Hi Guys,

I've just recently discovered Linux in general... wow, what I ride, I'm loving it. I started out with Ubuntu Unity, and that was cool, then I discovered KDE, and we fell in love

I first tried KDE in Kubuntu. I absolutely loved the Search and Launch activity (or do I call it a desktop?) Since then, I have tried Mint 15 and Debian 7.1, and in both cases, when I tried to create a Search and Launch activity (desktop?), I got a message come up saying "this activity template requests to run the following applications", but then the list of applications were blank. Then it doesn't allow me to bring up the Search and Launch desktop. How do I fix this?

And as long as you are feeling helpful, I have one more question... what I'd really really love, is to create a shortcut key (ideally the windows key, but whatever) that would bring me to the search and launch desktop, AND put focus on the text input field, so I can just press the key and start typing to search. Is this possible? How?

Thanks a million in advance.

Activity:
strange there was a supposed to be a patch to not display this dialog http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-commits&m=136311317623814
I seem to remember this and thought closing or escaping from the window was all that was needed, did you try closing it?

Shortcut:
in systemsettings -> Shortcuts & Gestures -> global keyboard shortcuts -> KDE component -> KDE Activity Manager -> Switch to activity "search and Launch -> right click then assign a custom key combo

Thanks for your reply. Is it possible that I am not running the patch? I know that Debian runs KDE 4.8 (however I believe mint is up to date). Is there a way I can patch it in? To answer your question, yes, I did just try to close that dialogue box, it didn't work.

Also, thanks for the heads up about the shortcut key. When I went to where you pointed me, I actually see 4 lines that say "Switch to Activity "Search and Launch"". Do I just need to do it for one? If I try the same button for all of them, I get a warning that that shortcut key is already being used. Also, will this bring focus to the text input when I press it? (I would test, but I can't get it working, and I thought I remembered doing this on Kubuntu and I thought it didn't, but I might be wrong).

Thanks again.

the patch might be newer than 4.8 (current is 4.11.2), you would need to compile the appropriate package to apply it, probably not trivial - can you try it as a new user

re shortcuts: that may be a bug where the shortcut is not deleted when the corresponding activity is deleted but a new one is created when a new version is, assigning one shortcut should suffice https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=318629

here's something you can try at you own risk

I assume that though not usable an activity is actually created so:
1) switch to a working activity
2) using the avtivity manager (either thru the cashew or widget) stop your Search & Launch activity
3) optional but if multiple activities exist helpful so name the S & L one, using the wrench
4) find in $KDEHOME/share/apps/plasma-desktop/activities/ the S&L one using Dolphin preview or opening in Kate, this is where naming it might help - it will be on the activity= line
5) open the appropriate file in Kate and replace it with the following (which is my S&L activity)
6) save it
7) switch to the S&L activity

Code: Select all

[Containments][270]
ActionPluginsSource=Global
activity=Search and Launch
activityId=0765779f-3666-4606-8fc5-ab9468b856ba
desktop=-1
formfactor=2
geometry=1926,0,1920,1200
immutability=1
lastDesktop=-1
lastScreen=0
location=0
plugin=sal
screen=-1
wallpaperplugin=image
wallpaperpluginmode=SingleImage
zvalue=0

[Containments][270][Applets][271]
geometry=943.5,1108,32,32
immutability=1
plugin=org.kde.showActivityManager
zvalue=0

[Containments][270][Wallpaper][image]
slideTimer=10
slidepaths=
userswallpapers=
wallpaper=/usr/share/wallpapers/Elarun
wallpapercolor=0,0,0
wallpaperposition=0