[kde-linux] Desktop widget like Windows Vista sidebar/clock thing?

[Anne Wilson]

On Wednesday 07 October 2009 13:16:58 Thierry de Coulon wrote:
> On Tuesday 06 October 2009, Anne Wilson wrote:
> > Sorry - you lost me.  The device is in fstab, but you are manually
> > mounting it?  I certainly can recall seeing exactly that message if you
> > tried to mount such a drive as user under kde3 - that's what taught me to
> > mount as root, from the command line.
> 
> Edgar already explained this point, I'll just give an example:
> 
> The device is in fstab, with lines such as:
> 
> /dev/sdb2    /<mountpoint>   ext3   noauto,users,exec,rw  0 0
> 192.168.x.x   /<mountpoint>   nfs   noauto,users,exec,rw  0 0
> 
> On KDE 3, you can create links to these devices on the desktop that let you
> mount/unmount them. This is especially usefull for the nfs shares when you
> have them on a computer that is not always on.
> 
Interesting.  I have nfs mounts that are always mounted at boot, and I have 
one nfs mount on a box that is not always available.  I use that rarely, so 
it's not worth doing anything fancy with it.  I have a link for it in fstab 
commented out, and simply vi out the comment, then 'mount -a' in a root 
konsole on the odd occasion when I need it.  I can see that you would not want 
to be doing this frequently, though.

> Folderview lets you create these links, but mounting/unmounting fails with
> the "only root" message, so the only way to mount is to open a console and
> type "mount <mountpoint>" as user, which works. This shows that fstab works
> and KDE 4 does not. I've searched and found that this bug is known for a
> while but has not been corrected. Once mounted, the links can open them
> though...
> 
Right - so I decided it was time to test this.  I changed my desktop to 
folderview.  I then created an fstab line like this:

192.168.0.40:/Data2 /mnt/mntpoint_Data2 nfs noauto,user,bg,soft,intr,nolock 0 
0

Then I created a desktop icon pointing to this share.  I can mount and unmount 
on it.  Isn't that what you wanted?

Maybe this is a version difference?  I'm running 4.3.1.

> So how are you supposed to mount nfs shares in KDE 4? You can't do it on
>  the folderview, you can't do it in the notifier, IIRC you can't do it in
>  dolphin (I don't have my KDE 4 install running at the time).
> 
I've just shown you how to do it.

> My problem is simply that I don't get a choice (if you don't have the
>  notifier and won't use the dolphin panel you can't mount/unmount
>  anything!). Why doesn't the notifier have an option to say "don't pop up"?
>  If I respect those who like it, they can respect that I don't.
> 
SystemSettings > System Notifications > System Notifications > Applications 
tab.  Uncheck 'Show a message in a popup'.  That wasn't hard, was it?

> Konqueror has profiles that let you save the directories it opens in. No
> problem for the moment as I can still use konqueror instead of dolphin, but
> how long?
> 
There are no plans to drop konqueror, although its development for file 
managing has stopped.  Meanwhile, you would not have set a profile in 
konqueror unless you frequently wanted to use that directory, so drag that 
directory folder onto Places, and a single click will take you there.  OK, 
that's one more click than you would have done in the past, but surely that's 
not the end of the world?

> Simple: I want the KDE 3 _desktop_ functionalities back.
> 
So far you've shown us little that is impossible.

> The KDE 4 panel is now usable, it's way harder and longer to configure than
> the KDE 3 panel but I can live with it.
> 
Slightly longer to configure, but more configurable.

> The folderview desktop could be an ersatz for the KDE 3 desktop but that
>  would require a real will of the developers to make it working, while I
>  feel it is obvioulsy a case of "we made it because you asked for it but
>  this is not the way we want it".
> 
Be thankful that they listened and gave you what you asked for, then.

> On a less important level, it would be nice to be again able to have
>  different backgrouds on different workspaces, it made easier to know where
>  you are
> 
I see that Duncan has tackled that one.

> I am angry, because as of the next version of most distributions we will
> probably loose a good and working desktop to be given a beta desktop. I am
> fairly sure KDE 4 will be OK some time (4.10, 4.55?) but it is not now.
> Being "stable" is not very usefull if it misses so many features that we
> _had_ (and this is very different from a new program in development that
> slowly brings you new features that you did not have before).
> 
For the last time, it misses a few, but not many of the features of KDE 3, and 
every release brings yet more in.  Frankly, you have no right to be angry 
about how someone else uses their time, and you should be thankful that they 
give it freely.

If you want a KDE 3 distro, there are still some around, and some that don't 
intend to move yet.

> And that's what's wrong in the comparisosn that are made with KDE 2 or 3. I
> have been using KDE since version 0.4. At that time, every new feature was
> nice to have and made life with it better. Now KDE 4 has to compare to KDE
> 3.5.9 or later, not to KDE 2 or KDE 3.0, because the problem is not that we
> dont have functionalities  yet, it's that we _miss_ existing
>  functionalities.
> 
That was certainly true of 4.0, and even of 4.1.  By 4.2 much was back, and by 
4.3 almost everything is back.  Developers have limited time and resources, 
just like everyone else.

> I've been looking at other desktops since I was told that KDE 3 was going.
>  For the time being I still hope that KDE 4 can improve enough to qualify
>  as a replacement, but as long as the folderview issue is not solved it
>  sure can't.
> 
Considering that thousands of people find it perfectly adequate, perhaps you 
should open your mind and see where things are not so much missing as done 
differently to get the same or similar result.

Anne
-- 
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