You shouldn't be seeing grayed text at all, so I'm thinking that there might be a dependency or two that have gone AWOL:). I have Padre working very well, but I installed it with these two scripts. It'll take some time---start it, then go take a break.

#!/usr/bin/perl

BEGIN { 
    $| = 1;
    $ENV{'HARNESS_VERBOSE'}   = 1;
    $ENV{'HARNESS_TIMER'}     = 1;
}

use strict;
use warnings;
use POE;
use CPAN;

POE::Session->create(
  inline_states => {
    _start => sub { 
        &inst1; 
        &inst2;
        &inst3;
        &inst4;
    }
  },   
);  
$poe_kernel->run();
exit(0);

sub inst1 {

CPAN::Shell->install(qw(
Wx::Perl::ProcessStream
Module::Manifest
Pod::Perldoc
ExtUtils::Install
App::cpanminus
Text::Balanced
File::ShareDir
Parse::ExuberantCTags
File::Copy::Recursive
Term::ReadLine
Term::ANSIColor
DBD::SQLite
ORLite
ExtUtils::Manifest
Devel::Refactor
Devel::StackTrace
Class::Data::Inheritable
Exception::Class
Test::Deep
Test::Most
PPIx::EditorTools
Format::Human::Bytes
FCGI
CGI
WWW::RobotRules
HTTP::Cookies
Net::FTP
Net::HTTP
HTTP::Daemon
HTTP::Negotiate
File::Listing));
}

sub inst2 {

CPAN::Shell->install(qw(
Time::Local
HTTP::Date
Compress::Raw::Bzip2
Compress::Raw::Zlib
IO::Uncompress::Inflate
HTTP::Status
Encode::Locale
LWP::MediaTypes
LWP::UserAgent
Hook::LexWrap
Test::SubCalls
Clone
Test::Tester
Test::NoWarnings
Test::Object
PPI::Document
PPIx::Regexp
Text::FindIndent
YAML::Tiny
URI
Text::Glob
Number::Compare
File::Find::Rule
threads
threads::shared
HTML::Tagset
HTML::Entities
Params::Util
Locale::Msgfmt
IO::Scalar
Task::Weaken
IO::String
Pod::Abstract
File::pushd
Time::HiRes
IPC::Run3
Probe::Perl
Test::Script
File::Which
File::HomeDir
UNIVERSAL::can
UNIVERSAL::isa
Tree::DAG_Node
Test::Warn
Sub::Uplevel));
}

sub inst3 {

CPAN::Shell->install(qw(
Test::Exception
Test::MockObject
DBI
List::MoreUtils
File::Path
Pod::Find
Class::XSAccessor
File::Slurp
parent
Pod::POM
Parse::ErrorString::Perl
common::sense
JSON::XS
Storable
POD2::Base
Class::Adapter
Template::Tiny
IO::Pty
IPC::Run
Devel::Dumpvar
Class::Inspector
Class::Unload
Capture::Tiny
if
MIME::Base64
Digest::base
XSLoader
Digest::MD5
Algorithm::Diff
Text::Diff
Data::Dumper
Test::Differences
Spiffy
Filter::Util::Call
Test::Base
ExtUtils::XSpp
Text::Abbrev
Module::CoreList
Module::Load
Params::Check
Module::Load::Conditional
Locale::Maketext::Simple
IPC::Cmd));
}

sub inst4 {

CPAN::Shell->install(qw(
ExtUtils::CBuilder
Perl::OSType
IO::Dir
Version::Requirements
Exporter
CPAN::Meta::YAML
JSON::PP
Parse::CPAN::Meta
CPAN::Meta
File::Temp
version
Module::Metadata
Module::Build
Module::Pluggable
Encode
Test
Text::Wrap
Pod::Escapes
Pod::Simple
Pod::Man
Scalar::Util
File::Spec
ExtUtils::MakeMaker
Test::Harness
Test::More
File::Remove
Padre
Wx::Scintilla));
}
[download]

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use CPAN;
use POE;

POE::Session->create(
  inline_states => {
    _start => sub { 
        &inst1; 
    }
  },   
);  
$poe_kernel->run();
exit(0);

sub inst1 {

CPAN::Shell->install(qw(
install
Padre::Plugin::Alarm
Padre::Plugin::Autodia
Padre::Plugin::Autoformat
Padre::Plugin::CSS
Padre::Plugin::CSS::Document
Padre::Plugin::CSS::Help
Padre::Plugin::Catalyst
Padre::Plugin::Catalyst::Helper
Padre::Plugin::Catalyst::NewApp
Padre::Plugin::Catalyst::Outline
Padre::Plugin::Catalyst::Panel
Padre::Plugin::Catalyst::Util
Padre::Plugin::ClassSniff
Padre::Plugin::CommandLine
Padre::Plugin::DataWalker
Padre::Plugin::Debugger
Padre::Plugin::DistZilla
Padre::Plugin::Ecliptic
Padre::Plugin::Ecliptic::QuickAssistDialog
Padre::Plugin::Ecliptic::QuickModuleAccessDialog
Padre::Plugin::Ecliptic::QuickOutlineAccessDialog
Padre::Plugin::Encode
Padre::Plugin::Encrypt
Padre::Plugin::Filter
Padre::Plugin::FormBuilder
Padre::Plugin::FormBuilder::Dialog
Padre::Plugin::FormBuilder::FBP
Padre::Plugin::FormBuilder::Perl
Padre::Plugin::FormBuilder::Preview
Padre::Plugin::Git
Padre::Plugin::HG
Padre::Plugin::HG::DiffView
Padre::Plugin::HG::LogView
Padre::Plugin::HG::ProjectClone
Padre::Plugin::HG::ProjectCommit
Padre::Plugin::HG::StatusTree
Padre::Plugin::HG::UserPassPrompt
Padre::Plugin::HTML
Padre::Plugin::HTML::Document
Padre::Plugin::HTMLExport
Padre::Plugin::InstallPARDist
Padre::Plugin::JavaScript
Padre::Plugin::JavaScriptDocument
Padre::Plugin::Kate
Padre::Plugin::Latex
Padre::Plugin::Mojolicious
Padre::Plugin::Mojolicious::NewApp
Padre::Plugin::Mojolicious::Util
Padre::Plugin::My
Padre::Plugin::NYTProf
Padre::Plugin::NYTProf::ProfilingTask
Padre::Plugin::Nopaste
Padte::Plugin::Nopaste::Task
Padre::Plugin::PAR
Padre::Plugin::PHP
Padre::Plugin::Parrot
Padre::Plugin::Parrot::ColorizeTask
Padre::Plugin::Parrot::HL
Padre::Plugin::Perl6
Padre::Plugin::Perl6::Colorizer
Padre::Plugin::Perl6::Document
Padre::Plugin::Perl6::Help
Padre::Plugin::Perl6::Outline
Padre::Plugin::Perl6::Preferences
Padre::Plugin::Perl6::QuickFix));
}
[download]