A surplus of activities (fixed)

[rich2005]

I have 2 activities, my regular home and another for video editing. Since the kde upgrade when I come to change activity I get extra non-functional activities. as



I have deleted these but they come back (one-by-one) seems to be after a reboot.

What am I doing wrong? Is there a setting somewhere to curtail these.

[mellon]

Would like top know that as well, because I also get new activities added. Is not a consistent addition on every reboot though.

The activitiesmanagerrc file under home .kde4/share/config shows in my setup (see below) at least one extra activity under [activitiesDesktops]. I removed the extra entry. I will monitor it for a while and see if that fixes it

[activities]
0e23c68f-2a72-4bea-a53c-413da63d806a=vwin7
cb498793-2cf6-4746-93b7-333d3460094d=news
db63f70f-2fa1-473f-bdfb-2a0bdee5ba0d=main
e9927aac-499c-43d7-87f3-75d3ad4c0c94=widgets

[activitiesDesktops]
0e23c68f-2a72-4bea-a53c-413da63d806a=1
7e547000-f079-4f83-a437-98cdb0e0ecad=1
cb498793-2cf6-4746-93b7-333d3460094d=1
db63f70f-2fa1-473f-bdfb-2a0bdee5ba0d=1
e9927aac-499c-43d7-87f3-75d3ad4c0c94=1


Mellon

[Just17]

This is something I have reported quite some time ago .......  at one time I deleted some 90 new activities which had obviously built up without my noticing, as I do not use that function.

I now regularly delete the new icons, and have renamed the one I use so I do not delete it accidentally.

I checked again as I wrote this post .......  I now have 60 activities I have to delete when I post this 

[luikki]

annoying...
and every time i delete the activities the desktop  background changes from the photo of moh to a plain black one...

[Just17]

annoying...
and every time i delete the activities the desktop  background changes from the photo of moh to a plain black one...

Give your Activity a name so you don't delete it, then all remains ok

[pinoc]

if someone figures out what creates these new activities then please let me know so I can make a fix for it.
thanks,
-p.

[mellon]

A post on another forum indicated that this already seemed to happen on a KDE 4.7 configuration. It would not happen when a new user id was created, so it was something in the user profile.

As far as I could tell the New Activity only occurs after a cold boot.  Once it is removed, a restart does no create a new activity. So I checked now which files in .kde4/share/config were updated on a cold boot but not on a restart. These appeared to be the files: startupconfigfiles and startupconfig.  I check those files and they did not seem to be crucial, so I deleted them and to be sure I also deleted startupconfigkeys.

I cold booted now 5 times and have not seen any New Activity appearing.  Did the same 'fix' on my laptop with the same splendid result.

Nothing seems to be broken. 



Mellon

[luikki]

As far as I could tell the New Activity only occurs after a cold boot.  Once it is removed, a restart does no create a new activity. So I checked now which files in .kde4/share/config were updated on a cold boot but not on a restart. These appeared to be the files: startupconfigfiles and startupconfig.  I check those files and they did not seem to be crucial, so I deleted them and to be sure I also deleted startupconfigkeys.

looks like you are right. followed your guidance and after several cool boots no surplus activities...

and a novelty:
after deleting startupconfigfiles startupconfig and startupconfigkeys it boots to desktop one and not to desktop two...

so, it looks like you have solved another kde  incongruency...

[Just17]

I renamed the three files and will see how it goes.

Thanks for the info mellon  

[pinoc]

startkde is a shell script that is run upon login. It calls kstartupconfig4 which reads the user-specific startupconfigkeys file which generates "startupconfigfiles" and a shell script "startupconfig". This generated script is then sourced/started. If you did not customise startupconfigkeys (very unlikely), or if you remove all 3 files, then they are simply re-generated. A set of these 3 files is identical (besides of different path-names for the different user-accounts) for a user-account A with lots of "New Activity" entries and another user-account B which is clean. For this reason I do not believe that any of these files is the cause for "New Activity" flooding...

