9KDE

KDE, the K Desktop Environment, is an open source graphical desktop environmentdesigned to provide a convenient, consistent, and user-friendly working environment foreveryone from beginners to power users. All of the features of X are available, includingthe traditional xterm command-line interface for those who prefer it, but the graphicalinterface both unifies and simplifies working with X. Figure 9-1 shows the KDE logo; asyou work with KDE, you will become familiar with this logo as the entry point into theKDE menu system.

Figure 9-1: KDE logo

KDE provides a unified desktop that uses drag-and-drop technology. You drag a file iconto an application icon to start the application or to move it to a folder. Or you can click ona file icon to open it in the appropriate application. You can put folders or files on thedesktop for easy access, as well as links to programs that you frequently run—you canthen 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 filemanager, and provides the underlying technology for both the help facility and thegraphical configuration tool known as the Control Center. A tool bar known as the panelsits on the screen, usually along the bottom, and provides a focal point for managing yourdesktop and running programs.

One nice feature of KDE is that when you click on an icon or menu item that takes sometime to initiate (e.g., starting a web browser), a mini-version of the icon appears by thepointer, moves with the pointer, and blinks. This gives you visual feedback that thesystem is processing your request.

If your system is not already set up to start KDE, you need to configure your Xinitialization file. Depending on your Linux distribution, look for either .xinitrc, .xsession,or .Xclients in your home directory. Edit the file to remove any window managerreferences 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 properKDE directory is in your search path. Depending on your distribution, you might findstartkde in /usr/local/kde/bin, /usr/bin, or /opt/kde. If you have more than one version ofKDE installed (e.g., KDE 2 and KDE 3), the path might include the version number. Forexample, you might have both /opt/kde3 and /opt/kde2. Once the initialization file is setup, KDE will run when you start X. Then when KDE is running, you can check theversion 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 Kmenu or the desktop menu. You can access the K menu, officially known as theApplication Starter, by clicking the K icon on the panel at the bottom of the screen. Orright-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 underthe 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 choosewhether to save your present session so it can be restored the next time you log in. Forexample, 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 samepages open as when you logged out. If you leave the checkbox empty, no applicationwindows will be open when you next start KDE (unless you start them from yourinitialization 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 byrunning startx, you won’t see these options. In that case, the default option is to login as adifferent user. You can change that default via the Control Center to one of the otheroptions; 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 toreturn to KDE.

The DesktopA typical KDE desktop is shown in Figure 9-2. The desktop fills your screen and providesthe area where you do your work. You can have multiple virtual desktops and movebetween them. By default, KDE provides four virtual desktops, but you can change thatnumber 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 theleft edge of the desktop are icons that provide a trash barrel for deleted files, a link to theuser’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 readyaccess to your virtual desktops and running programs.

The desktop can be used to hold icons that represent programs, files, and folders that youwant readily accessible. In contrast to other window managers, such as FVWM orWindow Maker, these icons do not represent running programs; instead, each icon is alink and single-clicking on the icon starts the program or accesses an object. (If youdouble-click by mistake, the program will start twice.) Icons can represent many types ofobject, 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 acrossthe network.

Managing Your DesktopThe default desktop is just a starting point. As you work with KDE, you’ll want torearrange the desktop, add and delete files and links, and generally customize it to suityour needs. KDE provides the desktop menu for this purpose. Right-clicking anywhere onthe 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 adouble-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 anew directory, HTML file, text file, CDROM device, floppy device, application, orInternet address (URL). Whichever type you select, a dialog box opens for you to specifythe object. For example, for a text file, you specify a filename; for a URL, you specify theURL; for a device, you indicate which device you are linking to; etc. An appropriate iconis placed on the desktop for the newly created object, and a file is stored in the ~/Desktopdirectory under the name you gave the object.

You can undo the creation of the object by selecting the Undo option. Note that in thefigure, 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 theclipboard to the desktop.

Selecting Bookmarks opens a submenu that lets you edit your Konqueror bookmarks ormodify Netscape bookmarks. Selecting Edit Bookmarks from the submenu runs theKonqueror bookmarks editor, keditbookmarks. Once you are in the editor window, youcan edit your existing bookmarks or import your Mozilla and/or Netscape bookmarks tosave them as Konqueror bookmarks. When you are done editing, you can export theupdated bookmarks to Mozilla and Netscape. If you select Netscape bookmarks from theeditor submenu and click on a bookmark, KDE brings up Konqueror and goes to thatpage.

The Run Command option lets you run a single command without having to open aterminal window. Entering a URL instead of a command brings up a Konqueror windowand 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, itwould be useful for running chmod to change the permissions on a file. Using RunCommand is equivalent to entering the keyboard shortcut Alt-F2. Run Command is alsoavailable on the K menu.

Selecting Configure Desktop lets you set many options for your desktop. It combines theControl Center Look & Feel settings for the Desktop, Background, and Screensaverpreferences. 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 youselect Desktop from the three choices on the left-hand side of the window, four tabsappear in the main window section:

DesktopThe Desktop tab has three sections. The settings in Misc. Options (miscellaneousoptions) affect the types of objects that can appear on the desktop and how their iconsare aligned.

In the Show Previews for section, checking the option for a filetype means that thenormal icon for that type of file is replaced by a small preview of the file contents.

