[Mageia-discuss] KDE compatibility issue

[Juergen Harms]

On 11/16/2011 05:41 PM, Barry Jackson wrote:
> sharing your thoughts and confirming that I am working along the right
> lines.

Do "right lines" exist in linux? there are so many ways of making things 
work and having fun - but, I, agree are there lots of "wrong lines" that 
dont work. (-

 > it is only ~/.kde4 that is causing issues currently .... any ideas?

I am with you: that is where I spend most of my time after an install. I 
had scripts that worked on kde configuration files, but they have a 
tendency to get complex, and kde changes its internal specifications 
nearly as rapidly as it takes to make these scripts run smoothly.

I ended up with a hybrid solution: after an install, I copy some 
template files and directories into my home directory - copying is 
better than linking: independance and co-existance of varying kde 
versions. I do the copying from a console, or another users desktop to 
avoid potential conflicts that might arise while kde is running on my 
home directory - that was an issue in the past, dont know if it still 
is. This way of doing is not only a substantial gain of the time needed 
for customisation, but also avoids making errors due to handling 
mistakes. These are the files and directories I copy:

1. .local/share/applications and <dito>/desktop-directories: that 
creates desktop items and their hierarchy
2. .config/menus/applications-kmenuedit.menu from a template: that 
defines the desktop menu and ties desktop items into the menus
3. .kde4/share/apps/konsole: I have profiles for several - differently 
coloured konsoles (distinguish root, applications, info konsole windows)
4. .kde4/share/apps/konqueror (I do not use this any more, but it allows 
to have customized fancy konqueror profiles).

I found that these four are very stable, I do not remember ever having 
had problems with this approach (I have become sloppy and sometimes copy 
the entire .config and .local directory, works well also). May sound 
fancy, but I like to have a very customized desktop menu.

But in the end, I continue to manually configure all the remaining 
features of my desktop, painfully and step by step.