Chapter 3: KDE Page 1 of 31. Put icons on the desktop to mount and unmount removable disks, such as floppies.

Transcription

1 Chapter 3: KDE Page 1 of 31 Chapter 3: KDE In This Chapter What Is KDE? Instaing KDE Seecting KDE Basic Desktop Eements Running Programs Stopping KDE KDE Capabiities Configuring KDE with the Contro Center Configuring the Pane Manipuating Fies and Directories Project: Setting Up a Deveopment Environment What Is KDE? KDE stands for the K Desktop Environment. The K doesn t stand for anything in particuar. KDE provides some of the same functionaity for a graphica environment that is found in other popuar operating environments, such as Macintosh OS or Windows 98. However, it aso provides some unique features of its own to enhance your graphica work environment. KDE is a compete desktop environment, as opposed to being just a window manager or program auncher. Severa capabe window managers exist for Linux, incuding owm, fvwm, afterstep, and others. However, KDE provides much more functionaity than a simpe window manager provides. For more information on the differences between desktops and window managers, see Chapter 2, "Introduction to the Desktop." KDE Is a Graphica Desktop KDE provides a the capabiities of a desktop. For exampe, KDE enabes you to do the foowing: Put icons on the desktop to mount and unmount removabe disks, such as foppies. Browse the fiesystem graphicay. fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

2 Chapter 3: KDE Page 2 of 31 Associate appications with fies of a particuar type so that when you cick a fie, it automaticay oads the correct appication. Create a desktop printer icon, to which you can drag fies to print them. None of these are features of a window manager or program auncher by itsef. The vaue of KDE is that it simpifies many tasks that a user must perform by providing a graphica environment that simuates something more famiiar to the user. In other words, KDE provides a desktop metaphor, which is a way of dispaying and manipuating documents, directories, and programs in a manner that is more intuitive and appeaing than typing commands at a she prompt. KDE Appications The KDE system incudes not ony the desktop, but aso a whoe host of appications and utiities to go aong with it. In the defaut distribution of KDE, there are more than 100 programs, ranging from games to system utiities to a fu-bown office suite. Each of these programs is usefu in its own right; in addition, however, the KDE appications can interoperate with each other to make certain operations easier. For exampe, you can drag a package fie from the fie manager to the package manager to view the contents of the package and insta it. KDE Is a Project In addition to being a graphica desktop, KDE is aso a huge project. The KDE project provides a compete appications deveopment framework and many guideines and resources for the deveopment and use of KDE programs. Thousands of deveopers around the word work on various aspects of the KDE system, incuding programming, documentation, transation, a kinds of testing, and packaging. The KDE Web site is ocated at This Web site contains many resources for both users and deveopers of KDE. For exampe, the Web site provides onine documentation in many anguages. Aso, users can participate in maiing ists to receive or give assistance in working with KDE. For deveopers, appication stye guides, automated toos for constructing KDE appications, bug and feature wish ists, and more can be found here. The KDE project is devoted to a phiosophy of ease-of-use, consistency, and quaity for graphica appications in the Linux word. Instaing KDE Most major Linux distributions incude KDE automaticay when you insta them. Debian is a major exception because of disagreements over icensing (though this may change in the next reease). If you run Debian or another distribution that does not incude KDE by defaut, or if you simpy want to upgrade to a ater version, instaing the atest version is fairy easy. A the fies you need are avaiabe at ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/. KDE is made up of various packages, which are isted in Tabe 3.1. This ist of packages is consistent fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

3 Chapter 3: KDE Page 3 of 31 throughout the various distribution systems (such as RPM, deb, or tar). Tabe 3.1 KDE Packages Package Use qt (required) The Qt tookit from Trotech. A of KDE is based on this windows tookit. kdesupport (highy recommended) Non-KDE ibraries that KDE reies on. kdeibs (required) KDE shared ibraries. kdebase (required) Core KDE appications, such as the window manager, contro center, termina, and Web browser. kdeadmin (optiona) System administration toos, such as the package manager, kpackage. kdegames (optiona) Various games for KDE. kdegraphics (optiona) Graphic viewers and manipuation programs. kdemutimedia (optiona) Mutimedia appications, such as the CD payer. kdenetwork (optiona) Network appications, such as the mai cient and new reader. kdetoys (optiona) Misceaneous fun appications, such as kmoon, which shows you the current phase of the moon. kdeutis (optiona) More usefu utiities, such as the cacuator and text editor. koffice (optiona) The K Office Suite incudes a powerfu word processor, spreadsheet, and more. For any distribution, you wi need to insta the recommended and required packages in the order isted in Tabe 3.1. The optiona packages can be instaed in any order. RPM-Based Distributions For RPM-based distributions, such as Red Hat, Cadera OpenLinux, SuSE, Yeow Dog, and many others, you simpy need to downoad the RPMs and insta them. Go to either ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/stabe/atest/distribution/ or ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/unstabe/distribution/ and seect the distribution cosest to your own. The stabe tree contains the officiay reeased version of KDE, whereas the unstabe tree contains pre-reease betas and day-to-day snapshots of the deveopment tree. Pick the version most suitabe to you. After you have downoaded a the packages you want to a directory, you can insta them with RPM: fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

