[kde-linux] no device notifier on the panel

[Duncan]

Kevin Kempter posted on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:18:38 -0600 as excerpted:

> I've recently upgraded to KDE 4.4 and for various reasons created a new
> user on my laptop. However I don't get a device notifier on the panel
> for the new user.
> 
> Anyone know how to get a device notifier back on my panel?

Um... add it?

Every widget on the panel and the desktop is a plasmoid (a widget for 
plasma) that can be added, removed, moved around between them, etc.  Don't 
like the clock?  Remove it and add an analog clock plasmoid if you prefer, 
or simply do without.  Want a system tray in two diffeI've recently 
upgraded to KDE 4.4 and for various reasons created a new
user on my laptop. However I don't get a device notifier on the panel for
the new user.

Anyone know how to get a device notifier back on my panel?
rent places on the desktop as well as on two different panels?  Not a 
problem.  Add it to all of them.

Want one of several types of weather plasmoid?  Choose between the ones 
you can download from kdelook.org, and what's included by default.  Want 
three copies of "YAWP" (yet another weather plasmoid, one of the more 
popular ones on kdelook) lined up across the desktop, each showing the 
weather for a different location?  That's not a problem either.  Add the 
three, line them up on the desktop, and configure each one for one of your 
three chosen weather locations.

There's three kinds of kmenu (kickoff, classic, lancelot), two of which 
(classic, lancelot) can have submenus added as well, and a fourth (at 
least, I forgot the name but it's semantic desktop oriented, so it really 
wasn't practical until the semantic desktop matured a bit, but with SD 
coming into its own with kde 4.4 and 4.5, this kmenu alternative shouldn't 
be far behind) in development.

The device notifier is simply another one of these plasmoids.  As such, 
you can add and delete it as you wish.  If you want two dozen of them, you 
could do that too. =:^)

To add plasmoids/widgets, you have to have them unlocked, so that's the 
first step.  Depending on your desktop config, right-click or otherwise if 
configured, get a context menu, or click on the "cashew", aka "toolbox".  
Choose unlock widgets if they are locked (if they're already unlocked, the 
option will say lock widgets, instead).  You can context-click on the 
panel as well, if you can find a free spot.  If you can't, most (but not 
all) plasmoids have a panel menu submenu, and you can find the unlock 
widgets option there.  Note that the widget lock is global.  If you unlock 
it on the desktop, it unlocks the panels as well; if you lock the panel, 
it locks the desktop widgets too.

Then invoke the menu again, and choose add widgets.  4.4 added a nice new 
widget explorer dialog, which appears as a strip across the screen.  Find 
and select Device Notifier, then drag it to the place on the panel or 
desktop you want.

BTW, if you decide you want to move plasmoids around, doing so on the 
desktop is easy, as long as widgets aren't locked.  They can even be 
dragged onto a panel, thus leaving the desktop. =:^)

Moving a plasmoid on the panel isn't quite as intuitive.  With widgets 
unlocked, click on the panel cashew/toolbox.  Or again, context click on 
the panel if you can find an empty spot or on a plasmoid, select panel 
options and panel settings.  Either way should pop up what looks like 
another panel, with the various settings.  Of course you can adjust the 
panel here.  But the trick is that as long as this settings panel is 
shown, you can also hover over any of the the panel's plasmoids, and the 
mouse pointer should turn into the move pointer (4-sided arrow).  You can 
then drag the plasmoid around on the panel or to the desktop.

Something I've not tried with 4.4 so I don't know if they've fixed it or 
not... If you have multiple panels configured, or multiple monitors with a 
separate activity on each, and try to drag between activities or between 
panels, the widget would tend to drop rather unexpectedly when it hit the 
second activity or panel.  One had to then pick it up and continue moving 
it to the desired location.  But as I said, I've not tried it with 4.4.  
Perhaps they fixed the bug of it dropping unexpectedly like that.

So anyway, yes, as I said, to get the device notifier back, simply unlock 
widgets if necessary, add widgets, select the device notifier and drag it 
to the desired location... and you're done. =:^)

Well, except that you probably want to lock widgets again.  It's not such 
a big deal on the panel, but widgets on the desktop can get accidentally 
dragged around, and seeing that toolbox appear to the side of each 
plasmoid on the desktop as you move over it can get annoying as well.  So 
you probably do want to lock the widgets when you're not actively adding/
deleting/moving them. =:^)

Hope it helps. =:^)

-- 
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