Hello all:

I've seen that kstars data like the Tycho2 catalog or the USNO catalgo must be downloaded by each user. Is there any place where it can be put by the system admin to avoid such a bandwidth and disk waste? Somethink like /usr/share and for it to be automatically detected by the program.

Thanks

Noel
er Envite

Yes, this is likely possible. Where does KStars store the data currently that is downloaded? Simply replace ~/.kde* with the installation path to KDE.

Eg: KStars downloads it to ~/.kde/share/apps/kstars/tycho2/ the system wide location would be /usr/share/apps/kstars/tycho2/

Note that some distros rewrite /usr/share/apps/ to /usr/share/kde4/apps so you may need to adjust as needed.

Well, they are downloaded directly to ~/.kde/share/apps/kstars without subdirectories.

There exists both /usr/share/apps with directories inside named after KDE apps, and /usr/share/kde4/apps

I've tried copying files deepstars.dat and USNO-NOMAD-1e8.dat in /usr/share/apps/kstars and restarting kstars after cleaning ~/.kde/share/apps/kstars and ~/.kde/share/config/kstarsrc but File->Get new data said it was not installed and offered to download again.

I've tried copying them to /usr/share/kde4/apps/kstars and same happened.

Any clue?

Thanks

Get New Data will show them as not installed after moving them to that directory. However the data sets should be directly accessible in KStars instantly on startup.

Thanks. Is there any way, then, of making 'Get new data' unavailable to users? I think I've heard about 'kiosk mode' but don't know how to use or if it is appropiate here.

Kiosk mode would be the correct way to disable it. I believe there is information on Techbase on how to disable application actions.

Have you confirmed that my suggestion worked? ( ie. the dataset is available in KStars )

Not tested yet (I've been very busy) but it is high-priority in my to-do list.

I've tested it and moving files to /usr/share/kde4/apps/kstars works OK. Moreover, seems that newly created users detect the files and show the corresponding component as installed in 'Get new data', but allow the user to "deinstall" it. This changes the state to 'Deinstalled', (thus allowing the user to download them again to his own folder) but files are not effectively deleted and data is still available to the program. Moreover, user-downloaded data takes precedence over system-wide data.

Many many thanks. Which techbase forum should I ask into about kiosk mode?

Thanks again

The needed documentation should be located here: http://techbase.kde.org/KDE_System_Admi ... troduction

Thanks I've tested it and it worked this way:

#/etc/kde4/kdeglobals
[KDE Action Restrictions]
action/get_data[$i]=false

Do you know if there is the risk of this setting affecting other apps? Should I ask in techbase forum?

Morevoer, I will try to setup a Debian package for these data and the setting itself. I will keep you informed.

Thanks again

That setting will disable Get Hot New Stuff in all KDE applications.

Where does kstars get its extra components? I've skimmed the source code but didn't found it

Thanks

Extra Components? If you are referring to plugins, these are loaded from information stored in the Sycoca. The Sycoca is a core part of KDE desktop and application infrastructure, and is maintained by kbuildsycoca4.

Thanks, but no: I'm talking about the catalogs, images, DST and other data files that appear in Get New Data. If I'm about to create packages for them, I need to know where to get them

It appears some of the sources are located at http://edu.kde.org/kstars/downloads/