4 Chapter 3: KDE Page 4 of 31 $ su Password: <password> # rpm -i k*.rpm # After you have instaed KDE, see "Seecting KDE" ater in this chapter for more information on getting KDE up and running. Debian KDE is not directy supported by Debian, and KDE packages are not currenty avaiabe at the main Debian site, as previousy stated, because of disagreements over icensing. For more information on the Debian/KDE debate, see Note that this FAQ is from the Debian point of view and caims that distributing KDE binary packages is a vioation of the GPL (because of inking with the non-gpl Qt). The KDE deveopers have not posted an officia statement, but their genera agreement is that they are within their icense, and that Debian is free to distribute or not distribute KDE as they see fit. This can change soon (in fact it wi ikey have changed by the time this book is pubished) because Qt wi be reeased under the GPL, which shoud remove Debian s objection to KDE. Some Debian deveopers maintain semi-officia packages. To insta them, add the foowing to your /etc/apt/sources.ist: deb potato kde2 This is accurate at the time of writing, but because KDE2 is in fina beta at this time, you shoud check for the most up-to-date information. After you have updated /etc/apt/sources.ist, do the foowing: 1. Run dseect. 2. Seect Update to downoad the package ist from the KDE mirror site. 3. Seect Seect and choose kdebase by pressing the Pus key. dseect wi automaticay seect the other packages you need. Press Enter to accept the suggested packages or add additiona packages from the ist using the Pus key, and press Enter when compete. 4. If you want additiona packages, seect them with the Pus key. 5. Press Enter when compete. 6. Seect Insta to downoad the packages and insta them. After you have instaed KDE, see the foowing section, "Seecting KDE," for more information on getting KDE up and running. fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

5 Chapter 3: KDE Page 5 of 31 Note - Depending on which version of Debian you are running, you might need to insta the ibasound1 package as we. This is avaiabe at Downoad the package and insta it: # dpkg -i ibasound1_ deb Your fie might be named sighty differenty. Seecting KDE Many distributions aow you to seect whether to use KDE, GNOME, or some other desktop during instaation. Switching desktops is usuay fairy simpe after instaation, however. The ony compicated part is determining how your particuar distribution starts the desktop. Using the Dispay Manager If you re using either gdm (the GNOME dispay manager), or kdm (the KDE dispay manager) you can seect your desktop during ogin using the Session (or Session type) menu. After you have seected your desktop once, the dispay manager wi remember it when you og in again. Just eave the setting as Defaut. Using Switchdesk Red Hat incudes a utiity caed switchdesk that enabes you to easiy change between GNOME, KDE, and twm (a simpe window manager). From the command ine, enter $ switchdesk-kde then seect the desktop you want (KDE in this case), and press OK. The option Change Ony Appies to Current Dispay enabes you to have different desktops for different dispays. Generay changing dispays indicates that you are ogging in from a different machine. For exampe, you might have an NCD X termina (a machine that dispays X, but doesn t do any computations of its own and has no operating system). If your X termina is across a sow network ink, you might prefer to use a ightweight desktop ike twm instead of KDE. Tip - You can use another utiity caed switchdesk-gnome instead of switchdesk-kde. The difference between these toos is in the tookits used for dispaying the diaogs. Either too can be used to seect either desktop. Seecting KDE Manuay fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

6 Chapter 3: KDE Page 6 of 31 If you want to seect KDE by hand, you can modify the configuration fies directy. This can be usefu if you have a very customized start-up sequence or if you are running Debian (which has no buit-in support for KDE). To modify the defaut desktop for a users under Red Hat and simiar distributions, edit /etc/sysconfig/desktop and enter KDE as a singe ine. This wi automaticay set the desktop for a users who haven t seected their own aready. If you want to set the defaut desktop for a singe user under Red Hat, edit ${HOME}/.Xcients to read exec startkde. Under Debian, there is no easy way to set the defaut desktop, though you coud modify /usr/bin/xwindow-manager if you understand she scripting. To modify the desktop for a given user, edit ${HOME}/.xsession to read exec startkde. Then verify that /etc/x11/ Xsession.options incudes a ine reading aow-user-xsession. OpenLinux has no native support for anything but KDE, so there s no need to modify anything to use KDE as defaut. Tip - ${HOME}/.Xcients or ${HOME}/.xsession is the ast fie run by the window manager start-up sequence, so this is the pace for anything you want run before your window manager. Running your window manager shoud aways be the ast ine of this fie, and shoud aways be preceded with exec (as in exec startkde). The exec tes the she to competey repace itsef with the window manager. Otherwise, an unnecessary copy of your she wi be eft in memory. See "SHELL BUILT-IN COMMANDS" in the bash man page for more information on exec. ${HOME}/.Xcients or ${HOME}/.xsession shoud be executabe. You can make them executabe by running the foowing: $ chmod u+x ${HOME}/.Xcients If you are using.xsession, of course, repace.xcients in the preceding command. Note - If you have set environment variabes in your ${HOME}/.bash_profie (Red Hat/ OpenLinux) or ${HOME}/.profie (Debian), KDE might not know about them. This wi affect things such as your PATH setting when using the Run Commands diaog. If this is a probem, you can use the foowing.xcients (or.xsession) to fix it: if [ -e ${HOME}/.bash_profie ]; then. ${HOME}/.bash_profie esif [ -e ${HOME}/.profie ]; then. ${HOME}/.profie fi exec startkde fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

