[kde-linux] KDE 4. Trying to get it working like I need it to.

[Duncan]

Dale posted on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:54:41 -0600 as excerpted:

> Duncan wrote:

>> You "set Dolphin up to run as root", but didn't describe how.  Did you
>> create a new menu item for it or change the current one, or are you
>> starting Dolphin as root using some other method?
>>   
>>   
> I did this a while back.  I right clicked on the K menu thingy and
> selected menu editor.  I then found Dolphin and told it to run as root.
> It's sort of the way KDE 3 does it but getting there is different.  I
> actually found it by accident.  LOL

I see we basically had a cross-reply thing going on.  You answered that 
question well when others asked... while I was composing my reply.

>> What it looks like to me is that it's not starting a full root dbus
>> session (distinct from the user dbus session), so it's having problems
>> reaching it.  In some cases that can be due to how it was started, and
>> may involve errors even launching the kde app (tho you say it doesn't,
>> now) as a user other than the one you're running X as.
>>
>> FWIW, I don't tend to run much GUI as root, especially to edit system
>> config files and the like.  For that, I use mc, an ncurses based dual-
>> pane filemanager type app

>> If you wish to try something like that we can probably take that off
>> list and I can help you set it up.  Or we can continue working on this,
>> probably on-list, but I'm simply saying since I don't do it the same
>> way, I may be of limited help...
>>   
> I'm hoping I can continue to do this sort of like I always have.  I can
> use nano to edit those files but I have grown accustomed to using
> Kwrite.  There is no one here but me so I'm not worried about security
> or anything.  It's not like I'm going to leave something open and
> someone walk in and do some mischief.
> 
> I may end up changing to something else tho.  I have had to do that
> before.  I mostly think KDE 4 just needs a little more time or I just
> need to config this differently.

My experience, FWIW, is that for doing sysadmin type tasks, things work 
best (for me) if I can use the same tools when I'm in X as when I'm not.  
After all, it might be X or kde that won't start, that I'm doing the 
sysadmin type tasks in ordered to fix.  Obviously using kde tools in that 
case simply isn't going to work!  If I use the same tools either way, I 
get familiar with them and work with them more efficiently.  Otherwise, 
if X (or kde within X) wouldn't start, I'd feel a bit handicapped while 
using non-X apps trying to fix it.  Since mc happens to be incredibly 
effective as an ncurses based sysadmin type tasks helper tool, generally 
as effective if not more so than a GUI would be, I simply use it all the 
way around.  (Of course, for user aka non-sysadmin type tasks, sorting 
images, viewing videos, etc, that tend to be more graphically oriented, 
the kde tools, dolphin, gwenview, etc, are as much better in their turn 
than mc, as I find mc better than them, for sysadmin type tasks.  I like 
thumbnail icons when I'm organizing my image collection, a user task, but 
loading them only gets in the way, when I'm browsing /etc looking for any 
config file or dir that might be related to the system bash config, for 
instance.)

OTOH, I realize this is a rather non-GUI oriented admin-user viewpoint.  
Someone who isn't particularly comfortable at the command line in the 
first place and wouldn't likely be doing much but reinstalling if their X 
server failed, because they wouldn't know what /to/ do, will likely find 
the KDE tools just fine for doing the limited sysadmin type tasks that 
they /do/ do.

So YMMV, as they say.  But if you do decide to switch to something else 
for your sysadmin type tasks, certainly, mc is worth considering.

>>> Problem two, akonadi isn't working.

>>> Akonadi Server Self-Test Report
>>> ===============================

>> I'm not yet running akonadi... probably won't until k-address-book
>> (kab) requires it in kde 4.4.  So again, can't help you directly. 
>> However...
>>
>> 1) You don't mention where these tests are coming from.  Are they the
>> FEATURES=test run at build/install time?  Are they some GUI test run
>> from within KDE later?
>>   
> This happens as soon as my desktop pops up.  I don't touch a thing and
> it pops up with this error.  I do start with a saved session and I
> strongly suspect that it is Kopete that kicks this "test" into drive.  I
> think that because I do have it set to start up in the bar at the bottom
> and it is in the list I posted earlier as needing the server.  I could
> be wrong tho.