To figure out which files are affected you could search for files having the ID of such a New Activity (or simply a part of the ID), the IDs are listed in ~/.kde4/share/config/activitymanagerrc. To do this search use the new tool fif (find-in-file) which I have included in the .bashrc since 2012.02.

For example:

Code: [Select]

[root@localhost pinoc]# fif 11474dad
./.kde4/share/config/kglobalshortcutsrc:switch-to-activity-11474dad-3b4b-449c-8367-cd2cb2fcc1ff=none,none,Switch to activity "New Activity"
./.kde4/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc:activityId=11474dad-3b4b-449c-8367-cd2cb2fcc1ff
./.kde4/share/config/activitymanagerrc:11474dad-3b4b-449c-8367-cd2cb2fcc1ff=New Activity
[root@localhost pinoc]#

To clean out all those New Activities for a given user-account open .kde4/share/config/activitymanagerrc and delete all those lines ending in "=New Activity". Then save this file, logout/login, and all is ok.
To be consistent one could also clean out the other 2 files but it seems that cleaning .kde4/share/config/activitymanagerrc is sufficient already.
Do not delete .kde4/share/config/activitymanagerrc or your desktop will be just black....

Below is a copy of my .kde4/share/config/activitymanagerrc, note that the activity ID listed there must match the one in plasma-desktop-appletsrc, else you will get serious troubles...

The ID below is hard coded into the recent kde4-config and kde4-config-legacy, and defined to PCLinuxOS KDE, so if your user -account was created after the recent kde4-configs (or you use the 2012.08 iso with a fresh user-account) then you should already have this ID in this file.

Code: [Select]

[activities]
cb498793-2cf6-4746-93b7-333d3460094d=PCLinuxOS KDE

[main]
currentActivity=cb498793-2cf6-4746-93b7-333d3460094d
lastUnlockedActivity=cb498793-2cf6-4746-93b7-333d3460094d

I could write a little script to automatically clean out those "New Activities" and place that in .kde4/Autostart/
But it would be nicer to understand and fix the real reason which initiates this unwanted process. 
-p.

[Just17]

I am puzzled by what I found in the  ~/.kde4/share/config/activitymanagerrc  file  .....  I have four desktops and one activity (called "Mine") ........

[activities]
15831ea7-f02f-4c55-9ef0-8ac415587da0=Mine

[activities-icons]
5ebebaac-d95d-4bfd-816e-b2f20c4465f8=user-desktop
c8487d65-d48c-42e8-96aa-7d3a603cea5b=edit-find

