Arch Linux User Repository

Thank you @mazix! Updated the PKGBUILD to follow these guidelines.

Build fails on pkgver(): ${startdir}/src/kwin-effects-glass does not exist

The PKGBUILD uses ${startdir} to reference the extracted sources and build directory:

pkgver() {
cd "${startdir}/src/kwin-effects-glass"
...
} build() {
local _build="${startdir}/build" cmake -B "$_build" -S "${startdir}/src/kwin-effects-glass" ...
}
package() {
DESTDIR="${pkgdir}" cmake --install "${startdir}/build"
}

This breaks whenever BUILDDIR is set in makepkg.conf (or via env), which is the default on many setups (e.g. BUILDDIR=/tmp/makepkg). In that case $srcdir points to $BUILDDIR/$pkgname/src, not $startdir/src, so the cd in pkgver() fails immediately with:

PKGBUILD: line 18: cd: /path/to/aur/dir/src/kwin-effects-glass: No such file or directory ==> ERROR: pkgver() failed.

Per the https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PKGBUILD#Package_functions, $startdir is deprecated and should not be used inside
pkgver()/build()/package(). Use $srcdir and $pkgdir instead.

Suggested fix:

pkgver() { cd "$srcdir/kwin-effects-glass"
printf "r%s.%s" "$(git rev-list --count HEAD)" "$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)" }
build() {
cmake -B "$srcdir/build" -S "$srcdir/kwin-effects-glass" \
-W no-dev \
-D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=None \
-D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
cmake --build "$srcdir/build"
}
package() {
DESTDIR="$pkgdir" cmake --install "$srcdir/build" }

This builds cleanly regardless of whether BUILDDIR is set.

@leo_sk

I switched the PKGBUILD to build Wayland only by default (GLASS_X11=OFF). This avoids the current X11 build failure on Arch/CachyOS.

The X11 target pulls headers from /usr/include/kwin-x11, which still expose the older effects API (QRegion, no RenderView). The code expects the newer Region/RenderView API, so the X11 build errors out with “Region/RenderView not declared” and signature mismatches.

This is an AUR-side workaround so the effect builds on current Plasma. Once upstream resolves X11 compatibility, we can drop the flag. If you still see issues, please include your KWin version and the tail of the build log or report upstream, thank you!

EDIT: Upstream is fixed (X11 disabled, no longer supported), PKGBUILD was reverted

Thanks for the report!

Seems to be broken upstream in the last 24hs sadly, we can work-around this for now by building against the last known-good commit locally, if it remains broken I can pin the pkgbuild, but ideally this package tracks the latest from main.

Change source line from:

source=("$pkgname::git+${url}.git")

To:

source=("$pkgname::git+${url}.git#commit=0394fb5be94b36d83618b413358c2fc89442776e")

Getting error:

make[2]: *** [src/CMakeFiles/glass_x11.dir/build.make:127: src/CMakeFiles/glass_x11.dir/blur.cpp.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:237: src/CMakeFiles/glass_x11.dir/all] Error 2
make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[2]: *** [src/CMakeFiles/glass.dir/build.make:127: src/CMakeFiles/glass.dir/blur.cpp.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:204: src/CMakeFiles/glass.dir/all] Error 2
[ 84%] Linking CXX shared module kwin_glass_config.so
[ 87%] Built target kwin_glass_config
make: *** [Makefile:166: all] Error 2
==> ERROR: A failure occurred in build().
    Aborting...

Upstream is currently broken by Plasma 6.6 changes.

Reported here.

A user has provided a vibe-coded patch to temporarily fix it, other users reported issues in the github thread such as the effect only working on their main screen and in my case it flickers, YMMV, should probably be fixed soon.

EDIT: Patch is now merged upstream, seems to compile and work fine on Plasma 6.6 for most people, still some possible issues remain around fractional scaling.

EDIT 2: Patches for both issues have been merged upstream, should now work fine on Plasma 6.6

Yay! I finally found a perfect "glass effect"! Huge thanks

Perfect, thanks for the suggestion (and of course huge thanks for your original PKGBUILD), went ahead and updated it!

Hey, I'm seeing this is based on my original PKGBUILD for kwin-effects-forceblur. I have made some improvements since then that you might want to copy over to this package too. Namely it follows Arch Linux's CMake package guidelines now. See the PKGBUILD