That's very plausible.  I'm not particularly adept at IM/IRC, so don't 
normally have those types of apps installed, and thus don't have kopete 
merged.  But IIANM kopete *IS* one of the apps that does already use 
akonadi, so that could very well be your issue.

The question then becomes... so akonadi isn't working, is kopete working, 
or broken?  If you aren't missing any features you normally use, I'd say, 
don't worry about it for the time being... except of course having that 
test popup at every desktop start and having to cancel it will certainly 
be frustrating!

>> 2) I'm not sure if akonadi works properly with sqlite.  Mysql is the
>> normal requirement.

> Hmmm, maybe the USE flag is on in the profile and I need to disable that
> thing in make.conf?  Of course, that may not work when it just plain has
> to have it when KDE 4.4 comes out.

Yes, but a lot can and likely will change between now and then.  Luckily, 
as these bits get deeper integrated into kde-proper, they're getting a 
lot of focus on fixing the various previously not-well-functioning bits, 
making it all work together (or even work at all) far better.  Thus, what 
could well be a serious bugger of an issue to try to get working with 
4.3.x, may well from the user perspective "just work", by the time it's 
actually required in kde 4.4 or 4.5.  It does look like that's where the 
nepomuk semantic desktop stuff is headed, for instance, with that third 
backend choice.  It'd be quite difficult to get it working now, at least 
on amd64 with no previous Java install and without a good freedomware 
Java VM, for those like me for whom that makes a difference.  But with 
that third backend, chances are pretty good that'll "just work" (or in 
Gentoo, "just work" as soon as the appropriate USE flag is enabled to 
build against that), by the time it starts getting to be indispensable.

The other aspect of that being, of course, that Gentoo in general is 
pretty good about making things "just work" by the time they stable them, 
at least, if not by ~arch.  kde4 has been a bit of an exception 
especially with the dropping of kde3 as well, because there's so many 
issues remaining unresolved with upstream kde4, even as support for both 
kde3 and the qt3 it depends on have been dropped by upstream.  But, the 
worst of /those/ problems do seem to be behind us, and I know of no one 
that seriously and credibly argues that kde4 isn't fast becoming the 
replacement for stable kde3, even if it's not quite there yet and the 
ordering of dropping support for the previous version even while the new 
version is still a bit broken in so many places, has left a bit to be 
desired.

> Interesting.  I don't use Kmail or Kaddressbook.  I do install with
> kde-meta tho which pulls them in.  I just don't use them anymore.

Interesting how people are different in that regard... I don't use kopete 
at all, while you obviously use it enough to have it starting with your 
kde session, while I use kmail and have it start with my kde session, but 
you don't use it at all.

> As long as I can get things to working and the desktop looks OK, I'm not
> to worried about the rest.  I may customize things over time but it's
> not a huge issue for me.  I spend most of my time looking at Seamonkey
> anyway.

In my case, OTOH, I've yet to find a desktop that I can even be /close/ 
to comfortable with, until it is /seriously/ customized.  That in fact 
has been one of the big issues with the switch to kde4 for me, because 
kde3 was /so/ customizable, and because I so effectively used its 
customizability, that when those customization features remain yet broken 
in kde4, I've had /serious/ problems adapting, having to spend hours 
writing custom scripts and piecing together functionality that "just 
worked" by simple point and click selection of the appropriate 
customizations under kde3.

> I do want to change the mouse pointer thing tho.  That thing gets on my
> nerves.  It looks . . . . . fuzzy.  You know, like a rat or something.
> LOL  It makes it hard for me to copy and paste text.  Clicking a link is
> OK but selecting something is not easy.

That's easy enough, and was in fact just one of a whole list of 
customizations I made to kde4 before I could consider it seriously as a 
desktop solution at all.  We can start a separate subthread on that if 
you like...  Or do you mean you simply haven't gotten around to doing it 
yet, and it's just one item on your remaining "todo" list?

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman