how would one make a default user profile in KDE4?

[soup-n-sandwich]

I've looked in many places and still can't find exactly what I'm
looking for. I'm finally at the point where I'm ready to create my
default user's profile for KDE. Doing as I did before in KDE3.5
doesn't work very well. I need to capture everything in the profile.
From panel placement and colors to icons in the panel and menu arrangement.

What I've done so far is create a "temp" user and create that user's
profile the way that it needs to be as the default. I then (as root)
copied the entire contents of the "temp" profile to /etc/skel and
changed the permissions/ownership except for the /home/temp/.kde4
contents. In this folder I greped any user specific data and TRIED to
use a macro/variable for the user's home, such as "$HOME or
"~"...neither seem to work. So although most of the profile looks ok
some of the user specifics are pointing at the "temp " user and not
the current user. I managed to fix some user specific items. For
example the menu's (kickoff) Computer category has a place named
"Home" it it actually is the recently created user's Home...how ever
there is a panel icon for home as well and that's still points to the
"temp" user's home instead of the current user.

I think the whole problem stems around the fact that KDE wants to
place (and overwrite) the existing /etc/skel/.kde4 configuration
directory. Is there a way (maybe in the init files) to disable KDE
taking a copy of the config files (from /usr/share/config) and moving
it to the new users profile/home when a new user is created?

I've looked into kde default user profiles with different search terms but really can't seem
to find exactly what I need.
I've also looked at my notes from KDE.3.5 with dolphin as our file
manager but things have changed so much that it's almost useless.

[ePortel6607]

Is there any official method for creating the default user profile in KDE 4.5+?

[Bald Brick]

I think the whole problem stems around the fact that KDE wants to
place (and overwrite) the existing /etc/skel/.kde4 configuration
directory. Is there a way (maybe in the init files) to disable KDE
taking a copy of the config files (from /usr/share/config) and moving
it to the new users profile/home when a new user is created?

If you run KDE as a normal user I don't see how it could overwrite anything in /etc/skel/.kde4, which is owned by root and by default only writable by root.

[ePortel6607]

Yeah Brick that makes sense but the issue still remains that the default profile that I save in /etc/skel doesn't work. When I create a new user and then log in as that user, X will start but the profile doesn't get any further then a black screen with a mouse cursor on it.

I'm certain that Tex himself wrote a post for the proper configuration procedure for the default user.  I searched for it in the forum but nothing turned up.  I remember there being a lot of talk that KDE 4 doesn't use the /etc/skel folder (like KDE3.5) but I remember Tex saying "This is how you do it" and he explained it.   But like I said, I can't find that post.
Any input guys on this would be much appreciated.

[TerryN]

If I recall correctly you need:

Code: [Select]

cp -af /etc/skel/.kde4/* /home/user/.kde4
cp -af /etc/skel/.local/* /home/user/.local
cp -af /etc/skel/Desktop/* /home/user/Desktop
(and make sure ownership and permissions are set correctly)

Terry

[rubentje1991]

I'm certain that Tex himself wrote a post for the proper configuration procedure for the default user.

Reinstall "kde4-config" in Synaptic  

EDIT: look here: http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,76629.msg630995.html#msg630995

Re-install the kde4-config package from the Synaptic Package Manager. Log out and back in again and the desktop will be reset to the original settings.

Tex

[Bald Brick]

I'm certain that Tex himself wrote a post for the proper configuration procedure for the default user.

Reinstall "kde4-config" in Synaptic  

EDIT: look here: http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,76629.msg630995.html#msg630995

Re-install the kde4-config package from the Synaptic Package Manager. Log out and back in again and the desktop will be reset to the original settings.

Tex

That won't make soup-n-sandwich's edited settings the defaults for a new user. Quite the opposite actually.


But since a couple of years ago we have another hidden .kde4 folder. I'm talking about /.kde4 directly under the root directory (/). I've often wondered why it's there, but I'm starting to suspect that it contains global defaults not to be found in /etc/skel/.kde4. I'm probably wrong but this might be worth googling.

[rubentje1991]

But since a couple of years ago we have another hidden .kde4 folder. I'm talking about /.kde4 directly under the root directory (/). I've often wondered why it's there, but I'm starting to suspect that it contains global defaults not to be found in /etc/skel/.kde4. I'm probably wrong but this might be worth googling.

I don't have that one (also not when I open a file browser as root...)?

[menotu]

But since a couple of years ago we have another hidden .kde4 folder. I'm talking about /.kde4 directly under the root directory (/). I've often wondered why it's there, but I'm starting to suspect that it contains global defaults not to be found in /etc/skel/.kde4. I'm probably wrong but this might be worth googling.

This is from KDE System Administration/KDE Filesystem Hierarchy  

It mentions the KDE 3 series but example shown is .kde4

KDEROOTHOME

In order to prevent problems with applications that run as root saving files with root access permissions in the user's home directory, the KDEROOTHOME environment variable has been introduced in the KDE 3.x series. Applications that run with uid 0 (root) will use this variable to determine the location of the user level directory and where to save their files. If this variable is not defined, the root user's home directory is looked up in the password file and .kde4 is appended. Usually that results in /root/.kde4 .

It also has other info which may be useful


More here

[Bald Brick]

Thanks menotu,

Your link was most illuminating even if it did not explain why we nowadays have a .kde4 memory tree directly under / (where it doesn't really belong if we adhere to the Linux filesystem hierarchy standard).