Hello all, I'm new to this forum unfortunately my first post here is about a problem...a pretty bad problem with KDE 4.1.2.

I'm using Kubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron KDE4 remix and I yesterday I upgraded from KDE 4.0.3 to 4.1.2, this version of KDE has given me nothing but problems. The first time I ever started the DE plasma didn't boot at all! it had a fatal error (error 11 I think, seems a lot of people been having it) which took me some time to fix (posting to Ubuntu forums and not getting any help at all which is weird in there) and I had to search everywhere until I found some forum which had posts from last month and I was able to fix the whole thing.

Luckily I was able to launch programs using Alt+F2 (the rest of the desktop was a blank screen) so I used firefox. I then launched dolphin using the same method and went to .kde4/share/config/ and deleted the file called "plasma-appletssrc" and then restarted the PC and everything launched no problem. I thought I had fixed the whole thing but sometimes I had random crashes of plasma again that lasted about 2 seconds and it came back without me doing anything. Today I turned on the PC and the same thing happened! so I deleted that config file again but of course, all the settings were reset so I had to put my appletes and widgets and such in the order I like them again.

Is there anyway to fix this problem PERMANENTLY? I don't want to do this every time I start the system...Gnome doesn't have these problems EVER for all the time I have been using Ubuntu before and I'm pretty sure the previous KDE version (3.5.x) didn't have those problems at all!

By the way, is there anyway that when you delete, say a .jpg image from the Desktop you ACTUALLY delete the file without just deleting the icon? I thought that was ridiculous, I have to actually go to /home/username/Desktop to delete the actual file, another thing is that when I save a file to the Desktop it just doesn't appear there, it appears in the directory itself but not the actual Desktop so I have to make an icon for it...it's ridiculous considering even Windows and Mac don't have these problems and much less any other Linux DE.

Also, why can't I right click on the trash can and just "empty trash can" or something like that? and that option is not existent either on Dolphin itself so I have to delete a file one-by-one...I'm not really complaining but these are "problems" that should be fixed for the next release I think if the KDE team want to have a workable Desktop Environment, hope they do with the next release because KDE4 has the potential to be amazing.

Moonfrost wrote:Hello all, I'm new to this forum unfortunately my first post here is about a problem...a pretty bad problem with KDE 4.1.2.

I'm using Kubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron KDE4 remix and I yesterday I upgraded from KDE 4.0.3 to 4.1.2, this version of KDE has given me nothing but problems. The first time I ever started the DE plasma didn't boot at all! it had a fatal error (error 11 I think, seems a lot of people been having it) which took me some time to fix (posting to Ubuntu forums and not getting any help at all which is weird in there) and I had to search everywhere until I found some forum which had posts from last month and I was able to fix the whole thing.

Luckily I was able to launch programs using Alt+F2 (the rest of the desktop was a blank screen) so I used firefox. I then launched dolphin using the same method and went to .kde4/share/config/ and deleted the file called "plasma-appletssrc" and then restarted the PC and everything launched no problem. I thought I had fixed the whole thing but sometimes I had random crashes of plasma again that lasted about 2 seconds and it came back without me doing anything. Today I turned on the PC and the same thing happened! so I deleted that config file again but of course, all the settings were reset so I had to put my appletes and widgets and such in the order I like them again.

Is there anyway to fix this problem PERMANENTLY? I don't want to do this every time I start the system...Gnome doesn't have these problems EVER for all the time I have been using Ubuntu before and I'm pretty sure the previous KDE version (3.5.x) didn't have those problems at all!

By the way, is there anyway that when you delete, say a .jpg image from the Desktop you ACTUALLY delete the file without just deleting the icon? I thought that was ridiculous, I have to actually go to /home/username/Desktop to delete the actual file, another thing is that when I save a file to the Desktop it just doesn't appear there, it appears in the directory itself but not the actual Desktop so I have to make an icon for it...it's ridiculous considering even Windows and Mac don't have these problems and much less any other Linux DE.

Also, why can't I right click on the trash can and just "empty trash can" or something like that? and that option is not existent either on Dolphin itself so I have to delete a file one-by-one...I'm not really complaining but these are "problems" that should be fixed for the next release I think if the KDE team want to have a workable Desktop Environment, hope they do with the next release because KDE4 has the potential to be amazing.

intrepid is much better with KDE 4.1.2, in hardy i had to remove the whole .kde4 map and the strange errors where mostly gone.

