So now this user’s PDFs open in Acrobat Reader on our Windows server, instead of using Acrobat Reader on Linux.  That would not in itself cause a problem, except that the Windows server cannot access the location of the temporary location of Kmail attachments.  I could probably fix that, but I don’t really want users opening email attachments using Windows applications.

This user cannot access File Associations to fix this problem, as the menu option is removed; so I need to find a way to fix this problem from the command line.

In solving this particular problem I discovered the existence of the users’ ~/.local/share/application directory, and was able to remove the application shortcut to the PDF and normal functionality was restored, but I thought it would be worth writing up what I have found to be the case.  Some of the following information may be wrong or misleading and please feel free to comment any issues, and I will endeavour to update this page accordingly.

KDE File Associations

I have to say that KDE file associations seem hellishly complicated, which is to say that there are so many different locations of files that it is very difficult to work out what is happening.  The three key factors in play seem to be:

MIME Types

Mime-types, appear to be stored in:

• ~/.kde/share/mimelnk directories (for each user)
• /usr/share/mimelnk
• /etc/kde-profile/standard/share/mimelnk (for kiosktool - a symlink back to /usr/share/mimelnk)

These look like this:

$ cat pdf.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Comment=PDF
DocumentHidden=false
Icon=application-pdf
MimeType=application/pdf
Patterns=*.pdf;*.PDF
Type=MimeType
X-KDE-AutoEmbed=false

In other words they link the file extension, in this case *.pdf, with the MimeType, in this case application/pdf.  I believe I am right in saying that the users’ files take precedence over the global ones.

Application Shortcuts

Next up are the application shortcuts, and these also can be in diverse locations:

• ~/.kde/share/applnk
• ~/.local/share/applications
• /usr/share/applications
• /etc/kde-profile/standard/share/applications (for kiosk-tool)

As with the mimetypes, the users’ copy take precedence over the shared ones.  These application shortcuts define how to run an application, and look something like this:

$ cat "Adobe Reader 9 PDF Viewer.desktop"
[Desktop Entry]
Comment=
Exec=acroread
GenericName=PDF
ViewerIcon=AdobeReader9
MimeType=
Name=Adobe Reader 9
Path=
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=0
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

As you can see, this tells the system how to run the application.

profilerc

Lastly there needs to be some way of tying the above two things together, something that tells the system that you use X application shortcut to open Y mime-type, and this appears to be the role of the profilerc files.  As with the other components, there are multiple copies of this file:

• ~/.kde/share/config/profilerc
• /etc/kde-profile/standard/share/config/profilerc

An extract of this file in respect of my PDF example, looks something like this:

[application/pdf - 1]
AllowAsDefault=true
Application=Adobe Reader 8 PDF Viewer.desktop
GenericServiceType=Application
Preference=2
ServiceType=application/pdf
[application/pdf - 2]
AllowAsDefault=true
Application=kpdf_part.desktop
GenericServiceType=KParts/ReadOnlyPart
Preference=1
ServiceType=application/pdf
[application/pdf - 3]
AllowAsDefault=true
Application=kde-kpdf.desktop
GenericServiceType=Application
Preference=2
ServiceType=application/pdf

This shows both the mime-type application/pdf and the application shortcut, e.g. “Adobe Reader 8 PDF Viewer.desktop”, and gives the different choices for opening the same mimetype.

I have found this exercise to be hugely frustrating, and I hope this information is of use to someone.  As I said earlier, my intention will be to correct this post as I find out more, so please forgive any errors, and if you have the time, please do let me know by commenting below.

We’ve all had occasions when we have needed to find where all our disk space has gone, well under KDE3.5 it was easy - you just ran Konqueror and then selected View » View Mode » File Size View.  But shock horror, under KDE4 that option seemed to be missing.  Fortunately it was only an apt-get away:

$ sudo apt-get install konq-plugins

Then run Konqueror and follow instructions above.

This is not just a static either, you can click on any directory and it will refresh for the usage of that directory.

Is it wrong to be in love with a browser?

First let’s take a look at where KDE squirrels away all these settings. KDE is complex, but it’s well-organised, and there is always a method to whatever KDE madness you find yourself in.

• /etc/kderc : This points to the file locations where configuration profiles are stored.
• /etc/kde3 : Global configuration files are here.
• /home/~username~/.kde : User’s individual settings go here.