The bottom section, Clicks on the desktop, determines the action taken when thevarious pointer buttons are clicked. In addition to taking no action, you can select thewindow list menu, the desktop menu, the application menu, and two custom menus.By default, the left button produces no action, the middle button displays the currentwindows on each desktop, and the right button displays the desktop menu. Theapplication menu is the same as the K menu; if it’s more convenient, selecting Application Menu from one of the drop-down lists lets you attach it to a pointerbutton.

The custom menus are menus that you can create for your own purposes. There aredefault custom menus in the directory $KDEDIR/share/config with the nameskdesktop_custom_menu1 and kdesktop_custom_menu2. The default custom menu 1has one entry, kconsole, while the default custom menu 2 runs an xterm. You caneither create your own custom menus from scratch, or copy the defaults to$HOME/.kde/share/config. The file contains of the following two types of entries:

NrOfItems=nSpecifies the number of items, n, to appear on the menu.

Itemn=nameSpecifies the name of one entry on the menu, where name specifies the programname and n indicates which entry it is.

For example, the following creates a short custom menu with four entries:NrOfItems=4Item1=konsoleItem2=kshisenItem3=konquerorItem4=emacs

NOTE to production: please indent the code lines above correctly.

The resulting menu is shown in Figure 9-4. It has options to start a Konsole session,the game Shisen-Sho, a Konqueror session, and the Emacs editor.

Figure 9-4: kdesktop custom menu

AppearanceThe Appearance tab provides options for setting the font and fontsize, as well as thetext and text background colors, to appear on the desktop. It also includes a checkboxthat determines if the filenames that appear with the icons are to be underlined.Underlining the filenames makes them stand out, but it also takes up additional space.

Number of DesktopsThis tab is where you can change the number of virtual desktops from the defaultvalue of 4. Move the slider at the top of the window to the right to add desktops or tothe left to remove desktops. Below the slider, each of the 16 possible desktops islisted. You can use the box to the right of each listed desktop to give each desktop aunique name. By default, they are named Desktop n, where n is the number of thatdesktop. For example, if you always use Desktop 2 to run KDE Office, you mightwant to change its name from Desktop 2 to KDE Office.

PathsThe Paths tab lets you change the default path to your Desktop, Trash, Autostart, andDocuments directories. Changing the path to any of the first three directories alsomoves any files to the directory specified in the new path. Unless you have somegoodreason to change them, it’s best to leave the default settings.

The Unclutter Windows and Cascade Windows options on the desktop menu let youorganize the placement of windows on the desktop, while Line up Icons and ArrangeIcons do the same for the icons. Clicking on Unclutter Windows results in KDEattempting to arrange your open windows to minimize the amount of overlap. Ideally, theresult will be to have no overlap, but if you have many windows open, that may not bepossible. When you select Cascade Windows, KDE layers the windows so that at leastone edge of each is visible, but the maximum amount of desktop space is left uncovered.Selecting Line up Icons lines up your desktop icons in nice neat rows, while ArrangeIcons lets you order them by name (either case-sensitive or case-insensitive), size, or type.There is also a checkbox to have directories show up first.

The Lock Screen option displays your screensaver and locks your screen. You must enteryour password to unlock the screen; clicking a pointer button or pressing a key on thekeyboard presents the password prompt.

Selecting Logout presents the logout box to log you out from KDE, as described at thebeginning of the chapter.

If you use the desktop menu frequently, you can check the Enable Desktop Menu optionto place it permanently as a horizontal bar on the top of your screen. Of course you candisable it again to make the bar disappear.The menu bar contains the same options as theregular desktop menu, but organized differently and with a few variations. The menu barcontains the following submenus:

Menu Contains

File Run Command, Lock Screen, and Logout

If you have KDE configured to display the panel at the top of the screen, the desktop menu barappears above the panel.

New Equivalent to Create New on the desktop menu

Bookmarks Equivalent to Bookmarks on the desktop menu

Desktop Includes Unclutter Windows, Cascade Windows, Line Up Icons, andArrange Icons, as well as Refresh Desktop and Configure Desktop. Alsocontains the option Disable Desktop Menu.

Windows Repeats the Unclutter Windows and Cascade Windows options, and alsoincludes an entry for each virtual desktop and lists the windows on eachdesktop. Selecting one of the desktops moves you to that desktop;selecting a window in one of the desktops moves you to that desktop andalso makes that window the active window.

Help Includes options to open the KDesktop Handbook, report a bug, and viewinformation about KDE.

It is planned that you will be able to customize the desktop menu beginning with KDE3.1.

You can quickly change the background image of the desktop by dragging a graphicsimage from a Konqueror window to the desktop background* and selecting Set asWallpaper. You might then want to go to the configuration option of the Desktop menu,choose BackgroundWallpaper and set the mode (i.e., whether to tile the image, centerit, or scale it).

Working with Multiple DesktopsKDE supports virtual desktops in a variety of ways. The default number of virtualdesktops is four. This value can be increased up to sixteen or decreased down to only onevirtual desktop. Each of these desktops can have its own name (instead of “desktop 1”, “desktop 2”, “one”, “two”, etc.) and its own background. It’s a good idea to give the desktop a name corresponding to its usage (e.g., “edit”, “doc”, “Internet”, etc.). Differentbackgrounds and images can help you to orientate yourself, as well as show your officefriends what your private hobbies and interests are.

