My issues with Mint KDE

[nomadewolf]

Don't get me wrong. I love Mint. Mint just works. It has everything pre-installed, pre-configured, and a new version is only out when there are no bugs left, unlike the crappy Ubuntu.
That's why i decided to try Mint KDE. KDE is superior and as i'm already quite used to Linux, it was the natural way to go. Except Mint KDE doesn't work. Graphic drivers don't work. Wireless don't work. Battery time is shitty to say the least and whatever does works, works with flaws... I've never had so many issues with a distro, not even Fedora or Ubuntu.
I'm saying this cause o live Mint,and i wan't it to be the best. And Mint KDE, definitely isn't the best...

Here's a list of other things i would like to improved, changed:
- Gnome power schemes are much better. Please copy that
- Flash doesn't work...
- Many issues with compressed files. (just try to use that feature and you'll see)
- Folder view is awesome, and i love it and use it. Except it lacks 'normal' folder functionality. Why can't i drag/drop from compressed/normal folder to FolderView and vice-versa?
- Why isn't the printer applet a plasma widget so i can remove it PERMANENTLY like the other plasma widgets?
- Why does the indicator of hidden icons keep showing in the system tray, even when i have them all set to 'Always Visible'?
- Default Battery saving settings are AWEFULL!!! Who the hell thought it was a good idea having the scheme changing every 1 minute from 25% down was a good idea? And why would anyone wan't the processor so slow that it can't even play flash??? I know i change the settings manually, but still... Mint was supposed to be well thought out. Leave the stupid behavior to M$ please...

Things i don't want to see changed in Mint KDE:
- Quick access in task bar.

Yep. Now you see i have Kubuntu installed. I can't go back to Gnome cause it doesn't fulfills mu needs anymore, so i'm stuck with lame kubuntu... Yes it's lame, but, at least it works... After i install everything manually...

Hope next version of Mint KDE overcomes all these problems, and maybe even surprises me...
What about your opinions/experiences with Mint?

[mintnoob]

If Mint KDE has so many issues as you claim, you'd think there would be tons of "Mint KDE sucks" threads by now.

Me thinks there's another reason you're having so many problems with Mint KDE.

[GhoS]

Yup there may be other issues at stake, because actually I've seen more people complain about Kubuntu than Mint KDE.
It has worked flawlessly from day one for me and while no environment is perfect, you learn to use it as it is. Its still better than Gnome in my opinion, but then again Linux is great because of its diversity.

Perhaps rather than complaining about things you could have posted questions as to why this or that isn't working right, perhaps you would have found something in your system that is causing the conflict. If it isn't your system, then perhaps you have discovered a bug that was unknown before. Producing a laundry list of problems is hardly productive.

[nomadewolf]

If Mint KDE has so many issues as you claim, you'd think there would be tons of "Mint KDE sucks" threads by now.

Me thinks there's another reason you're having so many problems with Mint KDE.

And what would that reason be?

[nomadewolf]

Yup there may be other issues at stake, because actually I've seen more people complain about Kubuntu than Mint KDE.
It has worked flawlessly from day one for me and while no environment is perfect, you learn to use it as it is. Its still better than Gnome in my opinion, but then again Linux is great because of its diversity.

Perhaps rather than complaining about things you could have posted questions as to why this or that isn't working right, perhaps you would have found something in your system that is causing the conflict. If it isn't your system, then perhaps you have discovered a bug that was unknown before. Producing a laundry list of problems is hardly productive.

I have 3 computers with distinct hardware.
In all 3 i face the same issues. At first, i thought it was due to the fact that i was using Mint KDE RC. But then the final version came out and even after a clean install all the problems persisted.

- Even if i tell the installer i want Mint to login automatically, it still won't.
- After some time, Firefox loses sound (in flash video, f.i: youtube) and i just have to restart it...
- Flash videos don't do well when in fullscreen.
- I my wireless goes down for a moment (which it does a lot cause it doesn't work well...) kopete won't log in until i reboot.
- If there's a bad system shutdown, i'll most likely loose all my data (happened twice already).

To these problems, add the ones in the first post and then do the math. Not to mention there are others i don't recall now.
In Mint Gnome i have none of these problems... Kubuntu also is much more stable, i'm sad to admit...

[cudayne]

I dont know I tride mint from ubuntu. loveded it wanted too try kde on mint but didn't have a dvd burnerer in my box nor a spare flashdrive.