7 Chapter 3: KDE Page 7 of 31 Basic Desktop Eements When KDE first appears, it dispays the desktop in the defaut configuration, shown in Figure 3.1. There are two basic screen components to be it aware of the Desktop and the Pane. Figure 3.1 The defaut KDE desktop configuration. The Desktop The Desktop is the main working area of the KDE environment. This is the background behind a the other components that run on the screen. In the Desktop area, you pace icons for programs, documents, and devices that you work with frequenty. This makes these items readiy avaiabe for access and manipuation. Think of the Desktop area in the same way that you think of an actua desktop, where you keep documents and toos handy to accompish whatever tasks you are currenty working on. In addition to what you see onscreen, KDE actuay provides more desktop space in which to run programs. Four virtua desktop areas are provided by defaut. A virtua desktop is another screen to which you can switch to run appications or to perform work. You can easiy move programs and windows between virtua desktops. The extra space provided by virtua desktops gives you more room for your running programs, which enabes you to eave appication windows open and spaced apart, and therefore ready to use, instead of minimized or overapped. Virtua desktops aso enabe you to organize the tasks that you are currenty working on by pacing reated program windows on the same virtua desktop. The Pane The Pane (kicker) has icons for important KDE functions, as we as for frequenty used programs. One particuary important item on the Pane is the Appication Starter button, which is ocated (by defaut) on the eft side of the Pane. It is the icon with a arge K over a gear. From this button, you can access a menu that ists a the KDE appications instaed on your system. Furthermore, this menu provides access to severa other aspects of the KDE system, incuding the onine hep system and the KDE Contro Pane. Figure 3.2 shows the contents of the defaut appications menu for KDE. Figure 3.2 The Appication Starter menu provides access to programs and KDE options. The Pane aso incudes the virtua desktop Pager, the Taskbar, and the Cock. The Taskbar shows the windows that are open on the current desktop. Cicking a program in the Taskbar takes you immediatey to that program. Running Programs Probaby the first thing you want to do after you've started KDE is run some appications. KDE's fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

8 Chapter 3: KDE Page 8 of 31 phiosophy is that you can directy manipuate a the objects in the system, whether they are fies containing documents to work on, programs that you run, or devices that you contro. Launching an Appication To aunch a program, you can do any of the foowing: Singe-cick a button on the Pane Severa usefu programs are provided by defaut on the Pane. For exampe, the defaut Pane incudes icons for a virtua termina emuator, the Contro Center, the Hep Center, and a text editor. Singe-cick an item on the Desktop By defaut, ony two items are on the Desktop (the Trashcan and a ink to your home directory), but after you've used KDE for a whie, you wi probaby have paced your favorite programs here, ready to use. Your distribution might aso have paced many other inks on the desktop, such as inks to usefu programs or to their Web site. Seect a program from the Appication Starter menu Cick the arge K and foow the menus to the program you want to run. Cick an item in the Fie Manager Inside a fie manager window, cick an item to aunch it. You can aso run a program the od way, by opening a termina window and typing its name at the she prompt, or by using the Run Command window by pressing At+F2 and entering the program's name there. Essentia Programs A few oft-used programs are described here to get you started. First, the termina program, konsoe, enabes you to open a window and access a reguar commandine she environment. A button for konsoe is provided on the Pane, with a sma monitor and a she in the icon. Onine hep is avaiabe by cicking the icon of a book and ightbub on the Pane. The onine hep incudes a getting started guide, as we as an index for accessing hep for a the KDE appications on your system. You can browse the fiesystem or access the Word Wide Web using a fie manager window. To start a fie manager window showing the contents of your home directory, cick the foder with the itte house on it on the Pane. Stopping KDE To stop KDE, open the Appication Starter menu and seect the Logout menu item. By defaut, this wi return you to the KDM ogin diaog. When KDE exits, it coses a the appications that are currenty running. Many KDE appications fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

9 Chapter 3: KDE Page 9 of 31 remember their current positions, contents, and other attributes from one session to the next. When you restart KDE ater, these appications are restored to their former state, enabing you to continue where you stopped. For non-kde appications, or for appications in which saving the state is not possibe, you are warned before KDE exits that you might ose your work, and you are shown a ist of the appications. This enabes you to save your work and exit those appications ceany before ending your KDE session. Tip - You can aso og out by pressing At+F2 and typing ogout. KDE Capabiities As stated previousy, KDE provides much more than just a graphica window manager or aunch environment. It provides many integrated features that are designed to make it easier to work in a graphica environment. First and foremost, KDE provides an object-oriented environment in which to work. Instead of composing and typing commands at a she prompt, you manipuate the objects on your system using the desktop or fie manager windows. In KDE, you treat things as objects that can be accessed, manipuated, or combined by directy touching or moving them (cicking or dragging them). For exampe, to work on a document, cick the document and it opens the correct appication. To print a document, drag the document and drop it onto a printer icon. To examine the contents of a foppy, cick the foppy device on your desktop. This object orientation is provided by a sophisticated fie-typing system, as we as by rigorous adherence (on the part of appication authors) to standards that enabe KDE appications to interact in inteigent ways. KDE enabes you to contro a whoe range of options to customize the appearance and functionaity of the desktop. You can change the appearance of many things the desktop backgrounds, the tite bar buttons, or the icons for the individua fiesystem items themseves. You can aso change the behavior of KDE to suit your tastes by adjusting such things as the focus poicy (which determines how windows become seected) or the defaut appication for certain types of fies. Finay, you can ater the contents of the Desktop itsef or the Pane or appications menu to match the set of programs or fies that you use on a day-to-day basis. KDE aows for competey graphica configuration of a these aspects. This is in stark contrast to many other window managers in Linux, where you often have to edit text fies by hand and restart the window manager to accompish the same thing. Another important aspect of KDE is that it provides a singe framework for appication deveopment. A KDE appications share a highy consistent ook and fee because they use the Qt graphica ibrary to provide simiar ooking and functioning buttons, menus, contros, and other window items. Nevertheess, the KDE team has put together appication stye guideines as we to hep make sure that KDE appications ook and behave consistenty. For exampe, a KDE appications have a menu item ocated on the right side of the main appication menu for accessing the program's onine hep. A the onine hep foows a consistent ayout and stye. Simiar icons are used across a the KDE fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