Right-clicking on a desktop button in the panel brings up the menu shown in Figure 9-5.

* Be aware of copyright issues when you do this. The best option is to use one of your own figures,so you aren’t infringing on someone else’s copyright.

Figure 9-5: Desktop display menu

Only one of Preview, Number, or Name can be checked at a time: which one you selectdetermines what is displayed in the desktop preview windows in the panel. Preview showsa representation of the windows open on each desktop, Number shows the desktopnumber for each desktop, and Name shows the name of each desktop. Preview only takeseffect if Enable Desktop Preview is checked. If you click on one desktop and change thesettings, they are changed for all the desktops.

Selecting Preferences in the menu brings up a window that is the same as the Number ofDesktops tab that you get when you select Configure Desktop from the desktop menu.You can then modify the number of desktops and rename them.

The Activate option lets you move between desktops. If you are on, say, desktop 1, andyou right-click on desktop 3 in the panel and select Activate, desktop 3 becomes theactive desktop. Normally it would be easier to just click on the panel button for thedesktop you want to move to, but if you have the menu open anyway, then selectingActivate moves you to the desktop from which you selected the menu.

Using the keyboard, you can cycle through the virtual desktops by holding the Ctrl keydown and simultaneously pressing Tab to move forward or Shift-Tab to move back.

You can also switch to another desktop by clicking in the taskbar on a program runningon that desktop. Alternatively you can use kpager, which also shows which windows arecurrently open on other desktops. You can access kpager with Alt-F2 kpager or byclicking on the up-arrow just to the left of the desktop buttons in the panel.

You can also use kpager to move a window from one desktop to another, by simplydragging the window in the pager. Note that this also moves you to the new desktop, withthe dragged window active.

The PanelThe KDE panel, known as Kicker, as we mentioned earlier, is a toolbar used forlaunching applications. It consists of menus, icons that run programs when clicked, andsmall programs known as applets that run inside the panel.

Figure 9-6: The KDE panel

Figure 9-6 shows a typical panel. It includes the following items, from left to right:

K menuKDE’s K logo marks the Application Starter, or K menu. Clicking on the K menu displays a hierarchical list of available applications. As you add new applications toyour system, you can update the K menu by running kappfinder from a command lineor selecting SystemKAppfinder from the K menu.

Show DesktopClicking on the Show Desktop button iconifies all your open windows into thetaskbar section of your panel. Your desktop is now shown, empty of open windows.This is particularly useful if you want to find an icon that has been hidden beneath theopen windows. Clicking again on the Show Desktop icon reopens all the previouslyiconified windows. If you had other windows already iconified on that desktop,reclicking does not open them; it only reopens windows that the previous clickiconified.

TerminalThe button that looks like a terminal with a shell in front of it opens a Konsole (KDEconsole) terminal emulation window. Similar to an xterm, Konsole is described laterin the section “The Konsole Terminal Emulator”.

Control CenterThe button that looks like a terminal partially covered by a circuit board opens theKDE control center. The control center is the central point for configuring yourdesktop environment. See the section “The Control Center” later in this chapter for details.

HelpThe KDE Help center is represented by a button that looks like a life-saving ring.Click on the icon to bring up the KDE help system, described in detail in the section“The Help Center” later in the chapter.

HomeClicking on the button with a small house in front of a file folder opens theKonqueror file manager, with your home directory and its files displayed as icons.

KonquerorThe next button represents the web browser aspect of Konqueror. For moreinformation on Konqueror, as both web browser and file manager, see the section“Konqueror”.

KDE keeps its overall menu structure in a directory called /usr/share/applnk,/usr/local/kde/share/applnk, /usr/kde3/share/applnk, or /opt/kde3/share/applnk,depending on your distribution. Here you’ll find a directory structure that matches the structure of entries in the Application Starter. For each program,these directories contain a file. The files, which end with .kdelnk, contain adescription of the program, the startup command and other things which mightbe important to properly start the program. These files are plain text, and theyare largely self describing.

These systemwide configuration files are augmented by a .kde/share/applnk or.kde3/share/applnk directory in every KDE user’s home directory. This directory is organized like the systemwide directory but contains user-specific KDEconfiguration information.

Text editorKDE includes several text editors, described briefly later in the section “Editors: kate, kedit, and kwrite”. The pen-and-paper icon is used for both kate and kwrite; inthis case, it represents a link to kate.

Desktop previewThe desktop preview, or mini-pager appears next, consisting of a set of buttons thatlet you switch between virtual desktops. There is one button in the mini-pager foreach virtual desktop. The highlighted button denotes the active desktop.

You can display a larger desktop preview, the pager, either by clicking on the up-arrow in the wider vertical bar to the left of the mini-pager, from the K menu (selectUtilitiesKPager), or by running the kpager command. Like the mini-pager, kpagershows the open windows on each desktop, but it also shows a graphic for each one,so it is evident what application each window represents.

TaskbarThe taskbar contains an entry for every running program. Clicking on one of thesenames calls up the program window, together with the desktop that it is in. Thismakes it easy to switch to any application without having to switch first to anotherdesktop. If the window is currently iconified, it appears grayed out in the taskbar, andclicking on its entry restores the full window. If the window is not iconified, clickingon it moves the focus to that window (automatically switching desktops asnecessary), and raises the window if it is currently hidden.