[activitiesDesktops]
03709851-cc2d-4c2b-8ac9-05252fd7e2d3=1
132509ac-d206-4ff8-ba28-bc67a012d603=1
15831ea7-f02f-4c55-9ef0-8ac415587da0=1
20acf705-4234-454b-8544-e4bd1f82c7d8=1
20fa856b-bffb-4022-a014-bb60e30c25dc=1
28bf083e-6ec1-428f-b5b6-13f48e075c83=1
29e169ba-9132-4af4-9559-11a5a8455d27=1
2a6f1e00-f23d-4b9d-8c77-0d299e7698ad=1
3bf1d4af-0725-4388-a0cf-47ff4a1c44b6=1
3db515f3-2a03-4da1-83ec-2983638198e4=1
4434d6c4-4f64-44d1-a2cb-864188a4e99a=1
45b48a59-7a8e-4ef1-a9d4-e7b56034b198=1
50757bdf-97a3-45f5-b44c-a276b5a8dd7d=1
5ba1fd44-b05f-47aa-b886-c5e804e6e408=1
5d995491-126e-4e5c-9239-b4bec0f78994=1
5ebebaac-d95d-4bfd-816e-b2f20c4465f8=1
5f53ea80-e1ee-4228-b319-473ff622095b=1
632ec639-6fcd-499c-9e91-aa242c93fb41=1
66f56441-e7ed-4d9d-98fb-876193df14de=1
69f953e9-5cfc-45f6-8c27-591fb30f708e=1
6b55a4c5-deed-45f1-8833-09de9f0ba42a=1
709201af-26ee-4d3b-b5ab-e54b88fba9b7=1
82fb3c51-b757-40b6-9dc3-f8ae910f6892=1
868f3e04-17c2-41f8-a279-9ff85fa5ce8f=1
873bf820-77c6-4a77-bc19-a1897b58d140=1
8d3c6240-60e7-493f-b7fe-84e2540e0b40=1
9daa4efd-b4aa-4e71-b9ef-192e304cb4e0=1
9f683cba-6205-4fd0-b296-5189b86bb26a=1
9f8b566f-082c-48cf-9d73-534ec61b0f5b=1
add41cc5-bc45-459b-b57f-858191428bd0=1
b19bacd8-d50a-4fb1-8778-16bff1bb505f=1
b9c052bf-8269-437b-aae2-0c2dd28e12dc=1
c40dccaa-7ffc-4f11-af0e-5bfd81ccd22f=1
c8487d65-d48c-42e8-96aa-7d3a603cea5b=1
cf561d42-8836-4a88-b45d-a0a5a62f2ec4=1
cf596b42-eaca-4678-8fbd-1cd4085ec0f1=1
d98af9ba-335f-4a73-bc71-f5ab71d09d61=1
fb09043a-31a7-4dbb-8465-dd176c02652f=1

[main]
currentActivity=15831ea7-f02f-4c55-9ef0-8ac415587da0
lastUnlockedActivity=15831ea7-f02f-4c55-9ef0-8ac415587da0
runningActivities=15831ea7-f02f-4c55-9ef0-8ac415587da0

What are all those Activities Desktops?


EDIT:
         I made a back up of the file.
Deleted all but the one activitiesdesktop with the same number as my single activity.
Rebooted - and it took a lot of time to get into KDE ....  lots of disk activity.
Eventually got there and the file appeared to have been replaced by one with the same content.

I think I will leave it at it is for the present ......  am about to shut off for the night and will check again in the morning.

[luikki]

To figure out which files are affected you could search for files having the ID of such a New Activity (or simply a part of the ID), the IDs are listed in ~/.kde4/share/config/activitymanagerrc. To do this search use the new tool fif (find-in-file) which I have included in the .bashrc since 2012.02.

# fif 77e40d2d-a60e-4b58-a48d-7fb430218013
bash: fif: command not found

with two desktops i've this:

[activities]
77e40d2d-a60e-4b58-a48d-7fb430218013=New Activity

[activitiesDesktops]
0dce9d05-1432-4b85-9ea1-1854593400b5=2
366c1fc7-6da7-47e4-8fe4-e46974e3665f=2
6dbdc514-f7af-4896-ba49-936c4fcee1d3=2
cb498793-2cf6-4746-93b7-333d3460094d=1

[main]
currentActivity=77e40d2d-a60e-4b58-a48d-7fb430218013
lastUnlockedActivity=77e40d2d-a60e-4b58-a48d-7fb430218013
runningActivities=77e40d2d-a60e-4b58-a48d-7fb430218013

[mellon]

This morning I started up my pc and there was no new activity created. However, on my laptop one was created. 
For the record: my Virtual Desktop settings are identical on PC and laptop : Number of Desktops 1, Number of Rows 1 and Different widgets for each desktop unchecked. On this one desktop I have 4 activities. I use an activity bar in the panel. Any New Activity is immediately visible.

