When I mouseover some piece of text in the Firefox browser, the window that “floats” next to my cursor is transparent. For example:
Note that you hardly can read the second line of this window. I was looking around if there is anyway to change this so it isn’t transparent anymore, but with no success. Does anyone know if this is possible and, if so, how could I do it?
Thanks.
What DE are you using?
Ops, sorry for not informing it in the original post. I’m using i3wm.
Also, here’s the output of inxi -Fxz:
System:
Kernel: 6.2.1-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.1
Desktop: i3 v: 4.22 Distro: EndeavourOS base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 81FE v: Lenovo ideapad 330-15IKB
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: LENOVO model: LNVNB161216 v: SDK0J40688 WIN
serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO v: 8TCN61WW date: 05/19/2021
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 20.1 Wh (100.0%) condition: 20.1/30.0 Wh (66.9%)
volts: 8.4 min: 7.5 model: SMP L16M2PB1 status: full
CPU:
Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7-8550U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Coffee Lake rev: A cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 8 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 2000 min/max: 400/4000 cores: 1: 2000 2: 2000 3: 2000
4: 2000 5: 2000 6: 2000 7: 2000 8: 2000 bogomips: 32012
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel
arch: Gen-9.5 bus-ID: 00:02.0
Device-2: NVIDIA GP108M [GeForce MX150] vendor: Lenovo driver: nvidia
v: 525.89.02 arch: Maxwell bus-ID: 01:00.0
Device-3: Bison EasyCamera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-8:3
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: intel,nvidia
unloaded: modesetting dri: i965 gpu: i915 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL
GT2) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Lenovo
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
Sound API: ALSA v: k6.2.1-arch1-1 running: yes
Sound Server-1: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: no
Sound Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.66 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Lenovo driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-7:2
Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: down bt-service: disabled
rfk-block: hardware: no software: no address: see --recommends
RAID:
Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci
v: 3.0 bus-ID: 00:17.0
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 83.89 GiB (9.0%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD10SPZX-24Z10T0
size: 931.51 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 915.53 GiB used: 83.89 GiB (9.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 299.4 MiB used: 312 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 512 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 58.0 C pch: 53.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
Processes: 238 Uptime: 21m Memory: 7.67 GiB used: 3.37 GiB (43.9%)
Init: systemd Compilers: gcc: 12.2.1 clang: 15.0.7 Packages: 1548
Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 inxi: 3.3.25
Check your compositor config, not home, but it is probably compton and it’s config is probably in ~/.config/compton
I believe my compositor is “picom”, because:
$ compton
[ 02/03/2023 15:58:03.709 session_init WARN ] This compositor has been renamed to "picom", the "compton" binary will not be installed in the future.
When I search in ~/.config, there is not compton config. But there is a picom one: ~/.config/example.picon.conf:
# Thank you code_nomad: http://9m.no/ꪯ鵞
# and Arch Wiki contributors: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Compton
# and picom Github: https://github.com/yshui/picom
#################################
#
# Backend
#
#################################
# Specify the backend to use: `xrender`, `glx`, or `xr_glx_hybrid`.
# `xrender` is the default one.
# GLX backend is typically much faster but depends on a sane driver.
backend = "glx";
#################################
#
# GLX backend
#
#################################
# GLX backend: Avoid using stencil buffer, useful if you don't have a stencil buffer.
# Might cause incorrect opacity when rendering transparent content (but never
# practically happened) and may not work with blur-background.
# My tests show a 15% performance boost. Recommended.
glx-no-stencil = true;
# GLX backend: Use MESA_copy_sub_buffer to do partial screen update.
# My tests on nouveau shows a 200% performance boost when only 1/4 of the screen is updated.
# May break VSync and is not available on some drivers.
# glx-use-copysubbuffermesa = true;
# GLX backend: Avoid rebinding pixmap on window damage.
# Probably could improve performance on rapid window content changes, but is known to break things on some drivers (LLVMpipe).
