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List:       kde-cygwin
Subject:    Using KDE as default desktop under Windows
From:       David Fraser <davidf () sjsoft ! com>
Date:       2002-08-30 16:33:54
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I am now using KDE as my default shell under Windows.
Thanks to everyone for the effort - it's so much nicer than explorer :-)
I thought it would be nice to have a page on the web site explaining how 
to do it,
and indicating status as more integration gets done...
basically this is what I did (this is for Windows 2000 but should be 
portable to others):

make XFree86 server run full screen without window decoration
  change ~/.xserverrc to include -fullscreen in the parameters:
    exec X - screen 0 1024 879 -engine 4 -fullscreen -depth 32 -ac 
-nowinkill -noreset -emulate3buttons 100
  you can say -nodecoration (which -fullscreen implies) instead if you 
want a non-fullscreen window without border etc.

replace the default shell, explorer.exe with X-windows
  change the following reg entry under from explorer.exe to 
c:\cygwin\bin\bash --login -c startx
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows 
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell
Once this is done, logging in starts up the X server but no Windows 
desktop, Start bar etc.
Note: if you want to run windows programs from here, on Windows 2000 you 
can press Ctrl-Shift-Esc
which brings up the Task Manager, then go File/Run.
Logging out from KDE doesn't actually log out, you need to close KDE in 
another way and then press Ctrl-Alt-Del
and choose logout. Depending on your .xserverrc parameters, 
Ctrl-Alt-Backspace or Alt-F4 can be made to close
the X server. Otherwise, you can close it from the Task manager (select 
the Cygwin task and say End Task).
This also brings up a bash shell window which is behind the X server. I 
tried to get rid of it by running
cmd /c start /b bash ... but this was unsuccessfull.
If you switch to any windows applications, the X server will be minimised.
I seem to remember some discussion on slashdot or somewhere about how 
Cygwin XFree86 cannot run in rootless
mode (as the actual background window like Windows exlporer does for the 
desktop). Does anyone have any info
on why this is, or on how we could patch it so that it will? That way 
windows apps will run in front...

Next step: get KDE to run windows applications from short cuts.
I created a simple script called "win32start":

#!/bin/bash
startpath="$*"
if [[ -L "$startpath" ]]
  then
  # this is a symbolic link. find the actual file, start that
  startpath=`find "$startpath" -printf %l`
fi
startdir=`dirname "$startpath"`
startfile=`basename "$startpath"`
cd "$startdir"
cmd /c start \"starting application\" "$startfile"

This is put in /usr/bin
It handles cygwin unix-style symbolic links to Windows shortcut files as 
well (both are given
the extension .lnk, but have different stuff inside ... if you create a 
link to a shortcut it is thus
called .lnk.lnk).
Basically it gets whatever parameters are given (it needs to use them 
all so you can pass spaces
without it separating them out; escaping the spaces with backslash 
confuses cmd, although they
could be unescaped) and works out what directory the file to start is in.
It's easiest to get into this directory as we then don't have to convert 
the path from unix to windows
style. Then it runs cmd and tells it to start the application. The first 
parameter to start is the window
title which has to be given if we quote the start file. But this window 
title only applies to cmd, which
just starts the application and quits.
Example:
$ win32start /c/Documents\ And Settings/All\ Users/Start\ 
Menu/Programs/Acrobat\ Reader\ 5.0.lnk
on my system this starts up Acrobat.

Now we want to make KDE associate these files with win32start so we can 
click on them from konqueror
and put them in menus.

First we need a mime type for the Windows shortcut files...
Add the following to a new file 
~/.kde2/share/mimelnk/application/win32shortcut.desktop
(on most systems, it could be ~/.kde/... - I've had KDE 1 installed ...)
This users the link icon which just looks like a shortcut. It would be 
nice to get KDE to read
the windows Icon out of the shortcut file but probably lots of work

[Desktop Entry]
Comment=Win32 shortcut file
Hidden=false
Icon=link
MimeType=application/win32shortcut
Patterns=*.lnk
Type=MimeType

Then create the association. To do this, create a desktop file under 
~/.kde2/share/applnk/win32start.desktop
and place the following into it:

[Desktop Entry]
Comment=Start Win32 applications or files
Exec=win32start
Icon=exec
InitialPreference=3
MimeType=Application;application/win32shortcut
Name=Win32 Starter
Path=
ServiceTypes=
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

This can also be done through control panel if you want to make life 
easier ... but on my system it
gave some trouble ...

Now you should be able to for example browse to your Start Menu on your 
windows drive and start
programs.

I then added a nice second start menu to kicker by using a QuickBrowser 
linked to my Windows Start Menu
folder ... (actually I now have a subdirectory of ~ called Start which 
contains links to everything
in the All Users Start Menu and my user's Start Menu .... with a simple 
shell script to update the links)

I've created a nice icon for this as well, with a "exec" icon background 
with the four coloured windows
from the Linux samba icon on top. It sits next to the K menu icon, so I 
can launch either KDE or standard
windows apps.

Any feedback/comments? Is this what other people are using kde-cygwin to do?

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