Mint 7 "Gloria" Kde 4 Questions

[richs-lxh]

Hi everybody,

I am trying out the Mint 7 Kde4 version and have a couple of questions. I usually run different distros and up to now have used Xfce and Gnome desktops and never really liked Kde. I am enjoying Mint 7 with Kde 4 (and it's little quirks), so I thought i'd sign up on the forums to provide feedback and ask a few questions (after using the forum search of course).

1. Koffice
I notice that the Koffice suite isn't installed as default, and Open Office has been chosen, is there anything I should know about Koffice before installing it? I noticed a few threads about problems installing Koffice from the repos, but couldn't find a real "dev" explanation for the choice.

2. Network Manager vs Wicd
I always remove Network Manager from every distro I try, most forums have a list of support threads regarding NM, and I personally use Wicd on all my desktops. Do the devs/members have a view on NM vs Wicd?


3. Wireless firmware/drivers
As Mint has proven to be the Ubuntu that isn't, by providing a lot of features that Ubuntu needs, is there any reason (political) that wireless firmware/drivers such as Broadcom B43 cannot be provided out-of-the-box? The newer Gnome desktops include Mono and its proprietary Microsoft code, Multimedia codecs are available, so in a growing wireless computing world, wouldn't this make sense?
I can use a USB wireless dongle which does have "free" drivers, and I could also connect via wired directly to the router, and once connected, the restricted driver manager does offer to install the Broadcom drivers, but my point is, if they are available, why not include them?

4. Gksudo but no Kdesu
I am running Mint 7 Kde4 on a laptop which has an Ati Mobility Radeon 9600 graphics card, and due to a few crashes I searched the forum for any tips and I found a post regarding a xorg.conf edit. Back in the old days it was always Gksudo for root opened graphical apps on Gnome and Xfce, but Kde desktop always used Kdesu. I tried editing my xorg.conf using Kate via Kdesu to find that it doesn't exist. However, using Gksudo did open kate (slowly). I'm not a regular Kde user, so I was wondering if Kdesu has been abolished in favour of Gksu. There seemed to be a lot of action in the terminal just opening Kate with Gksudo.

Code: Select all

richs@k4mnt ~ $ kdesu kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf
bash: kdesu: command not found
richs@k4mnt ~ $ gksudo kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/bin/kded4
ibexec/klauncher
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/bin/kbuildsycoca4
kbuildsycoca4 running...
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/bin/kbuildsycoca4
kbuildsycoca4 running...
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/kconf_update
"KConfigIni: In file /tmp/kde-root/kconf_updateG21884.tmp, line 1: " Invalid entry (missing '=')
kdeinit4: preparing to launch
kdeinit4: preparing to launch
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/bin/knotify4

EDIT: I have recently found the command kdesuDO, which incidentally doesn't work. For example "kdesudo dolphin" opens dolphin but reports an error and shows no directories.

Code: Select all

richs@k4mnt ~ $ kdesudo dolphin

"/usr/bin/dolphin(4646)" Error in thread 3048908544 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
"/usr/bin/dolphin(4646)" Error in thread 3048908544 : "QLocalSocket::connectToServer: Invalid name"

At the bottom of the Dolphin Gui I get the message:

Could not start process. Could not start Klauncher.
The name org.kde.launcher was not provided by any .service files

Incidentally I think I saw a Klauncher error when I ahd the problem with the Restricted Driver Manager during the B43xx Cutter installation. Maybe a Klauncher reinstall? Or maybe "org.kde.launcher" should be "kde.launcher.org". Just a guess.

5. I am keeping a log of my progress on my blog with a Distro Review (It's still getting edited and updated). I'm no writer, just a Linux user, so any feedback, criticism welcomed.
http://richs-lxh.linux-hardcore.com/200 ... xh-review/

6. Apart from a few blips, the experience with this new release is very good and I am having fun with it. So congrats to the devs and community for yet another very nice distro.

rich

[smsmith]

You used 4 twice, but for the "first" 4, try using kdesudo instead of kdesu. kdesudo should be used when wanting to run a k app as root, gksudo to run a gk app as root.

And on first run, yes, kate is slow.

I can't really comment on the rest - I don't use koffice, I'm not one of the devs, and the k network manager has always worked fine for me.

[richs-lxh]

Thanks for the reply smsmith, I edited the post when I found the "kdesudo" command. I didn't see the 4 lol! Thanks, i'll edit it.

[smsmith]

I've never tried opening dolphin like that, but I'll try tonight. It does sound like something is broken. In Synaptic, there is a "Broken" filter. See if there's anything listed there.

[richs-lxh]

Well, it was always the recommended way to open and edit files as root. gksudo thunar/nautilus and kdesu konqueror (before dolphin). Makes me feel old, all this new stuff.

Anyway, contrary to popular belief, you can always teach old dogs new tricks, Kde4 is showing me that.

[emorrp1]

Hi richs-ixh, and Welcome to Linux Mint, nice review of the KDE edition! Although it may be a bit simple, if all you need to do is upload a few files to your site, you may want to try out mintUpload (right-click on a file, select Upload) which allows you to configure an ftp destination to use. Also if you're going to bash mono, you should at least be bashing it for the right reasons. Mono is entirely open-source and does not contain any proprietary M$ code, it is a free re-implementation of the (open standard) .net development platform. What you can complain about is that M$ could practice its usual "Embrace, extend, extinguish" methods without bothering with the embrace part, since it defines future versions of the .net platform.