OK, so I got KDE4 RC1 installed on my pc (after a long battle with adept and dpkg) by following the instructions verbatim on the Kubuntu.org website.
I can even log into KDE4, but when I reach the desktop, all I see is some strangeness in the upper right hand corner, a background, and a kicker panel with nothing in it except a clock.
I finally managed to add a widget that had the application launcher in it, but it appeared as a plasmoid on the desktop, in the very dead center, and it was immovable. So, I was able to barely manage to do some things like launch a browser and start amarok...barely.
The strangeness in the upper right corner turned out to be some sort of tool that allows one to add more widgets to the desktop, but it doesn't seem to work for me. I'm still not quite certain how I got the application launcher widget up there.
The display resolution apparently wasn't automagically detected (although KDE3 had no problem with it after some minor tweaking). In addition, after 5 minutes of searching for the System Settings tool (because the application launcher menu was cut off at the top of the screen, and again, immovable), I was able to adjust some minor settings, like the sizes of the on-screen fonts. However, I was still not able to adjust any display resolutions, or configure my video hardware to make it work better.
The kicker panel was useless. It was there. Right-clicking, Left-clicking, Double-clicking, spitting, cursing, kicking, and shooting with a pistol all had no effect. It was like the lazy kid in the back of the class that's always stoned. He's there, but completely useless. And again, immovable.
And as far as the Kwin eye-candy is concerned, it apparently was not enabled. I suspect there is some configuration file that I need to modify (yes, I've been reading a lil bit), but I have 2 concerns in that matter:
1) I shouldn't have to turn it on. It should be on by default.
2) With all the other major (but not critical) problems I was having, KDE has a LOT more work to do than to mess with Kwin.
In short, I can't believe this is considered a Release Candidate. There is no way anyone without extensive experience in Linux could find any semblance of usefulness out of this Desktop Environment. Anyone coming from Windows and seeing KDE4 for the first time would give up after about 30 seconds...once they realized there was no way to launch any applications.
I am currently downloading the Live CD to see if it is some crazy one-off issue that only affect my PC, although I highly doubt it.
If anyone has any ideas as far as how to get my KDE4 installation working properly, please let me know.
Geforce 6600 GT.
NEC Multisync LCD 1560M monitor. P4 2.6GHz cpu. 1.5Gib RAM, 4x80GB HDD's in a RAID5 config. Nothing too strange about my setup, except the raid array.
I can even log into KDE4, but when I reach the desktop, all I see is some strangeness in the upper right hand corner, a background, and a kicker panel with nothing in it except a clock.
I finally managed to add a widget that had the application launcher in it, but it appeared as a plasmoid on the desktop, in the very dead center, and it was immovable. So, I was able to barely manage to do some things like launch a browser and start amarok...barely.
The strangeness in the upper right corner turned out to be some sort of tool that allows one to add more widgets to the desktop, but it doesn't seem to work for me. I'm still not quite certain how I got the application launcher widget up there.
The display resolution apparently wasn't automagically detected (although KDE3 had no problem with it after some minor tweaking). In addition, after 5 minutes of searching for the System Settings tool (because the application launcher menu was cut off at the top of the screen, and again, immovable), I was able to adjust some minor settings, like the sizes of the on-screen fonts. However, I was still not able to adjust any display resolutions, or configure my video hardware to make it work better.
The kicker panel was useless. It was there. Right-clicking, Left-clicking, Double-clicking, spitting, cursing, kicking, and shooting with a pistol all had no effect. It was like the lazy kid in the back of the class that's always stoned. He's there, but completely useless. And again, immovable.
And as far as the Kwin eye-candy is concerned, it apparently was not enabled. I suspect there is some configuration file that I need to modify (yes, I've been reading a lil bit), but I have 2 concerns in that matter:
1) I shouldn't have to turn it on. It should be on by default.
2) With all the other major (but not critical) problems I was having, KDE has a LOT more work to do than to mess with Kwin.
In short, I can't believe this is considered a Release Candidate. There is no way anyone without extensive experience in Linux could find any semblance of usefulness out of this Desktop Environment. Anyone coming from Windows and seeing KDE4 for the first time would give up after about 30 seconds...once they realized there was no way to launch any applications.
I am currently downloading the Live CD to see if it is some crazy one-off issue that only affect my PC, although I highly doubt it.
If anyone has any ideas as far as how to get my KDE4 installation working properly, please let me know.
Geforce 6600 GT.
NEC Multisync LCD 1560M monitor. P4 2.6GHz cpu. 1.5Gib RAM, 4x80GB HDD's in a RAID5 config. Nothing too strange about my setup, except the raid array.
I've also posted several Compiz desktop images in the Image Gallery. Compiz, KDE 3.5.8 and Gutsy get along very well.
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