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Favorite KDE Tricks?
Nat asks: "Here I am, plowing along at work on an ancient machine, and thanking heavens for how much easier Open Source makes my life. In particular, I've ended up settling with KDE and its main tools due to its ability to be configured into a relatively fast and lightweight environment, despite its number of features and useful tricks. I have discovered a good few of those already, but would like to ask you guys for further illumination: what are your favorite KDE tricks?"
"I am personally very fond of multi-key shortcuts, which I base on the otherwise useless Windows key: Win-A for fast access to my most used applications, Win-W for all window management operations, and so on. I have other time-savers like: KIOs for upload, download and remote edition of files over SSH, and for access to locate queries from right within any file dialog. I have many more; but what are yours?
Conversely, what non-KDE tricks make your daily work easier and faster? What currently non-existing tricks would you like to see implemented? What are the worst time-wasters you've encountered?"
Conversely, what non-KDE tricks make your daily work easier and faster? What currently non-existing tricks would you like to see implemented? What are the worst time-wasters you've encountered?"
a first post filter for konqueror
"...today consumers have been conditioned to think of beer when they see a bullfrog..."
Sure, multi-key shortcuts are nice but if you have too many of them they become harder to remember, especially those tasks you only do once a week.
I have been using a program called Katupult for many months now. It provides the advantages of shortcuts to programs and bookmarks without the need to memorise anything.
To execute this program you press your start key (Mine is Alt-Space) then you just start typing.
Xine? Alt-Space x
Firefox? Alt-Space f
Konversation? Alt-Space ko
Google? Alt-Space go
Slashdot? Alt-Space sl
Well, you get the idea. As you type an OSD box on the screen cycles through the choice for the letters you have typed. There is no setup, it calculates all the shortcuts dynamically. In a letter tie (say k) the more you type the more you drill down. I rarely have to type more than three characters for the most obscure program.
Orationem pulchram non habens, scribo ista linea in lingua Latina
This little application completely removed my need for an app launching menu, a run dialog or a graphical file browser.
It's a drop-down terminal supporting tabs, whenever I want to run something I just Win+` to bring it up and Shift+Up to open a new terminal tab.
Using kynaptic to install Xfce or Gnome.
pkg_add xfce4
xbindkeys is often used to do keyboard shortcuts under the X Window System. I used to use hotkeys (it has the OSD showing you what it's doing), but xbindkeys seems to be a bit more powerful.
/last/ multimedia keyboard). On some of the older keyboard models I've tried (HP 5219, Antec K361), all the keycodes wouldn't register, and the "sleep" button (which I usually bind to 'xset dpms force suspend') would send two events for some reason and usually wake itself right back up again (the dell mm kbd doesn't have a sleep button at all though).
:P
I usually like to get a good multimedia keyboard with extra keys and use xbindkeys-config to bind them to some command. It's been a bit tricky to find one where all of the buttons work as expected, though. I'm happy with the current Dell multimedia keyboard (SK-SK8135 , ~$22) - the volume/media keys are backlit, and they didn't do anything stupid with the layout (like tranpose the ins/home/pgup block like in their
I also have an X10 / ATi wireless usb remote that I've programmed some of the buttons on. Unfortunately, it has six buttons labelled 'a' through 'f' that just send those letters instead of keycodes, so it's hard to do anything with them.
Anyway, sorry for throwing out mostly hardware suggestions
I hate the fact that their apps all begin with the letter 'k.' What do they have against tab-completion anyway?
Most linux users don't know this, but the man pages were named after Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris fsck'ing hates noobs!
Yeah! What kind of retard uses a question to solicit information in this day and age?
One of my favourite things about KDE (or, more specifically, kwin) is the way it handles focus. In particular, it doesn't enforce that the window in focus must be the window on top. Using the default (at least they were default the last time I did a fresh install) KDE settings, scrolling the mousewheel can be used to change the the focus to the window you're scrolling in, but without changing it's z positioning. Furthermore, once you've given a window this state in this manner, you can interact with it normally without fear of it popping on top again, until you a) left click on the titlebar, or b) it loses focus (and then gains it again).
While a similar effect is possible by using focus-follows-mouse, it also requires you to keep the mouse cursor inside the window you want to have focus, whereas with this method, the mouse cursor can be anywhere.
In the same vein, the alt+(left|right) mouse button combos, which by default are mapped to moving and resizing a window, don't give a window focus either. Thus, you can move and resize any window without fear of it a) coming into focus or b) changing z order.
Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
When I go to click on something in kmenu, if I miss it, I can't just move the cursor down and depress the mouse button on the program I actually wanted. All that happens is that kmenu disappears, and no app is launched.
Oh, and the file manager takes about five seconds to launch on my machine. That's a pretty big time waster.
This is a must-have for any konqueror user.
:)
Are you fed up with those "smart key" tooltips that keep popping up in konqueror?
edit ~/.kde/share/config/konquerorrc
add this section:
[Access Keys]
Enabled=false
Now konqueror will provide an enjoyable experience without those obnoxious tool tips.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
sudo /bin/rm -fR / "Slashdot+First+Post"
You won't see any first posts, guaranteed. It will even tell you Slashdot+First+Post: no such file.
Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
I've got a Logitech Wireless Express keyboard/mouse with a few hardware "shortcut" keys (volume, e-mail, etc.) on my main machine – I've got a custom Xmodmap file to set up the keycodes, and then I've configured a couple KDE shortcuts for each of them... right now my e-mail button has been re-configured to play/pause in amaroK so I can, say, listen to the Rolling Stones while playing SuperTux; the "Home" button pulls up ~ in Konqueror; and "Back" is set up to lock the screen and pull up the screensaver, since I use that feature so often. One of these days I may also set up an Eterm button, since I spend so much time working on the command line... anyway, just took a bit of playing around with KMenuEdit after the Xmodmap file was done, very easy tweak.
.xsession file that does export KDEWM=enlightenment before startkde, and you should be set. I don't know why, I just like Enlightenment better with KDE – it looks a lot nicer, is a lot less obtrusive, and it just works the way I expect it to – does what it's told, does it in style, and doesn't Creatively Misinterpret(TM) anything along the way... it may take a little getting used to but there is no better way to run a system.
Oh, and at least IMHO, KDE is even more kick-ass with Enlightenment as the window manager... just do a custom
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
However, if you develop on Windows but need to test websites on Konqueror, this is a fantastic thing to be able to do.
I have heard a few people here and there complain that Konqueror is of no use to them as a file manager, because it is only single-pane. One thing I never noticed until recently is that Konqueror can actually have as many panes as you like! This is really useful. I have set up the hotkeys for splitting the view panes so that Alt-S will split to the side, Alt-D will split down and Alt-X closes the currently-selected pane. Now, normally I like using single-pane, but sometimes two or more can be easier. Whenever I need that, I use the shortcuts to do that. For example, since I use Konqueror as my browser too, I can go to a website with some images or files that I want, split the pane in two, navigate to my home directory in one of the panes, then it is as simple as dragging and dropping the items I want from the website to the folder.
For KDE apps that have functionality exposed via DCOP, you can tie mouse gestures or keyboard shortcuts to DCOP calls using the dialogue found in Control Centre->Regional & Accessibility->Input Actions. For applications you use regularly, this can be really useful. There is a DCOP browser you can use to explore the things that you can do with DCOP-enabled applications. Have a play with it and see what you can do. I personally use it for controlling Amarok. (an amazing app for anyone who hasn't used it BTW)
Have you messed around with the storage media notification configuration? When this feature first appeared, I worried that it might be useless and annoying, all popping up dialogues when you insert a disc, but some of the stuff you can do with it is quite cool. For example, if you use an external hard drive to back up your data, you could add an option to do that on the notification. Then, when you plug the drive in, the notification will pop up, and all you need to do is choose the newly-created option to back up your data. The dialogue you can use to do all this is found in Control Centre->Peripherals.
I hope some of these suggestions are of use to someone, and I also hope that nobody I know ever reads this post, as it is by far the most disgustingly nerdy thing I have ever written.
Damn! I was just about to post a joke about KDE not being a "relatively fast and lightweight environment", but you've already shot your load. Patience, young flamer. You shouldn't bitch about the quality of comments until there are at least 50 responses.
-jpeg
Brian, I put it to you that you are quite a rude and unpleasant person. I call my first witness to the stand: you. We shall now be going through your past, recounting your various counts of rudeness, and along the way, I ask that the jury take special note of the defendant's immoral tendency toward "Windows advocacy".
The prosecution rests, your honor.
"...[Thanking] heavens for how much easier Open Source makes my life"
Well, for starters, how about thanking the devs and the contributors? I didn't see any diety/atmospheric condition among the them...