If there are multiple occurrences of the same program running, they are combinedinto a single taskbar entry with an up-arrow on the right edge. Clicking on the arrowdisplays a list of the windows running that program. For example, if you havemultiple kconsole windows open, clicking on the arrow shows the name of eachwindow as it appears in the titlebar. For Konqueror, the names of open pages areshown. (Note that combining occurrences is an option that can be set or unset in thepreferences menu for the taskbar with the Group similar tasks option.)

You cannot tell from the taskbar which desktop a window is running in. To see therunning applications by desktop, click on the up-arrow in the wider vertical bar to theleft of the taskbar. This displays the applications by desktop.

Lock/logout appletThe lock and logout buttons to the right of the taskbar are actually part of a singleapplet that provides both screen locking and logout functions. Clicking one of thesebuttons is the same as selecting the equivalent option from the desktop menu,described earlier in the section “Managing Your Desktop”.

System trayRounding up the panel is the system tray, where swallowed applications reside.Swallowed applications are mini-applications that run on the panel instead of in awindow on the desktop. Two examples shown here are the clock, which contains anembedded calendar, and klipper, KDE’s clipboard tool.

Hide panelClicking on the right-pointing arrow on the far right of the panel “rolls up” the whole panel to the right, to provide more desktop work area. This action leaves only anarrow vertical bar showing, with the arrow now pointing left. Clicking on this arrowbrings the panel back into view again.

Right-clicking anywhere on the panel displays the Panel menu, which lets you add orremove buttons, resize the panel, set panel preferences, or access help for the panel.Clicking on the up-arrow in one of the narrow vertical bars to the left of a panel entrybrings up the preferences menu for that entry. For example, the preferences menu for themini-pager lets you set the number and names of the virtual desktops, while the menu forthe taskbar sets preferences for the taskbar and lets you specify the actions to be taken foreach pointer button. The bars themselves act as handles; you can click on the bar and tomove that panel entry to the right or left on the panel.

Help for the panel is available from the “KDE Panel Handbook”, accessed from the Help option of the Panel menu.

Configuring the PanelA fast way to add an application to the panel is to right-click the panel to open the Panelmenu. Then select PanelAddButton and the Application Starter menu is displayed.From the menu, select the application you want to add and a button for that application isplaced on the panel. In addition to adding application buttons, you can add entire menus.Once the Application Starter menu is displayed, select the submenu you want and click onthe entry at the top of the menu that says Add this Menu.

You can also use the Panel menu to delete panel objects with the Remove option or tomake the panel itself larger or smaller with the Size option.

Selecting Preferences from the Panel menu runs the Control Center Settings module,which provides options along the left-hand side for configuring the Panel and theTaskbar. Among the panel configuration options are options to set the position,alignment, and size of the panel on the screen, determine whether to show the left or righthide button (or both), and configure the look of the K menu. The taskbar configurationoptions include the option mentioned earlier to group similar tasks into one taskbarbutton, other options to determine how applications appear in the taskbar, as well aspointer-button actions.

KonquerorOne of KDE’s most important and visible tools is Konqueror, the KDE web browser, advanced file manager, and universal viewer--all rolled into one. As explained in theKonqueror FAQ at www.konqueror.org, the name Konqueror is a word play on otherbrowser names. After the Navigator came the Explorer and finally the Conqueror (with aK to show that it’s part of KDE).

Figure 9-7 shows some of the features of Konqueror, including both its web browsing andfile management capabilities. The figure also shows how you can split the Konquerorwindow into parts, each performing a different activity.

Figure 9-7: Konqueror, not your average web browser

The largest window is being used for browsing; in this case, it is displaying the KDEhome page (www.kde.org). The two smaller windows show two views of Konqueror asfile manager. The following sections describe the browser and file manager aspects ofKonqueror in more detail, and then explain how to customize Konqueror.

Once Konqueror is running, it automatically switches between the browser and filemanager modes as needed. But you can also open Konqueror in one mode or the other.To open Konqueror in browser mode, do one of the following:

Click on the Konqueror icon in the Panel.

From the K menu, select InternetKonqueror.

Enter a URL on the command line.

Or to open it in file manager mode, do one of the following:

Click on the house icon in the Panel.

Click on any directory icon on the desktop (including the trash barrel) to openKonqueror and display the contents of that directory.

Enter the command konqueror on the command line.

Konqueror the Web BrowserKonqueror houses khtml, KDE’s HTML rendering engine, which supports the full gamutof current Internet technologies, including JavaScript, Java 2, HTML 4.0, CSS 1 andpartially CSS 2 (Cascading Style Sheets), SSL (Secure Socket Layer for secure

communications) and Netscape plugins (for playing Flash, RealAudio, RealVideo, andsimilar technologies).

In addition to providing features you would expect from a modern browser, Konquerorallows you to read UNIX man pages by simply opening the location man:command or#command. It also supports bash file completion when looking for files on your system.

Like other browsers, Konqueror can serve as a viewer for many file types. Click on animage and Konqueror displays the image. Click on a text file and it shows the file’s contents. The same goes for PostScript, PDF, and DVI files, KOffice files, and others. Onthe technical side, it’s interesting to note that these viewers are not part of Konqueror. Konqueror embeds components provided by other KDE applications, using the KPartslibrary. The image viewer is kview, the text viewer is kwrite, the DVI viewer is kdvi, thePostScript viewer is kghostview, and of course all KOffice documents are shown by theiroriginating KOffice application.