I compared the .kde4 folder structure on pc and laptop found them quite different and confusing. So I logged out of the pc, logged in via failsafe and moved the .kde4 folder to .kde4.old.  I logged in with default to get a fresh .kde4. The default setup has 4 activities, 3 of which are inactive.
The initial folder structure is:

.kde4
./Autostart
./share
  ./share/apps
  ./share/config
    ./share/config/kresources
    ./share/config/kresources/contact

My old structure on the PC was.
.kde4.old
./Autostart
./share
  ./share/apps
  ./share/autostart/
  ./share/config/
  ./share/kde4/

./share/autostart:
krunner.desktop
plasma-desktop.desktop
plasma-netbook.desktop

./share/config
./share/config/kresources
./share/config/kresources/calendar
./share/config/kresources/contact
./share/config/session

./share/kde4
./share/kde4/services

The laptop .kde4 folder was even a bigger mess. So I removed the none matching folders. I logged out from the PC. Logged in again with failsafe and moved .kde4 to .kde4.default and moved the stripped .kde4.old back to .ke4. I logged in with default and got a New Activity  . 
Well, so be it. I got rid of it and decided to be stubborn and delete the startupconfig and starupconfigfiles again.
Shutdowned, switched power completely off, switch power on and booted. No new activity.

p.s. fif command was not found.
The file kglobalshortcutsrc holds the following data

[kactivitymanagerd]
_k_friendly_name=KDE Activity Manager
switch-to-activity-0e23c68f-2a72-4bea-a53c-413da63d806a=none,none,Switch to activity "vwin7"
switch-to-activity-1b388d3e-5258-4d8a-86fe-9b22fe240853=none,none,Switch to activity "New Activity"
switch-to-activity-411f42ac-4a18-4ef7-a913-b3f59c25f47c=none,none,Switch to activity "New Activity"
switch-to-activity-4e588fb3-17f7-423b-a602-fc5195f87ff0=none,none,Switch to activity "New Activity"
switch-to-activity-63769d5d-49fd-43fd-8dbc-5cc7b086ac85=none,none,Switch to activity "New Activity"
switch-to-activity-7254d896-fe62-4fc0-9d3f-25164d8bf143=none,none,Switch to activity "New Activity"
switch-to-activity-7a5020c6-0512-444a-8ac6-0606c2ca3221=none,none,Switch to activity "New Activity"
switch-to-activity-a1f16efc-8f65-4bfb-b6dd-3c221237344a=none,none,Switch to activity "New Activity"
switch-to-activity-cb498793-2cf6-4746-93b7-333d3460094d=none,none,Switch to activity "news"
switch-to-activity-db63f70f-2fa1-473f-bdfb-2a0bdee5ba0d=none,none,Switch to activity "main"
switch-to-activity-e9927aac-499c-43d7-87f3-75d3ad4c0c94=none,none,Switch to activity "widgets"

I stripped the excess lines

Mellon

[pinoc]

hmm, let's hope we can figure oiut what triggers this nonsense.

For those not having fif, open your ~/.bashrc and copy/paste the following into .bashrc:

Code: [Select]

# fif=Find in File (maik3531)
# e.g. to search for the word 'pencil' in all documents of a given
# directory open a konsole, cd to the directory, and run: fif "pencil"
fif() {
find . -type f -print | xargs grep --color=auto "$1" 2> /dev/null
}

Then open a new konsole and do a test-search to see how it works, e.g., search for "New Activity" using

Code: [Select]

fif "New Activity"Note that fif is case-sensitive, and you only need the "" if you have a space in the search string.
Personally, I have used fif for months and find it one of the most powerful tools; it has helped me A LOT to figure out different settings in KDE and for FullMonty. Hence a huge THANK YOU to maik3531 for this great tool.

[luikki]

after adding

# fif=Find in File (maik3531)
# e.g. to search for the word 'pencil' in all documents of a given
# directory open a konsole, cd to the directory, and run: fif "pencil"
fif() {
find . -type f -print | xargs grep --color=auto "$1" 2> /dev/null
}

# fif 77e40d2d
bash: fif: command not found