My only advice for KDE users is to try out FluxBox, it just gets out of your way and let's you do exactly what you want to do. I know it's not what you asked, but...eh.
The cool part about KDE is that functionality by and large isn't hidden from the user. You just run the core desktop environment, mess around with the Control Center, open up a few invaluable apps (amarok, kate, kile, konqueror, kaffeine, kopete, kpdf, showimg... the list goes on), bind a few global keyboard shortcuts, and you're good to go. Everything works as expected, and is integrated to the bones.
Just about the only trick I use that isn't in plain view is fish:// for opening directories and files over ssh. Works in editors too (edit files directly over ssh). There's a lot of fancy magic you can do with other kioslaves, but mostly either I don't have a use for them or they're too buggy to rely on.
Also, ~/.kde/Autostart is the equivalent of the Windows Startup folder.
Finally, you can skin GTK2 apps with your KDE theme with a GTK Qt theme engine (gtk-qt-engine).
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I own a Logitech Cordless MX Duo, which includes an MX700 wireless mouse with Internet buttons (forward/backward), as well as a wireless iTouch keyboard which has multimedia and Internet buttons everywhere. None of these buttons are recognized under Linux, with any of the distributions I've used (SuSE, Kubuntu, Gentoo, older RedHat (4.1+) and Slackware (3.0+)). I've had similar, older Logitech models with the same problem.
While I don't much use the 'Shopping' button under Windows, I do use the multimedia buttons quite heavily. Thus, one of the little things that was keeping me on Windows was not having the very easy and convenient volume control & player controls. I use my soundcard as a preamp/mixer for a fairly nice stereo system with limited volume control. I also use my PC for DVD playing, TV, gaming and recording my guitar, so these buttons are more than convenient.
Additionally, I could never get the Win key to behave exactly like it does under Windows.
So, after lots of scripts and man page viewing, and some KDE control panel fussing and ALSA documentation reading, I've got it all glued together. The post ended up being huge, so I turned it into a journal entry:
X/KDE/ALSA Trick.
I hope somebody finds this useful; it was a little more than trivial to put it all together. I realize this is more a series of general Linux/X tricks, but KDE is involved; and you did ask for non-KDE tricks as well.
gameforge
Oh my, someone likes windows! I call for a search warrent so I can scour his house for astroturf recipts! Knock it off. Sure, I don't like windows either, but it is there, it works, and some people do like it. Let the windows fans have their say, you might learn something.
I have freaks! I did something right...
I think AC's point is the user in question resorts to personal attacks rather than discussing the issue. If I had mod points today I'd mod up AC's post.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Someone else already mentioned fish:// (remote filesystem access over ssh). the audiocd:// ioslave is nice as well - put in a music cd, type "audiocd:/" into konqueror, and you get a "virtual" directory of WAV, MP3, and Ogg-vorbis files. Drag and drop and it automatically encodes them to "real" mp3/ogg/wav files as desired.
And, of course, k3b is one of the handiest GUI programs ever - normally my nerdly pride insists on using command line tools, but k3b is just too nice.
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
I like KDE's clock with its built-in multiple world clocks display, practical if you have friends in different timezones. Use the scrollwheel over the clock to change the timezone, or just mouseover it to see the tooltip showing what time it is in all the zones you have. You can even put 2 or more clocks beside each other. :)
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
You insensitive clod!
Oh... wait... I mean...
NEENER NEENER! I don't have windows keys! La la la, I'm an insensitive clod!
*hugs and dances with his model-M, best Xmas present Ever*
It's very common for people to complain that konqueror is slow, but there is a simple trick to speed it up
Look up the top of Konqueror, click on Settings->Configure Konqueror
Now on the right hand window were the icons are scroll right down to the bottom, look for a icon marked Performance, its rocket shaped one, right click on the icon.
Now on the left side pane, turn on "Preload an Instance after KDE has started up"
Set the pre loaded amount to "2"
Regarding the memory section I have it set to "File Browsing Only"
Click on "OK" or "Apply", thats it all done.
Learn something from this "bwoodring"? Like what? Rude language and personal attacks?
I quite like how in the desktop wallpaper selection screen it gives an option to download additional wallpapers from some server using it's convenient image preview interface. Lets you see a thumbnail and its rating so you can choose whether to download the actual image. Very cool.
Wow! Thank you so much for bringing this great app to my attention. This thing is a killer!
