KDE tips & tricks

[monotux]

Ever considered using sudo?

Well, I actually found (can't remember where...) that I have to copy /usr/share/hal/fdi/90defaultpolicy/storage-policy.fdi to /usr/share/hal/fdi/95userpolicy/storage-policy.fdi and make one change.

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<merge key="storage.policy.default.mount_option.user" type="bool">true</merge>

should be changed to

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<merge key="storage.policy.default.mount_option.users" type="bool">true</merge>

Now users can unmount the device with "Safely Remove", but the icon doesn't disappear like it does for root. Any ideas on how to get the icon to disappear?

I usually tell KDE that unmounted devices's shouldn't be displayed on my desktop if I don't want to see them...

[Jeremy_Z]

One i think is quite useful too on a laptop. You close your laptop while watching the TV but forgot to put your Kopete status to "away" ? Use DCOP and ACPI event to do that for you !

In /etc/acpi/default.sh

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# Default acpi script that takes an entry for all actions

set $*

group=${1/\/*/}
action=${1/*\//}

case "$group" in
        button)
                case "$action" in
                        power)  /sbin/init 0
                                ;;
                        lid)    /etc/acpi/actions/lid.sh
                                ;;
                        *)      logger "ACPI action $action is not defined"
                                ;;
                esac
                ;;

        *)
                logger "ACPI group $group / action $action is not defined"
                ;;
esac

And lid.sh :

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#!/bin/bash

state=`cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state`

if [[ $state =~ 'open' ]]
then
        logger "ACPI: Lid is open."
        /usr/kde/3.4/bin/dcop --all-user kopete KopeteIface setAvailable

else
        logger "ACPI: Lid is closed."
        /usr/kde/3.4/bin/dcop --all-user kopete KopeteIface setAway "Away, the computer is closed, no need to insist."
fi

PS: a better way is to just use setAutoAway on lid close, and do nothing and lid open, this way keep your status if you were already away before.

[jaso]

I don't like the way kmail shows its status in the panel. I would like to be informed when a new mail is arrived and not how many are unread. So I've tried kbiff today. It now stays in the panel, waits for new mails, plays a sound and changes its icon if a new mail is arrived. A click at the icon brings me to kontact and forces kmail to check for new mails.

At first you have to install kbiff

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emerge -a kbiff

After you've started kbiff it shows its configuration box. You have to configure the mailboxes which have to be monitored in the "Mailbox" tab - e.g. my incoming mails are delivered into a maildir ~/.maildir.

kbiff has to play a sound when a new mail is arrived, that can be configured in the tab "New Mail".

I use several virtual desktops and desktop no. 4 is the one where kontact is running. When I click at the kbiff icon in the panel, kbiff has to open (or use the already running) kontact on desktop 4 and force kmail to check for new mails.

This can be done through dcop calls in the "General" tab. Enter

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kstart --desktop 4 kontact && dcop kwin KWinInterface setCurrentDesktop 4 && dcop kmail KMailIface checkMail 

into the "Mail client" box.

[azlan]

The kio-locate slave is one of my favorites..

You have to emerge it.. emerge kio-locate

What is cool about it is that unlike the built in Konqueror search tool, it will let you browse through the located paths as if you had created a seperate filesystem.

Also like Firefox you can use the find_as_you_type feature, just the hit / character and type in the word you are looking for. The only downside, is that you have a time limit as to how long it stays on.

The same with find as you type links, just hit the ' character and start typing.

[lynxnyl]

btw, / works in man too. Invaluable.

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kdialog --title "Top process" --passivepopup "`ps ax -o pcpu,pid,comm k -pcpu | sed -e '/Fah/d' -e 's/\../&%/' -e '1d' -e '4,$d'`" 3

I added that to sysmon - cron jobs can scare me. Shows which process is taking the most proc power.

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kdict %s

You've got to love this! I've assigned it to one of my multimedia keys - it launches kdict and searches for the content of the clipboard.

saveBackup.desktop
Kde context menu item that duplicates the curent item (file or dir) to "$name".dupl. Save it in $KDEDIR/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/

openAsRoot.desktop
Kde context menu item that gives you root access to the text file. I always want to edit something of root, but running su kde is redundant. Save it in $KDEDIR/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/

Then I also modified the "convert to" service menus, since they don't use any compression by default.

[azlan]

Your links are dead.... I tried them... and ..... dead

[lynxnyl]

ups, put in the wrong host. FIXED

[madmango]

Ok. I've set my volume keys on my lappy to adjust volume using aumix (i don't like how kde steps the volume too much), but whenever i push it, aumix appears for a microsecond in the taskbar. Anyway to get rid of this?

[thomasvk]

Perhaps good if it's listed here: how to bind the Windows logo key, found on many modern keyboard, to show the KMenu?

[Headrush]

You can't go a day without hearing someone whining about how bloated they think KDE is.
It seems the argument is more based in semantics about numbers than how effective and useful this environment is.

(OK your DE uses 15MB less of RAM, but who cares if most people have 256MB or more and it runs fine?)
(Or my favorite, OMG, KDE uses 300MB of HD space, my 80GB HD will be filled too fast.)

Although there are areas of improvement in interface defaults, the more I use KDE the more little features I find that are indispensible.

Kio-slaves like fish:/ are obvious but what are some of the less known nuggets?

Preface: I'm using the latest 3.5_alpha1 KDE packages, so I don't know if this is new or not.
The lastest I found was the clear button in konqueror.