# Recommended if it works.
# glx-no-rebind-pixmap = true;
# Disable the use of damage information.
# This cause the whole screen to be redrawn everytime, instead of the part of the screen
# has actually changed. Potentially degrades the performance, but might fix some artifacts.
# The opposing option is use-damage
# no-use-damage = false
# use-damage = true;
# Use X Sync fence to sync clients' draw calls, to make sure all draw
# calls are finished before picom starts drawing. Needed on nvidia-drivers
# with GLX backend for some users.
xrender-sync-fence = true;
# GLX backend: GLX buffer swap method we assume.
# Could be undefined (0), copy (1), exchange (2), 3-6, or buffer-age (-1).
# undefined is the slowest and the safest, and the default value.
# copy is fastest, but may fail on some drivers,
# 2-6 are gradually slower but safer (6 is still faster than 0).
# Usually, double buffer means 2, triple buffer means 3.
# buffer-age means auto-detect using GLX_EXT_buffer_age, supported by some drivers.
# Useless with --glx-use-copysubbuffermesa.
# Partially breaks --resize-damage.
# Defaults to undefined.
#glx-swap-method = "undefined";
#################################
#
# Shadows
#
#################################
# Enabled client-side shadows on windows.
shadow = false;
# The blur radius for shadows. (default 12)
shadow-radius = 5;
# The left offset for shadows. (default -15)
shadow-offset-x = -5;
# The top offset for shadows. (default -15)
shadow-offset-y = -5;
# The translucency for shadows. (default .75)
shadow-opacity = 0.5;
# Set if you want different colour shadows
# shadow-red = 0.0;
# shadow-green = 0.0;
# shadow-blue = 0.0;
# The shadow exclude options are helpful if you have shadows enabled. Due to the way picom draws its shadows, certain applications will have visual glitches
# (most applications are fine, only apps that do weird things with xshapes or argb are affected).
# This list includes all the affected apps I found in my testing. The "! name~=''" part excludes shadows on any "Unknown" windows, this prevents a visual glitch with the XFWM alt tab switcher.
shadow-exclude = [
"! name~=''",
"name = 'Notification'",
"name = 'Plank'",
"name = 'Docky'",
"name = 'Kupfer'",
"name = 'xfce4-notifyd'",
"name *= 'VLC'",
"name *= 'compton'",
"name *= 'picom'",
"name *= 'Chromium'",
"name *= 'Chrome'",
"class_g = 'Conky'",
"class_g = 'Kupfer'",
"class_g = 'Synapse'",
"class_g ?= 'Notify-osd'",
"class_g ?= 'Cairo-dock'",
"class_g ?= 'Xfce4-notifyd'",
"class_g ?= 'Xfce4-power-manager'",
"(class_g = 'firefox' || class_g = 'Thunderbird') && (window_type = 'utility' || window_type = 'popup_menu') && argb",
"_GTK_FRAME_EXTENTS@:c",
"_NET_WM_STATE@:32a *= '_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN'",
"_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE:a *= '_KDE_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_OVERRIDE'"
];
# Avoid drawing shadow on all shaped windows (see also: --detect-rounded-corners)
shadow-ignore-shaped = false;
#################################
#
# Opacity
#
#################################
inactive-opacity = 1;
active-opacity = 1;
frame-opacity = 1;
inactive-opacity-override = false;
