Arch Linux User Repository

• Completely rewritten patch with correct implementation of transparency for electron window!
• It actually running from compiled binaries! No need for electron dependency!
• No conflicting with official release! You can have installed both!
• Added support for official marketplace!
• Added support for flags configuration file!
• Added support for Wayland!
• Unblocked proprietary features!

How to change window color?

"workbench.colorCustomizations": {
    //Black window color with 75% transparency (#RRGGBBAA)
    "window.background": "#000000BF"
},

..assuming you have a customized theme with all other transparent elements!

Building within clean chroot!

You can build package in completely clean environment without conflicting with any local dependencies (latest nodejs package etc..)!

Execute the following commands inside the package directory:

yes | sudo pacman -S devtools
extra-x86_64-build -c && rm *.log
mapfile -t _pkgs <<< "$(printf '%s\n' code-translucent-*.pkg.tar.zst | sort -Vr)"
sudo pacman -U "${_pkgs[0]}"

..or just run "build-with-chroot.sh" script!

I am talking about the monthly VS Code updates. As of right now, there's a new version 1.47.x and this package still isn't updated to use it.

Furthermore, the package is perfectly buildable with Node >= 10.x <= 12.x not just one node lts version e.g dubnium. I have tried building with node 12.x by following the official build guide it worked without problems. The official build guide says it's possible within the range i disclosed before.

Instead of having to edit the PKGBUILD in order to get the latest version of VS Code, would you be so kind as to maintain the package and update the version numbers? This has nothing to do with node version or anything else, simply keeping the package updated.

On a side-note; VS Code reverted the use of Electron 9 in the latest version bump, they are going to upgrade soon, and in fact, was already upgraded. This package should be updated to use the correct version of electron at that point.

For minimal changes, this package is based on https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/code/ . There is no plan on adding further changes/features except transparent window support.

About building, currently code 1.47.3-1 uses nodejs-lts-dubnium (Node 10.x) as a makedep. It will conflict with your already installed nodejs (latest version of Node) package, usually installing with AUR helpers or directly running makepkg.

Here are two recommended solutions:

Solution A:

Build this package in a clean environment with Arch Linux devtools (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/DeveloperWiki:Building_in_a_clean_chroot#Convenience_way) to build the package.

extra-x86_64-build (comes from devtools) will build the package in a clean environment, without bothering your local packages.

Solution B:

Use archlinuxcn repo (https://github.com/archlinuxcn/repo).

Frantic1048 added code-transparent to archlinuxcn repo, which follows updating of this AUR package. You can install code-transparent with the prebuilt package from archlinuxcn repo.

@frantic1048 Are you going to maintain this package? There will be updates each month.

It would be great if we didn't have to download a complete version of node to compile. I am e.g. using NVM to manage my node versions. VS Code also isn't relying on that specific version of node, it's a range of versions: Node.JS, x64, version >= 10.x, <= 12.x -> https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/How-to-Contribute#prerequisites I also think this package should give a warning somewhere that there's problems saving files with sudo.

@frantic1048: I got it working somehow, before now I had only tried opening a second window, not a third, and opening a third worked! I have one last question, and that is if there is a way to get themes that arent normally transparent to show as transparent?

I have translucency enabled in the desktop effects and I have my settings, dolphin and Konsole all transparent with blur.

@Tillter: If other windows like Konsole are showing in transparent correctly means your compositor is supporting transparent windows.

To clarify, transparent means the window have a transparent background, not the entire window(the text is still opaque so we can still read it). If you are using KDE, it should be supported without further configuration.

Ive opened many windows, no luck.

@Tillter: Did you keep multiple code windows open? i.e. Open a code instance, do not close the existing one, and open more code instance. Sometimes the first code window is not transparent, but the second, third ... is transparent, and we can open two, close the non-transparent one to workaround this. I haven't find the reason for this case so far.

Personally, I'm using i3wm+picom and sway, did not experience much in KDE.

ensuring the compositor has transparency enabled means:

On X11, you need to configure your compositor to enable its transparent feature(of course the compositor needs to have this feature). The compositor is a separate compositor(e.g. picom, formerly knowns as compton) which working with a stand-alone window manager(e.g. i3wm), or a compositing window manager(a window manager with some compositing features, like kwin, the wm for KDE) For separate compositor like picom, follow the compositor's document about how to configure its transparency feature. For compositing window manager like kwin, check kwin settings about window transparency, and window rules about transparency.

On Wayland, there is only one compositor(it handles both window managing and compositing). e.g. Sway, it supports transparent windows without explicit configuration.

The key is to figure out what window manager(or compositor) you're using, and check its config(text config file, or GUI settings).

Sorry for the late, my PC's heatsink was broken and spend a while to install a new one.

---

How to set up the code "transparent-enabled" like root/code-transparent.install say ?

@EPSILONJOHN: Could you please specify which section you doubt with?

So Ive installed this and I just cannot get the transparency working. Ive done the color settings, Ive opened many windows, no luck. The only thing I havent done is is the second step mentioned about ensuring the compositor has transparency enabled. Im not entirely sure how to do that. I have translucency enabled in the desktop effects and I have my settings, dolphin and Konsole all transparent with blur. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated