[kde-linux] KDE and mounted home directory (again)

[Duncan]

Dimitry Golubovsky posted on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:54:29 -0500 as excerpted:

> I am having the exact same problem as described at the following link:
> 
> http://www.phwinfo.com/forum/linux-debian-user/202025-problems-kde-
mounted-home.html
> 
> I am new to KDE. I am trying to run KDE 4.2 on a diskless computer with
> user's home directory mounted over sshfs. KDE cannot start properly
> becase dcop server cannot create sockets on a mounted filesystem.

If it's kde4 it's not dcop.  That was kde3.  You're probably talking 
about dbus, the freedesktop.org standard that both kde and gnome use now, 
that replaced kde3's dcop...

Also, I suppose you already know this and were simply being a bit sloppy 
with your terminology, but bear with me while I repeat the obvious.  On 
Unix based systems including Linux, filesystems are normally mounted in 
ordered to be used.  If they're not mounted, sure, you can cat or dd the 
raw data onto and off of them, but that's accessing the raw data, not the 
files (well, the block devices are files too, but not the files we're 
talking about here).  On a Linux system, a socket is a file, located on a 
filesystem, which must be mounted in ordered for the socket to be used as 
such.

OTOH, certain types of filesystems can't contain sockets.  I know nothing 
about sshfs as a filesystem; perhaps it doesn't allow sockets, but that 
has nothing to do with being a mounted filesystem, and everything to do 
with the /type/ of filesystem.  AFAIK, FAT32 doesn't do sockets either, 
for example...

> How can I change this so sockets will be created somewhere in /tmp/$USER
> which is local? I have been trying to find a proper configuration file,
> unsuccessfuly. The conversation mentioned above is not specific on which
> config file to change.

You're probably needing to look at the KDE* variables, KDETMP, KDEVARTMP, 
KDEHOME, there are a bunch of others...  I use a mixture of that and 
symlinks (hopefully at least those work) to get stuff going where I want 
it to go.  FWIW, I login at the CLI here, and created a script that sets/
exports these vars as necessary before starting X and KDE, but the same 
general thing should be possible using *dm as well.  The comment I left 
in the script says to see the KDE User's Manual/Guide, Part VI, KDE for 
Administrators, Chapter 25, KDE Internals, the Environment variables 
subheading.  The KDE User's Manual (aka KDE User's Guide) should be 
available in khelpcenter, or you can probably google it online as well -- 
I think that's where I originally found it, back in the kde-3.3 era or 
there abouts.

> Thanks for any ideas.
> 
> Please cc your response to golubovsky at gmail dot com.

Done.

-- 
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