catsout
[KDE 6.4 + Wayland] Plugin Only Shows Black Wallpaper (No Video/Animation)
Hello,
First of all, thank you for this project and your continuous efforts to keep it up to date.
Issue:
After compiling and installing the plugin on KDE Plasma 6.4 (Arch Linux, fully updated, using Wayland), the “Wallpaper Engine” option appears in the desktop wallpaper types menu. However, when I select it and try to use any wallpaper (including .mp4/.webm files), the desktop background only shows as a solid black screen—no video, animation, or image is rendered.
What I have tried:
- Clean build and install (including submodules, all dependencies, and patches for CMake compatibility)
- Verified permissions and correct file placement (
/usr/share/plasma/wallpapers/com.github.catsout.wallpaperEngineKde/) - Steam’s video wallpapers are accessible, but none of them are displayed—only a black screen is shown.
- Restarted Plasma, cleared configs, tried with new user.
Notes:
- Everything works perfectly on older KDE Plasma 5/X11 systems.
- With KDE 6.4, there is no X11 session available (Wayland only).
- Other users have reported similar issues; it seems to be a compatibility problem with Plasma 6 and/or Wayland.
- The mpv-based “Video Wallpaper” plugin from the KDE Store works perfectly under the same system and user.
Steps to Reproduce:
- Install plugin on KDE Plasma 6.4 (Wayland session)
- Select “Wallpaper Engine” as desktop wallpaper type
- Choose any animated or video wallpaper
- Observe black screen as result
System Info:
- OS: Arch Linux (fully updated)
- Plasma: 6.4.x (Wayland)
- Qt: 6.x
- GPU: AMD RTX 570
Is there any workaround, or is Wayland/Plasma 6 support planned in the near future?
If there is any debug command or log I can provide, let me know—I am happy to help test!
Thank you so much!
Edit:
After installing the SteamOS package with
sudo wget https://github.com/slynobody/SteamOS-wallpaper-engine-kde-plugin/releases/download/0.5.5b_6.3/WallpaperEngine_kde6-3_1b-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst sudo pacman -U ./WallpaperEngine_kde6-3_1b-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst --overwrite '*'
some wallpapers started working, but others still show only a black screen.
I can confirm the same issue, the solution above did not work me however. I also think it is x11/wayland issue, not a expert though
Hello,
First of all, thank you for this project and your continuous efforts to keep it up to date.
Issue:
After compiling and installing the plugin on KDE Plasma 6.4 (Arch Linux, fully updated, using Wayland), the “Wallpaper Engine” option appears in the desktop wallpaper types menu. However, when I select it and try to use any wallpaper (including .mp4/.webm files), the desktop background only shows as a solid black screen—no video, animation, or image is rendered.What I have tried:
- Clean build and install (including submodules, all dependencies, and patches for CMake compatibility)
- Verified permissions and correct file placement (
/usr/share/plasma/wallpapers/com.github.catsout.wallpaperEngineKde/)- Steam’s video wallpapers are accessible, but none of them are displayed—only a black screen is shown.
- Restarted Plasma, cleared configs, tried with new user.
Notes:
- Everything works perfectly on older KDE Plasma 5/X11 systems.
- With KDE 6.4, there is no X11 session available (Wayland only).
- Other users have reported similar issues; it seems to be a compatibility problem with Plasma 6 and/or Wayland.
- The mpv-based “Video Wallpaper” plugin from the KDE Store works perfectly under the same system and user.
Steps to Reproduce:
- Install plugin on KDE Plasma 6.4 (Wayland session)
- Select “Wallpaper Engine” as desktop wallpaper type
- Choose any animated or video wallpaper
- Observe black screen as result
System Info:
- OS: Arch Linux (fully updated)
- Plasma: 6.4.x (Wayland)
- Qt: 6.x
- GPU: AMD RTX 570
Is there any workaround, or is Wayland/Plasma 6 support planned in the near future?
If there is any debug command or log I can provide, let me know—I am happy to help test!Thank you so much!
I even can't compile it from source code with plasma 6 T^T
Edit: After installing the SteamOS package with
sudo wget https://github.com/slynobody/SteamOS-wallpaper-engine-kde-plugin/releases/download/0.5.5b_6.3/WallpaperEngine_kde6-3_1b-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst sudo pacman -U ./WallpaperEngine_kde6-3_1b-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst --overwrite '*'
some wallpapers started working, but others still show only a black screen.
Hi! I just wanted to point following things out:
- Please do not point to another project as a "solution".
- Only run programs as root that really need this level of access. There's no need to run wget as root.
- Please do not blindly overwrite files using pacman. First uninstall the broken package, then install the new one.
- The project you posted is a plain ripoff. I compared a couple of files and they are either identical or differ only in typos. Therefore I recommend to not use that package.
