Open Windows Are Dimming, Going Dark, Or Turning Translucent When I Click On Something Else

[BenT00]

When I have any window open (using Linux Mint 21.3) the open window goes dark, dims, or becomes translucent when I click on something else.

For example, while watching an mp4 in VLC Media Player I might want to access the folder containing the mp4 to look at other files... the VLC window will go dark, dim, or translucent when I access the folder, and remain so until I click on the VLC window again... at which point the open folder goes dark, dim, or transparent.

I want all open windows to be at full brightness/opacity all the time, and am looking for an easy way to disable whatever setting changes brightness/opacity depending on focus.

[spamegg]

Hello BenT00 welcome to the Forum.
Please share your system info by going to:
Menu/System Reports/System Information/click "Copy"
and pasting it here.
(You can use the command inxi -Fxxxmprz on the Terminal.)

[BenT00]

My system information is below... again, all I want is for all windows to be at full brightness/opacity all the time... as is, I can only effectively view one window at time, and I have to click on it to see it at full opacity.

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-91-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.4.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1
    tk: Gtk 3.24.33 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.18.0 vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Portable System: Dell product: Inspiron 1545 v: N/A serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
    type: 8 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0G848F serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Dell v: A14 date: 12/07/2009
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 73.3 Wh (100.0%) condition: 73.3/73.3 Wh (100.0%) volts: 12.5 min: 11.1
    model: SMP-LG2.2 DELL K450N0 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core2 Duo P9700 bits: 64 type: MCP smt: <unsupported>
    arch: Core Yorkfield rev: A cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2851 high: 2910 min/max: 800/2801 boost: enabled cores: 1: 2910 2: 2793
    bogomips: 11171
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Mobile 4 Series Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell Inspiron 1545 driver: i915
    v: kernel ports: active: LVDS-1 empty: DP-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:2a42
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_1.3M type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-6:3
    chip-ID: 0c45:63ee class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1502x844 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 397x223mm (15.6x8.8") s-diag: 455mm (17.9")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 model: Seiko Epson res: 1503x845 hz: 60 dpi: 111 size: 344x194mm (13.5x7.6")
    diag: 395mm (15.5") modes: 1366x768
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Mobile Intel GM45 Express (CTG) v: 2.1 Mesa 23.0.4-0ubuntu1~22.04.1
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 82801I HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
    chip-ID: 8086:293e class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-91-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Marvell 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet vendor: Dell driver: sky2 v: 1.30 pcie:
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: de00 bus-ID: 09:00.0 chip-ID: 11ab:4354 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp9s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 3160 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    bus-ID: 0c:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:08b3 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp12s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: usb0 state: unknown speed: -1 duplex: half mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: MediaTek N152DL type: USB driver: rndis_host v: kernel bus-ID: 2-1:8
    chip-ID: 0e8d:2004 class-ID: 0a00 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 8-1:2
    chip-ID: 8087:07dc class-ID: e001
  Report: ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block: hardware: no
    software: yes address: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 4.09 TiB used: 3.36 TiB (82.0%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: HM500JI size: 465.76 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: N/A
    serial: <filter> rev: 01C4 scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sdc type: USB vendor: Western Digital model: WD easystore 2647 size: 3.64 TiB
    type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1020 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.88 GiB used: 11.72 GiB (2.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 512 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-5:2 info: Realtek USB 2.0 multicard reader type: Mass Storage driver: ums-realtek
    interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 0bda:0158 class-ID: 0806
    serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 1-6:3 info: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_1.3M type: Video driver: uvcvideo
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 168mA chip-ID: 0c45:63ee class-ID: 0e02
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-1:8 info: MediaTek N152DL type: Bluetooth,CDC-Data driver: rndis_host
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 0e8d:2004 class-ID: 0a00
    serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 2-2:6 info: Western Digital easystore 2647 type: Mass Storage driver: usb-storage
    interfaces: 1 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 1058:2647 class-ID: 0806
    serial: <filter>
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0001
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0001
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-5: 5-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0001
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-6: 6-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0001
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-7: 7-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0001
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 7-1:2 info: Logitech M105 Optical Mouse type: Mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid
    interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 1.5 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 046d:c077 class-ID: 0301
  Hub-8: 8-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0001
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 8-1:2 info: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: Bluetooth driver: btusb
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:07dc class-ID: e001
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 3000
Repos:
  Packages: apt: 2174
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb https: //mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/linuxmint-packages virginia main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //mirrors.accretive-networks.net/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //mirrors.accretive-networks.net/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //mirrors.accretive-networks.net/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
  Processes: 235 Uptime: 2h 3m wakeups: 1 Memory: 7.71 GiB used: 1.92 GiB (24.9%) Init: systemd
  v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12 Client: Unknown python3.10 client
  inxi: 3.3.13

[ajgreeny]

It looks as if you're using the Xfce version so you need to go to Settings-Manager -> Window-Manager-Tweaks -> Compositor tab (far right) and make changes to the sliders in that to keep all windows opaque.

PS:
This is, of course, dependent on you having enabled compositing which I think you must have or the effects you're seeing would not happen.
You could therefore simply disable compositing if it does not carry out other GUI actions that you want or need.

[BenT00]

That fixed it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

[Thebuilder]

It looks as if you're using the Xfce version so you need to go to Settings-Manager -> Window-Manager-Tweaks -> Compositor tab (far right) and make changes to the sliders in that to keep all windows opaque.

PS:
This is, of course, dependent on you having enabled compositing which I think you must have or the effects you're seeing would not happen.
You could therefore simply disable compositing if it does not carry out other GUI actions that you want or need.

I had this same issue and you just helped me to solve it. Thank you