[kde-linux] kde-linux Digest, Vol 142, Issue 3 How do I disable the popup which appears when I change workspaces

[Duncan]

Aguilar, Frank posted on Tue, 07 Apr 2015 14:44:46 +0000 as excerpted:

> My Platform:
> Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client release 5.5 KDE: 3.5.4

That's kde3, but in this case, early kde4's layout seems to have been 
closer to later kde3's layout than to later kde4's layout.  More below...

> Duncan,
> 
> Your tip to try kcmshell was a great help to me. It's helped me become
> aware that there are many modules are available for customizing the kde
> desktop environment.

Yes.  Here's the (somewhat extended...) back-story.

In kde3 (and IIRC kde2 before that, I wasn't around for kde1), the 
general kde configuration GUI was called, sensibly enough, kde control 
panel, aka kcontrol.  The individual modules for it were and remain kde 
control (panel) modules, aka kcms (kde control modules).

These kcms were and are actually shared objects (seen as files with the 
common .so extension, often with a version, as in libname.so.3.1.306 or 
similar), the Linux/ELF format version of dynamically loaded libraries 
(compare to the MS Windows version of the same thing, dlls, dynamically 
linked libraries), and thus couldn't be executed directly on their own.

There are actually two executables designed to load and run these kcms, 
the previously mentioned kcontrol (systemsettings in kde4, see below) 
GUI, which loads all of them into a common GUI, and kcmshell, which loads 
and presents one of them at a time.  It's also possible to load 
individual kcms without the GUI, to simply apply some or all of their 
settings.  This is done for selected kcms at kde startup in ordered to 
apply the correct configuration to the kde GUI as a whole, and involves 
invoking kcmshell --silent <module>, to avoid loading the GUI.

That explains kcmshell, with kcmshell --list being the way you get a list 
of all the individual modules kcmshell knows about.  In kde4, kcmshell 
remained, renamed (as commonly done where the same executable remained 
available) to kcmshell4, in ordered to make it easier for distros to 
include both kde3 and kde4 during the transition.

Meanwhile, kde3's kcontrol was, unfortunately IMO, renamed to system 
settings, with the binary file called systemsettings (without the 
space).  Unfortunately this caused a lot of confusion, not least because 
systemsettings in general does *NOT* control generic non-kde system 
settings (tho it can control a few, setting the time and timezone 
systemwide, for instance), especially when kde isn't running (gnome and 
other desktop environments have their own config modules), only kde 
settings.

Thus for quite some time, every time I mentioned kde systemsettings I'd 
take a hint from the Prince fiasco back in the 90s and call it "The 
application formerly known as kcontrol", with a paragraph explaining why 
the new name was so unfortunate.  At some point, however, kde compromised 
to the extent that at least when a different desktop was running, the 
name in the menu became kde systemsettings instead of just 
systemsettings.  I thought that was a reasonable compromise, and now 
simply refer to it as kde systemsettings all the time, since that should 
be clear enough in either context, both to find it as simply 
systemsettings, and to make the distinction that it's really primarily 
just *kde* systemsettings, not the *entire* or *generic* systemsettings.

But all the while, the modules themselves continue to be referred to as 
kcontrol modules, aka kcms, with kcmshell being the method used to invoke 
a window with just one of them.  (Tho at least in kde4, some kcms are 
actually compound kcms, showing multiple related kcms as tabs in a single 
window.  The display kcm works this way, incorporating a multimonitor and 
resolutions kcm, the gamma kcm installed by kgamma if it's installed, and 
possibly others.)  Again, the (kde) systemsettings choice is unfortunate, 
because the relationship between kcontrol and kcmshell was somewhat 
obvious and make sense, while (kde) systemsettings makes the relationship 
entirely opaque.  For all I know in kde5 they've renamed them ssms 
(systemsettings modules), confusing things even further, since they're 
still primarily kde settings.  (FWIW, I've tried loading kde5 a few times 
over 6 or 8 months, with the last time only a couple weeks ago, but the 
kde5 version of kwin constantly crashes, apparently because it doesn't 
like my Radeon graphics and native linux/mesa drivers, so I try it, find 
it doesn't work, and then uninstall it again to get back to a working 
kde4, since kde5 and kde4 can't easily be installed on the same system 
due to various naming overlaps, etc.)

Which explains why you have kcontrol in kde3, while kde4 has (kde) 
systemsettings.

> I think there be one more kcmshell option/module
> for Mun to try to disable pop-up's when switching workspaces. The module
> is called “kwinoptions”.

Thanks.  That appears to be the missing piece of the puzzle.  While the 
specific setting you mentioned apparently wasn't it (according to Mun, 
I'm summarizing here to tie up loose ends), he found another in the same 
module, that did the trick.  Apparently when they reorganized the 
kcontrol/systemsettings layout in 4.5 or 4.6 or whatever it was, that 
setting switched modules.  So as I said above, early kde4's layout in 
that respect was closer to late kde3's layout, than to late kde4's.

> kcmshell helped me understand all the many modules that are available.
> And kcontrol made it easier for me access those control panels. Perhaps,
> kcontrol is be available to Mun? Hope that helps… I’ve enjoyed reading
> all the detail you’ve provided.

Then you should enjoy the back-history above (which explains why he 
didn't find kcontrol too) as well. =:^)

-- 
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