Where'd they go ?

[Greg Rundlett]

> How do I go about finding where things get installed, both command line
> and using KDE?  And how to start them if they don't "magically" appear
> in the "start applications" pop-up menu that KDE has provided (and which
> is driving me nuts as I next plan on rearranging that darn thing properly)?

I usually use 'locate' in a konsole window (shell) to find stuff.  If
I know I just installed something, but don't know where various files
ended up, you have to update the 'locate' database first.  This
normally happens to a system via a nightly cron.  To update it
manually, run 'updatedb' but be forwarned that it takes several
minutes to catalog every file on your hard drive.

If you right-click your "start" menu, you can edit it to add new applications.

>
> How does one determine whether a particular program is meant/designed
> for a GUI interface or a command line interface (the obvious Kxxxxx
> doesn't count)?  I've sorted out that when downloading from the 'net, if
> the program is written for X, then it essentially has a GUI interface.
> But that doesn't crop up on the source cd's.
>

Not a scientific method, but if you are running X and start a GUI
application from a shell, it will launch in a graphical window if it
is indeed a graphical program.  For example, if you type
/usr/bin/firefox, up will spring a browser window.  If instead the
application is a curses based or text based application, it will run
in the shell.