You can see for yourself where your particular KDE installation is going to look for configuration files:

$ kde-config --path config
/home/carla/.kde/share/config/:/etc/kde3/:/usr/share/kubuntu-
default-settings/kde-profile/default/share/config/

KDE reads these in reverse order, so if it encounters any conflicts, the last value read is the one used. User’s individual configurations take precedence, so they are read last. There is a way to make an exception to the precedence rule: using $i, or the “immutable” key. You’ll see how this is used in the examples below. Anything marked immutable has precedence, no matter what order it’s in.

Installing Kiosktool

This is now unnecessary, as this has been fixed on Debian, you should now be able to simply do an aptitude install.

Kiosktool is simply an easy way of administering the above files. Kiosk Admin Tool is available in Debian Testing/Unstable and should be as simple to install as:

$ sudo apt-get install kiosktool

Unfortunately the current version of Kiosktool is broken for Debian, as Debian have changed the filename for the menu configuration from applications.menu to kde-applications.menu, and unfortunately Kiosktool is now unmaintained, so to install requires a few more steps than normal:

Install the build dependencies

$ sudo apt-get build-dep kiosktool

Before installing the dependencies, please copy them into the clipboard.

Download the source

Note that you do not need to be root to do this, and it helps later if you’re not! Change your repository if necessary, or remove it entirely to install from your default repository. Note however that at the time of writing Kiosktool is only available in testing, unstable and backports (the same versions in each).

$ apt-get -t etch-backports source kiosktool

Edit the source

This will download three files: a .orig.tar.gz, a .dsc and a .diff.gz. In the case of packages made specifically for Debian, the last of these is not downloaded and the first usually won’t have “orig” in the name. The .dsc file is used by dpkg-source for unpacking the source package into the directory packagename-version. Within each downloaded source package there is a debian/ directory that contains the files needed for creating the .deb package.

Navigate to this directory and open the following file in a text editor:

/path/to/kiosktool-1.0/kiosktool/menueditComponent.cpp

Replace all instances of applications.menu with kde-applications.menu.

Build the deb

From within the directory that was created for the package after downloading.

$ apt-get -b source kiosktool

To install the package built by the commands above one must use the package manager directly, like this:

# dpkg -i kiosktool-<version>.deb

Remove the build dependencies

It seems that some of the build dependencies may be incompatible with the LTSP enlightened sound daemon (esd), if you copied them (as recommended in Install the build dependencies section), then please purge them now. Otherwise you will need to review /var/log/dpkg.log for the relevant files.

$ sudo apt-get --purge remove package1 package2 etc

Using Kiosktool

After installation you should have a menu entry for it in System -> KIOSK Admin Tool, or use the kiosktool command to start it from the command prompt.

You may find that a copying dialog crops up at regular intervals and that often it will stall, please read:

• Fix kiosktool fish protocol stalls

References

This document was cobbled from the following sources:

• APT HOWTO Chapter 6 Working with source packages
• Lock Down Desktops with KDE Kiosk by Carla Schroder

Other references:

• http://techbase.kde.org/User:Danimo/KIOSK

The advice in the Edit the source section was copied from a mailing list post, which I now cannot find. The post also mentioned that patches were available for this issue, although I could not find any such patches, and anyway the method above is probably just as easy.

When making changes to profiles under kiosktool, it stalls when uploading changes to the local machine using the fish protocol, see screenshots.

Persistently clicking cancel followed by retry does deliver the goods, but sometimes it can take ten attempts or more, with the load average quickly escalating to ten times the server’s usual level.

I understand it requires the fish protocol, even though it is editing the local machine, because kiosk has to be run as a standard user, but requires root access to edit the profile.

The fish protocol usually works fine in konqueror.

Under our Kiosk configuration I have the base directory set as /etc/kde-profile and the option “On exit, upload profiles to a remote server” is unchecked.

Screenshots

Workaround

Keep cancelling the copy and then retry.

Never come out without successfully completing the copy, or you can end up with corruption in your personal desktop, or menus, or even end up unable to log in. You have been warned.

