how do I upgrade from KDE 4.2 to KDE 3.5
 

almost nothing about KDE 4.2 works
every thing in KDE 3.4 works
I WANT TO UPGRADE FROM KDE 4.2 TO KDE 3.5

Hello,

Why not just stick to Slackware 12.2?

More to the point, what is not working on KDE 4.2.4 (-current)? I've been running -current since July and I can not say "almost nothing works".

Well, for example, the new konsole is as stupid as gnome-terminal.
Since I live in konsole for more than 2/3 of my working time, with such a badly designed konsole, I can say "nearly nothing works".

I am loving the new konsole. You can actually scroll with your mouse when using the less command. Again, what is not working, because it seems to be working for most. Maybe this is a bug that needs to be addressed before 13.0 is released.

Hello rob.rice,

Whatever your motives to go back to KDE3 with Slackware 13.0, here's a thread that may be of interest to you:

Using KDE 3.5.10 With the Next Official Slackware Release

Well as you are telling us you spend 2/3rds of your time at the CLI, why not just ctrl+alt+f6 to a terminal?

Then you will have more time to fix whatever is irking you with KDE4.2. So far, I haven't found anything that I could achieve in KDE3 not having some sort of workaround in KDE4. Just takes a little patience, and the need to understand that things operate slightly differently. Change is a difficult thing to grasp sometimes, but how about looking forward to the challenges rather than just dissing the whole thing.

upgrade? more like a downgrade.....
use xfce ;)

there is no 64bit version of slackware 12.2
IF there was I would install KDE 3.5 from there
like Gonme from older versions of slackware for I forget how long gonme would still work after it was droped from slackware (I think it was 3 versions later it would still work )

NO 3.5 is an upgrade from the vis-stool wanna be KDE 4.2
3.5 can be configured in ways that 4.2 can't be
(ie just one background for all desktops )
none of the media players work at all
it's bitch to navigate the menus
the menus are very very hard to use on a laptop with just the the touch pad when I lift my finger off the touch pad the menu closes then I have to start over and hope I can reach the menu I want before I run out of touch pad
mc dose not work in the konsol I get light blue on blue text that can't be read
and the konsol thinks it owns the function keys so they can't be used by other programs

xfce has a vary poor humane interface that almost can't be configured and it's ugly

You raise some interesting points.

I have argued and asked for continued support for 3.5.10. I plan to continue using 12.2 on my office box and will not be installing 13.0 there. My primary reason is KDE 4 is incomplete. Many Slackers were hoping 4.3 would be included but that will not be the plan. I'm expecting that when the next Slackware release is available KDE will be complete, robust, and most bugs eliminated.

With that said, I am now playing with Current and KDE 4 with my eventual HTPC. I was sort of forced to do so because I am unable to get audio over HDMI with 12.2. That led me to testing Current, which in turn led me to testing KDE 4. Yes, some things are different enough to be frustrating. For example, you mentioned navigating the menus. The default menu is called Kickoff and is indeed different from traditional menus. However, by right-clicking on the K button, there is an option to restore the traditional menu on-the-fly.

I spend a lot of time in Konsole too. I can't say I find Konsole any more or less usable than in 3.5.x. Seems much the same to me although cosmetically I preferred the smaller tabs from 3.5.x. Perhaps there is a configuration option for that but I haven't looked.

KDE 4 does seem faster to me than 3.5.10 and noticeably, in run level 3 KDE now exits to the console faster than 3.5.10. Perhaps this is a configuration issue, I don't know.

I tend to agree that Xfce is not as polished or crisp as KDE 4. I will say that 4.6.1 looks much better than 4.4.x. As this new box will become an HTPC, frequently I have been connecting the PC to my HD TV (37 inch, 1920x1080) as I progress with my testing and configurations. I have noticed that KDE 3.5.10 and Xfce 4.6.1 look very grainy on my HD TV and fonts are difficult to read, whereas KDE 4 looks sharp and crisp. I don't know why and I'd appreciate an explanation if anybody knows.

I have uttered plenty of four-letter words as I have spent time with KDE 4 because of design changes. For example, the location for creating application keyboard shortcuts has changed. Configuring the panel is weird to me and I preferred the old way. As my focus is on HTPC support I'm not playing a lot with many features and I can't share stories about bugs. Yet I do agree with claims that KDE 4.2.3 is incomplete. I'm sure some savvy people have found workarounds. Despite those four-letter words, I have seen enough to convince me that KDE 4 is going to be a good desktop environment. When complete I expect to migrate my office machine but for now I am patient to wait. I can afford to play and experiment with the HTPC, however.

Overall I have to disagree with the general comment "that nothing works." I will agree that many things now work differently, which creates the illusion that many things no longer work.

Rob,

Have you tried XFCE? You can start it by typing from a command prompt in run level 3. You can also set the startx command to run it automatically by typing and choosing Xfce from the list of window managers.

Alternately, search the forum here. People have been working on installing KDE 3.5 in Slackware 13 and have made some progress.

Regards,

If using KDM as the login, XFCE is available right there in the Session list. FWIW, I am coming from KDE 3.5.4 and find the new KDE 4.x rather annoying too, but I am attributing it to immaturity at this point in the game. I've found XFCE to be a good functional alternative, despite that a couple small things take a bit of adjusting to..

Also, as for the Midnight Commanders terrible colors by default, just switch the color scheme of Konsole to "Linux Colors" and it will make MC go back to like you're familiar with (yes, those colors were yucky!)

Sasha

to me KDE 4.2 is still in alpha the stage in that it will compile BUT way too much is broken to even consider
including it in any distro at this point
maybe next year it will be beta stage
2 or 3 years from now it might be fixed
a working KDE 4.2 may be 3 to 4 years down the road judging by the mess that KDE 4.2 is now
BUT
it will still have those God awful menus the worst thing about them is if you go to the wrong sub menu there is no way back to find the right sub menu (at least not that I have found)
this is even worse than the broken touch pad support (at least I can plug in a mouse some times and make it work)

at this point KDE 4.2 looks like something from M$ rather than open source
IF I wanted to fight with broken software I would be useing windoze

yes I find a lot of the same problems with it it can't be configured
there is no good terminal emulator for it
and it is childishly cute like it was meant to to be used by 3years olds

Probably not such a good idea, but maybe the KDE packages from Slamd64 12.2 will work?

I used XFCE in the past when I still ran VectorLinux and I didn't see anything childish or cute about it. It is a lightweight desktop environment, but a perfectly functional one.

If you found that the default theming was too "cute" for you, they do offer (amongst many others) a CDE skin...

Define "good terminal" please.