ymmv. kde4.2.2

By basd on Apr 2, 2009 | In kde4, linux, opensuse

Amid some modest internal fanfare, kde4.2.2 has arrived.

...

Bloggers on Planet KDE have lauded its improved stability, faster execution and better khtml. (It's somewhat amusing that the only time KDE 4 aficionados will admit a version is not entirely stable is when pointing out how much more stable the new version is.)

KDE 4.2.2 has also arrived to my computer, courtesy of the OpenSUSE repositories and YAST. I'll note that an apparently completely revised 4.2.2 set of updates is awaiting me -- but since the repositories refreshed to my computer at the magnificent d/l rate of 4.02 b per second (that is "bytes" and not "megabytes" or "kilobytes"), I think I shall restrain my urge to click "update" again, for now.

In contrast to KDE Planet bloggers, I have nothing in particular to report. I still can't get encrypted wireless networking to connect (though it works fine from a Gnome login). Since no one else complains about this, I am beginning to suspect a legacy install problem of some sort. I tried making a new kwallet -- no change. But, I did find that my existing kwallet held 60 separate versions of my primary wireless login info. None of which works, of course, though I have dutifully and tediously retyped the password orders of magnitude more than 60 times. I tried deleting these from Kwallet -- still no difference. And, the KDE3 knetworking applet won't connect from a kde 4 desktop, either.

Well, I am not up to doing an entire clean reinstall of linux just to see if MAYBE KDE4 networking will work better, especially as networking is working fine in my Gnome login (which runs Kwin anyway). Arguably, I continue to have the best of both worlds, so why complain?

I had recently switched my music server computer back to running kde 4.2 (rather than icekde34ome, as mentioned in these here blogs) -- but wouldn't you know it? The screensaver clock works for awhile, and then stops redisplaying the time. I wanted to run KDE4 because it is far easier for me to make shared connections, especially with removable media -- and I wanted to share a USB hard drive.

Back to the drawing board -- wife wants a clock screensaver (and who am I to refuse?) Maybe I can shut off the KDE4 screensaver and run xscreensaver as I do in icekde34ome. I'll letcha know.

Maybe it works better in 4.2.2 anyway. I haven't updated that computer yet.

Meantime, I'm happier with Konqueror improvements. Since Dolphin came along, Konqueror's filemanagement has been lagging a bit. Dolphin got better.

Unfortunately, there are features of each that I prefer. Konqueror's bookmarks, for instance, are really helpful when I'm working with the files on my remote website, because the sshfs refresh is pretty slow so it's tedious trying to get to the right directory. At least as far as I know, dolphin doesn't offer bookmarks.

Later update: Found an issue with virtualbox. Previously, in seamless mode, the windows start bar covered the kde panel. However, if I clicked in an area of the linux desktop, the kde panel would rotate forward of the windows start bar.

Now, that doesn't work -- kde4 panel hidden behind windows start bar. (I put windows start bar in "auto hide" mode -- but the added wrinkle is that it will only auto-hide if the cursor enters a "windows" window -- so at least one application needs to be running to get access to the kde 4 panel.) Usually what I do is run virtualbox on a separate desktop, so the main thing I need access to is the pager.

Later later update: I didn't previously realize that the "show windows" effect (when effects are enabled) will show windows from all desktops. This allows switching desktops without access pager so if a "windows" window is active, it will be accessible, as will the open linux windows. Different solution to the pager problem.