I'm using both Kde4 and a different WM (fluxbox) on my netbook, because i like a high-performance backup wm for different uses... even on the other wm, however, i'd like to use the power-management service (powerdevil).

To do this, i usually start the other wm, then use systemsettings (from a terminal) and klick on the Service Manager (which activates kded4) and finally start powerdevil (klick on powerdevil and start).

Since this is a tirering manualy klick-labor process, I'd like to automate and autostart the whole ṕrocess (i.e. startup terminal script).

How can I do this?

(KDE 4.2.1, Gentoo Linux)

I believe as long as you have a DBus session, then you should be able to execute just "kded4 &" in a startup script.
Regarding Powerdevil, I think you can alter a file which is located somewhere under $KDEDIR/share/services/ which controls in which environments Powerdevil is automatically started.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I have dbus running. Neither starting kded4 nor kdeinit4 with the session helps. In my experience, usually klauncher is missing in some kde apps in which case the app starts kdeinit4 and thus also kded4 (at least that's what happens when I start systemsettings from terminal).

I have looked at the service descriptions in /usr/kde/4.2/share/kde4/services and found powerdevil both here and under the sub-path kded/. The former didn't help me, the latter has an option:
X-KDE-Kded-autoload=true
already set. I think this is done via systemsettings where you can configure just that.

Nevertheless: the service doesn't start automatically.

KDED will load a module depending on its phase. I think there are descriptions of these somewhere, you might want to look at one of the services that KDED does autostart for an idea on the number.

The relevant line to change is
X-KDE-Kded-phase=1

in the Powerdevil KDED desktop file.

Thanks for the ... solution

I didn't have any autostarted services in my list (otherwise this would have been easier), but changing the affected line to
X-KDE-Kded-phase=0
worked like a charm. Thank you bcooksley!

If you have managed to resolve your problem, could you please mark the thread as solved? Thanks in advance.
( If there are still outstanding issues, you do not need to )

I am not so sharp with this: I assume the original post wanted to know how to show the powermanagement icon from kde4 (powerdevil) in fluxbox. What do I add to my /home/user/.fluxbox/startup file to get it to show? Or at least to run so that when I close my lid, the box will suspend?

You simply need to start "kded4" then run "qdbus org.kde.kded /kded loadModule powerdevil"