# Dim inactive windows. (0.0 - 1.0)
# inactive-dim = 0.2;
# Do not let dimness adjust based on window opacity.
# inactive-dim-fixed = true;
# Blur background of transparent windows. Bad performance with X Render backend. GLX backend is preferred.
# blur-background = true;
# Blur background of opaque windows with transparent frames as well.
# blur-background-frame = true;
# Do not let blur radius adjust based on window opacity.
blur-background-fixed = false;
blur-background-exclude = [
"window_type = 'dock'",
"window_type = 'desktop'"
];
#################################
#
# Fading
#
#################################
# Fade windows during opacity changes.
fading = true;
# The time between steps in a fade in milliseconds. (default 10).
fade-delta = 4;
# Opacity change between steps while fading in. (default 0.028).
fade-in-step = 0.03;
# Opacity change between steps while fading out. (default 0.03).
fade-out-step = 0.03;
# Fade windows in/out when opening/closing
# no-fading-openclose = true;
# Specify a list of conditions of windows that should not be faded.
fade-exclude = [ ];
#################################
#
# Other
#
#################################
# Try to detect WM windows and mark them as active.
mark-wmwin-focused = true;
# Mark all non-WM but override-redirect windows active (e.g. menus).
mark-ovredir-focused = true;
# Use EWMH _NET_WM_ACTIVE_WINDOW to determine which window is focused instead of using FocusIn/Out events.
# Usually more reliable but depends on a EWMH-compliant WM.
use-ewmh-active-win = true;
# Detect rounded corners and treat them as rectangular when --shadow-ignore-shaped is on.
detect-rounded-corners = true;
# Detect _NET_WM_OPACITY on client windows, useful for window managers not passing _NET_WM_OPACITY of client windows to frame windows.
# This prevents opacity being ignored for some apps.
# For example without this enabled my xfce4-notifyd is 100% opacity no matter what.
detect-client-opacity = true;
# Specify refresh rate of the screen.
# If not specified or 0, picom will try detecting this with X RandR extension.
refresh-rate = 0;
# Vertical synchronization: match the refresh rate of the monitor
# Enable/disable VSync.
#vsync = false; (fixes screen tearing in browsers if true)
#vsync = true;
vsync = false;
# Limit picom to repaint at most once every 1 / refresh_rate second to boost performance.
# This should not be used with --vsync drm/opengl/opengl-oml as they essentially does --sw-opti's job already,
# unless you wish to specify a lower refresh rate than the actual value.
#sw-opti = true;
# Unredirect all windows if a full-screen opaque window is detected, to maximize performance for full-screen windows, like games.
# Known to cause flickering when redirecting/unredirecting windows.
# unredir-if-possible = false; (fullscreen games behave better if true)
unredir-if-possible = false;
# Specify a list of conditions of windows that should always be considered focused.
focus-exclude = [ ];
# Use WM_TRANSIENT_FOR to group windows, and consider windows in the same group focused at the same time.
detect-transient = true;
# Use WM_CLIENT_LEADER to group windows, and consider windows in the same group focused at the same time.
# WM_TRANSIENT_FOR has higher priority if --detect-transient is enabled, too.
detect-client-leader = true;
#################################
#
# Window type settings
#
#################################
wintypes:
{
tooltip =
{
# fade: Fade the particular type of windows.
fade = true;
# shadow: Give those windows shadow
shadow = false;
# opacity: Default opacity for the type of windows.
opacity = 0.85;
# focus: Whether to always consider windows of this type focused.
focus = true;
};
};
Change tooltip opacity to 1 (from 0.85) might be it, can’t see anything else. And Doh - picom forgot it’s new name 
Changed it, rebooted the notebook and checked again in EOS forum. Unfortunately, it didn’t change the opacity:
It is a bug feature.
I have followed the steps at this post, and set the "firefox profile path"/chrome/userChrome.css to this:
tooltip {
-moz-appearance: none !important;
color: #ffff00 !important; /* yellow text */
background-color: #1f1f1f !important; /* background dark grey */
border: none !important;
padding: 5.5px !important;
font-family: Fira Sans !important; /* the font you want */
font-size: 12px !important;
opacity: 1 !important;}
Still, after rebooting the browser, even with opacity: 1, the windows are still transparent:
But at least now I know that it’s a matter of Firefox theme, rather than my DE. So, I don’t think it is something that should be posted in the EOS forum, therefore I will look for help from the Firefox community. If any moderator thinks this post is off-topic, close it please.