Running KDE with the home directory shared via NFS

[jjanderson5]

I'm running Gutsy release over a LAN using NFS. My home directory is shared
across my 3 Kubuntu PCs. I've run into several problems with software
because of the shared directory. I can see how some problems could arise
if I'm running application X on two PCs, where concurrent
access could be a problem. But I don't understand a problem I have with
KDE itself.

My problem with KDE on one PC occurred when I added it to
the network. Everything was running pretty well, prior to sharing my
home directory through NFS. The first time I got the PC , call it 'A', up and working
with NFS, the size of all the widgets got significantly larger in size. The size
closely matched the widget size on PC 'B' on the network. Prior to that,
all the widgets on PC A were comfortably small which was good because I need a lot
of screen real estate on PC A. Now that the widgets all render much larger, I've lost
a lot of screen real estate.

My first question is whether KDE stores information in the ~/.kde directory which
accounts for the behavior that I have seen. Assuming there is, my second question
is whether there is some way to configure KDE or set up my directories so that
PCs with different requirements for widget size can be managed?


Thanks for any suggestions.

Jim Anderson

[Gediminas2]

Re: Running KDE with the home directory shared via NFS

copy that .kde from your ~ to somewhere else (make it in the same place, but in every single pc (so they'll be copies)).

now when it's copied all over the A,B, and the other pc, turn off kde in all of them, enter console mode (failsafe is fine too, as it runs xterm; login as yourself)

mkdir ~/old.kde

This creates the folder to keep the data. In case we have something to loose, so we back up

mv ~/.kde ~/old.kde

we move it here

ln -s ~/.kde /media/sda1/gedas/kde

now we make a link to the /home/yourname/.kde from let's say you put your copy of kde in /media/sda1/gedas/kde earlear

[Detonate]

Re: Running KDE with the home directory shared via NFS

I would suggest that you not share your entire home directory between machines. Instead set up a special directory in the home folder (I named mine "shared") of each machine, and have all of the users know that any files they want shared should be placed in this directory. Of course you can create sub-directories in that folder, such as documents, pictures, etc. This will prevent the accidental overwriting of configuration files in your home directory.

[jjanderson5]

Re: Running KDE with the home directory shared via NFS


Thank for the suggestions. The suggestion from Geniminas2 will work well. It
allows me to keep my home directory shared, but create a per machine configuration
file for kde, or any other application for that matter. I think this will fix a problem
I'm having with firefox as well.

I appreciate the suggestion from Detonate, but asthetically it does not fit in
with what I want to do. I really do want to share my home directory across all
PCs so that I'm always working with the same set of personal data.

Thanks again!

Jim