Hi all,

Just installed kde 4.4.0 on a fresh kubuntu 9.10 install on my asus 1000h netbook. I tried to reproduce the kubuntu 9.10 netbook remix preview feeling using 4.4, meaning an autohiding panel with activity bar and window list widget on top, and a search and launch containment as one of the activities.

Problem is that the result leads me to think that the developer of the S&L containment didn't really test this on a netbook screen (1024x600), since the 'favorites' part of the launcher is covered by the top panel, and the lower widget 'slots' seem to fall off the screen? Screenshot for reference:



Does anyone else encounter this effect? Is it a problem of the kubuntu ppa packages, or is this a pure kde bug?

According to notmart, the default should be autohide.

notmart suggested the following:

Code: Select all

try to randomly change panel mode, resize, move around and see if a margin actually appears

bcooksley wrote:According to notmart, the default should be autohide.

notmart suggested the following:

Code: Select all

try to randomly change panel mode, resize, move around and see if a margin actually appears

Tried left, center and right alignments, all visibility modes (always visible, autohide, windows can cover, windows go below), fiddled with the height, and moved it around to all four screen corners, result: nothing. Apparently the small (panel style) form factor for widgets in the SAL is intentional, so that's obviously not a bug.

Maybe I should note that this is using the Desktop form factor, when I switch to the Netbook form factor in system settings->desktop->workspace, the default SAL activity works as it should. Still, IMO the SAL should work in desktop mode, and desktop activities should work in the netbook mode (which apparently they don't, but that's food for another thread).

Don't get me wrong, I do like the netbook workspace/form factor, it's a promising and fairly consistent UI. Been using kubuntu netbook remix for a while, even though it was still buggy, and I'll be using this from now on. But activities in general still remain a disappointment in 4.4.0. Activities linked to desktops + activity bar still explodes horribly, and the configuration interface allows mixing various types of activities and widgets which don't work together all that well. At least the ZUI can be largely ignored nowadays, that's an improvement.

According to notmart, the Search & Launch containment will not behave correctly unless the Netbook form factor is selected in System Settings. notmart hopes to fix this in 4.5.

bcooksley wrote:According to notmart, the Search & Launch containment will not behave correctly unless the Netbook form factor is selected in System Settings. notmart hopes to fix this in 4.5.

Too bad. Anyway, keep up the good work.

Another question, does this also mean that the Desktop containment won't behave correctly in the Netbook form factor? I did file a bug on this here.

That is quite likely correct.