10 Chapter 3: KDE Page 10 of 31 appications for buttons with simiar functionaity. Athough these might seem ike sma things, when taken in the aggregate, this uniformity contributes to your abiity to easiy use KDE appications because you don t have to re-earn interface detais from one appication to the next. Note - If you are famiiar with object-oriented programming (OOP), you might be interested to know that neary a KDE appications derive from a singe C++ cass: KAppication. By adhering to good OOP practices, KDE has made it fairy easy to deveop a program that foows the KDE standards, and automaticay inherits many of the configuration, interoperabiity, and internationaization features. Another often overooked facet of the KDE project is the compete support for internationaization of a KDE programs. Support for mutipe anguages is buit right into KDE from the ground up, with documentation and onine hep fies avaiabe in many anguages. Finay, because of the massive effort that has gone into KDE, numerous appications are aready avaiabe for it. The KDE and Qt ibraries provide a foundation for rapid deveopment of new appications that conform to KDE requirements. KDE appications are rich in functionaity, there are many of them avaiabe, and more are being deveoped every day. Configuring KDE with the Contro Center Configuring KDE coud easiy fi severa chapters (in fact, it does in Specia Edition Using KDE, from Que Pubishing). This section wi try to cover the most important configuration issues and introduce you to the rich KDE documentation. After you become used to how KDE does things, you' discover that finding most basic configuration options is easy. The Contro Center, shown in Figure 3.3, is at the heart of configuring KDE. It is a highy moduar configuration system that encapsuates the configuration panes for numerous desktop components and even some KDE appications. Figure 3.3 The Contro Center provides "one-stop shopping" for KDE configuration. Because of its moduar nature, you might notice the same diaogs appearing in more than one pace. For exampe, Figure 3.3 shows the Contro Center diaog under Look & Fee, Desktop, Background. Figure 3.4 shows the diaog from right-cicking the background and seecting Configure Background. Notice that the interiors of these two diaogs are identica, athough the widgets (the buttons aong the top of the window frame) are sighty different. This is because the interiors for both of these windows are provided by the same modue (ibkcm_background.so), using the kparts protoco. The window frames (and therefore the widgets) are drawn by the individua appications, such as the Contro Center (kcontro) or the desktop (kdesktop). Figure 3.4 You can aso access the same configuration diaogs from Appication's oca menus. The Contro Center is aid out in categories, simiar to a directory tree. By cicking the pus sign fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

11 Chapter 3: KDE Page 11 of 31 beside a category, you can see its components. By pressing the minus sign beside a category, you can hide its components. If you prefer a more straightforward icon view, shown in Figure 3.5, rather than a tree, you can seect View, Mode, Icon View. You can access a the diaogs with a cascading menu tree by using the Modues menu (which is identica to the Preferences menu on the Appication Starter). Most Contro Center diaogs incude extensive hep. The easiest form of hep is usuay quicktips. To access quicktips, cick the question mark on the window frame. The cursor wi change to an arrow with a arge question mark beside it. Cick the item that you re interested in and a yeow box wi appear expaining that option. Cick anywhere to make the tip go away. For more extensive hep, you can cick the Hep tab on the eft pane. Finay, if you are having troube finding the diaog you want, try the Search tab on the eft pane. Enter the keyword you re ooking for, and it shoud hep you find the right diaog. Some configuration diaogs require root access to make modifications. These diaogs wi incude a button at the bottom abeed "Run as root". Cick this button and enter your root password to make modifications to these options. The rest of this section wi cover some of the more usefu categories. For a more compete description of a the KDE configuration options, see Que s Specia Edition Using KDE. Figure 3.5 The Contro Center s icon view can be ess intimidating for some users. Information This category isn t actuay used to configure anything. Instead, it provides usefu information about your system. Some of the options, such as DMA-Channes or Interrupts, give you direct access to the information stored in the /proc fiesystem (see the section "The /proc Directory" in Chapter 10, "Understanding the Linux Fiesystem," for more information). Other options, such as X-Server, provide nicey formatted information about various devices. Sti other options, such as Memory, give continua feedback about information such as avaiabe free memory and swap usage. For intermediate to advanced users who don t want to search a over the fiesystem for this information, this category is extremey usefu. Look & Fee One of the nice things about KDE is the vast number of items that are configurabe. KDE enabes you to configure many different aspects of the desktop and window appearance, incuding background images, icon appearance, fonts, and so on. Aso, you can contro in minute detai how the desktop and windows behave, such as how they respond to the mouse, how windows are oaded and activated, and what screen saver is used when your Desktop is inactive. These options and more are described in the sections that foow. To configure the appearance and behavior of the desktop and windows, seect one of the configuration diaog boxes underneath the Look & Fee category in the Contro Center tree ist. Changing the Windows Coor Scheme fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