Tride kbuntu...loved the kde but it was hugely buggy. In order for me too get skype too run for instance i had too go to the development of 10.10.

Then my video an network card got borked. I finally bought a stick put linix mint on it an it runs great.

Now I had too upgrade too the kde4.5 too get the video card too work right, but after I did that everything works great.

I am by far not a linux Guru. Linux mint does what I want pretty out of the box without haveint too play too much in the console.

Saying something sucks isn't geting you help too fix your problems.
I am not too smart on this but I would check your cd/source. I have installed mint kde on 2 differnt boxes today besides the one i use an didnt have any problems.

Let alone a huge list that you have.

[dequire]

If Mint KDE has so many issues as you claim, you'd think there would be tons of "Mint KDE sucks" threads by now.

Me thinks there's another reason you're having so many problems with Mint KDE.

I would have to agree - something seems to be wrong here somewhere...

Here's a list of other things i would like to improved, changed:
- Gnome power schemes are much better. Please copy that

I did a quick Google search for "KDE battery life" and found no search results on the 1st page of anyone having issues with abnormal battery life in KDE. Doesn't mean there are no issues there, but apparently no major ones, or one would think one would have shown up.

- Flash doesn't work...

Can't find any instances of others having this issue either, and I haven't had issues myself. I didn't look that hard, admittedly, but again seems not to be a major problem.

- Many issues with compressed files. (just try to use that feature and you'll see)

Again, I took the liberty of searching https://bugs.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/ for the word "compressed" and got zero hits. None. And through Google I could find only one result from searching "Kubuntu compressed files", though that was a Konqueror issue dating way back to the Dapper release...

- Folder view is awesome, and i love it and use it. Except it lacks 'normal' folder functionality. Why can't i drag/drop from compressed/normal folder to FolderView and vice-versa?

I'm not following you here. I can drag and drop files to and from Dolphin to Folder View with ease. Here's a screen shot (click thumbnail for larger pic).

Not sure it's obvious, but I can drag and drop virtually anywhere, including Folder View.

- Why isn't the printer applet a plasma widget so i can remove it PERMANENTLY like the other plasma widgets?

Not sure why this is an issue. However, in KDE 4.5, you can simply right-click the "show hidden icons" button in the system tray (the gray rectangle) and select "System Tray Settings". From here you can chose to never show the printer status icon, or any other one for that matter, by selecting "entries", like shown here.

- Why does the indicator of hidden icons keep showing in the system tray, even when i have them all set to 'Always Visible'?

Why would you set them to "always visible" when you just mentioned you wanted the printer applet permanently hidden? I'm confused. Also, that icon is so tiny, I'm not even sure how it could possibly be a gripe. My guess it would be to allow access to the System Tray Settings menu in case you ever wanted some of the sys tray applets hidden again?

- Default Battery saving settings are AWEFULL!!! Who the hell thought it was a good idea having the scheme changing every 1 minute from 25% down was a good idea? And why would anyone wan't the processor so slow that it can't even play flash??? I know i change the settings manually, but still... Mint was supposed to be well thought out. Leave the stupid behavior to M$ please...

I'm sorry. I have never seen this be an issue. Why would the scheme change every minute from 25 down? Are you implying there are >25 power management schemes by default in KDE? Again, maybe I'm not understanding the question here. Feel free to provide examples or explain a bit more concisely.

Also, Upgrade to 4.5 if you have not done so yet. There are many improvements and bug fixes. Though even at 4.3 or 4.4, you should not have these issues.

-D

[mintnoob]

If Mint KDE has so many issues as you claim, you'd think there would be tons of "Mint KDE sucks" threads by now.

Me thinks there's another reason you're having so many problems with Mint KDE.

And what would that reason be?

Maybe you burned a bad copy, maybe it's just your computer, maybe you have a pre-bias against KDE. But look around, no one else is complaining about having so many problems with Mint KDE, so do the math.

[HoppityBob]

I've been running the last version of Mint KDE since it came out and it's been brilliant, but I downloaded the latest and installed and it failed to pick up my wireless card (a simple intel 8945) and my mobile broadband (a usb tethered phone, and a Huawei dongle). I don't have access to a wired connection so that was a major fail for me. However, Mint Gnome picked up all these bits of h/w with no issue at all. Why is that, I thought it was just the DE that's different ?

