Tag Archives: kde

openSUSE 11.2 – no Mono by default, in KDE

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I’ve just installed the latest release of openSUSE (version 11.2), which now defaults to the KDE desktop.

I was pleased to see that this does not install Mono by default (mostly thanks to the fact that KDE has so far managed to keep it out).

Nevertheless, users can easily block Mono from being installed at a later point, by using the package manager:
sudo zypper al *mono*

The only issue I have experienced so far, is that the installer has the option to configure NTP and gives the option to sync the time, but there’s no network at that point so it fails. In previous versions I’m pretty sure that then kicked up the network wizard, but it doesn’t with 11.2 (at least, installing from the 64bit DVD that is).

Groups are yum

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Just discovered how I can install grouped packages in Fedora using Yum.

First, you can list the groups which are available in your repositories with:
yum grouplist

This will contact the online repositories to retrieve the lists and dump it to your terminal.

I wanted to install KDE 4.3.x (yes, Fedora has updated to the latest version from 4.2.x, which was impressive) so to do this I ran:
yum grouplist |grep -i kde

This returned two results, the desktop itself and a development group for KDE. Naturally I want the first one, so I then installed KDE via:
yum groupinstall "KDE (K Desktop Environment)"

It’s quite a nice easy way to install groups of packages, rather than figuring them all out individually.

I’m sure this will create some issues but presumably I can remove the group with:
yum groupremove "KDE (K Desktop Environment)"

Indeed, running this wants to remove only 65 of the just installed 127 packages.. d’oh.

Running the same command with –remove-leaves now wants to remove 143 packages. I still don’t get removing packages with Yum. Nevertheless, group install is handy.

Disabling single click in Dolphin (without KDE)

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Justin switched to Dolphin under GNOME because Nautilus was too slow at expanding directories and the like.

One annoying “feature” for him is that Dolphin uses single click by default. Normally a user could change this under System Settings, however this is not installed.

So, the easiest way to change this (probably even if you do have System Settings installed!) is to edit the configuration file in your home directly.

sudo vim ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals

Under the [KDE] section, add SingleClick=false and save.

Close and re-open Dolphin and everything is now double click again.. *Ahhhh*

Arch Linux: The Simple, Flexible (and Fast!) Distro

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Arch Linux is a unique distribution, offering the latest free software via a super fast package manager coupled with a “keep it simple” philosophy.

It is fast becoming a very popular distribution and now thanks to their split packages, you can install a lightweight KDE 4.3 desktop for even more flexibility and speed.

Check it out in my latest article for Linux Magazine.

Ubuntu + KDE 4.3 + log in = instant reboot

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With the release of KDE 4.3, I added the PPA archive for Jaunty and upgraded from the previous release.

Now, the computer boots to the log in screen just fine, but logging in causes the computer to instantaneously reboot the machine.

Creating a brand new user account and logging in also suffers the same problem.

Awesome!

Update: Changing the video driver from radeon to vesa stopped the system from instantaneously rebooting, however the machine freezes at the KDE loading screen (even magic keys don’t work!). Looks like something to do with hardware initialisation, perhaps kwin trying to enable something fancy.. not sure.

Update 2: I was able to log into KDE with the vesa driver and disable desktop effects. After a reboot the system no longer crashes with the radeon driver. I then re-enabled the desktop effects and rebooted. This time I can log in, the effects are enabled and it doesn’t crash. We’ll see if it lasts!

Killer KDE Kombo Komplete?

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Yeeees.. finally one missing piece of the puzzle to make KDE 4.x a really killer desktop environment is almost complete, KOffice 2.0. It is scheduled for release 27th May (tomorrow where I live).

Years ago I realised that most of the applications I used were GTK based and so made the switch to GNOME. Now that KDE 4.x is really, really good, it’s time for me to switch back for a while.

While I really like OpenOffice.org, I want something more lightweight and KDE-centric. In my opinion, KOffice has been lagging behind for some time (and in many respects, still does), but in a GNOME world I just didn’t need it. Really, all I do need is just a nice little office program to create my data in valid ODF.

Now, with the release of KDE 4.3 just around the corner, it looks to me as though the KDE-only world is almost complete.

So, along with Koffice, we will soon have some other previously missing pieces such as Amarok 2 for music, K3b for burning and Kdenlive for video editing.

Now if only Konqueror was good enough to replace Firefox..