[SOLVED] terminal command for showing desktop grid

[rybnik]

So I know that ctrl+F8 brings up the Desktop Grid, but I'm looking for a terminal command that does the same, so that I can add an icon for it on a desktop panel.

Anyone know what that command would be?

[SteveRiley]

qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /component/kwin org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.invokeShortcut ShowDesktopGrid

[rybnik]

Uh, that doesn't work for me... If it matters, I'm running 10.04, KDE 4.4.5. Do you have another command? Thanks for your help.

[SteveRiley]

Don't have a machine with anything that old. Let's try to discover it. This will take a few iterations of the qdbus command.

Please show the output of

qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel

and

qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /component/kwin

[SteveRiley]

How did you test the first command -- did you type it at a command prompt, or try to script it?

I created the following script:

#! /bin/sh
qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /component/kwin org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.invokeShortcut ShowDesktopGrid

and named it ~/grid.sh. I ran

chmod a+x ~/grid.sh

to make it executable. Then I right-clicked on my desktop (configured in Folder View mode) and chose Create New -> Basic Link to File or Directory. I filled in the form like so:



The "File Name" is actually the icon name. Now there's an icon on my desktop, and when I click it, the grid appears.

[rybnik]

qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel returns the following in a terminal

/
/KDebug
/MainApplication
/component
/component/amarok
/component/kded
/component/khotkeys
/component/klipper
/component/kmix
/component/krunner
/component/kwin
/component/kxkb
/component/plasma_desktop
/component/yakuake
/kglobalaccel

================================================== ===============

qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /component/kwin returns the following in a terminal

property read QString org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.friendlyName
property read QString org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.uniqueName
method bool org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.cleanUp()
method QStringList org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.getShortcutContexts()
method bool org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.isActive()
method QStringList org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.shortcutNames()
method QStringList org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.shortcutNames(QString context)
method bool org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.showKCM()
method QDBusVariant org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get(QString interface_name, QString property_name)
method QVariantMap org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.GetAll(QString interface_name)
method void org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Set(QString interface_name, QString property_name, QDBusVariant value)
method QString org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable.Introspect()

[rybnik]

How did you test the first command -- did you type it at a command prompt, or try to script it?

So I have two panels--my "taskbar" on the bottom of the screen and a panel of icons that are links to applications on the top of my screen. I created an extra dummy icon on the top panel, went into the settings for that icon and changed the associated command to the one you provided.

[rybnik]

Thanks for taking the time on this, Steve.

[SteveRiley]

If you type the command

qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /component/kwin org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.shortcutNames

qdbus will output all the shortcut names that KWin knows about. It's a long list, so you can pipe it through grep to search for the one of interest:

steve@t520:~$ [B]qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /component/kwin org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.shortcutNames | grep ShowDesktopGrid[/B]
ShowDesktopGrid

Based on your description in #7, I'm guessing you typed just the one command. Instead, try my suggestion in #5. Create the shell script I provided, mark it executable, and then add an icon to the script.

[rybnik]

So I see. I was able to configure it to my liking. Thanks for your help!

[SteveRiley]

Glad you got it working. And the question was an opportunity for me to start learning about qdbus, too. Heh.

[dmeyer]

Glad you got it working. And the question was an opportunity for me to start learning about qdbus, too. Heh.

You can do some pretty amazing things with qdbus. I'm trying to program an Amarok 2 remote control with QML on the client side and python on the server side but QML is exhausting. Seriously, there is no built-in access to QT classes!