Recommend a Replacement for KDE?
 

Hi guys,

After 15 years of Linux I'm trying Slackware for the first time and while I'm struggling to get the hang of installing packages and dealing with dependencies manually, I'm having quite a bit of fun overall so far!

Anyways, I've installed SlackWare64 on a brand new Dell Laptop and when I boot into X, KDE takes eons to load and when it does there is a window that its trying to render in the upper left hand of the screen that never gets drawn completely! Just the outline of what is obviously supposed to be a window. On top of that, the damn kdm keeps crashing like its 1999 or something (the last time I tried to use KDE) and I'm about to just give up on KDE.

I want a great looking modern desktop environment (that I can further customize with conky, GLX-Dock, and right click scripts). I have been using gnome for a decade and I love it but I'd kind of like to try out something new.

Any recommendations?

Update to KDE 4.8.2. The 4.5.5 that ships in 13.37 feels ancient. If not KDE, try something different like fluxbox or dwm. You'll have fun configuring those :)

Hi,

I've used fvwm2 for a long time. It is highly configurable, but the configuration has a steep learning-curve.

For me fvwm2 was a replacement for KDE.

If you want to find out why KDE doesn't run properly on your system, please tell us more about your graphics-adapter and which driver you're using.

Markus

Thanks Markus! But I need to get a handle on Slackware fundamentals before I start digging into the guts of why KDE is so crashy on this brand new machine (or try upgrading the KDE base).

I just found this post: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...to-kde-917224/ so it looks like I can switch around without having to install each environment one by one!

You should look into XFCE. If you want to give it a try, type xwmconfig and select XFCE.

You could try disabling desktop effects in KDE. They're on by default.

If the KDM crashes are what I think you're referring to, then try this: http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/...n_I_log_out.3F

And yes, Xfce is a great desktop.

Yes, you can use the "xwmconfig" utility in order to switch between the various WMs.

Markus

http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/s...whatisthis.jpg

Does anyone have any idea what this is? I think I've got most of my issues worked out but I can't figure out what is this window KDE is trying to draw that I can't interact with. It makes my desktop look really stupid and it overlays every wallpaper.

It may be something to do with your graphics card not being configured correctly. You will have to post some details. In a terminal as root run dmesg. lspci, and lsmod. Then search the forum for your graphics card that should sort things out. Hopefully.

samac

I thought it was a feature. When I briefly tried KDE on 13.37 shortly after it was released I saw exactly the same thing but thought it was some space for icons or widgets.

It is a phantom window frame. It was a bug in KDE 4.5.5 that was fixed in later versions.

In defense of Fluxbox - I switched all the machines I support, family and business, to Fluxbox in the early days of KDE4.

It does require a bit of configuration and could not be described as 'feature rich' - but it has turned out to be exactly the thing I needed!

Sure you have to manage your own menus and twiddle with the themes (although there are some very good ones available now), but it pays you back handsomely for your efforts!

Lean, mean and not in your way... give it a try.

Here is one of the old threads where it was discussed:
some-kde-questsions-32bit-13-37

Outstanding! You guys rock!

Setting the desktop rendering to XRender removed the phantom window!

I had noticed that if I deleted the user and re-created it and logged in then the problem goes away until the next time I logged in. I didn't want to go the route of posting lspci and all that jazz because this is a brand new, top of the line Dell machine.

Let me take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the LQ members who suggested Slackware to me a few weeks ago because it's great (so far)! I've got so many questions but I'll save those for other posts.

You look like you've a farly basic kde setup not to hard to recreate. I found that while using init3, removing you ~/.kde4 folder and restarting kde fixes this issue.