12 Chapter 3: KDE Page 12 of 31 The Coors diaog box is used to change the coor scheme for the windows of KDE and other graphica appications that you run. A coor scheme consists of 18 coor seections for different parts of a program window and a contrast setting. The window preview area shows a the different parts of windows that are affected by the coor scheme. As you make seections or adjust settings, the preview area changes to refect the settings so that you can see how your new coors wi ook. Figure 3.6 shows the Coors diaog box of the Contro Center. Figure 3.6 Customize window and text coors using the Coors diaog box. To pick a predefined coection of coor settings, pick a scheme from the Coor Scheme ist. To change one of the coor settings, either choose the name of the window part from the drop-down ist in the Widget coor area or cick the window part in the preview area. After you have seected a window part, change the coor for that part by cicking the coor button and seecting a coor from the diaog box that appears. After making your seections, choose a contrast setting by dragging the Contrast sider bar between Low and High. The Contrast setting adjusts the coors used for the highight and shadow of the threedimensiona frames around KDE interface eements. You can see the effect of the Contrast setting in the window preview area when you drag the Contrast sider. After a your seections are made, cick OK or Appy to save your settings. If you switch between coor schemes frequenty, you might want to manipuate the coor scheme ist. To add the current coection of coor settings to the ist, cick the Add button and type a name for your coor scheme. To remove a coor scheme, highight a scheme in the ist and cick Remove. You can ony remove coor schemes that you have created, not any system coor schemes. Changing the Desktop Background To change the background coor or image of the Desktop, seect Look & Fee, Desktop, Background in the Contro Center tree ist. The diaog box that appears has three main areas: A ist of (virtua) desktop names A preview monitor A mutitab seection area Each virtua desktop in KDE can have its own background settings. This enabes you to easiy identify the virtua desktop you are on from its appearance. The first thing you need to do to change the background is seect the virtua desktop that you want to change from the Desktop ist. For each desktop, you can choose a background consisting of either a singe coor, a two-coor pattern, or a background image. If you choose a background image, you can configure how the image fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

13 Chapter 3: KDE Page 13 of 31 is dispayed, or you can choose severa images and cyce between them automaticay. More advanced options, incuding bending between coors and images, and dynamic backgrounds are aso avaiabe. As you make modifications to your seections, the preview monitor dispays the background that resuts from your settings. Virtua Desktops The Look & Fee, Desktop, Number & Name diaog aows you to configure the virtua desktop feature of KDE. For more information on virtua desktops, see the section "Pager" in Chapter 2, "Introduction to the Desktop." The Number of Desktops sider determines the tota number of virtua desktops avaiabe. This can be any number between one and sixteen. Each of the Desktop entries aows to to set the name of the desktop, which appears on the Window List or on the pane in certain configurations. Choosing a Screensaver The Screensaver diaog box of the Contro Center enabes you to seect a screensaver for your system and customize its settings. You can configure goba options, such as the time before the screensaver kicks in, as we as options specific to the individua screensaver that you choose. The Screensaver diaog box is divided into three major areas (see Figure 3.7): A preview monitor A screensaver ist Some genera screensaver settings To choose a screensaver, seect the screensaver from the Screen Saver ist. To customize the screensaver you have chosen, cick the Setup button and edit the entries in the diaog box that appears. Each setup diaog box incudes a preview window so that you can see the effect of your settings before you accept them. Figure 3.7 The Screensaver diaog box enabes you to pick a screen saver and adjust its settings. To configure the amount of time before the screensaver starts, enter the number of minutes in the Wait for fied of the diaog box. If you want the screensaver to ock the screen when it is activated so that a password is required to regain access to your machine, seect the Require password option. You can aso seect whether you want KDE to echo password characters as stars as they are typed by seecting the Show password as stars option. If this option is not seected, the characters of the password are not echoed at a when the password is typed. To aow the use of the root password as we as your reguar user password to unock the screen, seect the Accept root password to unock option. The Priority setting contros how much processor time is devoted to the screensaver when it is active. This corresponds to the Linux nice vaue of the screensaver process. If you want the screensaver to run at a higher priority than other processes on your machine (so that the animation is smooth, for fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