I'm now running Gnome and while it's nice, fantastic in fact, and I really love the clean and simple look, I also like the 'fiddlyness' and twiddling that KDE lets me do, so right now I'm installing the Kde desktop (4.5) and fingers crossed it'll work ok Anyone got any ideas of how to theme Kde to look like Gnome ?

[nomadewolf]

I dont know I tride mint from ubuntu. loveded it wanted too try kde on mint but didn't have a dvd burnerer in my box nor a spare flashdrive.

Tride kbuntu...loved the kde but it was hugely buggy. In order for me too get skype too run for instance i had too go to the development of 10.10.

Then my video an network card got borked. I finally bought a stick put linix mint on it an it runs great.

Now I had too upgrade too the kde4.5 too get the video card too work right, but after I did that everything works great.

I am by far not a linux Guru. Linux mint does what I want pretty out of the box without haveint too play too much in the console.

Saying something sucks isn't geting you help too fix your problems.
I am not too smart on this but I would check your cd/source. I have installed mint kde on 2 differnt boxes today besides the one i use an didnt have any problems.

Let alone a huge list that you have.

I'm an IT professional and i use Linux for a few years now.So i'm pretty sure the problems is now in my end...

[nomadewolf]

If Mint KDE has so many issues as you claim, you'd think there would be tons of "Mint KDE sucks" threads by now.

Me thinks there's another reason you're having so many problems with Mint KDE.

And what would that reason be?

Maybe you burned a bad copy, maybe it's just your computer, maybe you have a pre-bias against KDE. But look around, no one else is complaining about having so many problems with Mint KDE, so do the math.

No, i didn't burn a bad copy. I know that cause i burned in low speed and i tried both KMint RC and Final. And waited some time for updates in order to give time to fix the issues.
I don't have any bias against KDE or Mint. I love Mint and i love KDE. I installed several other OSes trying to find the perfect KDE for me. Turns out it's KMint and it turns out it doesn't work in any of my 3 pcs.
If no one else is complaining i am trully happy for them, and trully sad for myself. But the issues i experience are real.

[nomadewolf]

Here's a list of other things i would like to improved, changed:
- Gnome power schemes are much better. Please copy that

I did a quick Google search for "KDE battery life" and found no search results on the 1st page of anyone having issues with abnormal battery life in KDE. Doesn't mean there are no issues there, but apparently no major ones, or one would think one would have shown up.

What i meant here was that in Gnome one can alternate between power schemes much easier and faster (ok just easier and faster) and the names are more 'correct'. In KDE you go from performance to Powersave. confused there's no in between? Also less clicks in Gnome.

- Flash doesn't work...

Can't find any instances of others having this issue either, and I haven't had issues myself. I didn't look that hard, admittedly, but again seems not to be a major problem.

Go to the yourpon site, play any video in fullscreen then you'll see...
Or open 2 or 3 youtube videos in the morning, then try to play them at night... You don't need to hibernate/suspend, but if you do, you'll get a bonus...

- Many issues with compressed files. (just try to use that feature and you'll see)

Again, I took the liberty of searching https://bugs.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/ for the word "compressed" and got zero hits. None. And through Google I could find only one result from searching "Kubuntu compressed files", though that was a Konqueror issue dating way back to the Dapper release...

I can't drag/drop from ark to folderveiw and vice-versa and when i open any compressed file, it automatically opens a window in a directory that don't exist, so i can't do anything with it and have to manually close it. When i download a compressed file, i can't get it to automatically open with Ark. I have to save it and then open it...

- Folder view is awesome, and i love it and use it. Except it lacks 'normal' folder functionality. Why can't i drag/drop from compressed/normal folder to FolderView and vice-versa?

I'm not following you here. I can drag and drop files to and from Dolphin to Folder View with ease. Here's a screen shot (click thumbnail for larger pic).

Not sure it's obvious, but I can drag and drop virtually anywhere, including Folder View.

Explained above

- Why isn't the printer applet a plasma widget so i can remove it PERMANENTLY like the other plasma widgets?

Not sure why this is an issue. However, in KDE 4.5, you can simply right-click the "show hidden icons" button in the system tray (the gray rectangle) and select "System Tray Settings". From here you can chose to never show the printer status icon, or any other one for that matter, by selecting "entries", like shown here.

In my system when i close the printer applet and then reboot it just appears again...

