Hello all,

I am an incredible noob so I apologize for any stupid questions I might ask (and probably will ).

Running on FreeBSD 8.1, I have been upgrading KDE from 4.3 to 4.5. A minor annoyance is that the K-launcher (the big 'K') has now moved to the right side of the screen, and I have no clue how to move it to the left where it should be. I don't see a setting anywhere.

Furthermore, I see two 'USB-icons' on the right, where it should be one (I think). A screenshot of my desktop:

[IMG=http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/8531/upgrade88104.png][/IMG]

My second question concerns customizing my desktop. I have to admit, I can't seem to find a tutorial that a complete noob like my is able to understand. I googled, I looked on Youtube (there are some clips but without voice explanations it's hard to understand), and I would like to have my desktop a bit nicer than it currently is. I found this:

http://linnewbies.com/howtos/osxkde.php

However, that 'Bespin' tuto is for Linux, as ./configure doesn't seem to work on FreeBSD.

A desktop with something like this:

http://kde-look.org/content/preview.php ... 64870ccdd9

Would be nice for starters, most certainly if I also would have something like icons for My Documents, My USB-stick, and so on, on my desktop.

I have been trying to mess around with 'Add Panel' and such for quite some time, but I am afraid I am just too stupid to understand it ( ).

Would anybody be willing to help me out on these two matters? I would appreciate that very much.

Thank you

Schimi wrote:A minor annoyance is that the K-launcher (the big 'K') has now moved to the right side of the screen, and I have no clue how to move it to the left where it should be. I don't see a setting anywhere.

(Click to see the animation)


Plasma HowTo - Move widget in panel

Furthermore, I see two 'USB-icons' on the right, where it should be one (I think). A screenshot of my desktop:

You probably have one in the system tray and one stand-alone Device Notifier widget. You can right click on one and choose "Remove this Device Notifier" to remove it.

My second question concerns customizing my desktop. I have to admit, I can't seem to find a tutorial that a complete noob like my is able to understand. I googled, I looked on Youtube (there are some clips but without voice explanations it's hard to understand), and I would like to have my desktop a bit nicer than it currently is.

If you liked the first animation, you can find similar ones here: http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/HowTo
There are more information on UserBase that you might like, see e.g. http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma

Finally I wrote the following article with new KDE Plasma Desktop users in mind: http://hanschen.org/2010/03/04/10-thing ... de-sc-4-4/

A desktop with something like this:

http://kde-look.org/content/preview.php ... 64870ccdd9

Would be nice for starters, most certainly if I also would have something like icons for My Documents, My USB-stick, and so on, on my desktop.

For a Mac OS X-like dock, I recommend Daisy and Fancy Tasks.

I see that you've already switched to the Folder View desktop type. To create a link to a location, simply drag from e.g. Dolphin, drop on the desktop and choose "Link Here", like this:


Add icon to Folder View widget

Warning: only choose "Copy Here" or "Move Here" if you really want to copy/move the file/folder to the folder your Folder View is pointed to. The reason the screencast does it for applications in the application launcher is because they're simply *.desktop files, so you simply copy a small file. However, you can also choose "Link Here" if you want.

It is also possible to create a *.desktop file for locations (e.g. if you want to customize the icon). Right click on the desktop -> Create New -> Link to Location (URL).

Thank you Hans

Well, I have the K-launcher to the left now, but all the other icons as well. And no matter how I try to move them to the right, they just refuse; I can drag them with the mouse to the right, but the second I release the mouse-button they move back to the left again.

EDIT: forgot the screenshot.

[IMG=http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/1789/upgrade88105.png][/IMG]


Also, right now I don't have my running apps (for example, this browser) in my panel anymore when I minimize them. They are just disappeared, and the only way to see them is to do Alt-tab.

Also, I created a link to location as you suggested, but where do you customize the icon? I don't see in right mouse / properties?

Also, thanks for the suggestion for the OS-X-look; fancy tasks looks nice, but how do you install this? I see tarballs for Linux, but nothing for FreeBSD. Moreover, isn't this something you should install via KDE (an app within, or so?) Because this is for KDE, so the underlying OS shouldn't matter, should it (yes, noob, I know & I apologize ).

Finally, thanks for http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/HowTo and the other link. They might come in handy, as will your own tuto that I will study carefully.