14 Chapter 3: KDE Page 14 of 31 exampe), drag the sider to High. If you want other processes to have priority, side it to Low. To test the screensaver settings on the fu screen, cick the Test button. After adjusting the screensaver settings, cick OK or Appy to save your changes. Configuring System Notifications The Look & Fee, System Notifications diaog box enabes you to specify how you woud ike to be notified when various events happen. To associate a notification with a particuar event, seect the event from the nested menus in the Appication/Events ist. Then seect one or more notification types: Log to fie KDE wi append a message to the fie you specify in the Fiename text box. Pay sound KDE wi pay the sound fie you specify in the Fiename text box. Cick the button beside the Fiename text box to test the sound. Show messagebox KDE wi open a message box. Standard error output KDE wi output a message to standard error (stderr). This generay wi go to your text consoe. Generay this is ony usefu for debugging purposes. After you have made your changes, cick OK or Appy to save them. Setting Window Manager Poicies Settings in the Look & Fee, Window Behavior, Actions diaog box of the Contro Center enabe you to adjust window manager poicies. These poicies affect the appearance of windows when they are moved and resized, as we as how windows are maximized, paced, and seected (receive focus) by the window manager. The options in the top part of this diaog box determine how windows ook whie they are being moved or resized, and how the Maximize operation works on a window. During a resize or move operation, you can choose to have windows appear with their contents intact, or as transparent rectanges. When windows are drawn with their contents during these operations, it requires more time to update the dispay during the move or resize operation. If you are on a sow machine, this can resut in the operation appearing choppy or jerky. To dispay the contents of windows during move or resize operations, seect the appropriate options on this diaog box. However, if you want faster (smoother) performance for move or resize operations, deseect these options. If you choose to dispay contents in resizing windows, you can aso choose to have windows update their contents whie they are being resized, using the Resize animation setting. Use the sider to specify a speed. If you seect a vaue other than None, when you resize a window its contents are redrawn whie it is being resized. This gives you a visua indication of how the program wi ay out the window contents at various window sizes, so you can seect the best size. However, it aso makes the resize operation sower, and it can be choppy ooking. The Pacement poicy drop-down menu aows you to configure where windows are paced on the desktop. The foowing poicies are supported: fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

15 Chapter 3: KDE Page 15 of 31 Smart Minimizes overap between windows. Cascade The first window is dispayed in the upper eft. The next window is paced sighty to the ower right so it mosty overaps, and so on. The resut is simiar to how you might ay down a hand of paying cards. Random Windows are paced on the screen randomy. Focus poicy is perhaps one of the most persona decisions in configuring KDE. Focus poicy is how KDE determines which window is currenty active, and what to do when a window becomes active. The poicies are as foows: Cick to focus Windows gain focus ony when you cick on them. The window is automaticay raised, or put on top of any other desktop windows. This is the defaut and is the focus poicy of Microsoft Windows. Focus foows mouse Windows gain focus when you move into them (using the mouse pointer or using At+Tab or otherwise). This might or might not raise the window. Moving the mouse pointer onto the desktop does not cause the currenty active window to ose focus. If Auto Raise is seected, the window wi be raised after the mouse pointer is in it for the number of miiseconds set by the Deay sider. If Cick Raise is seected, cicking anywhere in the window wi raise it. Otherwise, ony cicking on the border wi raise it. This is an incrediby usefu focus poicy, because it enabes you to type in one window whie reading another window that might obscure it. Focus under mouse Windows gain focus whenever the mouse pointer moves into them. Keyboard shortcuts ike At+Tab wi probaby not work correcty. This focus poicy is reay ony provided for true purists. Focus stricty under mouse Windows gain focus ony whie the mouse pointer is within them. If the mouse points to the desktop, no window wi have focus. This is generay not usefu and is ony provided for neary masochistic od-time purists. Tip - If you have experience in other operating systems, you might be most comfortabe using Cick to focus, which is the defaut. But you shoud try Focus foows mouse. It reay separates UNIX-based desktops from ess feature-rich ones. Personaizing KDE The Personaization menu incudes many features for making KDE more taiored to you. This section is aso fairy confusing, because there is not a cear connection between a the modues paced here. This ayout wi ikey be redesigned in KDE 2.1. Seecting Country and Language Settings for the Desktop fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

16 Chapter 3: KDE Page 16 of 31 The Personaization, Country & Language diaog box enabes you to customize how numbers, dates, and currency are dispayed, as we as your preferred anguage. Locae This tab aows you to set the most genera information, country, anguage, and character set. The Country pu-down sets your country to one of the more that 60 pre-set countries that KDE knows about. This information is generay used to set the defauts, so if your country is not isted, simpy seect either a country with a simiar cuture, or seect Defaut (C) and configure the settings yoursef. No matter what you seect in this pu-down, you can aways reconfigure any of the options in this diaog. The Language pu-down sets your preferred anguage to one of the neary 50 anguages that have KDE message transations. It is possibe (even ikey) that not a appications have been transated to your preferred anguage. Because each message in KDE must be individuay transated, it is even possibe that ony some of the messages in a given appication have been transated. If KDE cannot find a transation for a given message, it wi dispay U.S. Engish. Tip - If you are fuent in a non-engish anguage and can aso read Engish, the KDE Internationaization project can probaby use you. Transation is a great fied for nonprogrammers (and aso for programmers)! Just visit i18n.kde.org to get started. i18n is the abbreviation for internationaization because there are 18 characters between the i and the n. Simiary, the abbreviation for ocaization is 0n. The Charset pu-down sets your preferred character set. A character set is a way of mapping integers (which computers understand) to etters (which humans understand). They generay have obscure sounding names such as iso8859-1, which is the character set for Western European anguages. These names generay come from the Internationa Standards Organization, or ISO, specification These superseded the previous "code page" standard, which is currenty being repaced by the Unicode (ISO 10646) standard. Unicode shoud eventuay unite a of the word s aphabets into a singe character set, removing the ambiguity in the current system. KDE aready incudes a great dea of Unicode support, and is now using it as its preferred interna format. As the word moves to Unicode, KDE wi be prepared, whie sti providing compatibiity with the many current and historica formats you are ikey to encounter. Numbers This tab aows you to configure how numbers are dispayed and entered in KDE appications. Note that not a KDE appications are we-behaved about accepting ocaized input. For instance, at the time of this writing, if your decima symbo is set to comma (as it is in many parts of the word), KOffice wi sti not accept "0,5" as one-haf. You must enter "0.5", which KOffice wi then dispay as "0,5". Money fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