Unlike Netscape and other browsers, the Konqueror web browser does not include mail ornews reading capabilities. Instead, KDE provides two dedicated programs, KMail andKNode, described later in the section “Mail and news: KMail and KNode”.

Konqueror the File ManagerAs a file manager, Konqueror displays files and directories using the “icon view” (three icon sizes) as seen on the lower-right corner of Figure 9-7 or the “tree view” (detailed view in which you can open sub-directories) as also used in Figure 9-7. Konqueror allowscopying, moving, and deleting, by both direct drag-and-drop or by using copy, cut, andpaste. You can view and modify the properties of a file or directory by right-clicking onthe file and selecting Properties.

The file manager also provides automatic updating of directories--if a file is created in adirectory that is currently being viewed, it is not necessary to refresh or reload thedirectory; Konqueror automatically shows the directory’s new content. Similarly, deletedfiles simply disappear.

Customizing KonquerorThe fastest way to customize Konqueror is with the Settings menu on the Konquerormenubar. This menu provides options to turn the menubar and toolbar on or off, showseveral additional toolbars, and to configure shortcuts, the toolbars, and Konqueror itself.Selecting Configure Konqueror displays the Control Center module for Konqueror, fromwhich you can choose to configure the file manager, file associations, and the browser,including settings for the browser itself, enhanced browsing options, cookies, the cache,proxy, stylesheets, privacy, and user agent options.

The Window button on the Konqueror toolbar offers a number of useful options formanaging Konqueror so you can work comfortably with it. These options are described inthe following sections.

View options

The view options let you add and remove windows (views) inside the Konqueror window.Use the first two view options (Split View Left/Right and Split View Top/Bottom) to splitthe currently active Konqueror window in two vertically or horizontally.

The third view option, Remove Active View, closes the currently active window. Theactive window is the one in which any keystrokes or pointer clicks take effect. Eachwindow has a small circle at the bottom; the green circle marks the active view. SelectingRemove Active View closes that window.

Terminal emulation

Selecting the Show Terminal Emulator option opens a terminal emulator window at thebottom of your Konqueror window, into which you can enter commands as though youwere working in an xterm or konsole window. Note that after opening the terminalwindow, you may need to resize the Konqueror window to access the command line.

Note also that from Konqueror’s Tools menu, you can select Open Terminal; this also gives you a command line, but does so by opening a new konsole window that remainsopen even after you close Konqueror.

The Navigation Panel

The navigation panel is a tabbed window that opens on the left of the Konqueror window.Its purpose is to simplify navigation inside Konqueror, particularly for navigating throughfiles or through your bookmarks. Select a tab by clicking on it. The tabs include a displayof your bookmarks, your home directory tree, your browsing history, and the rootdirectory tree. There is also a Services tab for audio CD, local area networking, and printservices.

When you open Konqueror in its file manager mode, the navigation panel is displayed,opened to the home directory tab. You can also open the panel at any other time byselecting the Show Navigation Panel option from the Window menu and selecting the tabyou want.

Profiles

Konqueror lets you set up profiles. Using profiles, you can set up separate Konquerorconfigurations for different purposes. There are default profiles for using Konqueror as afile manager, file previewer, web browser, or in Midnight Commander mode (MidnightCommander is a popular file manager for Unix-based systems).

The Window menu has three options for working with profiles:

Save View ProfileIf you are working with profiles and you have modified the configuration, use thisoption to save the changes.

Configure View ProfileThis option is for updating any profile, not just the current one. It shows all existingprofiles and lets you save the current Konqueror configuration under an existingprofile name or a new name. You might, for example, configure a view such as theone shown in Figure 9-7 with both web browsing and file management windows, andsave it under a new name.

Load View ProfileSelect the Load View Profile option to load and begin working with one of the savedprofiles.

The Konsole Terminal EmulatorKonsole is an X terminal emulator for the K Desktop Environment. When invoked, thekonsole window looks similar to an xterm window, but it has two additional features: amenu bar at the top and a toolbar containing icons for current sessions at the bottom. Theexistence of that toolbar represents the major difference between Konsole and xterm,which is that you can run multiple konsole sessions inside a single window. With xterm,running multiple sessions means having multiple xterm windows open. Even if somexterm windows are iconified, they still represent individual windows. Unless you want tosee the contents of different terminal windows at the same time, having multiple sessionsin one window is a big advantage. And of course you can open more than one Konsolewindow. Each Konsole session running in one window is represented by an icon in thetoolbar, making it easy to switch between sessions with a single click on the appropriateicon.

Figure 9-8 shows a Konsole window with a single active shell session and the Sessionmenu open.

Figure 9-8: Konsole

The Session menu offers six session types:

New ShellOpens a terminal shell.

New Screen SessionUses the screen command that multiplexes a physical terminal between severalprocesses.

New Root ConsoleOpens a terminal shell as the root user. Konsole prompts you for the root password,then the # prompt appears, indicating that you are now working with root privileges.

New Midnight CommanderOpens a Midnight Commander graphical file browser session.

New Linux ConsoleEmulates a text-only Linux system.

New Root Midnight CommanderOpens a Midnight Commander session as the root user.

The final two options on the Session menu let you close the current session and quitKonsole.

