I've only spent a few days so far playing with KDE4, but here are a few tips to work around some of the issues that I've run into so far, and some that I've not yet resolved.
KDE4 Konsole
I wanted to try the transparency feature in konsole but it does not work unless you do the following. Instead of starting from a menu type ALT+F2 and launch it as
To make this permanent, edit the menu entry for konsole and add the --enable-transparency string to the end of the command. To edit the menu type ALT+F2 then
Trashcan Icon on Desktop
If you have both KDE3 and KDE4 installed then, by default, KDE3 will have a trash can icon on its desktop and it will also appear on the KDE4 desktop with a ?, since the plasma icon is missing. One solution is to just delete the icon. In both KDE3 and KDE4 you can still reach the trashcan with Dolphin or with Konqueror, and you can also add it to the KDE3 kicker.
Firefox
If you like your current extensions and themes and are not ready for Firefox 3, which installs by default in KDE4, then use Adept to remove Firefox. Then add firefox-2 package. Or, remove them both and install it yourself, which is what I prefer. Go to the Mozilla downloads page and get the latest firefox download in tar.gz format. Copy it to the /opt directory and do
to expand it. Now you can start it with the command
to test. If working, create a simlink in /usr/bin to the program as follows:
Now the program can be started with
from a terminal. Change the menu entry command string (if needed) to "firefox" so that it can be selected from the menu.
Desktops
To have more than the default two desktops use the kde control center to change it to 4 or whatever you prefer:
then select "Desktop".
Does anybody know how to select a different wallpaper for each desktop with KDE4?
Browsing Windows Networks
In KDE3 using either Konqueror or Dolphin, typing
would bring up a browse list of the machines on the Windows workgroup and you could then navigate to any server and/or folder available. But in KDE4, the string
immediately crashes Dolphin or Konqueror. However, smb://server/folder does work correctly to connect to a known share on the network. But what if you want to browse? Does anybody know how to look at the top-level view of the available workgroup with KDE4?
Other Issues
With KDE3 I can suspend to RAM or disk either with menu items or with the laptop's function keys. On KDE4, none of these work. It seems that there are a lot of things that aren't quite there yet. While promising, KDE4 looks like it is less than alpha-grade software at the moment. But I don't mind; hopefully these things will be worked on in future releases.
If anybody can help me with a couple of these issues please post back. Or, if you have tips that you've discovered, pass them on.
KDE4 Konsole
I wanted to try the transparency feature in konsole but it does not work unless you do the following. Instead of starting from a menu type ALT+F2 and launch it as
Code:
konsole --enable-transparency
Code:
kmenuedit
If you have both KDE3 and KDE4 installed then, by default, KDE3 will have a trash can icon on its desktop and it will also appear on the KDE4 desktop with a ?, since the plasma icon is missing. One solution is to just delete the icon. In both KDE3 and KDE4 you can still reach the trashcan with Dolphin or with Konqueror, and you can also add it to the KDE3 kicker.
Firefox
If you like your current extensions and themes and are not ready for Firefox 3, which installs by default in KDE4, then use Adept to remove Firefox. Then add firefox-2 package. Or, remove them both and install it yourself, which is what I prefer. Go to the Mozilla downloads page and get the latest firefox download in tar.gz format. Copy it to the /opt directory and do
Code:
tar -xvf firefox
Code:
/opt/firefox/firefox
Code:
cd /usr/bin sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox firefox
Code:
firefox
Desktops
To have more than the default two desktops use the kde control center to change it to 4 or whatever you prefer:
Code:
kcontrol
Does anybody know how to select a different wallpaper for each desktop with KDE4?
Browsing Windows Networks
In KDE3 using either Konqueror or Dolphin, typing
Code:
smb://workgroup_name
Code:
smb://workgroup_name
Other Issues
With KDE3 I can suspend to RAM or disk either with menu items or with the laptop's function keys. On KDE4, none of these work. It seems that there are a lot of things that aren't quite there yet. While promising, KDE4 looks like it is less than alpha-grade software at the moment. But I don't mind; hopefully these things will be worked on in future releases.
If anybody can help me with a couple of these issues please post back. Or, if you have tips that you've discovered, pass them on.