some questions & more questions

Tue Nov 17 19:19:03 GMT 2009

Anne Wilson posted on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:18:56 +0000 as excerpted:

> On Tuesday 17 November 2009 16:32:40 spir wrote:
>> 
>> right: should be kde4.2.2. For any reason couldn't install kde4.3.3 on
>>  current kubuntu 9.04 (errors from package manager). So as recommended
>>  on kubuntu's site, I'm currently downloading 9.10 to install latest
>>  kde from there.
>> 
> That's exactly what you should do.  I have 4.3.3, but I've only had it
> for a couple of days.  It's extremely new, and in my distro is still in
> the testing area.  I expect that it is in a similar state in kubuntu. 
> Take the latest that you can get from kubuntu.  Anything in the 4.3 tree
> will have some important updates.

FWIW, you (spir) should find 4.3 /much/ better.  Everyone I know did.  
And 4.4, scheduled for February (and probably as 4.4.1 or 4.4.2 in *buntu 
10.4 in April) should be another important update.  KDE's on a six-month 
schedule in that regard much as is *buntu, and as kde's still maturing, 
each of them is pretty important, so however you install them, you'll at 
least want to get one of each of the 4.x versions, every six months.

FWIW (2), a lot of folks are predicting pretty big things for 4.5, in 
early August (so for *buntu 10.10).  The general prediction is that 4.5 
will finally be kde-3.5's equal in most ways.

>> Thank you -- I'm definitely switching to lancelot (instead of kickoff).
>> Is there a way to move icons (esp. app lauchers) from/to desktop/other
>> panel?
>> 
> I don't know what to say about this.  Many people tell me that you can
> just drag icons from the desktop to the panel.  The only time I tried
> it, I couldn't.  I don't know whether that was because I was in an
> earlier release of KDE 4.x, or whether there is a difference according
> to the 'Type' of desktop.  Since I tend to stick with the most-used
> things on my panel they don't change very often, so I haven't
> experimented with this.

This works, with some peculiarities, here, but I believe there were some 
major fixes that went into that for 4.3.  Since you're working on an 
update, I'd not worry too much about it for 4.2.  On 4.3, the big thing 
to remember is that widgets must be unlocked.  Dragging from a panel to 
the desktop seems to work best.  Dragging from the desktop to a panel 
works, but the plasmoid tends to drop immediately when it hits the panel, 
and it may not end up in the right place, etc.  I often have to move it 
around on the panel (using the panel config method to be able to) after I 
get it there.  Moving from panel to panel seems to work best with an 
intermediate stop on the desktop.

If like me you have multiple monitors, dragging from one to another, as 
with much of the multiple-monitor stuff, has more issues than when 
everything's on the same monitor.  The whole multi-monitor thing is still 
a definite WIP (work in progress) for kde4.  That's one of the things 
that 4.4 is supposed to be dramatically better with.  Meanwhile, with 
4.3, as the plasmoid drops pretty much immediately when it hits the other 
monitor.  I even had it drop into the "nothing" between activities once, 
and had to use the cashew to zoom out on the activities, find the missing 
plasmoid, and drag it onto a proper activity!  I didn't even know that 
was possible!  Anyway, again, the best method seems to be to drag it onto 
the desktop on the monitor it's on, if it's on a panel, then from the 
desktop/activity on the first to the desktop/activity on the second, 
being prepared for the still unsettling drop as it switches to the second 
activity, then from there to its final place on the second desktop/
activity or on a panel on the second desktop.  Another method would be to 
do it when the activities are zoomed out, so you can drag it from one 
activity to another on the same monitor.

Hopefully, you'll find it works at least tolerably well in 4.3 once 
you've updated to it.  I know 4.2 had issues in the area but as I was 
still dealing with the many many other issues I had from my own switch at 
that point, I don't remember the details, except that 4.3 was /much/ more 
pleasant to work with in that area as well as several others.

>> Actually, they are only data CDs. I observe different behaviour even
>> with the same CD. To get it correctly opened in Dolphin, I sometimes to
>> switch several times to another forder, then back to cdrom*; if issues
>> remain, generally taking it out (physically, from the drive) may solve
>>  the problem. I have 2 CD drives and issues seem ~ identical (none
>>  works well, otherwise I would know the issue is probably not
>>  software-related and would use the one that works).
>> 
> That should not be.  I've not had that problem at all here - except that
> I did discover that a disk that contains a single corrupt file can be
> extremely difficult to mount.  Apart from that, it reminds me of my dvd
> player - the slightest fingermark on the disk and I may have to eject
> the disk and polish it on my sleeve before putting it back in :-)

100% agreed.  What you're seeing could well be a *buntu issue, tho it's 
impossible to say for sure at this point.  But it's safe to say it's not 
normal behavior as the rest of us experience KDE.

>> Sorry, I was stupid. Understood the word "share" quite literally and
>> didn't even explore sub-folders. Thank you for the information.
>> 
> Yes, I thought that was how you were thinking. :-)  Another case of a
> word having different meanings in diferent contexts.

FWIW, the user configuration directory structure mirrors pretty closely 
that of the system, normally under /usr, but it may be different on some 
distributions.  It's from there that the "share" name was taken, 
/usr/share/ being the standard location for system-wide user default 
config info, the system location fonts and icons are installed in, the 
standard location for docs (/usr/share/doc/<pkg>/ or
/usr/share/doc/HTML/<lang>/<pkg>), etc.  Thus that's where kde's system 
config can normally be found, in /usr/share/config/ for apps with only 
one or two config files, and /usr/share/apps/ for those that install 
whole directories worth of config, and the user config simply mirrors 
that structure under ~/.kde/share/ or ~/.kde4/share/ or whatever, 
depending on your distribution.

With that understanding, the "share" makes more sense -- it's simply 
echoing the structure found in the system config under /usr/.  Otherwise, 
I agree, it's /very/ confusing to see "share" in an individual user's 
home dir!  But now you have some perspective! =:^)

>> seems most of my problems are on a good path; and maybe the rest are
>> solved by installing kde4.3.3.
>> 
> You're doing fine, by the sound of it.

Agreed. =:^)  Most of us are now eagerly looking forward to February and 
kde 4.4.  After you see the difference between 4.2 and 4.3, you'll gain a 
new appreciation for why and just how much difference it can make! =:^)

-- 
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

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