- Why does the indicator of hidden icons keep showing in the system tray, even when i have them all set to 'Always Visible'?

Why would you set them to "always visible" when you just mentioned you wanted the printer applet permanently hidden? I'm confused. Also, that icon is so tiny, I'm not even sure how it could possibly be a gripe. My guess it would be to allow access to the System Tray Settings menu in case you ever wanted some of the sys tray applets hidden again?

Some applets i do not wish some others i do find helpful. The ones i like, i wanna be able to have them all the time. The ones i don't like, i never want to see them. So set the ones i like to Always Visible and the ones i don't like to Never Show. Nonetheless, The indicator that i have hidden icons appears and when i click it, it suddenly realizes it was wrong and just disappears. This is just a minor bug, but annoying.

- Default Battery saving settings are AWEFULL!!! Who the hell thought it was a good idea having the scheme changing every 1 minute from 25% down was a good idea? And why would anyone wan't the processor so slow that it can't even play flash??? I know i change the settings manually, but still... Mint was supposed to be well thought out. Leave the stupid behavior to M$ please...

I'm sorry. I have never seen this be an issue. Why would the scheme change every minute from 25 down? Are you implying there are >25 power management schemes by default in KDE? Again, maybe I'm not understanding the question here. Feel free to provide examples or explain a bit more concisely.

Also, Upgrade to 4.5 if you have not done so yet. There are many improvements and bug fixes. Though even at 4.3 or 4.4, you should not have these issues.

-D

If the supposed Stable doesn't work for me, how do you thing, the unstable version will do?
When i say that battery is changing every minute, i'm obviously exaggerating. What happens is that when i'm watching a movie in battery the scheme changes by itself a lot and it changes to a point where the computer gets so slow i can't watch the movie anymore... So i set it manually to Powersave but it keeps changing back to whatever it feels like... It's just annoying, it's unusable, it's badly designed and it's badly thought out... That's what i mean.

Maybe i'll do a video showing the issues since everyone is so skeptic...

[keljaden]

I have a dell inspiron 1525, my battery life has improved in Mint 9 KDE. I think your problems lie within hardware incompatibilities. On my desktop, the only issue I have had is that my optical drive will only recognize DVD's that contain movies, unless they were in there upon system boot. This happens across many of the new distro releases (like sabayon and ubuntu), so I think it is a kernel issues for me.

Mind KDE is awesome and Boo did a great job. Next time you have a problem, instead of saying that "this distro or that distro suck", perhaps you could politely tell us what is not working, post your system specs, and let us help you fix it. This forum is not a place for you to complain. If you have problems, we would be glad to help you solve them. If you just want to wine, get lost and go back to Windows.

[axel668]

From my personal experience Mint KDE is a notable improvement over Kubuntu, but still can't compare to a really good KDE distro like OpenSUSE or Mandriva. Problem is, that nobody really cares about KDE over at Canonical, and the Mint team don't have the resources to do it all by themselves (i.e. build their own KDE, create patches and so on).

So if you want KDE, go for SUSE 11.3 ... best KDE distribution I've seen so far, and green, too

[isadora]

From my personal experience Mint KDE is a notable improvement over Kubuntu, but still can't compare to a really good KDE distro like OpenSUSE or Mandriva. Problem is, that nobody really cares about KDE over at Canonical, and the Mint team don't have the resources to do it all by themselves (i.e. build their own KDE, create patches and so on).

So if you want KDE, go for SUSE 11.3 ... best KDE distribution I've seen so far, and green, too

Exactly that, and Mandriva has it's own KDE branded. (ftp://kde.mirrors.tds.net/pub/kde/stable/4.5.0/Mandriva/2010.1/x86_64)

[craig10x]

you are so right axel668...Mint KDE is a very notable improvement over Kubuntu...I was just looking at the Kubuntu 10.04 live cd...what a difference!
After viewing it, you can see all the "love and polish" that boo puts into the Mintized version of Kubuntu...he does a pretty amazing job with it, really...
Kubuntu doesn't even ship with any SCREEN SAVERS or PACKAGE MANAGER by default, for pete sake! And that K-Package Manager...pretty horrible really not like the terrific mint software manager...plus of course you have to do your own codec installs...it just looks so PRIMITIVE compared to the "class act" that Mint KDE gives you....