I know it doesn't serve you at all, but for the record, I am using KDE 4.1.2 on Arch, and it is absolutely rock solid. Maybe you should try creating a new user account and login there.

About the Desktop issue: read up on Folderview. The whole Desktop paradigm has changed, and the Desktop is no longer the place you litter and loiter in, but rather a container for specific applets. Be assured the new method has some pretty cool advantages....

The trash can works as it should in Arch as well: right click to empty no problem.

So, either your profile hs gone haywire or Kubuntu just has dropped a few things they shouldn't have

XiniX wrote:I know it doesn't serve you at all, but for the record, I am using KDE 4.1.2 on Arch, and it is absolutely rock solid. Maybe you should try creating a new user account and login there.

About the Desktop issue: read up on Folderview. The whole Desktop paradigm has changed, and the Desktop is no longer the place you litter and loiter in, but rather a container for specific applets. Be assured the new method has some pretty cool advantages....

The trash can works as it should in Arch as well: right click to empty no problem.

So, either your profile hs gone haywire or Kubuntu just has dropped a few things they shouldn't have

I'm actually waiting for Intrepid to see what happens, I don't like using beta versions of operating systems but I might...I don't know, if I can update to the final version then yeah. About Arch Linux I have heard about it for at least a year but never tried it, I tried countless Linux distros and Ubuntu/Kubuntu seem to be the best because of the package managers (Apt is amazing and easy to use and it's GUI frontends Adept and Sypnaptic are great) and also the huge availability of packages just counting the official repos, they are Debian based and Debian is great and also uses apt and it's also one of the distros with the most packages available.

It's weird about the thrash can, do you have it on your desktop or the panel? if I right-click on it right now I get icon options or otherwise panel options and such, and options to add widgets or panels etc etc...maybe that's something that Arch Linux implements who knows.[hr]

XiniX wrote:I know it doesn't serve you at all, but for the record, I am using KDE 4.1.2 on Arch, and it is absolutely rock solid. Maybe you should try creating a new user account and login there.

About the Desktop issue: read up on Folderview. The whole Desktop paradigm has changed, and the Desktop is no longer the place you litter and loiter in, but rather a container for specific applets. Be assured the new method has some pretty cool advantages....

The trash can works as it should in Arch as well: right click to empty no problem.

So, either your profile hs gone haywire or Kubuntu just has dropped a few things they shouldn't have

Who knows, it's probably Kubuntu because Canonical has only one official employee working on it and the rest is community supported, while Ubuntu (Gnome version) is developed by a whole team...although the base OS is (or should be) the exact same except that it uses KDE...

I just installed Kubuntu Intrepid Ibex release candidate...and boy is it a difference! I guess though most of these things are implemented by Kubuntu and NOT the original KDE4...the trashcan can actually be right-clicked now and I'm able to just empty the whole thing, there are other things that weren't there too and the stability is amazing for a release candidate (well, better than a beta of course), the only problem is that for example I sometimes remove an icon from the panel and whatever 2 icons that were next to it become...uhh "glitched" if you will. They either become blue squares or half of them disappears or something but I guess this must be the famous Nvidia problem since I'm using an Nvidia card and they said that KDE4 was using a new rendering system which Nvidia didn't support very well so I guess that's their fault, but the other effects work just like before.

Now when I click the home folder (that's already set up in the panel for you with the installation) you can actually preview your whole home folder without actually heading to it, and I also learned how to use that Desktop transparent thing that appears with plasma and now I understand a little more...I guess it's just "different"...so far pretty happy with it, hope I don't have anymore problems...

KDE4 issues in Hardy were caused by a few bad patches from Debian regarding the trashcan executable. (Not hatin' on them or anything though. <3 the Debian folks) So in the case of the trashcan the fix came from staying closer to vanilla KDE 4.1. :P

That being said we do have a few custom modifications and some patches that will be part of KDE 4.1.3 in Intrepid also...

JontheEchinda wrote:KDE4 issues in Hardy were caused by a few bad patches from Debian regarding the trashcan executable. (Not hatin' on them or anything though. <3 the Debian folks) So in the case of the trashcan the fix came from staying closer to vanilla KDE 4.1. :P

That being said we do have a few custom modifications and some patches that will be part of KDE 4.1.3 in Intrepid also...

