Update (K)Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10

[Greg Rundlett]

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 11:20 PM, Brian Chabot <brian at datasquire.net> wrote:
>
>
> Greg Rundlett wrote:
>> I've been through the upgrade process and I'm still getting used to KDE 4.
>>
>> I'm frustrated by not being able to have a customized panel with
>> direct launchers for all my favorite applications.  For that matter,
>> although I generally keep a clean desktop, I don't like the fact that
>> KDE4 won't let me put _any_ icons/shortcuts on my desktop except for
>> the plasma widgets.
>
> You can use the icon widget.  In my Mandriva 2009 install on my laptop,
> I can drag a folder (from the default file manager only) onto the
> "desktop" and choose "create icon" from the menu.
>

I didn't know about this, but just tried it and it worked:
You can drag and drop something onto the "desktop" in order to create
a shortcut.  If the something is an image file, you will be prompted
to create an "icon" (plasmoid) or a "picture frame" (plasmoid) --
everything on the KDE4 desktop is a plasmoid.

You can also create a "Folder View" plasmoid.  If that folder (e.g.
/the/ 'Desktop' folder) has .desktop resources in it, then those will
be displayed as traditional application shortcuts.  In fact, when
creating a "Folder View" plasmoid you are presented with the option to
display the "Desktop" folder, or else a custom folder.  So, your old
"Desktop" is still available in KDE4, you just have to display it in a
plasmoid.  I can't explain why the upgrade process does not
automatically display the contents of your /home/user/Desktop folder
in a "Folder View" plasmoid.

I have read in forums that you can create an "icon" plasmoid, and my
system even supports icon plasmoids (the drag and drop exercise
above), but there isn't any option to create an "icon" plasmoid from
the "Add Widgets" menu that you get when right-clicking the desktop or
the "panel" (used to be called kicker).  The only way that I was able
to create an icon plasmoid was to drag something from a file manager
to an empty space on the desktop.

I also succeeded in dragging a shortcut (.desktop file) from a folder
viewed in dolphin or konqueror onto an empty panel in order to create
an application launcher.  Note that this did not work for a shell
script because there is no setting to tell it to launch the
application in a console.

It would be really nice if they shipped some documentation, or gasp, a
video with the new desktop.

Note too: for whatever reason, the printer configuration tool is not
found in the system settings application.  It is under "Applications
-> System -> Printing" if using the new "Kickoff Menu" style Kmenu, or
"System -> Printing" if using the classic (KDE 3.x) Kmenu.

- Greg