I'm an absolute newbie on this stuff.
I just installed Slackware on my pc and I'm having several problems with KDE.

I made the full instalation of Slackware 10.2 and I know I got an error with one of the packages (I don't remember which one, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't related to KDE) during the installation.

The problem is that when I open KDE I can't see any icon anywhere. If I try to create one I got several errors saying that it does not recongnize the mime-types (I got like 10 alerts with the different mime-types).

E.G. I downloaded the latest version of Fiefox but I can only launch it from the console.

Is there any way to compare the packages of the full instalation with the ones actually installed on my pc to try to install the missing one again?

Is it possible to re-install KDE? Where can I find a guide for that?

Thx a lot.

El Barto

To reinstall KDE go to the KDE directory on CD2 May be a 'cleaner way' but it will work

Welcome to Slackware!

First, double check that you really have a kde problem. One easy way to create desktop icons is to drag the item from the K-menu. So find firefox in the K-menu (usually with the "Internet" programs), click and hold the mouse button down and then drag the icon to the desktop. It will ask if you want to copy or link here--choose link. If that works, great. If not, you can try reinstalling kde.

Reinstalling kde is easy. How to do it depends on your installation media. Basically you need to find the kde packages. They are in a directory called kde (I think something like Slackware/packages/kde). Go to this directory and, in a console as root, type "installpkg *.tgz". (If you don't know what "as root" means, just post again.)

Personally I had problems with kde 3.5.1 in the Slackware/current tree (was missing some libraries). I had no problems with the Slackware binaries from the kde.org site, nor with the original 10.2 kde (3.4.x?).

OK, I tried what BCarey said to check it wasn't a problem with KDE.
Now I'm guessing it might be a little more complicated than I thought. When I try to create the icon I get al alert with the following message:

Could not start process Unable to create io-slave:
klauncher said: Unknown protocol 'file'.

Does that make anything more clear?
As I said before I think it's a problem it has reading files... as I mentioned, when I try to open some files I get errors where it sais it has problems with mime-types.

Thx a lot for your help so far.
I'd appreciate if you could help me to fix this, cause I can't wait to get into Slackware's world! :P

El Barto

By the way.. I'm also having problems setting up my keyboard to spanish...

I did this:
loadkeys es.map

And then I changed the following files:
- /etc/profile.d/lang.sh, setting "export LANG=es_AR"
- /etc/profile.d/lang.csh, setting "setenv LANG=es_AR.ISO8859-1"
- /etc/profile, setting
" export LANGUAGE=es_AR
export LANG=es_Ar
export LC_ALL=es_AR "

But I can't get it to work...
I read somewhere that I should have a rc.keymap file on /etc/rc.d/... but I didn't have one... just to be sure I created one that only said:
"loadkeys es.map"
Anyway, it didn't work either...
what am I missing?

Thx again and sorry I bother u with my newbie questions

El Barto

Elbarto,

Can you be more specific re: your error messages? Do you get errors for all your icons, or just a certain kind (eg. links to hard drives or cd roms)? Maybe a couple of specific examples?

For the language settings, you can try to set your language/keyboard using the kde control center. You find the settings under the category "Regional & Accessibility". The Language selection is in "Country/Region & Language" and the keyboard setup is in "Keyboard Layout".

Brian

Brian, thx for your help.

The error:
Could not start process Unable to create io-slave:
klauncher said: Unknown protocol 'file'.
is the most common one... i get it every time..
when I run KDE i got one of those... then if I try to make an icon of ANYTHING i get the same error.... and then of course the mime-types errors... those even come up when I try to configure my desktop layout :P

By now I'm guessing the best solution is to reinstall everything again cause I'm finding too much problems everyware... I suck :P

El Barto