Myriad of questions about getting KDE set up

[Dshackelford]

So, I am not entirely sure if this is where I need to post this as it is almost entirely related to KDE. Feel free to tell me to take it elsewhere if that is the case 

My questions are coming from the perspective of someone who has not touched Linux in almost 10 years, but is super excited to be running it again. I got pretty much everything working in the latest PCLinuxOS install, all my hardware, even Wine + WoW is working flawlessley. However, I want to invest some time in customizing the look of my OS, and I am frankly baffled by all the stuff that came installed.

Basically, I am little fuzzy on the distinctions between: Plasma, Aurorae Theme Engine, and KDE themes. After two days of trying I can't get anything to actually change in appearance except the taskbar panel, and the color scheme. Where I believe I need to be changing things is: Desktop Config -> Look and Feel -> Windows -> Window Decoration, but every time I change to a theme that came installed with PCLinux, nothing actually changes outside the logout dialog. Well that and I see all these COOL screenshots of desktops with very custom looking taskbar panels, and I also have no clue where the options to do that are either.

I expect these questions are pretty much the newbiest of the noob, but I've invested lotsa hours surfing the KDE wiki and these forums, so a little guidance would be most appreciated. Thanks for your time!

[newbi462]

In KDE 4 these things work a tad dif than KDE 3. In KDE 4 your workspace/desktop/launchbar is a combination of panels

To change the task/launch bar right click on it and select "Smooth Tasks Settings" there is where you will find the settings for stuff like that once you are in there it is pretty logical

general for general settings

appearance for compromising the colors and so forth

...

for the desktop you got 2 options as the desktop is actually another panel space: you can either click on the manager in the upper right hand corner and select "folder view activity settings" or right click in any free space on the desktop and select "folder view activity settings" again once in there pretty logical

wallpaper for wallpaper and so on

display for scaling how the icons size and so on


...

Hopefully this is what you were looking for. It is a bit of a gear change but not necessarily a bad one.

[Dshackelford]

Thanks for the reply, so since the desktop is a Plasma space does that mean that it handles the appearance of windows, like say an open Dolphin window or Firefox or something? I would like to change the way that those windows look as well, I just can't honestly figure out how.

The Aurorae Theme Engine purports to do just that,  but I encounter the same problem with that. When select it, then select a theme nothing actually changes outside the logout dialog?

[newbi462]

OK for the windows like the top bar color and affects you want to go to System settings(the spanner & screwdriver)>look & feel>Appearance>

and in there you will see Windows for the windows settings

and splash screen for the splash screen and so on

though some theme setting will over ride these

so you may also want to look at Theme under advanced user settings while you are in there

check the "more" box at the bottom of the theme page to get the theme options you probably want to create a new theme before you go to nuts so you can restore back if you screw something up.

[Dshackelford]

Sounds like I was probably looking in the right place then. Under that "windows" dialog I try selecting a theme that looks like it should modify the appearance of the windows, but the only thing that actually changes is the logout dialog.

I was thinking that maybe I was trying to use a KDE 3.0 theme with KDE 4.0, but not even the ones that came with PCLinux work?

[newbi462]

Well the 4 included themas are very similar when logged in.

By the way do you have the Compiz 3d affects enabled

[Dshackelford]

Yeah I do, will that break the theming engine

[newbi462]

It dose not break it but in some cases is setts its own settings for some thinks like Windows for one.

if you notice with Compiz enabled you have a - and maximize box instead of the default big small arrow.

Basically Compiz not KDE is managing some of your window settings.

Of course Compiz dose add a lot of functionality so I would consider it a fair trade. But it is your choice.


I think there is a way to change the color settings compiz uses but I have never done it as the default ones were fine with me