SuSE 10.1 weirdness?
 

OK, theres lots that I don't know how to do since moving from Mandriva to SuSE.

I'm encountering some weird things that don't necessarily seem to be SuSE related, but always worked fine under mandriva, but not with this new 10.1 install.

So, adding bookmarks (in firefox - 1.5.0.3 I think it was the version that came with the 10.1 install). I retained my bookmarks.html from my mandriva install (on CDRW and then copied it over to the bookmarks.html when I'd finished installing the 10.1 and firefox).

Now it seems that I can't add any bookmarks or alter the ones that are already there.

Secondly, I've set up the KDE screensaver, but it doesn't want to start. If I test it, it starts fine, but doesn't want to start automatically. When I look at the advanced options, I notice that it's set to a "low" priority. So I change that and "apply" any changes, but if I then look to check, it seems to have reverted to the "low" priority setting.

Thirdly, I use kontact/kmail for pim functions. I've got it set so that it checks for new mail every so often, but when I re-open it to see, theres nothing there until I hit the "check mail" option. The other problem with this is that if I write a new message, and hit send, it won't send it automatically and there seems no option to change so that it will do.

I always had no problem with these "oddities" under mandriva, and while they are all apparently different, the only common link seems to be that they all occur via SuSE implementations of the various apps.

Can anyone please advise me where I should start looking to work out how to solve these?

At a guess, I'd say "look at permissions and directories". Both Konqueror and Firefox are fine with legacy bookmarks and new bookmarks here so I'm left wondering if your permissions are getting in the way of progress.

FWIW, I run xscreensaver and it works just fine (I like the choices a lot more, too). When starting a new session after re-booting, all I do is launch xscreensaver from a temporary terminal ("xscreensaver&" does it), wait out the splash screen, and then exit the terminal (that makes the odd error message go into the bit bucket). To activate the screen saver before it times out (times in? ;) ), "xscreensaver-command -activate" will wake up the screen saver (no need to detach the job with an "&").

I can't help with kontact/kmail - sorry. :)

I sort of guessed (hit and miss) that the bookmarks thing might be permissions.

I went and had a look at the file properties and guess what I found? Yes you've guessed it. Permissions.

I'm not sure why it might have done that (maybe something to do with the burn of the original file and then retrieving it from the CDRW (cant recall if it was as a multi session burn or whether I closed it), but the file properties showed that my user was the owner but the perms where r--r--r-- so by just moding it to rw-r--r-- meant that I could add/change all the bookmarks that I wanted.

As for your comment about the screensaver, well I don't quite follow what you mean RBEmerson. I "think" that I've got the xscreensavers package installed, but as far as I was aware it operates from within KDE (I'm guessing that it might be able to operate as a "standalone" thing, but I've never tried running it in that way).

I suspect that my problem might be, that I don't know where the file that controls the kde (and other?) screensavers lives. Or how I might find it.

I think that I'll persue that for the moment as I should really have at least a vague idea of how the kde file structure works.

Oh, and for anyone else reading this, I also forgot to mention in my original post, that as well as the kmail/kontact thing I mentioned, I also run kpilot to sync my Palmone Treo 650. The kpilot daemon seems to crash when I run it to sync the handheld, and would like to know where to start looking to try to find out why (again, it worked fine "out of the box" under mandriva).

regards

John

Heh, heh, heh... I knew that. :D :D :D ;)

Er, what controlling file? Right after X session starts and all the splash screens, etc. have gone away, I open a new terminal (konsole) and type "xscreensaver&<CR>". The xscreensaver splash screen shows up and there's a chance to pick which module(s) you want to use. Once that's done, close that window (I use "restart daemon") and the screen saver is up and running. Close the terminal and you're all done. Depending on the settings you entered (back to that splash screen thing...), xscreensaver will kick in eventually. Or you can force it to "save you screen" immediately by entering "xscreensaver-command -activate" from a terminal. Easy peasy. :)

Ok, I've also managed to sort the screensaver thing - well partially (or so it seems).

There seems to be some correllation between the screensaver settings, the power saving options and the kpowersave facility (sorry if anyone reads this I can never remember the differences between what the various parts or facilities that the software offers).

I still can't find out how to modify the properties of the screensaver i.e. the "priority" in the advanced settings, but it seems that I've managed to get it running (the screensaver that is) by making sure the kpowersave facility is disabled (is that a "laptop thing" ?? - don't know, anyway) in "personal settings" I follow the peripherals>display>powercontrol - I have the "enable display power management" option checked, but the 3 sliders are set to 0 (the right hand box shows "disabled").

Now, at least, the screensaver seems to be kicking in (I have it set to a time of 1 minute on the screensaver settings).

There must be something else that affects whether I can' change the "priority" of the screensaver, but what ?


So, that means that for the moment, I just need to find out why kontact/kmail isn't "checking for new mail" properly or the new snag that I seem to have, whereby the kpilot daemon seems to crash when I connect my Palmone Treo 650 and try to sync it with kontact.

I'll have a look at the xscreensaver thing though, because when I looked at it last night (after you mentioned it) when I ran the dialogue box gave me the option of disabling it - I'd previously read something I found at google that said about someone else having a problem with various screensaver facilities conflicting under a version of SuSE.

I understand that "they" have only just finished sorting this 10.1 version and wondered if it's a minor bug of some sort or whether it's a case that I don't have a clue what I'm doing for slightly more advance config to suit my hardware/system (which is the more probably answer).

Ha! at least at the moment, I don't have to "power off" my monitor - which I've become quite attached to (second hand/used - physically a big bit of kit i.e. 21inch Philips CRT model, but I certainly couldn't afford to replace it with a flatscreen - the 21inch model being quite a luxury IMO):)

Er, ya lost me. I run a flat panel so protecting the CRT isn't a priority here, instead, blanking the screen when I'm not using the system matters. But I don't have to do anything with powersavers, etc. to make xscreensaver work. I just light off xscreensaver and watch the pretty pictures...