Description: These openSUSE KDE Tweaks are actually KDE 3.5.5 (openSUSE 10.2) patches and two RPM tools through which I have added, modified and removed some features.
I like and dislike the new kickoff menu at the same time, so I decided to change everything about it that I don't like.
Although my patches were ment to change only the new kickoff menu, I ended up changing other parts of KDE, and even writing two little apps. The results of my hacking are all here, so make good use of it :-)
The patch provides the following modifications:
bi-kicker:
- Changes the order of the kickoff tabs to a more logical order (in order of access frequency): Favorites, Applications, History, Leave - Removes the IMHO useless Computer tab (can be replaced with a sysinfo icon in the Favorites tab) - Corrects the order of Grub entries (to descending) in the "Start Operating System" submenu - Removes the useless "Restart and boot directly into ..." comments from the Start OS submenu - Changes the order of the Recently Used Apps to the same order as in the old menu and as in the Recent Documents list (new at top, older at bottom) - Lower the number of days a New Application entry is kept (1 instead of 3) - Adds an Uninstall context menu entry which calls the uninstall_rpm script with the *.desktop file as the first parameter - Changes in the old KMenu the "Recently Used Applications" tag to just "Recently Used" and the "Most Used Applications" tag to "Most Used" - Adds a rounded corner to the left side of the search mode
bi-kicker_noshadow:
- Everything included in bi-kicker - Removes the shadow surrounding the menu. Useful for those who enable the nVidia composite mode (providing a cool shadow for all active windows) and would like to avoid a strange double shadow effect.
bi-kdesktop:
- Prevents the unwanted realignment of desktop icons when the Auto Align mode is set (random realignment of the icons is a problem since KDE 3.4)
bi-kcontrol:
- Removed the "Get New Wallpapers" button from the Desktop Configuration Dialog, because it provides unfiltered access to images that are more and more shameless :-( - Changes the icon of the Display option (different from the Screensaver option)
bi-krpmview:
- Adds a "Quick Install" button to the krpmview kpart which calls the install_rpm script with the *.rpm file as the first parameter
The RPM-Tools provide:
- Simple and quick solution to install an RPM + konqueror service menu - Simple and quick solution to uninstall an RPM + konqueror service menu - No dependency handling
What i would like to see would be a Home icon in Applications tab.
For the rest the things i think are usefull are:
- the shadow surrounding the menu
- Adds a rounded corner to the left side of the search mode
For the auto alignment im using the patch provided by David Faure
the kdesktop align-to-grid bug sounds serious, and you should try submitting your work to KDE for that.
http://www.kde.org/support/#Patches
There is also a very old (6 years) howto on submitting patches, the links are broken but the idea is same:
http://dot.kde.org/994996315/994997805/995039283/
good work!
Avoid this kdesktop patch, it gives random behavior (uninitialized variable), however see http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=146234
for a patch inspired by this one, and which needs testing.
I have been using my patches for several weeks now and I have not experienced any kind of unexpected behaviour (much more without it), but it sure needs some more work. I will test your patch also.
I have tried both links and they are ok, but the latter (recompile/test the latest src) would take up at least 2 days, so I opted for the bugreport. It seems that the 'align to grid' bug is old indeed and there are at least 2-3 duplicates.
I prefer the Kickoff menu to the older style. I just installed Kickoff on my Mandriva box. It'd be great if you could get this stuff sent upstream, since it makes it about perfect.
wow, nice work... Several of these patches are really cool, do you try to get them upstream? I only run suse on my laptop, I have arch on my pc so I'd love to see this there as well ;-)
Thanks for the positive feedback. I don't know how to get something upstream , I have never tried that before. Besides I guess that most of these modifications are useful for only a few people.
well, the kickoff patches are pretty cool, you might want to send them upstream. That's not hard, get on the mailinglist and send them, or add them to bugreports (if they solve the problem there). Or open bugreports and add the patches there...
While most of these seem sensible and fine (even while i don't particularly like Kickoff), there is one thing that really got me stumped:
"- Removed the "Get New Wallpapers" button from the Desktop Configuration Dialog, because it provides unfiltered access to images that are more and more shameless :-("
So... Censorship? Seriously, what's going on here?
Yes, why to remove "Get new wallpapers" button? It's part of Khotnewstuff on KDE and was good way to get new wallpapers (of course it was stupid if user dont have internet connection, like whole khotnewstuff is then.)
I install Linux on computers dedicated especially for kids and although I like kde-looks, this button just circumvents any filtering I would install. You can edit my patches if you like, there are not ment to be suitable for everyone.
Ratings & Comments
14 Comments
What i would like to see would be a Home icon in Applications tab. For the rest the things i think are usefull are: - the shadow surrounding the menu - Adds a rounded corner to the left side of the search mode For the auto alignment im using the patch provided by David Faure
the kdesktop align-to-grid bug sounds serious, and you should try submitting your work to KDE for that. http://www.kde.org/support/#Patches There is also a very old (6 years) howto on submitting patches, the links are broken but the idea is same: http://dot.kde.org/994996315/994997805/995039283/ good work!
Avoid this kdesktop patch, it gives random behavior (uninitialized variable), however see http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=146234 for a patch inspired by this one, and which needs testing.
I have been using my patches for several weeks now and I have not experienced any kind of unexpected behaviour (much more without it), but it sure needs some more work. I will test your patch also.
I have tried both links and they are ok, but the latter (recompile/test the latest src) would take up at least 2 days, so I opted for the bugreport. It seems that the 'align to grid' bug is old indeed and there are at least 2-3 duplicates.
I prefer the Kickoff menu to the older style. I just installed Kickoff on my Mandriva box. It'd be great if you could get this stuff sent upstream, since it makes it about perfect.
wow, nice work... Several of these patches are really cool, do you try to get them upstream? I only run suse on my laptop, I have arch on my pc so I'd love to see this there as well ;-)
Thanks for the positive feedback. I don't know how to get something upstream , I have never tried that before. Besides I guess that most of these modifications are useful for only a few people.
well, the kickoff patches are pretty cool, you might want to send them upstream. That's not hard, get on the mailinglist and send them, or add them to bugreports (if they solve the problem there). Or open bugreports and add the patches there...
While most of these seem sensible and fine (even while i don't particularly like Kickoff), there is one thing that really got me stumped: "- Removed the "Get New Wallpapers" button from the Desktop Configuration Dialog, because it provides unfiltered access to images that are more and more shameless :-(" So... Censorship? Seriously, what's going on here?
Yes, why to remove "Get new wallpapers" button? It's part of Khotnewstuff on KDE and was good way to get new wallpapers (of course it was stupid if user dont have internet connection, like whole khotnewstuff is then.)
right, i would already have installed the patch without that :)
I install Linux on computers dedicated especially for kids and although I like kde-looks, this button just circumvents any filtering I would install. You can edit my patches if you like, there are not ment to be suitable for everyone.
this is exactly what was needed. nice job. thanks a bunch.