(Solved) smaragd

[Rob]

Smaragd is a window decoration engine for the KDE window manager KWin. It allows you to use Emerald theme files (from Compiz/Beryl) with KDE SC 4. .Only problem is I don't know how to use it or even find it after downloading it from the repo's. If someone could kindly help me with this I'd be grateful.

[Chomp]

Hi Rob. Open up Configure Your Desktop(System Settings) and navigate to  Look & Feel >> Appearance >> Windows and you will find Smaragd under the dropdown menu with the rest of the kde4 window decorations installed on your system.

Smaragd is not considered complete yet(though it is stable enough), so there is no config dialog for setting up your emerald themes.  This means you have to do it manually. The smaragd package automatically creates the folders you need in /home/yourname/.emerald/theme/. Now here's the tricky part. Take your emerald theme you want to use(which is a .emerald file.) and right-click on it and select Extract Here. You will end up with a .emerald.uncompressed file(or something similarily named). Right-click on it again and extract it again. This time you should get some .png files and a .ini file. Move or copy these file to .emerald/theme. You may need to login in and out again to see changes.

Alternatively, you can also use the emerald theme manager to manage your themes(yup, it works with smaragd), but if you're like me you don't want to download the mega-ton of dependencies that are required.

I hope this explanation isn't too confusing, but I had to type in a hurry as I gotta go. If you need clarification please ask and I or someone will else will help further.

[Zero Angel]

Smaragd will use whatever theme you have set up in emerald-theme-manager.

[Rob]

thanks I'll try it soon.