17 Chapter 3: KDE Page 17 of 31 This tab aows you to configure how money is dispayed in KDE appications. These settings are generay independent of the settings from the Numbers tab, except for the positive and negative signs. Tip - If you are confused with the Number and Money tabs, just ook at the bottom of the diaog to see a preview of your seection. Time & Dates This tab aows you to configure one of the most ambiguous dispay formats avaiabe: time and date. The Time, Date, and Short date formats are a based on the format specifiers in Tabe 3.2. Characters without a eading percent sign are treated as iteras. For exampe, to dispay the time as 21:34:55, the format woud be %H:%M:%S. At the time of this writing, there is no way to put a percent sign in the format itsef. The Start Week on Monday option determines whether the week starts on Monday versus Sunday. Tabe 3.2 Format Specifiers for Date and Time Specifier Meaning %H Hour in 24-hour format with eading zero (00 23) %k Hour in 24-hour format without eading zero (0 23) %I Hour in 12-hour format with eading zero (01 12) % Hour in 12-hour format without eading zero (1 12) %M Minute with eading zero (00 59) %S Second with eading zero (00 59) %p "am" or "pm" as needed %Y Year with century %y Year without century (00 99) %m Month with eading zero (01 12) %n Month without eading zero (1 12) %b Three etter abbreviation for month %B Fu name of month %d Day of month with eading zero (01 31) %e Day of month without eading zero (1 31) %a Three-etter abbreviation for day of week %A Fu name of day of week fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

18 Chapter 3: KDE Page 18 of 31 Configuring Emai This diaog aows you to configure your emai address and server for mai cients (ike kmai) and other programs that can send mai (such as the bug-reporting faciity in most KDE appications). Most of the information in this diaog is incrediby straightforward. Fu Name and Organization are free-form identification fieds. Emai Address is your sending emai address, whereas Repy Address is the emai address you want repies sent to (eave this bank if you want them sent back to the sending address). The server information box configures your connection to your mai server (if you have one). Username and Password refer to your information on your mai server, not necessariy your oca machine. Incoming host is your IMAP or POP server. Leave this bank if you receive mai directy to your oca machine (or do not receive mai to this machine at a). Outgoing host is your mai reay. Leave this bank if your machine is running postfix or sendmai itsef. KDE understands IMAP, POP3, and Loca maibox deivery schemes. Use the atter if you receive mai directy to your machine. See Chapter 25, "Emai Cients and Servers," for fu information on mai deivery. If you prefer a mai cient other than kmai, enter this in the Preferred emai cient box. If your mai cient is text-based (mutt for exampe), cick Run in termina. Configuring the Pane You can change the ocation, size, and other options of the Pane using the Pane configuration diaog box. Aso, you can adjust the positions of the items on the pane or remove and add items on the Pane by accessing individua item context menus. Pane Configuration Diaog Box The Pane configuration diaog box is avaiabe on the Appication Starter menu, under Pane Menu, Configure, Settings or on the Pane context menu, under Configure, Settings. Right-cick an empty area of the Pane to access the Pane context menu. Finay, this menu is aso avaiabe on the Contro Center under Look & Fee, Pane. The Pane Configuration diaog box, shown in Figure 3.8, enabes you to seect the ocation of the Pane, as we as the size of the icons in the Pane. Other options are avaiabe as we. This diaog box has five pages, which can be accessed using the Genera, Look & Fee, Menus, Buttons, and Appets tabs. Figure 3.8 The Pane is at the core of the desktop and is highy configurabe. Genera The Genera tab aows you to seect the Location and Size of the Pane. The Tiny option uses sma fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

19 Chapter 3: KDE Page 19 of 31 icons and shrinks the height of the Pane. The Norma and Large options use arge icons, but with different Pane heights. By enabing Auto-hide Pane, the pane wi disappear whenever it is not in use. This is handy for gaining a itte more screen rea estate. To bring the pane back, move the mouse to the pane s edge. The Deay in Seconds determines how ong the pane waits before disappearing. The two hide buttons on either side of the pane are used to quicky move the pane off-screen. This is basicay the manua version of Auto-hide Pane. If you are using Auto-hide Pane, you probaby don t need the hide buttons, so you can uncheck the Enabed check box in the Hide Buttons section. If you do choose to have the hide buttons, they can be highighted whenever the mouse is over them by seecting Highight on mouse over. You can aso change their reative size using the Size sider. The Misceaneous section aows you to set the Termina appication. This is the program that is used whenever KDE needs a termina, such as when you seect Run in Termina from the Run Command menu. Look & Fee The Look & Fee tab generay makes seections from the Genera tab fancier. Enabing Hide Animation wi cause the pane to "side" off the screen when using the hide buttons (otherwise it just disappears). The siding speed is controabe with the Speed sider. Simiary, enabing Auto-hide Animation wi cause the pane to side off the screen when using Auto-hide Pane. Once again, the siding speed is controabe with the Speed sider. Note that there is no probem with having both Auto-hide Pane and the hide buttons avaiabe simutaneousy, though there is sedom a reason to do this. In the Misceaneous section, you can seect Fade Out Appet Handes. This causes the handes (the two sets of vertica dots) to the eft of each appet to disappear except when you pace the mouse pointer over them. This gives you a smoother-ooking pane that some peope prefer. Menus The Menus tab enabes you to contro the various menus on the pane, incuding the K menu (Appication Starter). The first option, Cear Menu Cache, aows you to determine whether (and by using the Cear After N Seconds sider, how often) the menus are re-read from disk. A pane menus are stored on disk as directory trees (for exampe, the K Menu is stored in ${KDEDIR}/share/appnk). To improve performance, these directories are read into memory the first time they are needed and cached. If you change the directory after it s been read, the pane wi not refect this uness the cache is ceared. Setting this option indicates how often this shoud happen. You can aways manuay cear the cache by restarting the pane (right-cick the pane and seect Restart). Browser Menus configures quick browsers, which are cascading menus that give quick access to your directory (for exampe, the Quick Browser ink on the Appication Starter). The Show hidden fies entry determines whether fies beginning with a period are dispayed. These fies are usuay considered "hidden." The Maximum Browser Menu Entries sider ensures that you do not overwhem the browser by entering a directory with an excessive number of fies. fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

