Previous postings on the procedure for enabling the display of plasmoids on the dashboard but not on the desktop (including Aaron Seigo's blog entry from August 2008) have dealt with KDE 4.1. A user comment on Aaron's blog updated the instruction to KDE 4.2.

The changelog to KDE 4.3 Beta1 states: "Configuration gui to activate a different activity for each desktop and to decouple the dashboard contents with desktop contents."

I am using Kubuntu Karmic (9.10 Alpha 1). I have so far not found this GUI configuration option.

Can anyone point me to configuration instructions (GUI or text-based) for KDE 4.3?

The configuration option is only visible when you "Zoom out"

Zoom out using the Plasma icon in the top right corner of the desktop. There will now be a "Configure Plasma" button in a Plasma box in the top left corner. From there you should find options to map Plasma Containments to Virtual Desktops and to separate the dashboard from the current containment.
Hope this helps.

JontheEchinda wrote:Zoom out using the Plasma icon in the top right corner of the desktop. There will now be a "Configure Plasma" button in a Plasma box in the top left corner. From there you should find options to map Plasma Containments to Virtual Desktops and to separate the dashboard from the current containment.
Hope this helps.

Thank you for this reply --- and also to bcooksley. I had Googled before posting; if this information was there, I didn't understand it. Thank you for making it clear.

I now have separate wallpaper in each virtual desktop and several plasmoids only on the Widget Dashboard. . I am now an even happier (and long-time faithful) KDE user (ever since the days of Corel Linux).

One strange issue has come up; see new thread about Dashboard inaccessible from one of four desktops.

This whole concept is an operational nightmare.
It is so easy to totally hoze the desktop and lose all settings and configurations.

You Zoom out, Click Configure Plasma, and BAM, you now have four desktop
workspaces shown. In the meantime your CPU utilization goes thru the roof.
I didn't want 4. I barely have use for two. No way to get rid of these extras. Once I saw a big red X, but it is gone now.



Most users are more than happy with the task bar simple pager.
What have we gained with this mess? Confusion!

Classicist wrote:One strange issue has come up; see new thread about Dashboard inaccessible from one of four desktops.

I haven't seen that thread (and can't find it when searching) but would that strange issue mean:

1. When it's inaccessible, you only get a blank dashboard if you have no plasmoids on the desktop in question.
2. When it's inaccessible and you have plasmoids on the desktop in question, you get the dashboard as it was before this functionality was introduced. That is, you get a dashboard that "only" brings forth whatever plasmoids you are using on that specific desktop/activity combo?

If so, I have the same issue. I am also using both of those options, and I use 6 different desktops. I get the separate dashboard on half of them (always the same ones though) which is rather inconvenient since I want to use the dashboard as a container for system-status plasmoids only. It kinda defeats the purpose if I need to switch desktop before bringing up the dashboard (using 4.3 RC2)