Thanks again Hans

You may require some widget to be in between the K-Menu and the other icons. Normally this would be your task manager widget which lists your running windows, which should expand to take available space. If not, you can try adding a "spacer" widget. See if that works.

Also, you mentioned that you are upgrading from 4.3 to 4.5. A lot of things have changed since then in the configuration department, and so I recommend cleaning out your ~/.kde(4) directory (renaming it will suffice). You will end up with a clean configuration and all settings reset to the default, but at least all the settings will be valid and will not give weird errors.

Schimi wrote:Thank you Hans

Well, I have the K-launcher to the left now, but all the other icons as well. And no matter how I try to move them to the right, they just refuse; I can drag them with the mouse to the right, but the second I release the mouse-button they move back to the left again.

Also, right now I don't have my running apps (for example, this browser) in my panel anymore when I minimize them. They are just disappeared, and the only way to see them is to do Alt-tab.

That everything else moved to the left and the description of the "disappeared" apps as well as the screenshot makes me think you have accidentally removed the task manager from the bar. It should be explained how to add it back into one of the links Hans posted.

Schimi wrote:Also, I created a link to location as you suggested, but where do you customize the icon? I don't see in right mouse / properties?

It is under right-mouse and properties. Just click on the icon on the left in the first tab.

Schimi wrote:Also, thanks for the suggestion for the OS-X-look; fancy tasks looks nice, but how do you install this? I see tarballs for Linux, but nothing for FreeBSD. Moreover, isn't this something you should install via KDE (an app within, or so?) Because this is for KDE, so the underlying OS shouldn't matter, should it (yes, noob, I know & I apologize ).

Tarballs are generic, so for those it (usually) doesn't matter if you run Linux or one of the BSDs. Unfortunately that doesn't help you if you don't have the developement tools and include-files installed (or doesn't know how to compile things yourself).

I haven't used FreeBSD myself, but have you checked whether it fancy tasks is included in its package manager?

Kryten2X4B wrote:
That everything else moved to the left and the description of the "disappeared" apps as well as the screenshot makes me think you have accidentally removed the task manager from the bar. It should be explained how to add it back into one of the links Hans posted.

( ) You know when I started with Linux, back in '95 (Suse) I managed to crash it each and everytime within one hour, while actually doing nothing at all. I see I still have that 'gift'

Schimi wrote:Also, I created a link to location as you suggested, but where do you customize the icon? I don't see in right mouse / properties?

Kryten2X4B wrote:It is under right-mouse and properties. Just click on the icon on the left in the first tab.

There's no icon

Kryten2X4B wrote:Tarballs are generic, so for those it (usually) doesn't matter if you run Linux or one of the BSDs. Unfortunately that doesn't help you if you don't have the developement tools and include-files installed (or doesn't know how to compile things yourself).

I haven't used FreeBSD myself, but have you checked whether it fancy tasks is included in its package manager?

Raaaaahhh, stupid me. Of course I should have checked that. 'Go easy on the beer, Schimi, go easy on the beer' (

You are right, it's in the portstree.

http://www.freshports.org/deskutils/pla ... ancytasks/

Thanks for your help

Try right click->properties when viewing the file/folder in Dolphin.

Schimi wrote:

Kryten2X4B wrote:It is under right-mouse and properties. Just click on the icon on the left in the first tab.

There's no icon

There should be. If you right-click and select properties on a folder or a link to a folder the resulting window should look something like this (with the exception that I do not use the default look):

http://imagebin.ca/view/Lw_8RoX.html

Notice the icon straight below "General".

Kryten2X4B wrote:

Schimi wrote:

Kryten2X4B wrote:It is under right-mouse and properties. Just click on the icon on the left in the first tab.

There's no icon

There should be. If you right-click and select properties on a folder or a link to a folder the resulting window should look something like this (with the exception that I do not use the default look):

http://imagebin.ca/view/Lw_8RoX.html

Notice the icon straight below "General".

I found it: thank you

Kryten2X4B wrote:
That everything else moved to the left and the description of the "disappeared" apps as well as the screenshot makes me think you have accidentally removed the task manager from the bar. It should be explained how to add it back into one of the links Hans posted.

No, I'm sorry, I can't seem to make it work:
1. There doesn't seem to be an instruction in the links Hans posted.
2. I tried adding a widget to the bar (add widget -> Task manager) but there doesn't seem to be happening anything when I do that (?)