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I like to have my panel have a large taskbar --I happen to
dislike grouping similar applications together, so I need more
screen real estate for my 5 instances of Firefox (each with 12
tabs), 7 instances of Kwrite, etc. I also want to have
app-launching icons easily reached on the screen. But the panel
doesn't have enough room to fit all this and still have a clock,
pager, a systray, etc.
So I put all my app-launching icons in another "child" panel,
extending down from the upper left corner. I set it so that
normally it doesn't get in the way. No, I don't use the hide
panel button. Instead, I set it so that other applications are
allowed to cover up this child panel; but then when my cursor
hits the upper left corner of the screen (without clicking
anything), the child panel automatically pops up over any other
window. Handy.
Not as needed now that we have Katapult, but I am still trying
to get into the habit of using Katapult.
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404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
I know it is bad form to promote what you have been heavily involved in but...
Configure Klipper to store more than the few items which is the default. Somewhere in the 500-1000 should be a nice number.
Now, when you need something you snipped a few days ago again, try ctrl-alt-v, write a bit (it's a regex, btw). Instant typeahead search in the clipboard history. I love it! :)
Also, fullscreen apps, and making the panel wide, horizontal and coverable are nice tricks :)
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=KIO+Fuse+G ateway
While a little tricky to set up, this allows you to use all of the wonderful KIOSlaves inside *any* application (not just KDE apps) by mounting a gateway directory under FUSE. Want to edit a file over SSH or FTP in the GIMP without explictly copying it locally? No problem.
09
kded has crashed... freeze freeze
But the stability of KDE at work is most likely to blame on the poor choice of distribution, rather than on KDE itself.
The same question was asked on the Gentoo forums some time back, and generated quite a long thread.
See here
To do this through knoqueror:
For me this is often a lot faster that starting up a shell session, and a lot safer then running Konq as root.
I hope this is useful.
-a.d.-
I'm Erwin Schrodinger and I approve of this message, and I do not approve of this message!
As you asked about what should be implemented:
In KDE on RHE3, when I use a shortcut to iconify all the window on the desktop, if one of my window is open on all the workspaces, it is iconified only on this workspace not on all the workspace, and the iconfication is only temporary if I switch workspace and come-back, the these window are opened again, grrr.
Plus when I click on a window on the task bar which is already opened, KDE iconify it, I'd prefer KDE to put it on the front.
The behavior that you describe is abnormal. I cannot tell you what the source of your problem is, whether it is your personal configuration, your distro's configuration or a hardware problem but, it is definitely abnormal behavior.
Clicking on my K menu(default configuration), I am able to move up and down, expanding and collapsing submenus without a problem. I am able to do this until I release the mouse button, at which point it launches what ever the cursor was over at the moment of release.
My file manager launches and displays a complete directory listing in under two seconds. This is on a 2Ghz machine with 1 GB RAM and an SATA hard drive.
Something is wrong with your setup. There is nothing wrong with KDE.
I did that once, back when I was afraid of actually installing Linux. It ran painfully slow, though.
Here's how I do it for Konqueror and for Konsole and for PPTP tunnels.
Create a shortcut to the application you desire.
Open the properties of the shortcut.
Choose the Application tab.
Click Advanced Options.
Click Run As Different User.
Next time you click the shortcut, a dialog appears asking you to log in as the desired user and the application launches as that user. I have a Konqueror - Super User Mode Terminal - Super User Mode on my K menu and on my panel quick launch.
It's the same basic thing as you describe, with a lot less typing. Clickity click.
Can you effectively run fluxbox as the WM?
kaens.blogspot.com
Tried it hoping for 256-color support, nope. It seems to be using the Konsole for actual terminal.
Also I have a big screen, and I usually have my terminals on the bottom it would be nice if there was an option for setting the location and size where the terminals popup. For example I would have set it to popup on the bottom and not take whole screen but basically bottom right corner.
Oh my, someone mentioned someone's windows advocacy! I call for a search warrant so I can scour his house for Lunix Jihad manuals! Knock it off. Sure, I don't like windows-bashing either, but there it is, it works, and some people do like it. Let the windows bashers have their say, you might learn something.
Katapult "knows" the names of executables/bookmarks/... even if you never used it before, nice if you have a freshly installed box
Alt-F2 just remembers the last entries you already typed, and changes its icon to reflect the content type/icon of the thing your 'URL' is ponting at