[kde-linux] Splash screen import errors

[Duncan]

Thomas Taylor posted on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:56:52 -0800 as excerpted:

> Those environment variables don't seem to be my problem as they're not
> set.  The output of "set | less" shows:
> 
> JDK_HOME=/usr/lib64/jvm/java
> JRE_HOME=/usr//jvm/jre
> KDE_FULL_SESSION=true
> KDE_MULTIHEAD=false
> KDE_SESSION_UID=1000
> KDE_SESSION_VERSION=4
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8

What I'm trying to say, but it wasn't coming out well, is that if the vars 
aren't set (as they aren't for you, that's confirmed now), KDE uses a 
default path.  If they were set, it would use the set path.  Whether it's 
using the default path or a set path, however, that path needs to be free 
of symlinks.

Since I know none of them are set now, and I have a bit of time, I'll see 
if I can find the default paths kde uses when the vars aren't set, so you 
can verify there's no symlink in them.  However, it's still possible your 
distribution changes the defaults a bit, to better fit their layout.  Keep 
that in mind and consider asking them, if necessary.

OK, found them:  khelpcenter app, kde user's manual, part VI, kde for 
administrators, chapter 25, kde internals, environment variables section.  
Here's the vars again, what they control, and what their default is, 
quoted straight from the manual as referenced above.  Again, make sure 
these dirs are writable by your user, and that there's no symlinks in the 
path leading to them:

$KDEHOME

If not set, KDE uses ~/.kde as the directory where personal data is stored.

(Note that if your distribution is setup to keep kde3 and kde4 in separate 
dirs, this will often be patched to be ~/.kde3 or ~/.kde4, depending on 
the version of course, and may even be ~/.kde43 or ~/.kde4.3, etc, if they 
break versions down that far.  But ~/.kde is the default as shipped by 
kde, according to the kde docs as referenced above.)

$KDETMP

Allows to specify another path than /tmp where KDE stores its temporary 
files.

(Actually, kde normally creates its own directory in /tmp, I believe it's 
/tmp/kde-<user>/ , with <user> of course replaced appropriately, for each 
user.  More secure distributions may patch this to have it point by 
default to ~/tmp/, a user-private tmpdir, instead.)

$KDEVARTMP

Allows to specify another path than /var/tmp where KDE stores its variable 
files.

(Similarly here, only these files are cache, etc, thus potentially useful 
to save over a reboot, while /tmp is FSB speced as clearable on boot.)

So the bottom line is, make sure that $HOME/.kde, /tmp, and /var/tmp (and 
any similar paths your distribution may have patched to use), are all 
three real paths with no symlinks, and fully writable by the user in 
question.  Otherwise, as I discovered, strange bugs popup with various 
bits of kde, including the kdelook/get-new-stuff integration, and 
customizing certain settings, including toolbars, in at least certain kde 
apps, including kmail and konqueror.

-- 
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