From the Settings menu, you can configure Konsole to hide or show the menubar, toolbar,and scrollbar as well as select window size, fonts, color schemes, and key mappings.Selecting SettingsConfigure Konsole displays the Control Center Konsole configurationmodule, if you want to change a number of settings at the same time.

Right-clicking on the toolbar brings up a toolbar menu, where you can set options such asthe size and location of the toolbar itself, how text appears with the icons on the toolbar,and the size of the icons. Any changes made from the toolbar menu apply only to thatparticular Konsole window.

The Window ManagerUnlike GNOME, KDE has its own window manager, kwin, which is tightly integratedinto KDE itself. Thus you won’t find specific options or settings for the window manager in the Control Center—it’s not generally treated as a separate entity.

Managing WindowsMost of the material in Chapter 4, Overview, applies to the KDE window manager aswell. In addition, this section contains a few tips for managing your windows.

Windows can be pinned, so that they appear at the same location on every desktop. Forexample, you might pin the kscd CD player to turn down the volume when somebodywalks into your office. To pin a window, clikc on the pin symbol on the left-hand side ofthe titlebar.

To move a window to another desktop, access the Window menu by right-clicking on thewindow’s titlebar. Then choose the desired desktop from the To Desktop submenu. The window disappears from the current desktop. To access it again, simply go to the newdesktop.

Another method of moving a window is to pin down the window by clicking on the pinbutton. This puts the window on all the desktops. Then change to the desktop you want

and pull out the pin. The window now appears only on the new desktop, and you canwork with it immediately.

Unlike many other window managers, kwin does not leave an icon behind on the desktopwhen you minimize a window. You can still restore the window either by clicking on itsentry in the taskbar or by middle-clicking on the desktop to display a list of running tasks.Minimized tasks are shown in parentheses. Select the task you want to restore and clickon it.

As you would expect, kwin allows you to maximize your window in both directions byleft-clicking on the maximize button-on the right-hand side of the titlebar. What youmight not expect, is that you can also maximize the window horizontally by right-clicking

on the maximize button, and vertically by middle-clicking on it.

Using Another Window ManagerAlthough there’s generally no need to do so, it is possible to use a different window manager. Many other window managers offer at least some KDE compatibility. To runKDE with another window manager, you need to edit KDE’s startup script, startkde.Towards the end of this script, you’ll find a line similar to the following:

ksmserver --restore

KDE’s session manager, ksmserver, starts kwin if no window manager is specified on thisline. To use a different window manager, modify the line as follows:

ksmserver --restore --windowmanager wm

where wm is the desired window manager.

Killing Windows With Ctrl-Alt-EscNormally, you close a window by either closing the application running in thewindow or by clicking on the window’s close button. However, if something goes wrong and the window will not close, you can force it to close with the keycombination Ctrl-Alt-Esc.

When you use this key combination, the cursor changes to a skull-and-crossbones symbol. Any window that you click on with this cursor, “dies” instantly, with no questions asked.

If you change your mind, the Escape key restores the normal mouse cursor andno window is closed.

Note: you need to be very careful with this method. KDE does not ask forconfirmation or offer to save any open files. You should also be careful whichwindows you kill this way. The KDE panel, for example, is a window, and canbe killed, but you probably don’t want to do that.

You must restart KDE for the change to take effect.. Note that by modifying startkde inthis fashion, you are changing the window manager for all users, not just yourself.

The Help CenterThe KDE Help Center provides a central point for accessing not only KDE help, but alsothe manpages and Info pages for your Linux system. The Help Center’s welcome page can be seen in Figure 9-9.

Figure 9-9: KDE Help Center

On the left-hand side of the Help Center window are two tabs. In Figure 9-9, the Contentstab is displayed. Clicking on an entry with a page icon displays that entry; clicking on anentry with a book icon opens a hierarchical list of contents for that entry. For example,clicking on the Application manuals entry lists the hierarchy of manuals for various KDEapplications, organized into categories that match those of the K menu. Click on an entryto display the documentation for that KDE feature.

The second tab is the Glossary, which provides a glossary of terms. You can access theglossary either alphabetically or by topic.

The KDE Help Center can be started in several ways:

Application Help menuThe most common way to access the Help Center is probably from within anapplication. From the application’s menu bar, choose HelpContents to open thatapplication’s help file.

Finding a particular topic in the Help Center from the Contents page can beconfusing, so it is often easier to access the help you want directly from that

application. It’s also worth exploring the Help Center when you first start using KDE,to familiarize yourself with its contents and organization.

K MenuFrom the K menu, and select the Help option to open the KDE Help Center. Thisstarts the Help Center at the welcome page.

PanelBy default, the panel contains an icon, which looks like a ship’s rescue ring, to open the KDE Help Center.

Command lineThe KDE Help Center may be started from the command line by running thecommand khelpcenter, passing it a URL for the file you want to display. There areURLs for Info and man pages, as well as for KDE commands. Note that in somecases, you’ll need to know the path to the documentation in order to provide the correct URL Here are some examples of starting the Help Center from the commandline:

An application help fileTo open the Help Center to an application help file, issue a command such as thefollowing. In this case, help for the KEdit text editor is displayed:

khelpcenter help:/kedit

A local URLThe following opens the local documentation for the Qt library:

khelpcenter file:/usr/local/doc/qt/html/index.html

A Man pageThe following opens the manpage for the strcpy command:

khelpcenter man:/strcpy

An Info pageThe following opens the Info page for the gcc compiler:

khelpcenter info:/gcc

Invoking khelpcenter without parameters opens the Help Center at the welcome page.

