Hello,
I like text based (or with simple graphics) system informations, like they are shown here:
http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/shots.xml (the first three desktops).

How can I get such in KDE?

On first screenshot, there is Conky. It should be in your distribution repository. I do not use it myself, so I cannot really help; but there are plenty of articles/posts all around Internet, so if you happen to have any problems, you might try googling them.

I am not sure about second. Calendar in lower like looks like "desklets" (don't know which one, there are plenty of them). If you are unhappy with KDE SC own plasmoids, you might try SuperKaramba. By the way, I don't really understand why people with superior machines (eight cores!) even bother with lightweight desktops. I used to use Fluxbox, but then I switched to KDE and I am definitely not looking back.

On third, there is conky again, as well as top (command line program) running in transparent terminal. You can achieve similar results with KDE SC Konsole (create new profile and keep it on lowest layer).

Thanks for the answers!
Now that I know what to look for, I did a quick look up and it seems like conky is cross-desktop and very active. Superkaramba is KDE specific and isn't maintained anymore (forum and website from 2012) and/or fully integrated into KDE SC 4 ?

For example, how would I install this SuperKaramba Station V theme on my desktop?


Also how do they compare in regard to resource usage?

Superkaramba widgets are fully integrated into the Plasma Desktop, and can be used like any other applet once installed.

To install a "Superkaramba widget", go to Add Widgets, then select Get New Widgets > Install from local file. There should be an option there for "SuperKaramba Desktop Themes" which you can use.

bcooksley wrote:Superkaramba widgets are fully integrated into the Plasma Desktop, and can be used like any other applet once installed.

To install a "Superkaramba widget", go to Add Widgets, then select Get New Widgets > Install from local file. There should be an option there for "SuperKaramba Desktop Themes" which you can use.

Unfortunately not, I have here:
Plasmoid (Native Widget)
Dashboard (MacOSx)
Web Widget

but nothing with SuperKaramba.

Unfortunately it seems the KDE packages you are using are compiled without Superkaramba support. You need to contact your distribution if you are using binaries. If you built KDE yourself, then you need to build and install Superkaramba, then rebuild KDE Workspace.

bcooksley wrote:Unfortunately it seems the KDE packages you are using are compiled without Superkaramba support. You need to contact your distribution if you are using binaries. If you built KDE yourself, then you need to build and install Superkaramba, then rebuild KDE Workspace.

Just took a look at the distro repo (no I'm not compiling by myself) and there is a superkaramba package. I installed it and now there is an opton superkaramba in new widgets.

However it doesn't work:
"Installing the package /home/richard/temp/karamba_stationV/stationV.theme failed." either way (choosing the .tar.gz or extracting and .theme inside).

Does it work for you?

Is there a message in ~/.xsession-errors which indicates why the installation failed?

You might also want to try starting the fully fledged Superkaramba and trying to install the widget there - as it could rely on Superkaramba specific services which Plasma's compatibility interface does not support.

bcooksley wrote:You might also want to try starting the fully fledged Superkaramba and trying to install the widget there - as it could rely on Superkaramba specific services which Plasma's compatibility interface does not support.

This was a good hunt hint.
From superkaramba you can directly select the .theme-file and install it. With station V it complains about missing kross libs. So after installing of kdebindings-kross-interpreters AND a restart, it finally works.

Also from superkaramba you can browse for themes, where you find a lot of these text based system information widgets (which I was looking for in the beginning).

Please note that you can also search for Superkaramba additions on kde-apps.org, if you want to add them to Plasma Desktop manually.

Hi
A blast from the past this thread but my question is how to install superkaramba?
I am on debian 10, and relativly new to Linux, I understand a bit about the installation of SuperKaramba I have gone to the sourceforge site and have downloaded the latest version(this seams old) and have tried to follow the simple install instructions in the install file. Can you help ??

The prompt -/- shell looks like.

Code: Select all

XXX@debian-10:~/Downloads/SuperKaramba/superkaramba-0.39/superkaramba-0.39$ ./configure
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking target system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for -p flag to install... yes
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for kde-config... not found
configure: error: The important program kde-config was not found!
Please check whether you installed KDE correctly.

XXX@debian-10:~/Downloads/SuperKaramba/superkaramba-0.39/superkaramba-0.39$ make
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found.  Stop.
XXX@debian-10:~/Downloads/SuperKaramba/superkaramba-0.39/superkaramba-0.39$ make install
make: *** No rule to make target 'install'.  Stop.


SuperKaramba was effectively superseded by Plasma in KDE 4 (and officially dropped in KDE applications 15.12).

Instead, the Plasma desktop allows you to add widgets and things directly to it by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Add Widgets, then dragging the widget(s) you want to where you want them. You can find new widgets from that panel by clicking on the Get New Widgets (and selecting Download New Plasma Widgets; which downloads and installs them from store.kde.org).

On top of that, there's Conky which a lot of users use for desktop widgets and things, which should cover anything which may be missing in Plasma's widgets.

Hi Thanks for the reply.
I cant find a plasma widget that look's like I want it to, and conky yes I have those and trying to configure one and tailor it to my system.
I have-/-had found what I liked in superkaramba and then went looking how to add it to the desktop(KDE).

I take it from your post that there is no way to add it now?

what Iam after is a super cool looking, system monitoring application alot like conky, Iam after a widget, that shows the state of Sdb for example, the size how much is used/free and would show dolphin when clicked on ....

A lot of this is configurable with conky. Perhapse Iam on the wrong distro(Debian 10) but I would also like wobbly windows. I loaded up Knoppix on a usb key to rescue my install of debian(I had mucked up fstab a simple txt editor fixed it for me), it was lovely wobbly windows eyecandy the works.

Thanks again.
--
Data

You might be able to get it working if you can get the right versions of KDE *4* (as well as Qt4) development packages so that you can build from the sources (or possibly dig through the archived debian repos to find the old package for it); but there's no guarantee if or how well it will work.

The closest I'm seeing is that there is a Disk Usage plasma widget which shows how much space each partition is using, and doesn't respond to clicking.
There's also Awesome Widgets which you may be able to configure to do what you want (similar to Conky, but Plasma-based)

airdrik wrote:You might be able to get it working if you can get the right versions of KDE *4* (as well as Qt4) development packages so that you can build from the sources (or possibly dig through the archived debian repos to find the old package for it); but there's no guarantee if or how well it will work.

I like the thought off it I am however a person who like the latest, so the thought of going back to KDE4 is not so appealing.

airdrik wrote:The closest I'm seeing is that there is a Disk Usage plasma widget which shows how much space each partition is using, and doesn't respond to clicking.

I have tried the ones that come with KDE, dare I say vanilla, KDE. One 'Hard disk space usage' I can configure to show two HD/partitions but its useless it is only configurable to display partitions, one of which is '/' the other the path lable covers over the stat's, Rubbish Its a one size fits all solution with no configurational support.
there are 5 Hdisks in this machine and I can only chose one!!!

airdrik wrote:There's also Awesome Widgets which you may be able to configure to do what you want (similar to Conky, but Plasma-based)

Thanks as I write I am looking into this thanks for the searching .
EditXXXX@airdrik I have install the widget but cant get it to display anything!! Have you any experience with it(AwesomeWidget)??EditXXX
Edit2XXX Got it Black text on BreezeDark=Black widget, setting to Breeze light(and text shows black text on white back ground) XXXedit2

I had also thought of digging around the INet for lessons, pages, videos on how to make your own plasma widget, however to date I have had limited success in finding a GOOD article or video. Certainly when one goes to youtube and looks one can find videos showing plasma widgets but not HOW TO MAKE them.
--
Data