KDE on Michael’s Domain

Gnome & KDE sessions autostart items

Fri, 25 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Always when I logged into a Gnome session, automatically several application started up without me wanting them to start up (two terminal sessions and a nautilus windows). To get rid of them (at least I think so, I will see at the next login), you have to go to Main Menu - Preferences - More preferences - Sessions. Under the “Current Session” tab, one can remove the programs that are automatically started upon login and also specify in which order the programs are started that are started automatically.In KDE, item in the /home/user/.kde/Autostart directory get executed upon session start. Just place a .desktop file into that directory to have it auto-executed.

Creating Konqueror Service Menus (aka contextual menus)

Wed, 23 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Konqueror Service Menues are additonal options that are displayed when you right-click on a file in Konqueror. They are file-type specific, meaning you can define which options are displayed depending what type of file you are right-clicking. Mac-people call these “contextual menues”. A good tutorial is https://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Creating_Konqueror_Service_MenusIn short: In the directory /opt/kde3/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus there is a buch of desktop files. Just duplicate one, rename it and edit its content to please you. In the following example I have created a new file (pdfpic.desktop), that adds a menu option that is displayed when I right-click jpg files and it starts an editor with which I can add or modify the embedded rdf (resource description framework) information of a jpeg file. The editor is a java application and the %U sais, that if many files are simultaneously right-clicked they should be opened in one instance of the program.[Desktop Entry]ServiceTypes=image/jpegActions=openInRdfpic[Desktop Action openInRdfpic]Name=Edit metadataIcon=backgroundExec=/usr/lib/java2/jre/bin/java -jar /usr/local/rdfpic-2.1/rdfpic.jar %U

Editing names of desktop entries

Mon, 21 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

How to change the name of items on the desktop (e.g. the Trash bin) Go to the directory ~/Desktop. There are .desktop files, which you can edit. To change the name of directories (e.g. the trash bin) edit the hidden file called .directory.

Couldn't find MIME type application/octet-stream (Konquerer/Kdesktop)

Sun, 20 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

This is copied from [http://users.pandora.be/Ice9/Linux stuff/Linux_tips.html]( http://users.pandora.be/Ice9/Linux stuff/Linux_tips.html). I have used the second method as the desktop file appeared to be disfunctional judging from its content and had been created during the time when the error appeared first (that was when I was playing with the File associations section of the control center).

File Associations in KDE

Sun, 20 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I have many files in strange formats that can be opened by applications that are not installed by default on any Linux distribution. How do I teach KDE to recognize these files based on their endings (like .ab1) and to open them - when clicked - with the correct application? Go to Control Center -> KDE Components -> File Associations -> Add -> Leave Group “all” and type in some short, descriptive name (e.g. ABI trace file) -> Under “Filename patterns” put the file extension (or any other pattern that enables KDE to recognize the file; e.g. *.abi1) -> Write something descriptive into the “Description” field -> Under “Application Preference Order” click “Add” and type the name of the application (if it is in the path) or browse and select the executable (for the .ab1 example it would be e.g. trev, the trace file viewer from the Staden package) -> Click “Apply” -> I have the feeling that you have to log out and log in again to make the changes active. For the above example you will see that Konqueror list for files with the .ab1 ending the File Type “ABI trace file” and when you click them, they are opened with the trev application.

Quick edits of jpg files from within Konqueror (jhead, jpegtran)

Sun, 20 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I wanted to have a quick way to rotate the images I take with my digital camera. The Olympus Camedia C-4000 always writes “1” als orientation into the EXIF data (either it doesn’t have an orientaiton sensor or it is broken), therefore I cannot rotate the images automatically by the commandjhead -autorot *.jpgSo I created a desktop file ~/bin/rotate90clockwise.desktpop with the following content[Desktop Entry] ServiceTypes=image/jpeg Actions=rotate90clockwise [Desktop Action rotate90clockwise] Name=Rotate 90 clockwise Icon=/opt/kde3/share/icons/crystalsvg/22x22/actions/rotate_cw.png Exec=/usr/bin/jhead -cmd "jpegtran -rot 90 &i > &o" %UThen I made a symbolic linksudo ln -sf ~/bin/rotate90clockwise.desktop /opt/kde3/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/rotate90clockwise.desktop Now when I browse files in Konqueror, I get by right-clicking a jpeg file the additonal option of rotating it. The rotation is lossless BTW and the EXIF information in maintaned. It is also possible to integrate rotation commands into image viewing software. E.g. if the following script is located in ~/bin!/bin/sh jhead -cmd "jpegtran -rot 90 &i > &o" $*you can call it from within GQView by adding the scriptname in one of the free slots below the “big” image editors:Menu name Command line Rotate clockwise rotate_clockwise %fEdit -> Options -> Editors

Changing the default to tree view in Konqueror

Sat, 19 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Make the changes how you want to window to appear.
Right-click on title bar, click “Store Window Settings”.
Click “Settings” -> “Save View Profile” ->Select “File Management” from the list of available profiles -> “Save”.
Close the window and reopen it to see that your settings stick.

