 52 deg C. Laptop is slightly warm. Fan is not running. Essentially the same as with -19.

[GreyGeek]

I use the CPU temperature plasmoid too. Under -19 mine was idling at 40C and under load (Minecraft) about 51C Under -20 they were 45C and 60C Under load really gave a large temp difference.

[bra|10n]

I need something explained here...

Under what circumstances in Linux am I denied the option to alter a particular file's contents, when permissions are set rw for all users, or chmod a+rw "filename" for said file?

[claydoh]

Back to the glow, that is not a desktop effect or a plasma theme but is a window decoration thing, specifically the Oxygen windeco theme, which has many configuration options.

Go to Workspace Appearance in System Settings >> Window Decorations select Oxygen, then click "Configure Decoration"
The Shadows tab has what you are looking for.

Oxygen has quite the number of options compared to other windecos; the separation of plasma and windeco, etc does make it difficult to find where things are configured.

[bra|10n]

[claydoh]

Well call me silly, I got lost in the glow...
I looked at the svg image in an editor, and came up with...the wrong glow, sorry!