LM 18. KDE/Plasma 5 on Satellite P55t-B5154 multi-boot

[Dngrsone]

As the title says, I have a Toshiba Satellite P55t-B5154 with 12GB RAM and a 2TB drive, multi-booting Win 10, LM 17.3 KDE, LM 18 xfce, and now, LM 18 KDE. I use rEFInd for my boot manager.

Each OS has its own quirks/problems, and this thread is mostly me exploring KDE/Plasma 5 which I've been dodging for a while since the update to Plasma got rid of one of my favorite features: Different wallpapers and widgets on each virtual desktop.

There is a workaround of sorts: use different Activities instead of desktops, which is how I am setting up my latest OS.

As I say, this is me exploring and recording my findings, good, bad, and indifferent in one location. If anyone can help me with my problems, then great, I value the input. I tend to find/create problems for myself that don't seem to affect a lot of people and either solve the problems myself or fail and move on to another OS (just look at my past threads).

Install So, first up, installation went fairly smoothly, once I got a decent download put on a (working) USB drive. I set up four Activities, each with only one virtual desktop, and then set my scroll-wheel to change to the next Activity. You have to do this setting in every Activity. Then, of course, you can change the wallpaper in each Activity at whim.

.desktop files Next, I wanted to set up my shortcuts. Now, I have several different Firefox profiles I use for different purposes. For instance, I have my regular instance, with my password manager, Google and Gmail tools, etc. There is another that I use specifically for visiting webcomics, which is more stripped down. Another is locked down, specifically for use when I'm on foreign networks.

To use these, I had set up some .desktop files way back in the day (I think like '08 when Unity first came out) which I have been using since. Custom icons, the works. Problem was, I couldn't figure out where the shortcuts were supposed to go. In KDE 4.x or xfce, there was ~/.local/share/applications but that folder wasn't in my new install.

After a little searching, I came up with nothing. Except that there are no shortcuts... there are "Icons" which makes no sense to me... anyway, I ended up moving my /applications folder from the LM 17.3 KDE /home folder to the LM 18 KDE folder and the shortcuts are working, so I guess all's well, right?

Bluetooth This is the biggest issue that I am facing at the moment. For a 'standard' that's supposed to be plug-and-play, it isn't really.

Seriously, I wanted to move to LM 18 because the Bluetooth in 17.x can't handle the newer iteration of BT that the Logitech MX Master uses. Here is the thread where I tried to get it to work in KDE 4.x and xfce...

So, I finally got the mouse to work on BT in KDE 5, but now I can't get my MPOW BT headphones to work. The headphones connect, the system recognizes them, but there's no sound. The output to the headphones is not muted. The headphones work with my phone, so I know that it isn't the headset... I will have to try them again in Windows (the sound is crappy in xfce... I'm thinking it's either a driver issue, or I just really screwed up BT when trying to get the MX Master to work in that OS) to make sure that there isn't a problem with the BT hardware; but considering that I can get the mouse to work, seems to disprove that.

As it stands, I will continue using the dongle for my mouse until I completely go away from the older Mint installations.....

[Dngrsone]

If you need to move your "icon" around on your desktop, it doesn't want to move. Right-clicking gives you the option to remove it, and Icon Settings only gives you an option to create a keyboard shortcut (at least until I make some adjustments to my .desktop file?).

Well, now there is a "long-click". Left-click your "icon" and hold the button down. After a few seconds you will get the old-style move/resize/delete menu for your "icon".

[Dngrsone]

Tethering is easily accomplished on my Galaxy S7 Edge by running the Klink app on my phone and then running the matching Linux application on the laptop.

For LM 18, I actually have to use two terminals. The first is running the klink app itself:

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sudo klink

The second is needed to get the network up and working:

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sudo dhclient klink0

Some day I will learn myself a way to automate this...

[kdemeoz]

As the title says, I have a Toshiba Satellite P55t-B5154 with 12GB RAM and a 2TB drive, multi-booting Win 10, LM 17.3 KDE, LM 18 xfce, and now, LM 18 KDE. I use rEFInd for my boot manager.

