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List:       gentoo-desktop
Subject:    [gentoo-desktop]  KDE4 user questions
From:       Duncan <1i5t5.duncan () cox ! net>
Date:       2009-02-18 16:10:12
Message-ID: pan.2009.02.18.16.10.12 () cox ! net
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I'm using KDE 3.5.10 and trying to start using 4.2.0, but am experiencing 
severe disorientation issues.  Not to worry, it's expected, but the 
questions...

1) Where's best to ask questions such as the following, here?  Upstream?  
If upstream, where?

2) Where's the equivalent to the 3.x ksysguard kicker applet, I guess it 
would be the plasma applet now?  The various system monitor applets just 
aren't as flexible as a 1920x300 panel striped across the top of my dual 
stacked monitors, with the ksysguard panel applet taking most of it 
dynamically plotting user/system/nice CPU x 4 cores, temps x 4 cores and 
2 system locations, 1-minute load, app/buffer/cache memory, up and 
downstream network activity, etc.  As an example of the missing info, the 
CPU/core system monitor plasma applet is monocolor and lack the info 
detail of the triple-graph user/system/nice of ksysguard.

If there isn't such a thing yet I can of course file a KDE bug, but maybe 
I'm overlooking something.

3) One of the "extra" keys on my Logitech keyboard, XF86WWW according to 
xev, that I have a whole menu of multi-key hotkey entries stacked on in 
KDE 3.5, only yields an error saying "The key you just pressed isn't 
supported by QT" on 4.2.  Yet xev run in 4.2 sees it, and kde 3.5 
obviously uses it just fine or I'd not have all those entries stacked on 
it.  The other "extra" keys seem to work, just not that one.  It's an 
obvious bug.  File with KDE for khotkeys, or with Nokia for qt, or ??

4) I saw knewsticker in 4.1 (which without working khotkeys was a no-go), 
but it seems to have disappeared for 4.2.  Yes, there are alternatives, 
but which one of them offers the "newsticker" functionality in a plasma 
panel that corresponds to the way I use knewsticker (note, not akregator, 
installed but generally unused in favor of knewsticker) on 3.5.  Is it 
gone for good?

5) Dolphin windows take WAY longer than konqueror ever did to load.  Do I 
need to turn on a preload option somewhere?  But it even takes awhile to 
load a fresh window after I just loaded one, so even with it all in 
cache, it's still taking forever.  Is KDE4 still that much less 
optimized?  I used the same CFLAGs, etc.  ~amd64 in case it matters.

6) Is there a simple way to import my 3.5 color scheme to 4.2?  I started 
with a clean ~/.kde* dir in ordered to eliminate some of the cruft I've 
been accumulating since 3.0 era or perhaps even 2.x, so I don't know if 
it would have been detected automatically or not.

What about the khotkeys scheme?  (Obviously right now I'd have to work 
something out with the dead XF86WWW key, but other than that.)

7) What's a good upgrade graphics card from my current Radeon 92xx AGP, 
that has native X/kernel drivers and supports OpenGL at 1920x2400 and 
larger?  The Radeon 92xx doesn't support 3D and therefore OpenGL at > 
2048x2048.  Obviously that leaves me composite/xrender only for effects.  
As I said, it needs to be AGP (tho PCI-X, NOT PCI-E, would work as well, 
but did they do graphics cards for it that are available at a reasonable 
price?), preferably with dual dual-channel DVI.  I don't need anything 
for fancy games, but something under US$200 would be nice, and it *MUST* 
be supported by native drivers, no proprietary crap!

That one should probably go to the xorg list...

8) Meanwhile, I guess I need to file a suggestion that they disable all 
the OpenGL effects checkboxes when only xrender/composite is enabled.  
They can obviously detect that they can't safely activate OpenGL as it 
won't let me do it, but most of the effects remain available as choices 
but do nothing, apparently because they simply don't work with composite/
xrender only, but they don't go disabled as they should, leaving the user 
extremely confused when he activates an option only to see no effect at 
all!

Is this a currently known issue?  It would seem to be self-evident.  I 
don't want to dup-report if it's already known, but I haven't checked KDE 
bugs on it yet.

Meanwhile, I like box-switch and present-windows for the tab-switcher, 
the biggest effect (other than transparency) composite/xrender allows it 
seems.  Big improvement either one.  I'll have to play a bit more to 
decide which I like best. =:^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman


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