Can someone please explain how I can deal with acitivies in KDE SC 4.5? I'm totally lost.

I have coupled the desktops and activities so I can have different wallpapers and widgets for every desktop. Each desktop and each activiy has its own name where the activity name matches the desktop name. The desktop name is shown in the pager in the panel and the activity name is shown in the cashew button that sits on a desktop side.

In 4.4 both, the cashew and the pager, did show the same name as I gave the activities and desktops the same names, let's say Desktop1, Desktop 2 and so on. Not in 4.5 anymore. The cashew now shows the same name for all activities though the acitivities are different. When I change the name for one activitiy it is changed for all activities to that name.

And in the new activity manager there is only shown one activity though I have 5.
So how can I manage the activities now?

BTW: The new activity icon is awful, it just makes me very aggressive. How can I change that icon (icons, assuming some time all acitivities will be shown in that activity manager) to something more friendly? Best woudl be IMHO a picture of the activity with the current wallpaper and the position of the widgets, optionally with a symbol for the widgets used.

Not sure about your first questions since I don't use that option, but to change the activity icon: (unlock widgets) -> right click on desktop (or click on the desktop tool box) -> Desktop Settings -> Activity -> click on the hidden box to the left of "Type" and "Name".

Thanks for your answer. But in the desktop settings for the activity I cannot change the icon, I only can change the type and name. I want to change the icon that is shown in the activity manager, that weird pattern. It's also in the desktop settings for the activity where I change the name. But this name goes to all activities...

Since it's easier to explain with an image than words:

That sounds like a bug. I think the activity manager is supposed to list all the activities.

Hmm... I don't have that picture. I only have the type and name... Maybe something that has to be installed isn't?

Is there a blank spot to the left of the type and name? I didn't have an icon either, but I did have a blank space that I could click on to set an icon.

If the icon-button doesn't exist (not only /invisible/) it means that activity manager / nepomuk activity service is not running. Which essentially means that the installation is screwed up, or that nepomuk is not running.

Oh boy... Yes, there is some blank space left to type and name. How on earth shall I now that I have to click that. Please can someone mark it as clickable area?

Ok, I now have an own icon for my activities. Still they are shown as one activity in the manager and when I change the name of one in the desktop settings it is changed for all 5 activities. I created a new user, same problem. KDE SC 4.5.1 now, Kubuntu Lucid.

ivan (or someone else), can you please confirm if the icon button is "invisible" in trunk as well? I didn't find a bug report for it so I'm considering to file one.

@Hans

When you open the report, please assign me immediately.

(p.s. the invisibility is due to oxygen flatness, but it shouldn't show a blank icon anyhow)

Hm, I'm not sure I can assign the bug to anyone (and if I can, I don't know how). The bug report can be found here: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=250226

Apparently they changed how the 'different widgets on each desktop' setting works in 4.5.
Previously it would assign a different activity to each desktop, but in 4.5 it only creates a different containment in the same activity (thereby allowing you to have A*D sets of widgets, where A = number of activities and D = number of desktops).

It seems a little confusing to me because we already had activities and desktops, and now we have a third entity which is the configuration/containment assigned to a given activity+desktop.

airdrik wrote:It seems a little confusing to me because we already had activities and desktops, and now we have a third entity which is the configuration/containment assigned to a given activity+desktop.

Yes, exactly my feelings about that: confusing.

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=250225

Hmm... Did I get it right that now "folderview", "desktop" etc. aren't activities anymore but only types of containments inside of activities? Must be because otherwise I couldn't have different desktop types for my virtual desktops as all obviously now is one activity. But why are they labeled as activities in settings and you set the name for the activity and not the containment in systemsettings? The label is for the activity, the type is for the containment. Not obvious. Weird...

BTW: The Dashboard - is it now also a separate activity or containment of one or so? How can I get back dashboard translucency? It now has a background picture and I cannot see my desktop anymore... I have enabled different widgets on my desktops and a separate dashboard. Worked fine in SC 4.4.5.

Is it possible to have "Search and Run" activity on the Dashboard? I prefer to have more or less classic desktop normally, but I very like "Search and Run" and would like to fire it up on a keystroke.

Now, what I did already: I called Dashboard -> Configure dashboard -> Activities -> Type: Search and Run -> Apply/Save. Now, the dashboard doesn't open at all (when I click Ctr+F12)...

KDE 4.5.3 from Arch linux's [extra] repo.