HELP NEEDED!!!!

[The Liquidator]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

To change the theme of the desktop you can select system settings/ desktop/ themes. Once you have done that if you want to make specific changes (say using the panel from 1 theme and the analog clock widget from another) go to system settins/advanced/desktop theme details.

In system settings/ appearance you can change icon sets and the colours of every aspect of he GUI. - borders/windows etc.

In system settings/desktop turn on enable desktop effects and look through all the effects. My personal favourites are magic lamp and cover switch. Have a play around. You will very easily arrive at a highly personal look.

[SNL888]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

ohhhhhh plasmoids areee widgets lol oh mannn i was sooo confused ...

cool ill have a play ...

cheers man..

[SNL888]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

hey lads soz but i aint had time to try these things out... had a pool tournament wid the work lot yesterday and i think i might of had one to many jack daniels

ill give it a go today,

cheers for all the help so far...

[SNL888]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

ahhhhh my eyes.... 8)

i have been starting at the terminal screen for about 6-8 hours now doing tutorials etc

learning how to copy, rename, make file directories etc...

permission x,y,z

but atm i am thinking that these are things more easily done by the GUI??

when does the CLI come into its own...

[GreyGeek]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

They are only done more easily with a GUI when you are not a CLI guru.

The best gui for most of what you mention is Dolphin!

I'm more of a gui guy than a cli guy, but there are some things I do with the konsole, in order of frequency:

apt-get
ls
cd
vdir
locate (better & faster than strigi, etc...)
updatedb
rmdir
mkdir
who
w
whois (for finding out who registered a web site)
cat
pwd
| (the pipe)


and, when I need to install tar or binary packages. When I need a file manager while using a Konsole I use mc. (Midnight Commander)

But, for ALL other stuff, I use Dolphin, System Setting and Synaptic, depending.

[Telengard]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

when does the CLI come into its own...

The first time you have an install or upgrade go wrong, then you will wish you knew some Linux terminal.

[oshunluvr]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

Geez GreyGeek, I would have thought someone YOUR age would prefer the CLI to that new-fangled GUI stuff!

I spent too many years in front of a DOS3 prompt to get too far from a text console! 8)

[Snowhog]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

To fear the console is to fear the OS. To embrace the console is to embrace the OS.

I was a console user way back, even before Windows. There are simply so many things you can do quicker in a console than through a GUI. I guess it's just the difference between a person who likes to tinker under the hood of the car they drive, and the person who just drives it, and takes it in to the shop when something needs fixing. To each their own.

[SNL888]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

hi lads,

i am going over all your posts now but something had happend which is REALLY bugging me...

my kicker bar has gone... the one at the bottom of the screen. wid the time and k-menu etc...

i have been looking and tried so far:

ALT + F2 typed - kicker, kcontrol, plasma = no response

pressed CTRL + ESC - checked to see if kicker was running and it wasnt - why does run kicker not work...

this is driveing me nuts i know it is something simple but i want to get it resolved so i can access everything :-(

[SNL888]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

ok lads,

i have gone throu all your posts only got a couple of issues.

system settings/ desktop/ themes.

themes is not accessible - only desktop effects, multiple desktops, screen edges, screen saver, lauch feedback.

go to system settins/advanced/desktop theme details.

when i go here i get a message saying: to change your desktop theme to "(customised)", open the desktop appearance setting sand select "(customised)" from the droplist.

i am unable to find this setting

You will very easily arrive at a highly personal look.

very true... atm i have nice dark boarders and folder but the K-menu button is some stupid Flower things and i dont know how to change it

vdir
locate (better & faster than strigi, etc...)
updatedb
who
w
whois (for finding out who registered a web site)
cat

if you have time is there any chance you might be able to explain how these work or how i can use them... i am familiar with the other but not these ones... only if you have time....

The first time you have an install or upgrade go wrong, then you will wish you knew some Linux terminal.

Cheers for the heads up... better start learning now

I guess it's just the difference between a person who likes to tinker under the hood of the car they drive, and the person who just drives it, and takes it in to the shop when something needs fixing. To each their own.

or if could be what is unknown - by this i mean i have used windows all my life and the GUI is the way i am use to doing things... it is what is known which is comfortable but it is whats unknown that is feared....

i am more thats willing to learn the CLI (this is the whole reason why i want to use linux. the GUI is just something thats looks nice and i think that we can all agree thats this is defo the case...

all my mates that have seen my GUI like it but apart from that they have no idea... they are in the same boat as me really except i can now do pwd and ls :P

just want to say that i really appreciate all the help fo far and i am understanding more and more as the days go by... cheers to all of you...

P.S this forum is the dogs B*ll**** MANNNNNNNNN!!!!!!

[The Liquidator]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

Hi again

I am guessing here but are you running with widgets unlocked? To check right click on the desktop. If you see lock widgets as an option then you have probably deleted it accidentally, which is easy.

