Create a custom user profile for KDE4
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Hi,
My custom "lightweight" KDE 4.10.5 desktop for Slackware 14.0 is currently being finished and polished up. I have yet to sand down some rough edges and add a few missing bits. Right now I'm creating the default user profile for the KDE desktop, e. g. the desktop's default configuration when a user is created. I'm encountering a few problems with that. Compared to the vanilla KDE configuration, the custom user profile here includes a few sensible defaults. Here's what I got so far to make KDE4 more Joe-Sixpack-friendly (see screenshot below to get a rough idea):
Creating a custom profile for a desktop environment like Xfce is dead simple. All you have to do is create a template user, configure the desktop, then copy all of /home/template/.config to /etc/skel (make a package eventually), and that's it. With KDE, things are more complicated, as it seems. Application settings are stored in ~/.kde/share/config, in a series of files. Now of course I could grab all these files and copy them over to /etc/skel. Here's a summary of the problems that arise. Some configuration defaults in plasma-desktop-appletsrc, for example, use hardcoded geometry, like this: Code:
[Containments][1] Some configuration details seem to hardcode the user, like here for example: Code:
[Containments][1][Applets][27][Configuration] Code:
[Defaults] I'm a little bit stuck on this one, and I'd be grateful for any help and/or suggestion. Cheers, Niki |
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I spent the best part of a sunny summer Sunday on this, and I'm just starting to get anything near a result. Which is quite unexpected actually, because the correct way to do things is to script the default profile. See attached screenshot.
Thanks to pprkut and AlienBob on #slackbuilds for the precious help. |
Hi and thanks for your work on trimming down KDE! Have you considered making a repository for it that could be used with slackpkg plus?
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I did a lot of experimenting yesterday evening and this morning. So far I have a quite usable default configuration. Here's my 00-defaultLayout.js:
Code:
loadTemplate("org.kde.plasma-desktop.defaultPanel") Code:
var panel = new Panel
I did this mainly by looking at other folks' mods on the web, and trying to figure out how I can adapt them for my own needs. I'm moving in very small steps, with a lot of trial and error. Now here's some more things I'd like to do this way (e. g. by scripting), but I don't know how to go about it, in terms of mere syntax. I'll describe them in plain english:
If you have one or more suggestions for any of the points above, I'd be grateful. For now, "I've reached the end of my latin", as we say in my native Austria. Cheers, Niki |
OK, I managed to go further in my default configuration. I edited a series of small files in /etc/skel/.kde/share/config to alter KDE's default configuration.
emaildefaults: Code:
[Defaults] kcminputrc: Code:
[Mouse] kdeglobals: Code:
[KDE] kickoffrc: Code:
[Favorites] kwinrc: Code:
[Compositing] nepomukserverrc: Code:
[Basic Settings] Everything works now as expected (again, after lots of trial & error). Which means I only have one last thing to configure, and I don't know how to figure that out: How can I have widgets default to locked? Users can unlock them afterwards eventually, though I'd like to know how I can theoretically lock everything down for good. I'd be really grateful to know that, as it would allow to wrap this up. Cheers, Niki |
immutability=2
kikinovak,
Maybe you can find an answer seeing what's changing when "block" or "unblock" the widgets in this file .kde/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc (the key are the immutability options from 1 to 2): Code:
# diff -U 3 -dHrN -- plasma-desktop-appletsrc_blocked_widgets plasma-desktop-appletsrc_unblocked_widgets |
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The KDE mailing list is actually very helpful with this. |
[Much later...]
One more nut cracked. Code:
Mon Aug 19 19:15:33 CEST 2013 |
Did you ever consider recoll as a desktop search tool?
Hi Niki,
Did you ever consider recoll as a desktop search tool? It has xapian-core as dependency, which is useful if you also use mutt with notmuch or even notmuch in emacs. recoll can run as a daemon and index your specific desktop search needs flawlessly. It even can be used as a helper app in dolphin. Just an idea. Thank you for your great contributions. Greetings Marcel Geijsberts |
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The file search tools shipping with KDE already work quite well, at least in version 4.10.5. Only I decided to deactivate them in the default configuration - as I did with all the graphics effects - so folks can run the whole desktop even on low-spec hardware. Of course, everything can be (re)activated on more recent PCs. BTW, I tested everything on a battered 13 year old NEC Powermate (PIV 2.4 GHz, 512 MB RAM), and it runs correctly, using 175 MB RAM with the KDE desktop started. I'm also already running it on my main workhorse PC, and I love it. Feeling is similar to driving my old Mercedes. Cheers, Niki |
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