Kdenlive monitor issue solved by AI - Debian 13 KDE Plasma _ Kicksecure.cli Hardened

Support
1

Title

Kdenlive Clip/Project Monitor missing or grey after Kicksecure/Whonix “software rendering in VMs” profile sets QMLSCENE_DEVICE=softwarecontext

Summary

After applying Kicksecure/Whonix environment hardening (specifically the script /etc/profile.d/20_software_rendering_in_vms.sh), Kdenlive started launching but the Clip Monitor and Project Monitor were either missing or showed a grey/empty area. Audio playback still worked.

The issue occurred across:

  • Debian-packaged Kdenlive

  • Flatpak version

  • AppImage version

So it was not package-specific.

System context

  • Debian-based system with Kicksecure hardening

  • KDE Plasma / Qt-based desktop

  • AMD Radeon Graphics (radeonsi, Renoir)

  • OpenGL working normally (glxinfo shows AMD renderer)

  • VAAPI functional (verified via vainfo)

  • MLT works correctly (melt runs SDL/XGL consumers)

Symptom

  • Kdenlive starts normally

  • Project opens

  • Timeline works

  • Audio playback works

  • Video monitors (Clip/Project) are missing or grey

  • Multiple QML warnings appear

Debug findings

The key issue was an environment variable:



QMLSCENE_DEVICE=softwarecontext

This was set globally by:



/etc/profile.d/20_software_rendering_in_vms.sh

Script logic summary:

  • checks eglinfo

  • if it detects llvmpipe, forces:

    

    export QMLSCENE_DEVICE=softwarecontext

  • intended for VM fallback rendering safety

However on this system:



eglinfo shows BOTH:
- AMD Radeon (radeonsi)
- llvmpipe (secondary contexts)

This caused a false positive detection, triggering software rendering mode even though hardware acceleration is available.

Root cause

The script assumes:

if ANY llvmpipe appears → system is software-rendered → force Qt software rendering

But modern systems may show:

  • multiple EGL contexts

  • mixed renderer outputs

  • fallback llvmpipe contexts alongside real GPU contexts

This results in incorrect global environment override.

Fix

Temporary per-session fix:



unset QMLSCENE_DEVICE
kdenlive

Or safer launch wrapper:



alias kdenlive='env -u QMLSCENE_DEVICE kdenlive'

Result

After unsetting QMLSCENE_DEVICE, Kdenlive monitors immediately worked again (Clip + Project Monitor restored, GPU rendering functional).

Recommendation

  • Avoid global forcing of QMLSCENE_DEVICE=softwarecontext on hybrid systems

  • Improve EGL detection logic to ensure:

    • AMD/NVIDIA GPU presence takes priority over llvmpipe fallback contexts

    • or require only llvmpipe, not “any occurrence”

Optional note

This likely affects other Qt Quick / QML applications, not only Kdenlive.

1 Like
2

eglinfo reports multiple EGL contexts, including llvmpipe fallback renderers, causing a false positive in a simplistic detection script.

“Suggested improvement generated with assistance from ChatGPT and refined for correctness.”

#!/bin/sh

# Require eglinfo

if ! command -v eglinfo >/dev/null 2>&1; then
true “$0 ERROR: eglinfo not found. Stop.”
return 0
exit 0
fi

# Capture primary OpenGL renderer (more meaningful than scanning all contexts)

primary_renderer=“$(eglinfo 2>/dev/null | grep -m 1 “OpenGL core profile renderer”)”

if \[ -z “$primary_renderer” \]; then
true “$0 INFO: No OpenGL renderer detected. Stop.”
return 0
exit 0
fi

# Check for full software rendering ONLY

# (must be explicitly llvmpipe as primary renderer)

echo “$primary_renderer” | grep “llvmpipe” >/dev/null 2>&1
if \[ $? -eq 0 \]; then
software_rendering_use=true
fi

# If not explicitly software-rendered system → do nothing

if \[ ! “$software_rendering_use” = “true” \]; then
true “$0 INFO: Hardware rendering detected. Stop.”
return 0
exit 0
fi

# Respect existing user overrides

if \[ ! -z “$QMLSCENE_DEVICE” \]; then
true “$0 INFO: QMLSCENE_DEVICE already set. Not changing.”
return 0
exit 0
fi

export QMLSCENE_DEVICE=softwarecontext
3

ChatGPT is impressive but for this kind of operating system problems it,

  • lacks access to the tools such as eglinfo
  • lacks access to comparable environments (Kicksecure, virtualizers such as VirtualBox, graphic cards),

hence ChatGPT can only talk from theory and not test any code in all environments end-to-end.

