put the hammer down and step away from the computer ...

By basd on Feb 20, 2009 | In kde4, linux, opensuse

As my posts might suggest, I keep trying to find the combination of desktop elements that will provide maximum functionality.

...

But, there always seems to be some reason "it didn't work." So, I thought that by reducing the number of widgets, panels and icons, I could get KDE4.2 to play nice. Fogedaboudit.

Instead, my afternoon included a complete plasma crash while downloading updates -- resulting in a serious risk of a non-functional system; and a KDE YAST system missing some very important menus. (Had to finish the updating via Gnome-YAST.) My kde4.2 icons are still wandering about like nomads, but now I have some new issues. Such as (a) the panels can't seem to remember what size I set them to; and (b) the icons won't remember the correct size that corresponds to the panel size. So, they are suddenly too big.

Well, if I want too big, I can just stick with KDE3.5 kicker and gnome-panel.

I decided to delete plasma.rc and plasma-applets.rc and rebuild the desktop. Well, I guess I can say that all of the widgets are staying more or less where they belong -- but then again, the "too big icons" problem has stayed with the rebuilt desktop. And also, plasma refuses to give me the blue-tinted panels. Quite frankly, the KDE4 oxygen black panels on my black background are pretty ugly.

Also, I had put fusion-icon in autostart (for both kde4.2 and gnome), but it quit working. And, I still have not been able to solve the mystery of why my KDE 4.2 has no window frames until I run fusion-icon. Sure, I could build a new account -- but some of my scripts have hard-coded directory references (my bad) and so lots of actual customization that works would immediately quit working if I changed accounts.

So, all in all, after considerable effort today's computer is less copasetic than yesterday. Yesterday, I felt like "wow, finally things are stable and pleasant."

Today I am having a difficult time restraining myself from hammer-based computer repairs.

Thank you for visiting and have a pleasant tomorrow.