9 KDE KDE, the K Desktop Environment, is an open source graphical desktop environment designed to provide a convenient, consistent, and user-friendly working environment for everyone from beginners to power users. All of the features of X are available, including the traditional xterm command-line interface for those who prefer it, but the graphical interface both unifies and simplifies working with X. Figure 9-1 shows the KDE logo; as you work with KDE, you will become familiar with this logo as the entry point into the KDE menu system. Figure 9-1: KDE logo KDE provides a unified desktop that uses drag-and-drop technology. You drag a file icon to an application icon to start the application or to move it to a folder. Or you can click on a file icon to open it in the appropriate application. You can put folders or files on the desktop for easy access, as well as links to programs that you frequently run—you can then start the program by clicking on the icon. Similarly, you can put a link to a device, such as your floppy drive, or a CD or DVD drive, on the desktop. In addition, KDE provides a web browser, Konqueror, that also serves as the KDE file manager, and provides the underlying technology for both the help facility and the graphical configuration tool known as the Control Center. A tool bar known as the panel sits on the screen, usually along the bottom, and provides a focal point for managing your desktop and running programs. One nice feature of KDE is that when you click on an icon or menu item that takes some time to initiate (e.g., starting a web browser), a mini-version of the icon appears by the pointer, moves with the pointer, and blinks. This gives you visual feedback that the system is processing your request. If your system is not already set up to start KDE, you need to configure your X initialization file. Depending on your Linux distribution, look for either .xinitrc, .xsession, or .Xclients in your home directory. Edit the file to remove any window manager references that may already exist and add the command startkde, without a terminating &, as the last command in the file (it may be the only command). Be certain that the proper KDE directory is in your search path. Depending on your distribution, you might find startkde in /usr/local/kde/bin, /usr/bin, or /opt/kde. If you have more than one version of KDE installed (e.g., KDE 2 and KDE 3), the path might include the version number. For example, you might have both /opt/kde3 and /opt/kde2. Once the initialization file is set up, KDE will run when you start X. Then when KDE is running, you can check the version by opening the Control Center, and then selecting HelpAbout KDE. To log out of KDE, which also ends your X session, choose Logout from either the K menu or the desktop menu. You can access the K menu, officially known as the Application Starter, by clicking the K icon on the panel at the bottom of the screen. Or right-click anywhere on the desktop to open the desktop menu and log out from there. You can also log out by clicking the logout button on the panel; the logout button is under the lock icon towards the left end of the panel—it looks like a power switch. When you log out, the KDE session manager provides a checkbox that lets you choose whether to save your present session so it can be restored the next time you log in. For example, if you log out with two shell windows and a Konqueror browser window open, the same windows will be open on your next login, and Konqueror will have the same pages open as when you logged out. If you leave the checkbox empty, no application windows will be open when you next start KDE (unless you start them from your initialization file). If you logged into KDE by means of the K Display Manager, KDM, you can also choose whether you want to login as a different user, turn off the computer, or restart the computer. If you logged in through one of the other display managers or by running startx, you won’t see these options. In that case, the default option is to login as a different user. You can change that default via the Control Center to one of the other options; see the section “The Control Center” later in this chapter for more information. In any case, you can click on the Cancel button if you change your mind and want to return to KDE. The Desktop A typical KDE desktop is shown in Figure 9-2. The desktop fills your screen and provides the area where you do your work. You can have multiple virtual desktops and move between them. By default, KDE provides four virtual desktops, but you can change that number at any time via the Control Center. Figure 9-2: KDE desktop The desktop shown here has two open windows—a shell and a web browser. Along the left edge of the desktop are icons that provide a trash barrel for deleted files, a link to the user’s home directory, and links to the CD and floppy drives. The bar along the bottom edge of the desktop is called the panel; it provides a launch pad for applications and ready access to your virtual desktops and running programs. The desktop can be used to hold icons that represent programs, files, and folders that you want readily accessible. In contrast to other window managers, such as FVWM or Window Maker, these icons do not represent running programs; instead, each icon is a link and single-clicking on the icon starts the program or accesses an object. (If you double-click by mistake, the program will start twice.) Icons can represent many types of object, including programs, files, folders, devices such as the floppy drive, or web pages. The object does not have to reside on your system, but can link to a website or file across the network. Managing Your Desktop The default desktop is just a starting point. As you work with KDE, you’ll want to rearrange the desktop, add and delete files and links, and generally customize it to suit your needs. KDE provides the desktop menu for this purpose. Right-clicking anywhere on the desktop displays the desktop menu, shown in Figure 9-3. Single-clicking is the default, but you can change that behavior in the Control Center to require a double-click instead. In that case, single-clicking selects the object. Figure 9-3: Desktop menu When you select Create New, a submenu opens that lets you choose between creating a new directory, HTML file, text file, CDROM device, floppy device, application, or Internet address (URL). Whichever type you select, a dialog box opens for you to specify the object. For example, for a text file, you specify a filename; for a URL, you specify the URL; for a device, you indicate which device you are linking to; etc. An appropriate icon is placed on the desktop for the newly created object, and a file is stored in the ~/Desktop directory under the name you gave the object. You can undo the creation of the object by selecting the Undo option. Note that in the figure, this option is grayed out, indicating that it isn’t available, because there was no previous action to undo. The Paste option allows you to paste an object from the clipboard to the desktop. Selecting Bookmarks opens a submenu that lets you edit your Konqueror bookmarks or modify Netscape bookmarks. Selecting Edit Bookmarks from the submenu runs the Konqueror bookmarks editor, keditbookmarks. Once you are in the editor window, you can edit your existing bookmarks or import your Mozilla and/or Netscape bookmarks to save them as Konqueror bookmarks. When you are done editing, you can export the updated bookmarks to Mozilla and Netscape. If you select Netscape bookmarks from the editor submenu and click on a bookmark, KDE brings up Konqueror and goes to that page. The Run Command option lets you run a single command without having to open a terminal window. Entering a URL instead of a command brings up a Konqueror window and goes to that URL. Running a command line this way doesn’t show you any output, so you wouldn’t want to use it, for example, to run an ls command. On the other hand, it would be useful for running chmod to change the permissions on a file. Using Run Command is equivalent to entering the keyboard shortcut Alt-F2. Run Command is also available on the K menu. Selecting Configure Desktop lets you set many options for your desktop. It combines the Control Center Look & Feel settings for the Desktop, Background, and Screensaver preferences. We’ll describe the Desktop settings here; see the section “Look & Feel” later in this chapter for more information on Background and Screensaver options. When you select Desktop from the three choices on the left-hand side of the window, four tabs appear in the main window section: Desktop The Desktop tab has three sections. The settings in Misc. Options (miscellaneous options) affect the types of objects that can appear on the desktop and how their icons are aligned. In the Show Previews for section, checking the option for a filetype means that the normal icon for that type of file is replaced by a small preview of the file contents.