More data from live-testing #105: after reinstalling with a changed aqomui_off.svg, the tray kept showing the old rendering even though the installed file was byte-identical to the new one and the hicolor cache was regenerated by the install hook. The stale copy lives in plasmashell's in-memory icon cache -- QSystemTrayIcon over StatusNotifierItem passes the icon name, plasmashell resolves and rasterizes it itself, and it never re-reads a theme file it already rendered while running. systemctl --user restart plasma-plasmashell clears it. So this issue has (at least) two layers: the hicolor cache at install time, and the compositor-side render cache that survives even a correct install.

More data from live-testing #105: after reinstalling with a changed aqomui_off.svg, the tray kept showing the *old* rendering even though the installed file was byte-identical to the new one and the hicolor cache was regenerated by the install hook. The stale copy lives in **plasmashell's in-memory icon cache** -- QSystemTrayIcon over StatusNotifierItem passes the icon *name*, plasmashell resolves and rasterizes it itself, and it never re-reads a theme file it already rendered while running. `systemctl --user restart plasma-plasmashell` clears it. So this issue has (at least) two layers: the hicolor cache at install time, and the compositor-side render cache that survives even a correct install.

mysticalsoap commented

2026-08-20 20:06:15 -04:00

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Root cause found. The "old icon at app start" is the cursor-attached launch feedback, which is a KWin effect (startupfeedback) — not plasmashell, which is why restarting plasmashell fixed the tray but not this. Qt's icon loader caches theme lookups for the life of the process and only invalidates them on an icon-theme-change signal, never on file changes; this kwin_wayland has been running since the Aug 16 boot, so it predates every aqomui icon installed since (including the fork redesign) and keeps serving its boot-time cache.

Nothing app-side can fix this — it will affect any future icon change equally. Flush options:

log out/in (kwin_wayland cannot be restarted in place on Wayland), or
System Settings → Icons → apply any other icon theme, then switch back: the theme-change broadcast invalidates the icon cache in every running Qt process, KWin included.

If the icon is correct after either, this closes as an environment gotcha with the workaround documented here.

Root cause found. The "old icon at app start" is the cursor-attached launch feedback, which is a **KWin effect** (`startupfeedback`) — not plasmashell, which is why restarting plasmashell fixed the tray but not this. Qt's icon loader caches theme lookups for the life of the process and only invalidates them on an icon-*theme-change* signal, never on file changes; this kwin_wayland has been running since the Aug 16 boot, so it predates every aqomui icon installed since (including the fork redesign) and keeps serving its boot-time cache. Nothing app-side can fix this — it will affect any future icon change equally. Flush options: - log out/in (kwin_wayland cannot be restarted in place on Wayland), or - System Settings → Icons → apply any other icon theme, then switch back: the theme-change broadcast invalidates the icon cache in every running Qt process, KWin included. If the icon is correct after either, this closes as an environment gotcha with the workaround documented here.

mysticalsoap closed this issue

2026-08-20 20:09:47 -04:00