If you had a URL address in the clipboard that you were ready to paste in the location bar, you hit the clear button and then middle click in the location bar to post the URL. You needed the clear button since selecting the text in the location bar to paste over would cause its contents to be added to the clipboard, erasing your original URL.

If you middle click the clear button, it clears the location bar and pastes the text in one operation, saving you a mouse click.

Just curious how many other goodies like this are in KDE?

[TNorthover]

Just middle clicking anywhere neutral in the window works as well (basically, anywhere but a hyperlink). Very nice feature.

[Headrush]

Just middle clicking anywhere neutral in the window works as well (basically, anywhere but a hyperlink). Very nice feature.

Cool.
And if the selected text isn't a URL, it asks if you want to search the internet using the selection.

[TNorthover]

Damn, that seems to be a 3.5 feature. I really am looking forward to that.

[KhanReaper]

Just curious how many other goodies like this are in KDE?

Since it appears that you are using KDE 3.5, I have a new feature to suggest to you. If you like Windows XP's ability to lock the contents and alignment of the taskbar, you might be surprised to find out that 3.5's Kicker supports something relatively similar to this.

I have a few screenshots of this available on my KDE 3.5 preview page.

As well, while I know that this feature has been in KDE for years now, not too many people know about it: You can use the audiocd:/ KIOSlave to rip and encode CDs into your favorite audio format, including tagging. Depending upon your use flags, you can encode the contents in Ogg/Vorbis, WAV, RAW, FLAC, and MP3. I know that not everyone knows about this feature. Oh, I should mention that it uses libcdparanoia, so that should help ensure a high quality rip. The options for this KIOSlave are housed in kcontrol under the audio administration dialog.

[Headrush]

Since it appears that you are using KDE 3.5, I have a new feature to suggest to you. If you like Windows XP's ability to lock the contents and alignment of the taskbar, you might be surprised to find out that 3.5's Kicker supports something relatively similar to this.

I don't really care about the locking feature itself, but I do like how it removes the "move" handles for the different sections in the panel.

[Earthwings]

Merged http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-27 ... ml#2742885 ff.

konqueror's ability to be controlled by dcop is great btw. I use it to extract [topic] links from all tabs so I don't have to collect them manually when moving threads to Duplicates

[i92guboj]

Since it appears that you are using KDE 3.5, I have a new feature to suggest to you. If you like Windows XP's ability to lock the contents and alignment of the taskbar, you might be surprised to find out that 3.5's Kicker supports something relatively similar to this.

I don't really care about the locking feature itself, but I do like how it removes the "move" handles for the different sections in the panel.

Same here. Still, there is a thing that I hardly dislike about the lock feature: I use to drag&drop icons from the menu to some folders (for example~/kde/Autostart), that feature is also disable when the bar is locked, which is annoying for me. I would like better a fast acces to the hide/unhide handlers. It is a pain to open kcontrol just for that each time that you need to move and applet.

[thomasvk]

You can go to the panel options and select to hide the grip handles until you hover over them, on the same tab where you can set the panel background. Under an extra button. Is that the option you're looking for, or do I understand you lot wrong?

[i92guboj]

No, what I want isnt in kde yet. What I want is to completely remove these handles (which I already have), but I would like a nearest option to show them if I need to in a concrete moment. For example an option like "Show/Hide handles" in the right click menu of kicker. So, I can have them hide, but if I need the handles to show to move one control right now, I can activate them w/o having to enter the control center or kicker configuration panel.

I could have them as you say, to only show when hovering them, but that waste the precious space in kicker, that I need to open tasks. So, that is not an option.

Still, thanks so much for taking your time

[chetan13]

Perhaps good if it's listed here: how to bind the Windows logo key, found on many modern keyboard, to show the KMenu?

i have asked this question in #kde multiple times but no one there seems to know the answer
maybe it isn't possible

[count_zero]

Perhaps good if it's listed here: how to bind the Windows logo key, found on many modern keyboard, to show the KMenu?

i have asked this question in #kde multiple times but no one there seems to know the answer
maybe it isn't possible

Here you go:
The newer kde's apply the windows key as a modifier key, much like shift or control. Thus, you'll have to remap the key to get it to behave like you want it to. Add this to your ~/.Xmodmap file:

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keycode 115 = F13

Restart X.
Go into the control center --> Regional & Accessibility --> Keyboard Shortcuts.
Look under the Global Shortcuts tab for "Popup Launch Menu"
Choose to define an alternate shortcut for it, and hit your windows key. That's it.
(though personally, I have mine linked to win-c and win-v so I can cut and paste in the console, but to each his own )

[thomasvk]

I don't want to be annoying, but I guess there isn't a way to have it both pop the KDE menu and have it be a modifier key?

[count_zero]

I don't want to be annoying, but I guess there isn't a way to have it both pop the KDE menu and have it be a modifier key?

None that I know of...

but do you really want the K-menu popping up every time you use the windows key in another key combination?
(after all, there are around 300 different two-key combinations using only shift, alt, and ctrl as modifiers on a standard 104 key keyboard--you can surely find another to suit you )

[iplayfast]

First emerge festival
Then in kmail set up a filter based on subject or person or whatever the trigger should be.

When kmail gets the mail with the trigger, have the filter execute command

echo "Message from ebay regarding your stupid purchase" | saytext

There's probably a way to have it state the message subject as well, but it's not obvious

[Bobbie]

konqueror:

- using mouse wheel on tabs will cycle tabs.

amarok:

- mouse wheel over the play buttons will change volume (like over notification are icon)
- left clik on play buttons brin context menu
- notification area icon change colors accoding to the song position when playing