KDE4 Multi Desktop Setup

[uggy]

Uggy - I think I'll need to go to a spare logon to try that - I'm scared to try it here - as clicking on 'controls' can so totally scramble things it takes ages to get back to "user-usable".

I know what you mean, in times past, after changing 1 setting or another, I have spent hours going around in circles to get back to where I started   A bit of experimenting can be fun though!

There is a lot to explore

[Just18]

Well, I think I'm doing that now. What you can't have, though, is icons-etc staying in one place on each Desktop - AND put different images-wallpapers per Desktop. It apparently 'thinks' that wallpapers are Widgies or those Spasmy things - and also puts the same image on all Desktops.

Is that not exactly what I described doing in my post?

So it seems it can be done .....  and quite easily.

If that be so then the problem would appear to be in your user account settings.

You should try another user account and follow only the steps I took and see if you get the same result regarding the icons .......  ignoring, for the present, any other settings you might like to apply to that account.

[exwintech]

Blarney - Yes, indeed, very many people did expect KDE4.x to at least have an optional setup the same as KDE3.x. Possibly because they weren't just arriving in Linux and thinking that "KDE4 is Linux" - it probably would attract the iPhone folk - and those who buy $500.00+ cameras with Priorities and Manual controls, then only use them on "Auto" - not to mention that costs-saving camera makers have been able to "trend" some folk into spending hundreds of dollars on cameras without Viewfinders...

Of course, I am indeed waiting for for costs-saving car-makers to "trend" buyers into engine-less cars - very low petrol/gas usage, good for the environment - operated in Fred-Flintstone mode... (Here in Australia, I can imagine at least some friends being lazy enough to dislike Fred-Flintstone-propulsion, and start screaming for "Classic Mode" un-trendy cars - with engines...  )

What seems to have happened is that folk who started into Linux some time back - say, turn of the century, with Mandrake and the then very new KDE - spent the '2000s' getting used to Linux - with KDE, KDE2.x and KDE3.x. So when the totally different KDE4.x was hatched - those used to "traditional" KDE did indeed want a familiar "KDE3.x-style" option in it.

There are so many thousands of complex functions in KDE4.x that adding an "Install as KDE3.5 Classic mode" - or having the option after install - might only have added 5% to KDE4.x, and, compared with making KDE4.x itself, very simple. Then those who preferred could have had that familiarity - but with all of the new versions of apps, etc.

However - that would have had the great majority of then Users preferring that mode. New to Linux folk might have thought KDE4.x mode was like proprietary Mac, etc, and used it - while the longer-term Users might have begun changing to KDE4.x mode over the next 5-10 years, as they played with it and got used to it. That is, they wouldn't have been forced into using KDE4.x, to get all the KDE-related apps and functions (like Kim, etc) - and trying to get those into User-Usable modes.

Uggy - Yes, indeed, Linux used to be a whole fun-adventure - and such a darn-quick, good, easy, efficient system - particularly with the KDE, KDE2.x, and KDE3.x - all aimed at the Home-PC Desktop User...! I suppose this new "fight-the-enviro" game KDE4.x presents is "fun", too - or might be if it wasn't such a dog's-breakfast of mismatched awkwardosities...

Just18 - Yes, as far as I recall, all "advices" you've ever given - once understood - have turned out to be correct... So I've again misunderstood your advice - as in my "Fred" logon - I'm getting the same foul-ups as in this logon. Or - perhaps, earlier in the Fred logon, while trying to make it "usable" - I introduced the same "glitch" I have in this logon...? Certainly possible... So think I'll delete "Fred" and create a "Ned" logon - but leave it 'untouched' - until I study your Advanced Instructions in great detail...

Regards, Dave.

[Just18]

Just18 - Yes, as far as I recall, all "advices" you've ever given - once understood - have turned out to be correct... So I've again misunderstood your advice - as in my "Fred" logon - I'm getting the same foul-ups as in this logon. Or - perhaps, earlier in the Fred logon, while trying to make it "usable" - I introduced the same "glitch" I have in this logon...? Certainly possible... So think I'll delete "Fred" and create a "Ned" logon - but leave it 'untouched' - until I study your Advanced Instructions in great detail...

Regards, Dave.

If the problem arises in other user accounts then it would appear to be deeper rooted than I hoped 

Yes, best to start with a new account again and see if there is any change ......  it may be that you had whatever setting that is affecting this also applied to Fred. - hopefully so 

[exwintech]

Just18 - Yay, indeed - that is, if there's something that we recently ex-KDE3.5-ers are "doing to" KDE4.x - that then makes the "semi-demi" KDE3.5 setup in KDE4.x - which "does" actually exist - then impossible to create - that might be what has been giving KDE4.x a lot of "bad press" about "basic setups".

You say that the "KDE3.5-like" setup is possible in KDE4.x - so I'll take that "as a given" - as in, "Yes, it can be - but - I'm doing 'a something' in my setups that then makes it impossible..."

That sounds quite possible, in something as extremely complex and convoluted as KDE4.x. Some "booboo" that 'people used to KDE3.5' might do as being usual for KDE3.5 - but acts as a "preset" or "trigger" to then lock-out the ability to create the KDE3.5-like setup.

I'm apparently doing this - and can't work out what it might be. And it's unlikely that I'm the only person in millions doing this "sabotage-act" on KDE4.x's functions.

Perhaps the KDE4.x makers were so keen on all their thousands of new modes and functions, and on wanting to "encourage" folk to use them - that they did allow a KDE3.5-like setup - so long as this was applied only in an "untouched" new install - or new logon - but doing any of the "KDE4.x things" - then "tripped" a function to "lock-out" the KDE3.5-like setup? To "discourage" people from actually using that, instead of all their thousands of "nice, new" Wodgets, Spasmas, Gidgets, Gongazzas, Flukemtites, and much more....

So this "tripwire thingy" that has to be avoided IF a KDE3.5-like setup is desired - needs discovering....

The first Distro to not only discover this - but add an option to their LiveCD - accessed maybe at the 'Install from LiveCD Desktop' point, to "Install as KDE3.5 Clone-Mode" - might actually 'avoid' adding this - as the onrushing hordes of New Members could be an Admin disaster... 

Perhaps a way around that could be to make this function "Secret" and encrypted - and folk could obtain the "Key code" for it with a Minimum $25.00 donation to the Distro - a bit like the Pass Server thing...

There are probably "financial advisors" as Members, who would volunteer to help the Distro handle such a vast inflow of Funds... 

Regards, Dave.

[Just18]

It also may not be something you are actively doing ......  there may be some corruption in your install causing it.

No don't ask what they might be ....  I have no idea.

Trying on a freshly created user should give the answer.