Awesome then, right now I'm not having any problems and everything runs smooth as butter, and it's not even the final release! great job!

XiniX wrote:I know it doesn't serve you at all, but for the record, I am using KDE 4.1.2 on Arch, and it is absolutely rock solid. Maybe you should try creating a new user account and login there.

About the Desktop issue: read up on Folderview. The whole Desktop paradigm has changed, and the Desktop is no longer the place you litter and loiter in, but rather a container for specific applets. Be assured the new method has some pretty cool advantages....

The trash can works as it should in Arch as well: right click to empty no problem.

So, either your profile hs gone haywire or Kubuntu just has dropped a few things they shouldn't have

I really like KDE4 and have installed it on a couple of my machines. Mandriva 2009's implementation is really beautiful. However, I must say that I have yet to really understand the benefits of the new paradigm (and not for a lack of trying). Can you elaborate more regarding the "cool advantages" you mention?

Cool advantages include things like having multiple folders that can be anywhere ( anything accessible via KIO slaves which includes samba, fish, and even automatic refreshing search in 4.2! ) displayed on your desktop, Interactive widgets such as RSS readers, system monitors, music player / download manager controllers, puzzles, etc. The possibilities are virtually endless, only the developers imagination limits them ( they can even do 3D... )

bcooksley wrote:Cool advantages include things like having multiple folders that can be anywhere ( anything accessible via KIO slaves which includes samba, fish, and even automatic refreshing search in 4.2! ) displayed on your desktop, Interactive widgets such as RSS readers, system monitors, music player / download manager controllers, puzzles, etc. The possibilities are virtually endless, only the developers imagination limits them ( they can even do 3D... )

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't questioning the benefits of plasma (widgets, etc.). I can see the power and the possibilities. I was talking about the desktop paradigm of having it be a container (I believe that's correct) that doesn't really have icons on the desktop. But what you may be saying to me is that without the new paradigm, the widgets wouldn't be possible? Also, when you say folders can be anywhere, do you mean they can point to anywhere? I don't connect remotely too often, but the benefit is that if I did, the connection is persistently there instead of always having to connect when I need to?

Thanks again.

The connection is usually made when Plasma starts up and is then kept open, checking to see if files have changed, been added, etc. However any application executed to open files/folders in that folderview will open another connection.

Widgets would still be possible without this new paradigm, however it would end up controlled by a button ( like in Mac OS X ) or tacked on the side ( like Vista ). this new Paradigm lets users fully customize the entire desktop without having to write a completely new application ( for example the Plasma panel could with special widgets and a theme be made to look like Mac OS X ). and you can still have icons on your desktop ( they are shortcuts to the real files located elsewhere )

What I think is really cool about the way desktop and the panel are containers is that I can put a widget either on the desktop or on the panel and it should work the same way, instead of having separate desktop applets and panel applets, like in KDE3.

bcooksley wrote:The connection is usually made when Plasma starts up and is then kept open, checking to see if files have changed, been added, etc. However any application executed to open files/folders in that folderview will open another connection.

Widgets would still be possible without this new paradigm, however it would end up controlled by a button ( like in Mac OS X ) or tacked on the side ( like Vista ). this new Paradigm lets users fully customize the entire desktop without having to write a completely new application ( for example the Plasma panel could with special widgets and a theme be made to look like Mac OS X ). and you can still have icons on your desktop ( they are shortcuts to the real files located elsewhere )

Personally, the icons on the desktop (or not being on it) isn't as big a deal to me as it seems to be for others. So I hope you don't have the impression that I'm complaining. I'm trying to understand KDE4 better so I can best take advantage of it. Perhaps as people find new ways to use it, we'll see more tips and tricks. Thanks again.[hr]

Alec wrote:What I think is really cool about the way desktop and the panel are containers is that I can put a widget either on the desktop or on the panel and it should work the same way, instead of having separate desktop applets and panel applets, like in KDE3.

I agree. Consistency of widgets across containers is a good thing.

Hi

The problem is not unique in kubuntu if not also in gentoo

KDE 4.1.2 on Mandriva 2009 Powerpack is solid and FAST on my Sony VAIO VGN-FW140E/H