Thanks again for your help

Moult wrote:You may require some widget to be in between the K-Menu and the other icons. Normally this would be your task manager widget which lists your running windows, which should expand to take available space. If not, you can try adding a "spacer" widget. See if that works.

Also, you mentioned that you are upgrading from 4.3 to 4.5. A lot of things have changed since then in the configuration department, and so I recommend cleaning out your ~/.kde(4) directory (renaming it will suffice). You will end up with a clean configuration and all settings reset to the default, but at least all the settings will be valid and will not give weird errors.

Thank you for your reply; I seem to have overlooked it completely in the beginning ( ).

Both adding the 'task manager' widget and adding the 'spacer' doesn't seem to work.

I will clean out the ~/.kde and ~/.kde4 directories per your suggestion just to be sure.

Instructions for how to add a panel widget here: http://userbase.kde.org/images.userbase ... add-45.gif
Spacer: http://userbase.kde.org/images.userbase ... cer-45.gif

Schimi wrote:I will clean out the ~/.kde and ~/.kde4 directories per your suggestion just to be sure.

I wouldn't recommend to clean the whole directories since you might have other things saved there (mails etc.). It's mostly Plasma settings that might be weird, so moving files starting with "plasma" in ~/.kde4/share/config (or ~/.kde/share/config) should be enough. Note that this will reset all your desktop-related settings, and it's best to do it while plasma-desktop isn't running. In other words:

1. Quit Plasma Desktop

Code: Select all

kquitapp plasma-desktop

2. Move the files.

3. Start Plasma Desktop

Code: Select all

plasma-desktop

Schimi wrote:

Kryten2X4B wrote:
That everything else moved to the left and the description of the "disappeared" apps as well as the screenshot makes me think you have accidentally removed the task manager from the bar. It should be explained how to add it back into one of the links Hans posted.

( ) You know when I started with Linux, back in '95 (Suse) I managed to crash it each and everytime within one hour, while actually doing nothing at all. I see I still have that 'gift'

Schimi wrote:Also, I created a link to location as you suggested, but where do you customize the icon? I don't see in right mouse / properties?

Kryten2X4B wrote:It is under right-mouse and properties. Just click on the icon on the left in the first tab.

There's no icon

Kryten2X4B wrote:Tarballs are generic, so for those it (usually) doesn't matter if you run Linux or one of the BSDs. Unfortunately that doesn't help you if you don't have the developement tools and include-files installed (or doesn't know how to compile things yourself).

I haven't used FreeBSD myself, but have you checked whether it fancy tasks is included in its package manager?

Raaaaahhh, stupid me. Of course I should have checked that. 'Go easy on the beer, Schimi, go easy on the beer' (

You are right, it's in the portstree.

http://www.freshports.org/deskutils/pla ... ancytasks/

Thanks for your help

Hmmmm

Building the port was no problem at all; it finished without errors. Which, of course, leaves the question now: so where is it ( ).

What I mean is: how do I add it to my desktop? Being the noob that I am I tried to add it as a widget to the panel, but it's not listed in the (horizontal) list of widgets (@ the bottom of my screen).

Would anybody be willing to suggest a hint on how to make it work? The website of this widget doesn't seem to give any instructions either.

Thank you in advance

You probably just have to wait for it to show it, it can takes a few seconds. You can also run

Code: Select all

kbuildsycoca4

if you're inpatient. If it still doesn't show up, it's probably because it's installed to the wrong path (which seems unlikely, although I don't know how portstree in FreeBSD works).

Hans wrote:Instructions for how to add a panel widget here: http://userbase.kde.org/images.userbase ... add-45.gif
Spacer: http://userbase.kde.org/images.userbase ... cer-45.gif

Thanks for replying Hans but no, I'm sorry, it doesn't work.
1. As to the specific first link you posted: when I drag 'Application launcher menu' to the taskbar I get a red cross; I am not allowed to drop it there.
2. As for my initial problem, it remains because no matter how I try to move for example the clock to the right, the second I release the mouse button it just moves back to the left.

Adding the spacer, as per the second link you posted, also doesn't do anything. It's there, but I still can't move the clock to the right; it just moves back to the left.

Is there an app with witch I can record a little clip of what's happening on my desktop, to make it clearer what is happening?

EDIT: forgot my screenshot:

[IMG=http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9431/upgrade88106.png][/IMG]