For those users who have the KDE settings/options shown below and have a problem with the application Systemsettings (Window Decoration) crashing each time you click on 'Workspace Appearence', I have figured out why it crashes and more importantly, a simple solution. It may have taken a few months of poking around, however, persistance pays off.

KDE 4.8.x or > Theme/Style: Oxygen Transparent
KDE 4.8.x or > Window Decoration: Air-Oxygen-Color OR other 'Air-Oxygen' decoration styles


As SU/root user, navigate to the folder /lib64/kde4/ and find all the files that begin with 'kwin3'. In my case I have the following files:

kwin3_b2.so
kwin3_kde2.so
kwin3_crystal.so
kwin3_beapin.so
kwin3_deKorator.so
kwin3_keramik.so
kwin3_quartz.so
kwin3_redmod.so
kwin3_oxygen_transparent.so
kwin3_plastik.so
kwin3_skulpture.so
kwin3_smaragd.so
kwin3_web.so

You may or may not have additional themes listed as well. I have found that certain 'kwin3' files are contributing to the applet crashing and what I did to fix the issue is to create a folder (e.g. /temp) within /lib64/kde4 and move the kwin3 files into that folder.....including the oxygen-transparent.so file. DO NOT delete them of course....just in case.

Within /lib64/kde4/ you should just have the following decorations files shown:

Those with the filename structure 'kwin_xxx_xxx.so' and those with the filename structure 'kwin4_xxx_xxx.so'

So basically there should be no files that contain a '3' after the 'kwin'....which points to the older KDE 3.x.x I would assume. This of course applies to those running KDE 4 of course.

After you move the 'kwin3' files to another folder you should be able to launch the Window Decoration applet within the Systemsettings utility.

This seems to be an issue for those running the 'oxygen-transparent' or 'transparent oxygen' type themes and window decorations in particular.


For those users who find this to work, please post a reply to that affect so I can modify the code.


Tnx

Tim
N9NU

You found https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=301646
Does that mean mandriva did an ABI retag as well?

Hi

Actually I did not see that particular bug report. I had search through the bug reports along time ago, however, there was nothing reported at that time with exception to one that I filed initially. As far as Mandriva Linux, I ceased using it since the infamous 'merger/buy out' deal several years back. I just updated my profile to reflect the change. I currently use Mageia Linux as well as FreeBSD.

What surprises me is that this was so easy to fix once I decided to dedicate a day solely to it...and I have to wonder why it has not been addressed by the teams at KDE....despite the number of reports and the few years that it has been an issue. I don't know.....it just seems like a no brainer to fix this one.

That is a misunderstanding - the bug mentioned occured because a distro (Ubuntu) damaged the ABI compatibility of all decos (for no actual reason) w/o updating 3rd party decos.
You apparently observed the very same thing, being ABI incompatible decorations, most likely of the KDecorationUnstable type (impossible to say w/o knowing the exact decos) but bugs in 3rd party decos or ABI incompatibilities is nothing that could be resolved upstream (KDE developers), but is in the resposibility of whoever installs/installed those decoration.

We're about to introduce API tagging, but that's no simple process (in general the API isn't easily broken anyway and has never been for the stable API since KDE4 was released)