Can't install widgets

[arist]

I just upgraded from Precise to Quantal, and my desktop plasmoids didn't make the transition. So I go to "Add widgets" and get the Widget Explorer, which is where the widgets I want are located. Before, I would just drag the widget to the desktop and drop it where I wanted. Now, when I mouse over the widget, a large popup, with license and author info, covers the widget, and remains until I mouse away. I can't drag the popup, and right-clicking does nothing. I can't reposition the widget explorer (it's at the top of the screen). My computer is a netbook with the standard desktop, so it may be an issue with the screen size, but it was never an issue in Precise. Is there some other way to install widgets?

[Snowhog]

What is preventing you from re-positioning the panel?

[arist]

What is preventing you from re-positioning the panel?

My ignorance, I suppose. Clicking on the top of the panel and trying to drag it won't budge it. Right-clicking does nothing. Don't know what else to try. The cashew is hidden by the panel.

Anyway, I managed to install the widget I wanted. I clicked on the top of the panel, dragged the mouse to the widget, quickly unclicked and immediately clicked again, and was able to drag the widget before the popup appeared. But I would not say that the problem is solved.

[Snowhog]

If you can't see the Cashew on the Panel, that means that Widgets are 'locked'. Just right-click on an empty area of the Panel and click on Unlock Widgets. Then you will see the Cashew. Click on the Cashew and it's control panel will appear. Put your mouse cursor on Screen Edge and click/hold the mouse and you can then drag the Panel to what ever screen edge you want. Then just let go of the mouse button and then click on the red x to close the control panel. Done.

[arist]

If you can't see the Cashew on the Panel, that means that Widgets are 'locked'. Just right-click on an empty area of the Panel and click on Unlock Widgets. Then you will see the Cashew. Click on the Cashew and it's control panel will appear. Put your mouse cursor on Screen Edge and click/hold the mouse and you can then drag the Panel to what ever screen edge you want. Then just let go of the mouse button and then click on the red x to close the control panel. Done.

If the widgets were locked, I couldn't get to the Widget Explorer panel. (There's no "Add widgets" option when they're locked.) So it cannot be that the widgets are locked when I'm having this problem. The cashew is obscured because the panel extends the width of the screen, at the top.

I don't understand what you mean by "Screen Edge ". There's no item like that in the cashew menu, nor is there a red x. Clicking the actual screen edge does nothing. It's impossible to click at the edge of the widget panel, because of the popup.

I think we may be speaking about different panels. I'm referring to the panel that comes up when you click on the cashew and then "Add widgets".

[Snowhog]

See below.

[james147]

Note that in the netbook workspace you cannot move the panel (which sounds like you are using if it was at the top by default).

[Snowhog]

My computer is a netbook with the standard desktop

Doh. I shouldn't have missed that.

[Dutchman]

One of the biggest headaches with upgrades for users is often the developers need to change how a program stores it's settings. Updating an existing system means the new software will be reading the old settings, and sometimes this can lead to strange behavior. But, you can quickly find out if that is the case here without re-doing everything.

All your user settings are in a hidden folder in your home directory, '/.kde'. The best, non-destructive way to find out if it is indeed old settings that's causing your problem is to rename the folder and let KDE rebuild it with new settings. Of course, you'll lose all your custom settings, KDE will go to the default, but if you can then work with the widget bar it'll probably be worth it, you can always re-do your settings again. If it doesn't fix it, then you've probably found a bug, and you can for the time being just replace your old /.kde folder and get your other settings back.

DON'T try to rename the folder from Dolphin or any other graphical file manager, KDE keeps a lot of those settings in cache and would just write them back when you logged out. You'd be right back where you started. Instead, log out of KDE back to the login screen.

Once at the login screen press <CTRL>+<ALT>+F1. That will take you to a command shell. Type in your user name, hit <ENTER> and then your password and hit enter again. Then type in:

mv -r ~/.kde ~/.kde.old (This will effectively rename the folder to ".kde.old". Note there is a space between the first 'kde' and the second tilde character.)

Now log out of the terminal by typing "exit" and hitting enter. Press <CTRL>+<ALT>+F7 and you should be back at the graphical login screen. Log in and you should have a default KDE desktop. Try your widgets and see if they work now. If they do, you've found the problem, just go from there and re-do all your customization to the desktop. However, if they still don't work, chances are you've found a bug.

To get your old settings back, log out again, go back to the command shell (<CTRL>+<ALT>+F1) and after logging in, type:

rm -r ~/.kde (this will remove the new folder so we can put the old folder back) then type:
mv -r ~/.kde-old ~/.kde

You're back to where you were. Still can't add widgets, but all your old settings are back. I'll be pretty willing to wager though that removing the old settings will bring things back to normal and you'll just have to re-do your custom settings.

[arist]

Note that in the netbook workspace you cannot move the panel (which sounds like you are using if it was at the top by default).

No, it's definitely the desktop workspace.

Snowhog, we're talking about different panels. I didn't want to use the bottom panel to add widgets, because I thought they would wind up in the system tray. Now that I've tried it, I see I was wrong. In fact, clicking the cashew in the bottom panel solves the problem. The popups are above the widgets, and the widgets can be dragged to the desktop. So I'll call this solved, even though there appears to be a bug.