I can see why KDE turned me off originally...it was looking at the original version of Kubuntu...i should have looked at the Mint version first...
Now i am happily running Mint 9 KDE....

I once tried the Open Suse Gnome live cd and it was ok..but the KDE version looks a lot nicer, i must admit...
But i think i will stick with Mint KDE...hope they eventually do a direct debian and 64 bit version of KDE...that would be fantastic

If you REALLY want to appreciate how nice Mint 9 KDE is...just run a live cd of the actual Kubuntu 10.04 and get a good laugh

[colyn]

Except Mint KDE doesn't work. Graphic drivers don't work. Wireless don't work. Battery time is shitty to say the least and whatever does works, works with flaws... I've never had so many issues with a distro, not even Fedora or Ubuntu.
I'm saying this cause o live Mint,and i wan't it to be the best. And Mint KDE, definitely isn't the best...

I have Mint 9 KDE on 4 computers. 3 of which are laptops and as yet I have not heard any sucking sounds.. Graphics are far better than on Windoz or even my Mac. Wireless has yet to fail me even once and one of my laptops is an older Dell Inspiron 600m with broadcom b/g wireless card.. I get nearly 3 hours of battery time on my newest laptop. The other two need new batteries but one gets over 1 1/2 hours..

Maybe it's really your computer that sucks since you did not post specs..

[nomadewolf]

I have a dell inspiron 1525, my battery life has improved in Mint 9 KDE. I think your problems lie within hardware incompatibilities. On my desktop, the only issue I have had is that my optical drive will only recognize DVD's that contain movies, unless they were in there upon system boot. This happens across many of the new distro releases (like sabayon and ubuntu), so I think it is a kernel issues for me.

Mind KDE is awesome and Boo did a great job. Next time you have a problem, instead of saying that "this distro or that distro suck", perhaps you could politely tell us what is not working, post your system specs, and let us help you fix it. This forum is not a place for you to complain. If you have problems, we would be glad to help you solve them. If you just want to wine, get lost and go back to Windows.

Don't get me wrong. I love Mint, as i said before. I didn't post this thread to harm Mint in any way. My main goal was to find out if there were others with the same problem try to solve them. Apparently, i'm the only one with the said issues.
If the next version of KMint works well for me i'll gladly use it. This one, just doesn't.

And sure there are problems in KMint that i could solve if tried coming to the forums seek help instead of complaining, like the bug where it doesn't log in automatically. But these bugs aren't the ones that bother me. The flash problems, the compressed files problems, and all others that prevent me from having a normal experience, are the ones that really put me off. But even you will agree, that if those problems are on my machines only, they won't likely be resolved in this KMint release. Maybe in the next. That's why i hope you guys will see this post not as a complain, but as a request that the next Mint is better, as it normally is. That's all.

[nomadewolf]

From my personal experience Mint KDE is a notable improvement over Kubuntu, but still can't compare to a really good KDE distro like OpenSUSE or Mandriva. Problem is, that nobody really cares about KDE over at Canonical, and the Mint team don't have the resources to do it all by themselves (i.e. build their own KDE, create patches and so on).

So if you want KDE, go for SUSE 11.3 ... best KDE distribution I've seen so far, and green, too

I used to use OpenSuSE before switching to Mint.
OpenSuSE is indeed an excellent distro KDE or Gnome, but RPM and their lack of software manager (packet manager doesn't count) really put me off it.

[nomadewolf]

Except Mint KDE doesn't work. Graphic drivers don't work. Wireless don't work. Battery time is shitty to say the least and whatever does works, works with flaws... I've never had so many issues with a distro, not even Fedora or Ubuntu.
I'm saying this cause o live Mint,and i wan't it to be the best. And Mint KDE, definitely isn't the best...

I have Mint 9 KDE on 4 computers. 3 of which are laptops and as yet I have not heard any sucking sounds.. Graphics are far better than on Windoz or even my Mac. Wireless has yet to fail me even once and one of my laptops is an older Dell Inspiron 600m with broadcom b/g wireless card.. I get nearly 3 hours of battery time on my newest laptop. The other two need new batteries but one gets over 1 1/2 hours..

Maybe it's really your computer that sucks since you did not post specs..

Try to open a few youtube videos in the morning and play them later at night. Also make sure you use firefox. Then tell me if the sound works great.

My main machine:
Asus F3Sv-AP225C (2x2GB Kingston)