The Solution

The solution seems to be to edit the menu entry for Kiosk-Tool and change it to:

env KDE_FORK_SLAVES=true kiosktool

References

• http://lists.kde.org/?t=111633283900002&r=1&w=2 (Similar problem under SUSE)
• http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8137 (similar problem under FreeBSD)

I have updated my notes on the following page:

• Hauppauge HVR-2200

As a died-in-the-wool KDE user, I’m just coming to terms with KDE4 and mostly loving it. A few niggles remain, but in the main it is very good indeed. But I suppose I would hesitate to recommend it to a new user. Having seen and heard much praise for the latest Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, which uses the Gnome desktop, I thought I’d give it a go.

I started by downloading the ISO image from the Ubuntu website and followed my instructions to Make A Linux USB Key, basically by formatting in super-floppy format (which I find to be the most consistently successful method) and using Unetbootin to write the ISO to the USB Key. Using a USB key is more convenient, more portable and more environmentally friendly than burning a CD/DVD.

I took a spare laptop, an HP NX7300, and inserted the USB Key. I entered the BIOS settings and changed the boot order to boot first from USB. I then booted up the laptop.

HP are not know for their Linux compatibility, but Ubuntu booted up with an attractive boot splash, before logging straight into the very attractively themed Gnome desktop. The new colour scheme is purple, which is very attractive, although brown still exists in the OpenOffice splash screen to remind us of what used to be.

As expected, network manager failed to activate, and I knew from past experience that I would need to load the proprietary broadcom driver. Continuing to play it dumb, I waited to see if I would get any help from Ubuntu. After about half a minute, the restricted drivers’ manager appeared on the top panel, although there was no guidance as to why it had appeared, nor what to do with it. I clicked on it and then clicked on the option to install the Broadcom STR driver and clicked activate.

After a minute or so it had loaded the Broadcom driver from the USB stick and I noticed that the wireless light had illuminated on the laptop. Promising! Unfortunately it then suggested I reboot to load the new driver; which obviously I can’t do, as I am running off a USB stick and would effectively start from scratch again if I rebooted. I decided to just wait and, sure enough, after a while when I clicked on the wireless symbol on the top panel it offered my local wireless access point. I selected it, and entered the encryption key, and I was connected.

At this point I had a completely usable desktop environment, including a full office suite (OpenOffice.org), a working web browser (Firefox) and everything else you could possibly wish in a modern desktop environment, all working off a USB stick. I still find that just amazing.

I must admit that I am surprised by Gnome, it looks gorgeous, it feels very integrated, as if it had been designed as a whole, rather than being a collection of applications brought together. No it’s not my much loved Debian, and no it’s not my much loved KDE, but it does feel easy to use, very uniform and just… well “right”.

I was particularly impressed by Rhythmbox, which had the built in music store, podcast reader, and local collection. This does look like an application which would reassure an erstwhile iTunes user. It’s probably not as good as amaroK, but having pushed amaroK on my mother and regretted it mightily, I think Rhythmbox is a good choice, being infinitely more user friendly.

I even set-up my Gmail account in Evolution, simply by clicking on the mail icon in the top panel and following the wizard to set up my Gmail account. I played completely dumb, it provided all the necessary server information and network settings for me, and all I needed to know was my Gmail address and password. That is incredible, anyone could set up their email if it’s that easy.

Having tested it, just to decide whether to recommend it to friends and family, I find myself sorely tempted to install it on my own laptop.

/usr/share/doc/ltspfs/examples/kde-desktop-icons

Add follow instructions. You’ll need to create the directory mentioned.

Most image viewers only show the first page of a multi-page TIFF. The KDE document viewers, of which there are many (KView, KFax, KDVI) will not open them, stating “This version can only handle fax files”.

The Explanation

Wikipedia states that: -“Programmers were free to specify new tags and options, but not all implemented programs supported all created tags. As a result, TIFF soon became the lowest common denominator. Today, the majority of TIFF images and readers are still based on uncompressed 32-bit CMYK or 24-bit RGB images.”~

The end result is that the KDE document viewers except a CCITT Group 4 compressed monochrome document, whilst ImageMagick creates a JPEG compressed document.

The Solution

Currently my solution is simply to convert the document as required (you will need ImageMagick on your system):

$ convert source.tif -monochrome -compress group4 destination.tif

Further Thoughts

This fix is fine for geeks, but not much use for mere mortals. My thought is to create a script which uses ImageMagick to interrogate the TIFF file, convert it, if required, into a temporary location, and then open it in one of the KDE document viewers. Then associate the file-type with that script.