The Control CenterThe KDE Control Center, kcontrol, contains a number of configuration tools, calledmodules, that allow you to configure and view information about your system. You canconfigure the desktop, window manager, input devices, and other important parts of yoursystem here. The Control Center is split into two windows: the left window shows ahierarchical list of installed modules, and the right window displays the selected module.

As is often the case, there is more than one way to customize KDE. In this section, weconcentrate on the KDE Control Center. However, you can choose individual modulesfrom the K menu’s Preference option. In addition, many KDE applications have entrypoints into the appropriate configuration module, as we’ve seen in some of the earlier sections. kcontrol comfortably brings everything together in a central place.

To launch the KDE control center, either run the command kcontrol or select the ControlCenter option from the K menu. The Control Center appears, as shown in Figure 9-10.

Figure 9-10: The KDE Control Center

The Control Center has three tabs on the left-hand side: Index, Search, and Help. Most ofthe time you will probably use the Index, shown in Figure 9-10, to access the module youwant.

If you don’t know what module you want, select Search and either enter a keyword or scroll through the alphabetical list of keywords and select the one you want. The resultsbox at the bottom of the Search tab lists the module or modules containing configurationoptions for that keyword. Click on a module name and the main Control Center windowopens to that module.

The Help tab provides information to help set configuration options in the currentlydisplayed module. Select Help from the menu bar to get the documentation for theControl Center itself.

The following sections describe the modules listed on the right-hand side of the windowand the type of configuration each provides. Each module includes an Apply button onthe lower right of the screen, so you can apply your changes as you go to see if you likethe effect.

File BrowsingThe following modules configure Konqueror’s file browsing capabilities.

File AssociationsThis module lets you establish the relationship between file extensions and theapplication to be used to open the file. KDE supports MIME (Multipurpose InternetMail Extensions) types. MIME types, as used in Internet browsers, are sets of rulesfor certain files. If a file looks like an HTML text file for example (because its nameends with .html or .htm), the file is opened in a browser, in this case, Konqueror. Ifthe filename ends with .gif, it must be an image file, so we want Konqueror to open itin an image viewer. By default, a KDE application is used. The File Associationsmodule lets you indicate that a different application, such as xv, should be used.

KDE keeps the MIME type registrations in the /share/mimelnk subdirectories of yourmain KDE directory (e.g., /opt/kde/share/mimelnk), one file for each application,organized by application types. In addition, each user’s home directory has its own .kde/share/mimelnk directory; when you add or change MIME type registrations, thechanges are reflected in your local directory. The registration files are text files andcan be directly edited or new files added if for some reason you prefer not to use theControl Center. Generally, though, there’s no reason to do that. Each file isnamedafter the MIME type, with .desktop as the extension.

File ManagerConfigures Konqueror’s behavior and appearance, as described earlier in the section “Customizing Konqueror”.

Quick Copy & Move PluginConfigures kuick, which is a Konqueror plugin for copying and moving files.

InformationThe Information module’s submenus hold a wealth of status information, mainly hardware related. Some of the more interesting options are described in the following list. In someof the displays, a column head includes an arrow pointing down; if you click on the arrow,the order of entries in the column is reversed.

Block DevicesShows your block devices, their size, mount points, what is still free, and usage in %.

DevicesThe character, block, and misc. devices and their major device numbers are shown.

MemoryDisplays information on your total physical and virtual memory. Total and free swapmemory are also shown.

Network interfacesDisplays the name, IP address, network mask, type, and state of each networkinterface configured on your Linux system.

PartitionsDisplays the device, its mount point, filesystem type, total and free size, and mountoptions for each partition. This is equivalent to viewing the contents of /etc/fstab.

ProcessorDisplays information about your processor, such as the vendor, model, and speed.

USB DevicesDisplays any USB Devices, their class, version, speed, and bandwidth usage.

X-ServerShows the vendor and version of your X server plus detailed information on manyaspects of your X server and your display, as shown in Figure 9-11.

Figure 9-11: X-Server information

Look & FeelLike most modern window managers and desktop environments, KDE lets you changejust about everything concerning its look and feel.

BackgroundKDE offers a variety of options for customization of a desktop’s background. The final appearance of your desktop is a combination of background colors, patterns,and wallpaper based on the image from a graphic file.

ColorsColors and color schemes can be set for just about every element of your windows,including the background, menu text, title bar, button, etc.

DesktopThe desktop’s borders, appearance, and the number of virtual desktops can be changed. See the section “Managing Your Desktop” earlier in this chapter for details.

FontsDifferent fonts, including its family, style, and size, can be set for the desktop’s icons, the file manager, toolbar, menu, and window title.

IconsLets you choose sets of icons, known as themes, to be used on your desktop.Changing the icon theme is a quick way to update the look of your desktop.

Launch FeedbackSets options for receiving immediate feedback when you run an application. Thereare two launch feedback options:

Busy cursorTurning on the busy cursor option enables the feature that attaches an icon to thecursor when you start an application, to provide visual feedback that somethingis happening.

Taskbar notificationIf taskbar notification is enabled, an entry is placed in the taskbar as soon as youlaunch an application. Otherwise, the entry doesn’t appear in the taskbar until the application is up and running.

