Transparency doesnt work in niri on amd graphics

[linux-cultist]

Kitty & Alacritty terminal configured for opacity doesnt work in Niri.

I have tried with no niri config at all (let niri generate a default config) to rule out config issues but no luck.

Both kitty and alacritty cant show transparent windows under Niri but they do under Gnome and Hyprland with the same config for the terminals. Its not an application issue, its something strange with Niri and AMD graphics. Everything else works great with no artifacts and beautiful smooth animations, its just not showing transparent windows.

Relevant kitty config: background_opacity 0.6
Relevant alacritty config: opacity = 0.6

Screenshots:

Kitty:

Alacritty:

System Information

• niri 25.08 (01be0e6)

• Distro: Arch Linux

• GPU: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Navi 21 [Radeon RX 6800/6800 XT / 6900 XT] (rev c1)

• CPU: 6-core Intel Core i5-8600K

Happy to supply any needed information from my system!

[chinatsu]

this is probably this issue: #54

edit: nevermind, i probably misunderstood.

anyway, i have amd graphics too so i can see what happens if i set this

[chinatsu]

maybe this helps https://yalter.github.io/niri/FAQ.html#why-are-transparent-windows-tinted-why-is-the-borderfocus-ring-showing-up-through-semitransparent-windows

https://yalter.github.io/niri/Configuration%3A-Window-Rules.html#draw-border-with-background

[linux-cultist]

I tried adding prefer-no-csd and didnt see any difference. And with the window rule draw-border-with-background false the color becomes darker but its still not transparent.

I think its actually some graphics driver bug. For you amd graphics gives transparency @chinatsu ? What drivers do you use?

[chinatsu]

try this

window-rule {
    draw-border-with-background false
}

i'm just using regular mesa version 25.2.3

[linux-cultist]

Already tried that setting. Im also using mesa and vulkan-radeon also.

Strange. I get transparency in other window managers so im abit surprised...

[linux-cultist]

I also dont get transparency in cosmic terminal under cosmic desktop so there is that.

But i do get it in kitty, alacritty, wezterm and so on... on cosmic and other desktop environments, just not niri.

There must be multiple ways of doing opacity i guess.

[PonderSlime]

can confirm kitty with transparency doesn't work with niri, but other apps do...

[Sempyos]

You should be setting the window opacity for your apps inside niri's config, instead of the apps config themselves

[PonderSlime]

I'm aware that that is the most straightforward and reliable method of doing so across multiple desktop environments, but, as far as i'm aware, this would set the entire applications's opacity, not just the background. And apps like kitty have background blur features that would only work with their internal transparency settings.

[Sempyos]

Mm I feel this more of a kitty/other apps issue than niri itself

[PonderSlime]

this is what it looks like when i launch kitty from terminal btw

[Sempyos]

Did you ever try reading the kitty docs

[Sempyos]

and for another example