Hello,

I use kate to do most of my development in Linux, often working directly with files located on a server using sftp authentication through Konqueror and saving directly to the server through a simple save in kate. My home setup consists of a Jaunty Ubuntu installation, which uses KDE 4.2.2.

At one point I used to be able to work with files on a server seamlessly, just saving and opening them from within kate as if they were on my own local hard drive. As long as I used Konqueror to authenticate the connection, kate would use this mechanism without requiring any further input from me on the matter.

Suddenly however a login prompt began popping up on each save or other server access. It's not clear what application is launching this authentication but I can only assume that it is Ubuntu's modified version of a password manager that is used globally for such purposes. If anyone can correct or clarify this it would also be very helpful.

Basically, I would just like to be able to save and open files from within kate without being hassled to confirm my username and password every time that I spend a few minutes working on a file between saves. This has been a subtle but gnawing irritation since I lost the ability to do this easily and I just haven't been able to resolve the issue with the little bit of time (a few hours) that I've put towards it. If someone knows the solution off the top of their head it would make things much smoother.

Any assistance would be great; I know that I could work around the problem and that I really should be using some form of versioning anyway, but it just bothers me that this really nice convenience was thrown out during some upgrade and nothing obvious turned up over the course of scouring forums and mailing lists for hours. Maybe this will help to address the frustration of another user that has also been quietly begrudging this change while trying to simply continue moving forward with their work in the process. TIA.

Have you enabled KWallet? ( System Settings > Advanced > KWallet ) Also, does ticking the "Save password" checkbox on the dialog help? I do not remember being affected by this in either KDE 4.2.0, KDE 4.3.0 or Trunk.

If it came through in recent updates ( say from KDE 4.2.2-x to KDE 4.2.2-x ) then please report this as a bug at Launchpad as it is a customization done by Kubuntu which is malfunctioning.

Hello,

Sorry for the delay in responding. I started using Ubuntu about a year ago and although I generally like the seamlessness of the integration, I do not like the way that details of the 'system' apps are hidden. What I mean to say is that I am not sure what authentication program is being used, it is just whatever password wallet that is used for a default installation of Ubuntu. I know that is probably really stupid, but I just have not had the time to delve into the inner workings as much as I should. I will go into the System Settings > Advanced > KWallet and update the settings as you suggest as soon as I get home.

For whatever it's worth, I do have the 'Save password' option checked in the dialog box that pops up on the save, and it does save my user name and password. So it's true that I only have to press enter to verify that I want to use these to access the server. Definitely a minor inconvenience, but it was great when the password manager automatically re-submitted this information without my needing to deal with the prompt. It's just annoying to have to take this extra step for every save that takes longer a couple of minutes between updates. Thanks for your assistance!

Also, this change in behavior is not a recent occurrence. I first noticed it quite a while back, many months ago. I wish I could give the specific version number and related details, but I didn't make note of any of this at the time.

Please note that a new sftp KIO slave was imported for KDE 4.4, so any bugs in 4.3 or lower may not be present in the newer version.

Thank you for your help bcooksley. I almost hate to have posted this here now because it is becoming apparent to me that this is probably an Ubuntu compatibility issue, but hopefully it might help someone else who likes kate and konqueror and has installed Ubuntu on their system.

In any case, I was unable to emulate the menu path you described above. On my menu, the best equivalent I was able to get is System > Preferences > Encription and Keyrings, but I don't think that this is really what I'm looking for and after experimenting with different settings I'm not any closer to getting things to work for my purposes here.

I'm not sure how much experience you have with Ubuntu, but I would love to get things set up so that I can use components that will coordinate with each other to get this functionality in working order. I don't have enough first-hand knowledge on the inner workings of these applications to know where to start, but if you feel like continuing to help me get it figured out, I'll do whatever I can to help determine a good solution. Or, if you might be able to point me in a better direction to solve the problem, I would greatly appreciate that as well.

You may need to launch the application systemsettings, and from there you can follow the menu path.

Okay, so it turns out that neither KWallet nor systemsettings were installed. So I installed those and realized that kde4 was also not completely installed. After correcting this, I then ran systemsettings, but did not see an item for KWallet in Advanced or otherwise. There is now a menu item for KWalletManager under the main Ubuntu System > Preferences > KWalletManager. When I clicked on this, it appeared that nothing happened, but I then noticed an icon is now in the 'system tray' (For lack of a better term). Unfortunately, none of this has changed the behavior of saving or transferring files from Konqueror or Kate; and in fact this has degraded, often asking to re-enter the password in the middle of file transfers and when switching between the two applications. When I click on the KDE Wallet icon and select Settings > Configure Wallet, there is no response at all... Any thoughts or ideas?

On rebooting, the Settings > Configure Wallet is now responding under the KDE Wallet Manager. The only setting that seems relevant is 'Prompt when an application accesses an open wallet' under the Access Control tab, but alas nothing has changed after I un-checked this box. In fact, I just saved a file opened in Kate through Konqueror under an sftp connection, and it prompted me twice before uploading the changes. If there is anything you can think of, I will give it a try.

Hmm. It should function correctly now. Have you create a wallet, and saved your sftp password into it?

Also check out sshfs and see if it's appropriate for your needs.

I wanted to check back in to let anyone that reads this thread or has a similar issue know that I ended up being able to solve the issue by simply not using Konqueror to open the remote files through sftp. As long as I had not originally used Konqueror to open a file, I can open the file from within Kate by navigating to the sftp address and the wallet is sufficient to edit the file without being prompted any more in the future.

Again, I am using an install from the Ubuntu repository and I have seen instances in the past where functionality was intentionally disabled (For security concerns?) by someone so this may be the entire source of the issue. This may not be a problem at all if using another distribution, although I'm not sure on this and just thought it was worth mentioning.

Also, I truly apologize for the abrupt disappearance. I had my computer crash and had to balance my already overly full schedule with reinstalling and retrieving my info. Coupled with a loaded academic quarter and work pressure, I didn't have a chance to catch back up with everything and then life just went on and I forgot to check back in on this thread. Not an excuse, but I did want to at least explain; I really make a point to not flake out on things, especially with someone taking the time to help me out. In any case, thanks again bcooksley.

Also thanks for the tip on sshfs Velvet Elvis, I will look into this option as well.