Each OS has its own quirks/problems, and this thread is mostly me exploring KDE/Plasma 5 which I've been dodging for a while since the update to Plasma got rid of one of my favorite features: Different wallpapers and widgets on each virtual desktop.

There is a workaround of sorts: use different Activities instead of desktops, which is how I am setting up my latest OS.

Yes, there is that putative workaround [Comment 214 in https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=341143#c214], & it's better than nothing, but sadly not by much. I already foresaw most of that possibility myself last year, but chose not to do it, as Plasma5 Activities still fail really important functionality we've enjoyed in KDE4, as mentioned in that same link's Comments 15, 18, 21, 22. I'd already expressed my own view on it viewtopic.php?f=60&t=223370&p=1195528#p1194824 :

the major practical impediment with Activities is no efficient way to view with a single click or mouse movement the current disposition of all Activities simultaneously, AND then to efficiently move windows between Activities [yes, i do know how to do it via the window border context menu, but it's clunky & inefficient / inelegant compared to a GUI metaphor, as follows -->]. That instant visual status is provided with VDs by the brilliant Desktop Grid function of KWin, with which i can then also near-instantly move one window from VDx to VDy by drag & drop then immediately get back to what i was doing. I badly want some kind of equivalent tool for Activities, & without it, for me Activities remain much less useful than VDs.

[Dngrsone]

So, what's with Dolphin, that I can't open it as root? I get the above error, "The process for the file protocol died unexpectedly." almost any time I try to use Dolphin as root, either from the terminal (gksudo dolphin) or right-clicking Actions/Open as root.

Searching through the internet, I see a "workaround" saying to use command-line

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kdesudo dbus-launch dolphin

but using that I seem to get weird behavior out of root (copy/move sometimes doesn't work...).

Another thread in these forums suggests just installing nemo, but that's a Cinnamon file manager... is it entirely compatible with KDE? Much as I like nemo, I don't want to start infecting KDE with Gnomish dependencies, for that way lies madness (been there, done that).

... okay, found a bug report: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=365444

Added my two cents. But still, what am I going to do about root actions (without having to resort to straight CLI)?

[kdemeoz]

So, what's with Dolphin, ... what am I going to do about root actions (without having to resort to straight CLI)?

That annoying problem, + Mint 18 KDE initially shipping only with the very buggy Plasma 5.6.5, & its persistent tethering still to Kubuntu rather than Neon for ongoing Plasma updates, is why i left Mint KDE for Maui.

FYI, when i last checked Root Actions vs distro status in Oct 2016, it was: Dolphin's Root Actions missing in Mint 18 KDE, Kubuntu 16.04, KFedora 24, & even KDE Neon itself, but present by default in Maui.

[Dngrsone]

Is this something that can be added or amended?

I'll look at Maui, but I just starting to get things in order on 18 KDE; last thing I want to do now is start from scratch again on another new distro...

[Dngrsone]

Referred to this thread and messed around some, until now my headset works.

...hopefully it will continue to work.

[Dngrsone]

I installed the tool Root Actions today (after I updated to 18.1, hence the slight title change). I added the two .desktop files to ~.local/share/kservices5/ServiceMenus which required me to create the last two folders.

[Dngrsone]

I had already set up the mouse scroll-wheel to move between activities (right-click Desktop, Configure Desktop, Mouse Actions...) but I still reflexively wanted to have a keyboard shortcut. Turns out there is one built-in: meta+Tab and meta+Shift+Tab. I did a right-click on the desktop, went to Activities, and then Settings, and changed these shortcuts to Ctrl+Alt+[Right arrow] and Ctrl+Alt+[Left arrow] to go along with old/reflexive behaviors on my part.

[Dngrsone]

Okay, it's been more than a year, but this thread is still coming in handy for me: I have installed 18.3 Mint KDE, and reminding myself how to set things up again...