[kde-linux] Debian 5.0, KDE: getting konqueror to open links from kmail in the background (and not interfere with other behaviors)

[Randy Kramer]

JRT,

Thanks for the response--comments interspersed below.

On Saturday 04 April 2009 06:24:59 pm James Richard Tyrer wrote:
> Randy Kramer wrote:
> > Here's the problem:
> >
> > On Mandriva2006, KDE behaved as follows:
> >    * on pressing <alt><F2>, regardless of the location of the
> > mouse, focus was shifted to the "Run Command" popup and I could
> > type into the combo box
> >    * all popup dialogs on konqueror or other things (like the KDE
> > control center) like those requesting me to type in the root
> > password appeared on top of the application it was called from
> >    * in kmail, and with an instance of konqueror open on the same
> > desktop, if I click on a link in an email, it is opened in a new
> > tab in the open instance of konqueror (usually anyway--maybe there
> > is some limit to the number of tabs that will be opened that way
> > before a new instance of konqueror is started), and *konqueror
> > remains in the background*.

> > In Debian 5.0, the behavior is different, and none of the options
> > I've tried have let me get the same behavior.  As installed, the
> > first two items behave the same, but clicking a link in kmail
> > causes konqueror to open the link in the foreground.

To clarify, my primary problem is konqueror opening the link in the 
foreground--on Mandriva2006, it opened the link (in a new tab) in the 
background.

And then ...

> > If I start to fool around to change the behavior, primarily with
> > the Configure Window Behavior -> Advanced -> Focused stealing
> > prevention level:  like changing it from low to normal or high, I
> > eventually get to the point where konqueror will open links clicked
> > in kmail (in tabs) in the background, but at that point,
> > authorization dialogs open in the background and the Run Command
> > dialog (from <alt><F2>) doesn't open with the focus unless the
> > mouse pointer happens to be within the boundaries of the dialog
> > when it opens.
> >
> > My first question is--does anybody have it working the way I prefer
> > (i.e., as it did in Mandriva2006) under any of:

> The command is:
>
> 	kfmclient newTab <URL>
>
> However, this will only open it in an instance of Konqueror on the
> same desktop.  Unfortunately, you can not specify a Profile with this
> command.
>
> See:
>
> 	kfmclient --commands
>
> Then there is the command:
>
> 	kstart --desktop <number> <command>
>
> See:
>
> 	kstart --help
>
> that you can use to select a desktop.
>
> The problem is that they don't work together.  This is probably a
> bug, but the command:
>
>   	kstart --desktop 4 kfmclient newTab <URL>
>
> will not do what you would expect.

I got the following command to almost do what you would expect:

kstart --desktop 7 --keepbelow kfmclient 
newTab 'http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Wikilearn/'

It opened the given URL (good), in a new tab of an existing konqueror 
(good), but:
   * it didn't respect the --desktop 7 option, instead opening on the 
current desktop, and
   * it brought konqueror to the foreground, which is what I'm trying to 
avoid.

Thanks for mentioning these commands, I didn't really know they 
existed--they give me something to experiment with, but their behavior 
seems to be the same as the behavior I have a problem with in kmail / 
konqueror (that is, clicking on a link in kmail causes konqueror to 
come to the foreground).

Furthermore, I'm not sure why you mentioned them--is there a place in 
kmail where I can substitute some variation of one of these commands 
(if I found one that did do what I'm looking for) in place of whatever 
command kmail currently invokes to open a link?  If so, where would I 
do that--in a configuration file somewhere, or would I have to modify 
and recompile kmail?

Once again, thanks for the response!
Randy Kramer
-- 
I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I created a video 
instead.--with apologies to Cicero, et.al.