Are you using a hardware or a VM?

Because if using hardware, source file vm-config-dist/etc/profile.d/20_software_rendering_in_vms.sh at master · Kicksecure/vm-config-dist · GitHub isn’t installed by default as package vm-config-dist is installed by default inside VMs only.

If you are using a VM, then related documentation chapters are:

Related forum thread:

GBM fails with EGL on AMD Kaveri - Fedora Discussion shows eglinfo output with both.

OpenGL core profile renderer: llvmpipe

OpenGL core profile renderer: AMD

So greping for AMD (and others) is a good idea. Will implement.

1 Like
4

runs on Hardware per Debian Distro Morphing - iGPU AMD Radeon Graphics + Geforce RTX xxxx (Compute Only Nvidia Open Drivers).

20_software_rendering_in_vms.sh exists in my /etc/profile.d, btw

5

vm-config-dist is installed?

Package Version Check

dpkg -l vm-config-dist

If yes, that is the primary bug here. vm-config-dist shouldn’t be installed on bare metal. (It’s designed to not cause bugs on bare metal and will be improved nonetheless.)

Can vm-config-dist be removed without meta package removal?

sudo apt purge vm-config-dist

Which meta package did you install during distribution morphing?

6

…installed by Metapaket kicksecure-baremetal-cli,

can not be removed without removal Metapaket:

[user ~]% dpkg -l vm-config-dist
Gewünscht=Unbekannt/Installieren/R=Entfernen/P=Vollständig Löschen/Halten
| Status=Nicht/Installiert/Config/U=Entpackt/halb konFiguriert/
Halb installiert/Trigger erWartet/Trigger anhängig
|/ Fehler?=(kein)/R=Neuinstallation notwendig (Status, Fehler: GROSS=schlecht)
||/ Name Version Architektur Beschreibung
++±==============-============-============-==============================================
ii vm-config-dist 3:16.0-1 all usability enhancements inside virtual machines

2 Likes
7

apt-cache rdepends vm-config-dist
vm-config-dist
Reverse Depends:
dist-general-cli

apt-cache depends kicksecure-baremetal-cli
kicksecure-baremetal-cli
Hängt ab von (vorher): legacy-dist
Hängt ab von: kicksecure-nonqubes-cli
Hängt ab von: kicksecure-general-cli
Hängt ab von: dist-baremetal-cli
Hängt ab von: dist-nonqubes-cli
Hängt ab von: dist-general-cli
Hängt ab von: ram-wipe
Hängt ab von: wpasupplicant
Beschädigt:
Beschädigt:
Ersetzt:
Ersetzt:

apt-mark showmanual | grep -E “kicksecure|vm-config|whonix”
kicksecure-baremetal-cli

dpkg -S /etc/profile.d/20_software_rendering_in_vms.sh
vm-config-dist: /etc/profile.d/20_software_rendering_in_vms.sh

2 Likes
8

vm-config-dist/etc/profile.d/20_software_rendering_in_vms.sh at master · Kicksecure/vm-config-dist · GitHub

2 Likes
9

And credit where it’s due: Patrick didn’t just explain the behavior—he appears to have hardened the detection logic so that your exact AMD + llvmpipe mixed-renderer case won’t trigger the override anymore. That’s a pretty good outcome from a forum bug report. :blush:

(by my AI Assistant) - thanks for quick fix Patrick!

2 Likes
10

About the vm-config-dist package installed by default on a host operating system…

In the past, we’ve decided to

  • A) make the vm-config-dist safe for installation on host systems; and
  • B) install vm-config-dist by default in both contexts, on the host operating system and inside VMs.

As it turns out, A) had not been entirely bug free. And B) might be re-considered.

2 Likes