If that's the case right click and add widgets and you will find that the panel itself is a widget - so add it.

Then right click on the new panel and select panel options/add widgets and select


system tray
application launcher (this will put the kmenu back) or if you want to try a different one you could select Lancelot

Also worth adding are a couple of quick access browsers to access your most often used directories. I have 3 on my panel to various places.

HTH

Ian

[SNL888]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

application launcher (this will put the kmenu back) or if you want to try a different one you could select Lancelot

ohhh its a panle hahahah - RESULT

thats all done looking very nice if i do say so myself...

mans this stuff is so SWEET!!!!!

do you have any idea how i get a panel thats looks like the Apple one... when the icons pop out at u lol... only way i can think of how to decribe them lol....

[SNL888]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

The first time you have an install or upgrade go wrong, then you will wish you knew some Linux terminal.

Cheers for the heads up... better start learning now
[/quote]

HAHAHAHAHHAAA lloks like i might have to know this quicker than i though

i just did any update and i now have KDE 4.4.1 problem is now i have a black background and nothing is visable

i wasd unable to access dolphin so i re-booted and now i have a black desktop with nothing there, cant do anything...

i was asked if i wanted to replace a folder in... /etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc with the updated one....

i backup the old on via the konsole (very proud of myself for that :P) but i was wondering if i should copy the old file over or is there some sort of way to sort this out....

[sithlord48]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

when you have a black background w/ no panels or widgets it means that "plasma-desktop" is not running..
you can easily start it w/ krunner (alt+f2) by typing in "plasma-desktop". if it fails to run one of your plasmoids (either on the desktop or a pannel) maybe causing a crash. some that do for sure in 4.4.1 are stasks, smooth tasks and fancy tasks. (note: on netbook version its called "plasma-netbook")

the CLI commands that i know...

who = shows you who is logged in and where. , pts/x and ttyx will tell you where people are login (x=num)
locate filename = will find filename for you and display its path (or paths where its found..)

i am not sure or rarely use the rest of the commands but you can find out what they do with man, an few examples of its use below...

[code=basic man use]man command [/code] will show you the manual for the command you have to read it in the term. but we can do something about that with a pipe.....

[code=piped to a txt file use]man command > ~/filename [/code]will create a file (/home/usrname/filename) from the man commands output. useful if you want to print a manual or read it as a txt file. some notes on this you might want to take away is the use of the pipe '>' is output to and it needs a path after it , and the shortcut '~/' is for current uses home folder . and always for the user you run it as (i.e if your 'root' its /root)

the basic rule i use when asked if i want to keep my version or install the updated one is as follows
if i have edited the file heavly i will usually back it up and re-do my edits from the back up.
if i don't know what the files is or have not editied it (to my knowlege) i will replace it .
the kdmrc file is for the login manager. its asking because you have prolly changed your login theme , in that case i would install the new version and just re set my login theme in system settings.

some good advice when u need to edit a file , ALWAYS back it up . the use of a simple

cp file file.old

is usually a good way to do it (you can change the .old to what ever you want)

[GreyGeek]

Re: HELP NEEDED!!!!

Geez GreyGeek, I would have thought someone YOUR age would prefer the CLI to that new-fangled GUI stuff!

I spent too many years in front of a DOS3 prompt to get too far from a text console! 8)

My age, 68, has a lot to do with why I prefer the gui to the cli. Twenty to thirty years ago I could remember, on a single reading, all the parameters and switches for every command I learned. I learned how to use one of the most powerful DOS based programming/database tools, Advanced Revelation, I haver ever used in a single hour reading the manual while driving to a client's site, 50 miles away. (Back then I COULD chew gum and walk at the same time!) I could remember the names of every program I wrote and in my mind scroll the source code for most of them, even programs hundreds of lines long. My clients would be stunned when, while they were looking at a printout of the source code, I would talk them through to the line they needed to change to add, modify or delete the change they wanted without having to stop, go to the computer and read off the line. By the time I moved to Linux in 1998, the damage to my memory by Aspartame had been done, and even though RH 5.0 with fwm as the desktop was nice, when I moved to SuSE 5.3 in September of 1998, because it had KDE 1.0 beta, I was thrilled that it was easier to use. It has been every since.

Now, being in an early stage of sometimers, when I use the cli I often find it necessary to pop open a second konsole in order to display the man page for the cli commands I am using, even if I have used the command before. In another thread it was pointed out that "kdesudo dolphin" brings up a dolphin app which doesn't show directories or files, but "kdesudo 'dbus-launch dolphin --nofork" will work. I learned that about 10 minutes ago and I can still remember it. Tomorrow I shall have forgotten that I ever knew it. Even when I write such stuff down I often forget that I wrote it down. So, as you can see, my favorite tool is a google search. It's like having a memory. Once my memory is jogged a lot of stuff comes back, but not necessarily the stuff I need.