In the previous posts I described how to install Nemo apps on Plasma Active. However, there were still some issues that heavily impacted the usability.

E.g., many Nemo apps (like TwimGo) start in full screen mode by default. This is a problem because QML apps running in full screen cover the “top bar” in plasma active that provides access to window and application management plus control functionality.  Thus, with QML apps being full screen covering the top bar it is not possible to conveniently use Nemo apps within Plasma Active.

To solve this issue I “patched” three packages. Actually these “patches” are very nasty hacks, but so far they prove to work as intended.

Overall, I modified the following packages: libqtgui4, libqtdeclarative4, and qt-components. You can get these hacked versions from my QtHack repository:

zypper ar http://repo.pub.meego.com/home:/wonko:/QtHack/Mer_Core_armv7l/home:wonko:QtHack.repo

After you added this repository you can update the relevant packages as follows in order to install the “hacked” versions:

zypper update libqtgui4 libqtdeclarative4 qt-components

The result should be that all Nemo applications integrate much better with Plasma Active now. Nemo apps should not run in full screen mode anymore. Furthermore, the on screen keyboard should in many cases not cover the displayed QML app with a black background.

Issues that are not solved right now are that the screen orientation is not currently taken care of correctly. Also, the on-screen keyboard may still hide the underlying QML app in some cases. Additionally, the way the patches are currently implemented requires changes and recompile of different packages. It would be better if there was a possibility to encapsulate these hacks in much smaller deployment units (aka packages).

The following patch is for Qt in order to disable the full screen mode of the QDeclarativeView: https://build.pub.meego.com/package/view_file?file=qdeclarativeview-non-fullscreen-hack.patch&package=qt&project=home%3Awonko%3AQtHack&rev=7ce5094bab71ab8dc841e4cc5eb91ce1

This patch fixes some issues in the according QML files that impact both the full screen as well as the keyboard issue: https://build.pub.meego.com/package/view_file?file=nemo-qml-apps-for-plasma-active-hack.patch&package=qt-components&project=home%3Awonko%3AQtHack&rev=8dac6618ba1d593329d780e32bbc9508

I made these patches very quickly and used quite some brute-force there. 😉 .However, personally, I am very happy with the results. This way, Plasma Active can make use of a multitude of existing Nemo apps. Including great apps like TwimGo or Kasvopus (but also my own apps like MeePasswords or Q-To-Do), and these Nemo apps integrate much better with Plasma Active than when using a “plain” Plasma Active install.