On Friday 06 December 2019 14:48:07 D. R. Evans wrote:
> Michael wrote on 12/6/19 3:15 PM:
> > On Friday 06 December 2019 03:37:59 pm William Morder via trinity-users 
wrote:
> >> On Friday 06 December 2019 13:30:17 D. R. Evans wrote:
> >>> D. R. Evans wrote on 12/6/19 10:54 AM:
> >>>> I just installed TDE on a new-to-me system running debian stable
> >>>> (buster).
> >>>>
> >>>> All the initial system installation was done from a live CD, and it
> >>>> installed KDE. That installed version of KDE works as well as KDE ever
> >>>> works these days. In particular, though, the screen looks fine
> >>>> (1920x1200) and everything works as expected.
> >>>>
> >>>> In the newly-installed TDE, though, the desktop flickers wildly and
> >>>> the desktop is simply unusable: input is lost during the flickers, so
> >>>> most keyboard/mouse input is not even seen by the desktop.
> >>>>
> >>>> Where should I look to try to eliminate all the flickering so that I
> >>>> can get a usable TDE?
> >>>
> >>> More info:
> >>>
> >>> The background doesn't flicker at all. What is flickering are the panel
> >>> and the default icons on the desktop, many times a second.
> >>>
> >>> If I succeed in bringing up the TDE menu (which, if I click enough
> >>> times, eventually does appear when I succeed in timing a click at a
> >>> moment when the desktop is accepting input), then the flickering stops
> >>> for as long as the menu is visible.
> >>>
> >>> Really hoping for some helpful suggestions. I really, really, really,
> >>> don't want to give up and use KDE5.
> >>>
> >>>   Doc
> >>
> >> I found that I had problems upgrading to Buster / Ascii. However, my
> >> recommendation is maybe not a "fix", but a better workaround. I would
> >> suggest using a different desktop (such as MATE) for you other desktop
> >> choice.
>
> Maybe I'm misunderstanding. Are you suggesting, as you seem to be, that if
> I add MATE as a possible desktop, then that will somehow help TDE to work?
>
>   Doc


Well, in preference to KDE5, yes. For me, anything besides TDE is bad. MATE 
is, for me, the least bad of bad choices. 

If you can do as Michael suggested, and install no desktop at all (see his 
answer), then add TDE, that might be better still. Even better will be 
whenever we see TDE as a default choice of desktops that are offered in the 
mainstream Linux repositories (Ubuntu, Debian, Devuan, etc.), but it seems we 
shall have to wait for that glad moment. 

For myself, it helps to have another desktop as my backup, even if I don't use 
it much. In the past it has proved useful for troubleshooting. 

I am not saying that MATE will help TDE "work better"; only that MATE 
interferes less with my TDE desktop. When I install Debian with the KDE5 
desktop, it was a constant headache; maybe there are conflicts between KDE5 
and TDE. I don't know, and am only really interested in what works. For 
myself, since I must install TDE later, MATE has proved to be my best 
workaround solution. 

Bill