References

• http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/formats/#tiff

Should be able to install simply by:

# apt-get install msttcorefonts
# dpkg-reconfigure --force msttcorefonts

Manual Installation

Alternatively download each font as an .exe file and extract TTF contents (Konqueror → Actions → Extract):

• http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=34153&release_id=105355

Then in KDE Control Center take option to Add Fonts.

If you install kde from a Debian base install, then it is likely that you do not have the attractive new Debian theming for the boot loader and KDM login. The key to this is the installation of desktop-base, but you do need a few other packages, which don’t currently get treated as dependencies.

Install packages

$ sudo aptitude install desktop-base ksplash-engine-moodin kdmtheme splashy splashy-themes

Add splashy to grub

Look for the kopt line in /boot/grub/menu.lst and add quiet splash vga=791:

N.B. vga=791 is suitable for 1024x768, if your monitor resolution is below this, then you should change this number by reference to the table below.

/boot/grub/menu.lst:
# kopt=root=/dev/sda1 ro quiet splash vga=791

N.B. Do not uncomment this line, this line is not used itself, but is used by update-grub to automatically populate the actual kernel lines further down

Then update-grub to apply this change to your kernels:

$ sudo update-grub

Splashy VGA settings table

The 65000 colour line is the one recommended for this purpose, so you’ll probably want 785 or 788 if you have a low resolution netbook. I don’t believe there is any point in increasing to 794, as I believe the new Debian themes have been designed for 1024x768 (I have not checked that fact).

Configure KDM themes

Under KDE Control Panel, System Administration, KDM Theme Manager, enter Administrator Mode and enable KDM Themes and select “More Blue Orbit”. It will warn you that your changes will be overwritten by /etc/default/kdm.d/, but this step still seems to be required.

Remove Login Manager Background

Under KDE Control Panel, System Administration, Login Manager, select the Background tab and disable the background. This background displays after your new KDM Theme and before your actual desktop, which is definitely one background too many!

Temptation got the better of me (as usual) and I installed kde-compiz. Unsurprisingly the very basic graphic card, on this business-focused laptop, gave a pretty poor compiz performance. If you’re after 3D acceleration for gaming and desktop effects, then you’re probably looking for a different laptop!

For me, it’s just about perfect.

$ sudo aptitude install gtk-qt-engine

There are other ways of achieving this, e.g. qtcurve, but for me this seems perfectly satisfactory. Having installed, you visit your control panel and you will find a new option under “Appearance & Themes” called “GTK Styles and Fonts” change this to use your KDE style for your GTK applications, and restart KDE.

It’s been bothering me for some time that I am using Kubuntu instead of Debian on my work desktop PC. Yesterday I had a drive failure necessitating a reinstall; what better excuse could there be? Having decided to change to Debian, I decided to install Sid, and then I decided that, as KDE 4.1 is now out, why not go the whole hog.

The experience was pretty positive, really the only problem was that I needed to tweak the xorg.conf in order to get my keyboard and mouse working, other than that it was a pretty straightforward install.

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier   "Default Layout"
    Screen       "Default Screen"
    Inputdevice  "Generic Keyboard"
    Inputdevice  "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Installing VirtualBox was not such fun, but the following link sorted me out:

• Virtualbox OSE Debian Install

So far I have installed Iceweasel3, OpenOffice3, NoMachine NX Client and VirtualBox, and it’s running really nicely. I have activated the KDE4 compositing effects, which seem very slow, so hopefully some room for improvement there in subsequent releases.

So would I recommend Debian Sid KDE4.1 over Kubuntu? Well I think that’s an unfair comparison, as I’ve installed a bleeding edge solution, but all-in-all it really wasn’t a scary installation at all.

Well done to the Debian team.

So I went hunting for an alternative to Amarok that would handle Podcasts, only to discover that Amarok itself supports Podcasts. Basically all you need to do is under Playlists → Podcasts right-click and Add Podcast, but this link explains in more detail.

In every other respect Amarok was perfect, so I could not be more delighted. Well done Amarok!

$ md5sum download.iso

And then manually compare with the author’s. I have therefore written a simple KDE ServiceMenu to add MD5 checking.

Simply download and extract to /home/*USERNAME*/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus.

8a2965e228219d61c296029f0abe2eed  md5chk.tar.gz

His preferred solution would be an Apple iPhone or possibly a Blackberry, both of which would appear to be supported under Funambol.