20 Chapter 3: KDE Page 20 of 31 The K Menu seections configure the Appication Starter. The Merge Different Menu Locations option determines whether the persona and system menus are merged into one, or isted separatey. The Show Recent Documents Submenu determines whether Recent Documents entry is avaiabe. Simiary, the Show Quickbrowser Submenu determines whether the Quick Browser is avaiabe on the Appication Starter. Buttons The Buttons tab configures the appearance of individua buttons on the pane. If you turn on background ties, then each type of tie can be coored differenty. For each type of tie, seect whether it shoud be speciay coored by cicking the Enabed check box. Then seect the coor from the dropdown ist. Appets The Appets tab determines what appets are avaiabe for embedding in the pane and how they run. Appets are appications such as the taskbar, pager, and dock. Appets can either run internay or externay. To the end user, there is itte difference, except that interna appets run faster. The probem with interna appets is that if they are unstabe or insecure, the entire pane can crash or be compromised. The pane is protected from externa appets by a wrapper script. That way, if the appet crashes, the pane is unaffected. You can choose one of the foowing security eves: Load ony trusted appets interna Appets isted in the Trusted Appets ist wi be oaded internay. A other appets wi be oaded externay. You can move appets between the Trusted and Avaiabe ists using the arrow buttons between the two ists. Load startup config appets interna Appets that are configured to run on startup are oaded internay. Appets started ater are oaded externay. This is usuay a good seection. Load a appets interna Trusts a appets. This wi improve performance, but can decrease stabiity. Adjusting Items on the Pane To move an item on the Pane, or to remove an item from the Pane, use the options on the context menu for that item. Right-cick an item and the context menu appears (see Figure 3.9). To move an item, seect the Move option on this menu, and drag the item to the desired position on the Pane. Other buttons on the pane shift to make room for the item when you drop it. You can aso move an item by cicking it and dragging with the midde mouse button. To remove an item, seect Remove from the context menu. Figure 3.9 The Pane item context menu pops up when you right-cick an item on the Pane. Adding Items to the Pane fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01

21 Chapter 3: KDE Page 21 of 31 Adding items to the pane is fairy simpe. Just seect Pane Menu, Add from the Appication Starter. This wi provide severa casses of items to add: Appication This provides a ist of a the appications on the Appication Starter. Seecting one wi add a short-cut button to that appication. Appet This provides a ist of known appets. Appets incude the taskbar, the pager, the cock, and the dock. Things in the dock such as kipper are not appets. The ist of avaiabe appets is determined by the desktop fies in ${KDEDIR}/share/apps/kicker/appets. K Menu This adds an Appication Starter. You can have mutipe Appication Starters if you ike. For exampe, you might put one on each side of the pane for easier access. You can aso remove the Appication Starter atogether if you woud rather have the pane space. As with most things in KDE, everything on the Appication Starter is avaiabe through other means. Windowist This adds a button that provides quick access to a appications running on a desktops. Desktop Access This adds a button that, when pressed, temporariy hides a the windows on the desktop. This makes it easy to get to icons on your desktop (such as the Trash). Pressing this button again restores a your windows. Quick Browser This adds a Quick Browser, after asking you for the directory you woud ike to view. Quick Browsers give easy access to directories by making a of the directory entries appear as menu entries. Legacy Appication This adds a non-kde appication shortcut. KDE appications wi automaticay add themseves to the Appication Starter, so you can just seect them from the Appication ist, but non-kde appications don't do this. Seecting Legacy Appication aows you to add these appications easiy. Using the Menu Editor The menu editor, kmenuedit, modifies the main Appication Starter menu. To open the menu editor, seect System, Menu Editor on the Appication Starter menu. Figure 3.10 shows the menu editor window. Figure 3.10 The Menu Editor for the Appication Starter menu. To open or cose submenus, cick the box beside a name. To move a menu item from one ocation to another, drag it using the mouse. To create a new menu item, seect the submenu you want to add it to and seect Fie, New Item (or cick the New item button on the toobar). On the Genera tab, the fieds are as foows: Name Language-specific name of appication. This is the name that appears in the menu. fie://j:\macmiancomputerpubishing\chapters\jw046.htm 3/22/01