LatteDock/FAQ

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What is Latte Dock? How did it begin?

Latte Dock is a dock based on plasma frameworks and a direct successor of Now Dock. Latte is the combined effort from the developers of Now Dock and Candil Dock.

How can I add launchers?

The easiest and most memory-efficient way to do so is to drag n' drop them on the task manager (this is the area where dots and lines are shown under running windows).

You can also add them by right clicking an open window in the task manager and choosing Pin Launcher.

My launcher and its window are not associated correctly OR my launcher is using a low-resolution icon?

This issue means that plasma libtaskmanager has not associated your launcher and app windows correctly to the relevant desktop file. Plasma is trying to be smart enough in order to correctly identify which desktop files are associated to which specific windows, but there are cases when it fails. Best way to solve this is to check the StartupWMClass record in the desktop file. This record should point at the proper WM_CLASS record at all times. For example even though the Latte Dock desktop file is called org.kde.latte-dock.desktop, its StartupWMClass is lattedock. In order to correctly identify the StartupWMClass of an application, you can use xprop.

Example:

Run xprop from the command line.
Click on the window you are interested in.
Locate at the end of the output the record WM_CLASS(STRING) =.
Add the previously mentioned record in the application desktop file at the StartupWMClass field.

For instance, with "Gimp 2.10", even though its desktop file is called gimp.desktop, its StartupWMClass is "gimp-2.10". StartupWMClass is not needed to be added for "Gimp" since plasma developers have taken special care to map it properly through /etc/xdg/taskmanagerrulesrc.

Ok, you convinced me to try it! How can I install it and what are its dependencies?

You can download the sources, install the required dependencies and build Latte. Please read README and INSTALLATION.

How can I enable the Latte Global Shortcuts?

In most cases you need to go to Plasma System Settings → Global Shortcuts → Latte Dock and enable what shortcuts you need.

Super + No: Activate a task
Super + Ctrl + No: A new instance for a task
Super + `: Show a hidden dock

Can I use my super key to open the app launcher?

The official way to enable this is to right click Dock → Configure Latte... → Enable autostart during startup

The manual way is to Close Latte → Execute in command prompt:

kwriteconfig5 --file ~/.config/kwinrc --group ModifierOnlyShortcuts --key Meta "org.kde.lattedock,/Latte,org.kde.LatteDock,activateLauncherMenu"
qdbus org.kde.KWin /KWin reconfigure

Launchers are disappearing before the relevant window is shown even though they shouldn't.

We are acquainted with this, but this behavior is provided by plasma's libtaskmanager. You can read more at: Latte Issue #72, KDE bug report

My left dock behaves strangely from Plasma 5.10 onwards, how can I fix this?

In Plasma 5.10, the KWin developers introduced gesture functionality for touch screens, which is enabled by default for all systems. You can disable it through plasma System Settings → Workspace Behavior → Touchscreen. Relogin your plasma session if the change doesn't take effect immediately.

KWin bug report Plasma bug report

Is there a way to tell Latte Dock to launch only for a Plasma session ?

Of course you can, please follow these steps:

Go to System Settings → Startup and Shutdown → Autostart.
Choose Latte Dock from the applications list.
Advanced → Autostart only in Plasma.

What happens if I drag 'n' drop files on launchers?

The file will be passed as a parameter to the specific application, creating a new instance (e.g. passing an image to Kolourpaint will open the image with Kolourpaint).

Are there known compatibility issues with specific graphics drivers?

If you have Intel Graphics and experience problems with rendering such as pixelated graphics, corrupt text and others, you can try changing the 2D rendering method from SNA to UXA.

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

section     "Device"
Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
Driver      "intel"
Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa"
EndSection

My right click does not work ?

When right-click does not work both for applets and tasks it means that your Latte has not been built with the same KDE Frameworks libraries like Plasma Desktop. The only solution is either your distro to update its Latte package properly or to build Latte by yourself.

How can I set the maximum icon size for applets in Plasma panels?

If you want to set 192px. as maximum icon size for applets in panels you can execute:

kwriteconfig --file ~/.config/kdeglobals --group PanelIcons --key Size "192"

In the previous example, any plasma applets larger than 192px. are going to use their full Desktop representation when are placed inside panels.

How can I improve CPU usage?

Latte, in general, has as a focus to provide maximum configurability and performance, so all its graphics and animations are set to BEST values...

An easy and known solution if you want better CPU usage it to DISABLE tasks/applets shadows. Latte is using DropShadow qml element extensively and it is quite costly. To disable all shadows in a dock, you can do:

Right click Dock -> Dock settings - Effects -> "Shadows" [disable that options group from its header]

In my system, when using the parabolic effect, CPU usage is dropped around 75%

My badge counters don't work in latte-dock. How can fix it?

Please make sure you have libunity installed. On KDE versions of Ubuntu such as Kubuntu and KDE Neon, you will need libunity-dev installed.