Desktop Integration of the Staden Package in KDE on Suse Linux 9

Sat, 19 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I have installed the Staden package on my laptop. In order to convince other people from my lab to use it, it must be very easy to use. Ideally, they should just need to select some sequences, click and the preprocessing and assembly should be done automatically. In order to achieve that I did the following:

DCOPserver error during KDE login

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday my laptop ran out of power and during the emergency shutdown stuff got apparently screwed up. When I tried to log into KDE this morning, I got the following error message: There was an arror setting up inter-process communication for KDE /home/jeltsch/.DCOPserver_michael-laptop__0 could not read network connection list Please check that "dcopserver" is running This is again a very non-informative error message. The way to fix this was as follows: rm ~/.kde/socket-michael-laptop rm ~/.kde/tmp-michael-laptop rm -rf /tmp/kdesocket-jeltsch rm -rf /tmp/kde-jeltsch There were errors while removing the directories in /tmp. Even as root I couldn’t remove the directories; the error message claimed they were not empty. But there were no files when listed with ls -al. As a workaround a renamed the directories: mv /tmp/kdesocket-jeltsch /tmp/kdesocket-jeltsch.old mv /tmp/kde-jeltsch /tmp/kde-jeltsch.old After this I could again log in, but the items from my Panel had disappeared.

Desktop Integration of Staden into KDE 3.2

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Two things have to be accomplished: 1. The menu should contain appropriate entries. 2. The files should be clickable and have appropriate “Open with” entries. 1. is easy to do. The (systemwide) entries for the menu are in /opt/kde3/share/applnk. I just added an addiitonal directory structure under this directory:Science – Staden |– Gap4.desktop |– Pregap4.desktop |– Spin.desktop |– Stadenlaunch.desktop -- Trev.desktop If you edit the menu as a regular user, the entries are only valid for yourself. Additionally Suse messes between two locations for user-defined menu entries: ~/.kde/share/applnk and ~/.local/share/applications. Once you have the entries in the systemwide /opt/kde3/share/applnk additonal changes made by individual users will replicate the directory under the users home directory. Because entries in the users home directory take precedence over systemwide entries, these will be valid then.

Quanta crashes during start-up (moving my account to a new user)

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

When I start Quanta as a regular user, it crashes. The output of the terminal is: jeltsch@michael-laptop:~> quanta QGDict::hashKeyString: Invalid null key Invalid entry (missing '=') at /opt/kde3/share/apps/quanta/doc/javascript.docrc:241 TagAction::property( "accel" ) failed: property invalid or does not exist TagAction::property( "accel" ) failed: property invalid or does not exist TagAction::property( "accel" ) failed: property invalid or does not exist jeltsch@michael-laptop:~> However, when started as root, things work OK, although the error messages are the same. At the moment I changed the desktop entry from the start menu so that Quanta starts up as root. Of course, I have to allow access to my X windows, e.g. by executing xhost +. I created a new regular user (mjeltsch9 and executed quanta as mjeltsch, quanta worked also fine. Apparently something is fishy with some user-specific settings. I tried to figure out what, but to no avail. Therefore I decided to make a clean start. As root, I chowned recursively all files in my home directory to mjeltsch and moved them (excluding hidden files) into /home/mjeltsch. All hidden files I put into a new directory which I called old_dot_files. I might need some of these. Then I deleted my /home/jeltsch. Using Yast2, I deleted account “jeltsch” and changed the /home/mjeltsch into /home/jeltsch. Then, also in Yast2, I renamed the user mjeltsch into jeltsch and changed his home directory from /home/mjeltsch into /home/jeltsch. I also had to chown -R /tmp/mcop-jeltsch. Apparently everything works again, but all my desktop configuration is of course lost.

Syncronizing Psion3a address database with KDE's address book

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I have an old Psion 3a which I use mainly as an alarm clock during vacation when I have to catch a train or plane. To make it more useful, I decided to put all my addresses to its database. The database format is some strange format (.dbf). The database application of the Psion 3a cannot import any other format and the only format it can export in is a text file where each field is seperated from the next by a delimiter character (by default linefeed) and each record is seperated from the next by an empty line (or an empty line if linefeed is the delimiter). The PsiWin application on a PC can open the dbf format and export in a variety of formats (hopefully). So the way to get all my addresses into the Psion would be (they are in MacOSX’s addressbook format at the moment) to get them first into KDE’s address book and then export from there in a format that PsiWin can read and use PsiWin to save in the dbf format that the Psion can read.

Keyboard layout under xfce (Debian Testing, XF86Config)

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

We installed Debian Testing onto our old 333MHz/128MB Compaq M300. We had Suse Linux 9.2. It worked well, but was quite slow. Suse, RedHat and Mandrake are nowadays like Windows: bloated. Debian Testing was much faster and we changed from KDE to xfce . No problems, we just had to adjust the keyboard layout in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 from us to fi Section "InputDevice" Option "XkbLayout" "us"

The invisible screensaver (kslideshow, import, screenshot)

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I was trying to configure my screensaver such, that it would display as only picture the desktop at the moment when the screensaver became active. In the KDE control center I chose the Slideshow screensaver (under Banners and Pictures) and in the setup I chose a specific directory as the media diretory (/home/your_user_name/Documents/images/desktop/). I also selected display one random image only. The media directory should be empty. Then I renamed /opt/kde3/bin/kslideshow.kss executable to kslideshow_ori.kss and created a shell script in the same directory that I named kslideshow.kss. The shell script looks like this: !/bin/shimport -window root /home/your_user_name/Documents/images/desktop/desktop.pcxkslideshow_ori.kssThe import utility is from the ImageMagick package. Instead of the screensaver, the shell script gets activated when the time has come and a screenshot is saved in the /home/your_user_name/Documents/images/desktop directory. As this image is the only one it will be displayed by the subsequently called actual screensaver.

Where KAdressbook stores its data and settings (kabc)

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Of course in ~/.kde/share/apps, but if you have one hundred kde apllications and the programmers didn’t manage to come up with a descriptive name for the configuration directory, you are in trouble. KAdressbook stores the data in ~/.kde/share/apps/kabc Additonally there might be for all applications (and there is for KAdressbook) the rc configuration file in ~/.kde/share/config/ ~/.kde/share/config/kaddressbookrc