plasma: Folder settings are not saved

[g.]

Hi,

my plasma dashboard is quite minimal, I only want the desktop folder, however, the position and size that I select is not stored and when I turn on the PC it has always the original position and size (in attach).

I do the unlock/lock steps with the right button.

Is it a bug or am I missing a step?

Thanks in advance,
g.

[integr8e]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

It may be a bug, but before you file a bug report, try making sure the permissions for your $HOME directory ('/home/your_username') are set correctly. As your normal user, try running this:

sudo bash -c 'chown -R $SUDO_USER:$SUDO_GID $HOME'

A synopsis of the above command:
1) sudo := this will allow you to run a command with root privileges
2) bash -c := Bash (Bourne Again Shell) is a shell scripting language; typically, it is run as bash -i, which will create an interactive Bash session and allow you to run multiple commands from a terminal (this is how you can run commands from Konsole -- there are other shells, but Bash is the most popular at the moment). Running it as bash -c allows you run a single command from Bash supplied as a string (enclosed within quotes).
3) chown -R := chown stands for change owner and allows you to -- surprisingly -- change the ownership of a file. Executing it with the -R flag tells it to recursively search throughout the file and change the ownership of every file within it.
4) $SUDO_USER:$SUDO_GID := When you run a command prefixed with sudo, Sudo will store your username in an environment variable called SUDO_USER and your primary group ID in a variable called SUDO_GID; they may both be accessed by prefixing them with a dollar sign like so: $SUDO_USER and $SUDO_GID. The username and group ID are separated with a colon (':') to specify to chown that they are the username and group ID to use when changing the permissions of the desired file (see next topic).
5) $HOME := Finally, Bash stores your home directory in an environment variable called HOME, which like your username and primary group ID of the previous topic, may be accessed by prefixing it with a dollar sign. Placing this variable at the end of the chown command tells it you want to change the permissions of your $HOME directory.

Altogether, this command will examine your $HOME directory and change the permissions of every file within it to your username and primary group ID. I've noticed sometimes, running various commands with root privileges can change the permissions of any files involved to those of root, which means you will not be able to write to them until their permissions are corrected. Thus, if your Plasma config (the file KDE uses to store information about Folder View's settings) has had its permissions changed to root-only, KDE will not be able to save your customized options when it logs out; running the above command should fix that problem and correct the permissions of all the other files in your $HOME directory as well. You must run the command as your normal user, however, because running it as root will assign root-only privileges to your entire $HOME directory, and cause quite a few issues until you correct them.

I'm not saying that is your problem, rather, that it's a good place to start

[g.]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

thanks for your reply.

I have not run the command yet, are you telling me that *all* the files in my $HOME (and *all* the subdirectories) should be owned by the user. No one needs to be owned by root?

just filtering the root-s stuff of a ls command run from the $HOME:

ls -al

-rw-r--r-- 1 root   root    66 2009-07-14 16:03 .selected_editor
drwxr-xr-x 2 root   root   4096 2009-07-14 16:02 .texmf-config
drwxr-xr-x 3 root   root   4096 2009-07-14 16:44 .texmf-var

I do not have any idea if those should be root or user files.

Wouldnt it be better to change the ownership of the sole kde config files? do you know what are exactly the files implied by the plasma settings?

Thanks,
g.

[integr8e]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

The root user has a home directory in /root; all the files in your $HOME directory should be owned by you. You can change the ownership/permissions per file, but since you should own all the files in your $HOME directory anyway, doing so would create an unnecessarily large amount of work. There is no harm in running the command.

The command can be run in a simpler fashion if you know your primary group ID (GID); if my username was integr8e and my primary GID was 1000, I could run:

sudo chown -R integr8e:1000 /home/integr8e

If you don't know your GID, you can run the following command to obtain it:

id -g

... or, if you would rather have the friendlier name of the group instead of its ID, just append an 'n' to the flag:

id -gn

You can interchange the GID with the actual name of the group, it's up to you and makes no difference; you can also specify any user or group you want, though it would be wise to use only groups you are a member of. If the name of my primary group happened to be integr8e (the same as my username), I could just as easily have run:

sudo chown -R integr8e:integr8e /home/integr8e

I chose the first method because it will dynamically (automatically) determine the username, primary GID, and $HOME directory of the user who runs it. Taking ownership of your files will not affect the root user's ability to access them, as the root user has complete access to every file on your computer (which is why running a full session as root is discouraged).

(07/17/2009) If you choose to manually thange the permissions of the files, these are the ones you want to check out:
$HOME/.kde/share/config/plasma-appletsrc
$HOME/.kde/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc
$HOME/.kde/share/config/plasma-desktoprc
$HOME/.kde/share/config/plasmarc

You will also have to check the permissions of their parent directories.

[g.]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

thanks for your clear reply.

I have run the command (only for the $HOME/.kde directory...) even if the privileges appeared to be correct.

I moved the desktop folder around and locked but the problem still is there.

best,
g.

[integr8e]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

As an experiment, try adding another plasmoid to your desktop, resize it, log out and back in, and see if its size changes.

[g.]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

good try, I created an additional folder, moved and resized both and, funny enough, rebooting they both are in the top-left corner with the same (default) size.

g.

[integr8e]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

Try another plasmoid, like the analog clock; if it is a bug, it may only affect the folderview plasmoid.

[g.]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

I have added the comics widget and Calvin&Hobbes preserved the modified position and size.
g.

[Marlin]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

All I can add is that I have nearly the same problem with some widgets. My Weather widget remains stable at all times where as my QuoteSee widget will change geometry after a screen lock, after a re-boot, and some times before my very eyes while working at the computer.

[integr8e]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

This sounds like a bug in the Folderview plasmoid :P

If you would, please go to https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs and file a bug report; if you've never completed one before, here is the format I usually use:

*** Summary ***
a short synopsis of the problem

*** Steps to Reproduce ***
the steps required to reproduce the bug

*** Workarounds ***
any workarounds I've found

*** Specs ***
My hardware and software specs: my computer's components (make and model, CPU, and GPU), which distro, kernel version, arch (32-bit or 64-bit), GPU driver version, and KDE version I'm running.

If I were to file the bug report, it would look something like this:

*** Summary ***
The FolderView plasmoid does not retain my customized size and location settings upon reboot.

*** Steps to Reproduce ***
1) Add a FolderView plasmoid to the desktop.
2) Modify its size and location settings.
3) Reboot.

*** Specs ***
Asus G1S-X3
Intel Core2 Duo T7500
Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT

Kubuntu Jaunty 64-bit (9.04)
Linux kernel (v. 2.6.28.13.17)
Nvidia proprietary driver (v. 180.44)
KDE 4.2.2

[g.]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

done

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...se/+bug/403352

thanks for you suggestions.

g.

[jurco]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

Maybe upgrading to KDE 4.2 would help. I had different issues woth KDE 4.1 and upgrade solved them.

[The Liquidator]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

That's a good point. The current release version is 4.2.4 (with 4.3 coming out next week) so it may well be that this is a bug that has been fixed.

Take a look at the entry for 4.2.4 here

http://www.kubuntu.org/month/2009/06

[Fintan]

Re: plasma: Folder settings are not saved

Maybe upgrading to KDE 4.2 would help. I had different issues woth KDE 4.1 and upgrade solved them.

Yes, that IS a very good point.
I had a lot of issues I already forgot. Upgrading took care of that.

For kde4.2:
http://www.kubuntu.org/news/kde-4.2.4

follow the instructions and do:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

For kde4.3 (which I use without issues):
http://www.kubuntu.org/node/89

Hope that helps