A bunch of KDE questions

[Brian Kendig]

On Friday, April 25, 2003, at 10:40  PM, James Richard Tyrer wrote:

> Brian Kendig wrote:
>> - My fonts in the KDE 3.1 Konsole are screwed up.
>
> Your font system is screwed up.  What are you using?  How did you 
> install Qt?

I'm using whatever Debian sid (unstable) installed by default.  Yeah, I 
know, this is probably a consequence of using unstable... but KDE 3.1 
hasn't made it into testing yet.  :)

>> - I managed to get audio working, but my system bell isn't dinging 
>> any more.
>
> You may have a corrupted: "~/.kde/share/config/kcmbellrc" file. Delete 
> it and restart KDE.  This should fix it, but if not, the switch for 
> what to use for the bell is in: "kdeglobals" under the: "[General]" 
> key:
> 	UseSystemBell=true

That line is in that file, and I deleted kcmbellrc and later rebooted, 
but the bell still isn't making any noise.  Does the bell require artsd 
to be running?  It's not, though other KDE system event sounds work 
fine.

>> - How do I install a new KDE theme?  'KAlloy' from themes.kde.org 
>> looks neat, but it wants me to install it by specifying the 'prefix' 
>> and 'libdir' directories.
>
> The 'prefix' is where you installed KDE.  If your KDE executables are 
> in: "/usr/bin/" then your 'prefix' is: "/usr".

Thanks!  The 'alloy' theme configure gets a ways along now, but then it 
fails with an error: "checking for libz... configure: error: not found. 
Check your installation and look into config.log".  config.log says 
that it was unable to find zlib.h, but that file exists in 
/usr/include/linux.  I edited the 'configure' script to give that 
file's exact location, but it still can't find it.  If anyone has had 
more luck compiling a theme, I could use a hand!

>> - Is there a graphical battery monitor that I can put in the KDE 
>> panel beside the clock?  I haven't been able to find a battery 
>> monitor yet.
>
> Probably.  Go to: http://apps.kde.com/ and use the search.

Thank you!  I hadn't known about that site!  I found klaptopdaemon 
which does the trick just fine for me.

>> - Is there a central directory for KDE applications, similar to 
>> '/Applications' on the Mac or 'C:\Program Files' on Windows?
>
> No.  Not unless you installed KDE in its own directory.  Note that 
> unless you built from source, your distro decided this for you.

That'd be a really handy thing to have.  Right now it looks like if I 
want to find out what KDE applications are available to me, I have to 
go rooting around in /usr/bin and running things to see what happens.

>> - My laptop seems really sluggish when it's running KDE.  Like, for 
>> example, the 1024x768 login screen backdrop takes so long to load 
>> that I've already logged in by the time it appears.
>
> This appears to be a known bug.

Thanks!  Is there any known workaround, or is there a bug report 
available online?  I'm curious to know what's causing this.

> KDE *appears* slow.  The reason for this is that you do something and 
> then for a while NOTHING happens.

I agree 100% with this.  Using KDE has trained me that when I launch an 
application, I should sit and wait for twenty seconds to see whether it 
actually starts -- I was used to doing this in Unix back in 1993, but 
still having to do this today is just silly.

>> - In your opinion, what are the must-have applications for KDE?
>
> This is Linux.  You have FREEDOM.  But, there is a top ten list at: 
> http://apps.kde.com/ if you must follow the crowd.

I have freedom... to be completely lost and not know which way to turn. 
  ;)  But that web site is great; thank you for pointing me to it!


  ____    |\/|                 Brian Kendig   Set your priorities right.
  \  /\   / ..__.    brian at enchanter net   No one ever said on his
   \/  \__\   _/   http://www.enchanter.net/  death bed, "Gee, if I'd
    \__   __  \_      Be insatiably curious.  only spent more time at
       \____\___\           Ask "why" a lot.  the office."

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