Hi.

Without thinking much, I have dist-upgraded my Kubuntu 8.04 to 9.10. That automatically upgraded KDE from 3 to 4. Now I am trying to figure out how to configure it so I can use it comfortably.

One of the main issues I'm having now is that I can't for the life of me figure out how to customise my right-click so it will display an application-launcher context menu. I've been using that extensively to access my favourite apps. Having to go to the K Menu or the task bar to launch apps is just not my kind of productivity.

So my question... how can I invoke my own context menu with a right click on the desktop area, just like I was able to with KDE 3?

Thanks in advance!
Dai

Click on the Cashew ( quarter-circle in top right of screen ) > Desktop Settings > Mouse Actions. Set "Right Button" to "Application Launcher"

bcooksley wrote:Click on the Cashew ( quarter-circle in top right of screen ) > Desktop Settings > Mouse Actions. Set "Right Button" to "Application Launcher"

Thanks for the quick response.

I did look at Desktop Settings from Cachew. All I see is "Desktop." I don't see anything that says "Mouse Actions." Could it be disabled for Kubuntu, for whatever reason?

I am using KDE 4.3.2, if it matters.

Thanks again,
Dai

4.3.2 is very old, it was released over a year ago. It lacks that feature, and a lot of other features and stability improvements. 4.5.3 is the current version, I strongly recommend updating to it.

TheBlackCat wrote:4.3.2 is very old, it was released over a year ago. It lacks that feature, and a lot of other features and stability improvements. 4.5.3 is the current version, I strongly recommend updating to it.

Ah, thanks. That explains it.

That begs this question, though. Did the KDE guys remove that feature when they moved from KDE 3 to KDE 4, and re-add it later? That sounds interesting...

I will see if I can upgrade KDE without another dist-upgrade.

Dai

The feature wasn't deliberately removed, it simply needed to be reimplemented.

bcooksley wrote:The feature wasn't deliberately removed, it simply needed to be reimplemented.

Is that because KDE 4 was nearly a complete re-write?

I've found that I can upgrade to KDE 4.4.3 on Kubuntu 9.10 via PPA. I've added the necessary repository and am now waiting for the package manager to complete the installation. Hopefully KDE 4.4.3 has that feature back in. I have built my own KDE in the past, but I'd rather not have to do it these days.

The Desktop Shell is, yes. kdesktop, kicker and minicli had historical issues which resulted in a complicated codebase, requiring a rewrite with the KDE 4 series.

daihard wrote:Is that because KDE 4 was nearly a complete re-write?

KDE 4 wasn't a complete re-write, but certain very visible parts, including plasma (the replacement for the desktop and panel) was.

Thanks for the replies again, guys.

I ended up dist-upgrading again to Kubuntu 10.04 as it turned out that the latest version of KDE available for 9.10 was 4.3.5, not much different than 4.3.2. I woke up to find 10.04 / KDE 4.4.2 waiting on my desktop.

Now, the mouse action menu _is_ there, and I can customise my right-click action to launch the "application launcher" context menu. However, I cannot seem to customise the launcher itself, like I was able to do with KDE 3. This is, if you may pardon my language, ridiculous. The whole point of an application launcher context menu is, at least to me, to be able to access my favourite apps quickly. This fixed menu, with all the subdirectories, will NOT do that...

Or am I missing something? Is there a way to actually customise this launcher menu so I can have only my favourite apps show up there?

Thanks once again,
Dai

daihard wrote:
Or am I missing something? Is there a way to actually customise this launcher menu so I can have only my favourite apps show up there?

What you want is this: http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Fa ... ent=117639

Kryten2X4B wrote:What you want is this: http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Fa ... ent=117639

Thanks! That's exactly what I need.

There is one minor bug. Somehow Google Chrome does not show up in the launcher even though it's added via the kickoff menu. The kde-look.org page has one guy reporting a similar issue where wine programs do not show up there. I guess it's something similar.

I can live with not having Chrome in the launcher for now.

Thanks again!
Dai

daihard wrote:

Kryten2X4B wrote:What you want is this: http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Fa ... ent=117639

Thanks! That's exactly what I need.

There is one minor bug. Somehow Google Chrome does not show up in the launcher even though it's added via the kickoff menu. The kde-look.org page has one guy reporting a similar issue where wine programs do not show up there. I guess it's something similar.

I can live with not having Chrome in the launcher for now.

Follow-up... I installed Maverick on my work machine. This issue of Chrome not showing up in the "Favourite" launcher is gone. I'm not sure if the launcher itself or KDE has been the issue. (I downloaded the latest source for the launcher.) In any case, I am a happy camper now.

Kryten2X4B wrote:

daihard wrote:
Or am I missing something? Is there a way to actually customise this launcher menu so I can have only my favourite apps show up there?

What you want is this: http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Fa ... ent=117639

I'm in a similar situation, with RHEL 6 (and KDE 4.3.x). However, I want to associate the equivalent of the KDE 3.x "Desktop Menu" with the middle mouse button and the "Application Menu" (containing "Most Used Applications", "All Applications", and "Actions" sections) with the right mouse button.

We can only use the KDE version supported by RHEL 6... is there a config file I can edit to do this?

Thank you!

spacer wrote:

Kryten2X4B wrote:

daihard wrote:
Or am I missing something? Is there a way to actually customise this launcher menu so I can have only my favourite apps show up there?

What you want is this: http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Fa ... ent=117639

I'm in a similar situation, with RHEL 6 (and KDE 4.3.x). However, I want to associate the equivalent of the KDE 3.x "Desktop Menu" with the middle mouse button and the "Application Menu" (containing "Most Used Applications", "All Applications", and "Actions" sections) with the right mouse button.

We can only use the KDE version supported by RHEL 6... is there a config file I can edit to do this?

Thank you!

The software Kryten2X4B referred me to comes as a source package. It means you can compile it on your KDE environment. That's what I did for my Kubuntu install.