PanelHere you can configure the KDE panel (also referred to as the “kicker”). This includes options such as the position and size of the panel as well as its hidingbehavior and its looks. See the section “Configuring the Panel” earlier in this chapter for more information.

ScreensaverBesides providing an endless variety of entertainment and preventing monitor burn-in, the screensaver is turned on when you lock your display if you’re going to leave it unattended for a while.

Production: The sidebar “Keyboard Shortcuts” should come as close as possible to theListVariableTerm “Shortcuts” and the term’s description. It should contain the following table.

ShortcutsHere you can alter the KDE keyboard shortcuts. The default key bindings are shownin the sidebar “Keyboard Shortcuts”.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key combination Resulting action

Alt-F1 Opens the K menu

Alt-F2 Gives you a command prompt

Alt-F3 Sets the properties of the current window

Alt-F4 Closes the current window

Alt-Tab Switches between application windows

Ctrl-Tab Cycles through your virtual desktops

Ctrl-Fn Switches to virtual desktop n

Ctrl-Alt-Esc Immediately kills every window you click on

Ctrl-Alt-Backspace Kills the X server and all its clientsStyle

Allows you to modify the visual appearance of user interface elements, such as thewidget style and effects.

TaskbarYou can configure the taskbar here. This includes options that determine whether thetaskbar is embedded in the panel (the default) or floats outside on the desktop. Youcan also configure whether the taskbar should show all windows or only those on thecurrent desktop.

Theme ManagerAllows the setting of themes.

Window BehaviorActions and mouse behavior affecting window management can be changed.

Window DecorationLets you set the window border decoration to emulate other window managers.

NetworkHere you set the networking options that affect KDE. The primary options are:

EmailConfigures basic email information such as name and email address. Thisinformation is needed for sending a bug report to the KDE developers.

PreferencesSets timeout values of socket read, proxy connect, server connect, and serverresponse. You might want to change these values if you are experiencing timeouts orconnection problems.

SOCKSEnable SOCKS, which is a protocol to traverse firewalls as described in RFC 1928.

Window SharesLets you configure your Samba client if you are running Samba on a network thatalso includes systems running Microsoft Windows so that Konqueror can accessshared Windows filesystems. Note that this does not configure the Samba server.

In addition, you may see additional options, such as Kisdndock to configure ISDNdocking options, LAN Browsing, News Ticker, and Talk Configuration.

PeripheralsThe keyboard and mouse peripherals are configured here. These settings only affect KDE,not your X server.

KeyboardAllows simple keyboard configuring. You can specify additional layouts other thanthe default, which is helpful if you regularly work in more than one language. Youcan set up multiple keyboard layouts, and switch among them; enabling multiplelayouts adds an icon to the panel for switching.

MouseAllows various options for the way in which your pointing device works. Yourpointing device may be a mouse, trackball, or some other hardware that performs asimilar function.

PersonalizationThe personalization module includes options to configure aspects of the system that don’t fall into one of the other categories.

AccessibilityConfigures options designed to help users who have difficulty hearing audible cues,or who have difficulty using a keyboard or mouse.

Country & LanguageAllows country-specific settings for things like currency symbols, number formats,dates and time, etc.

CryptoEnables SSL cryptography.

KonsoleAllows configuring of Konsole, the KDE terminal application described earlier in thesection “The Konsole Terminal Emulator”.

PasswordsLets you set your password to echo as one or three stars or not to echo at all.

Session ManagerSets session manager options such as whether logout needs to be confirmed or thesession is to be saved for future logins.

Spell CheckingLets you select a spell checking program, specify what types of spelling errors areidentified, and specify what dictionary to use.

Power ControlPower control configuration is especially interesting if you are using Linux on a laptopcomputer without a built-in atomic reactor. The configuration options let you monitorbattery use, set energy-saving options, and set battery warning levels.

SoundThe sound settings include options for configuring various aspects of KDE soundcapabilities.

Audio CD IO-SlaveEnables creating wav, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis files from your audio CD-ROM or DVDs.

MidiAllows use and configuration of MIDI device.

Sound ServerConfigures aRts, KDE’s sound server.

System BellYou can set the volume (0 to 100%), pitch (20 to 2000Hz), and duration (1 to 1000milliseconds) of the system bell. Use the Test button to listen to your newlyconfigured bell.

System NotificationsAllows saying how the application should acoustically inform you of an event. Theconfiguration screen shows a list of applications and possible events, and lets youselect the notification method you prefer for each. The choices are: Log to file, Playsound, Show messagebox, and Standard error output.

SystemBecause system configuration settings affect the whole system, not just an individual user,you will generally be required to click on the Administrator Mode button at the bottom ofthe configuration screen and asked to provide the root password in order to change any ofthe system settings.

Date & TimeAllows setting of the date, time, and timezone.

Font InstallerAllows the installing of X fonts.

Login ManagerVarious aspects of KDE’s login manager can be configured.

Printing ManagerConfiguration of KDEPrint, KDE’s print manager.

Other possible options that you may find in this module include Boot Manager (LILO),Linux Kernel Configurator, Alarm Daemon, and XML RPC Daemon settings.

Web BrowsingMost of these configuration options affect only Konqueror, KDE’s web browser.

CacheControls the size and use of the disk cache, where Konqueror stores recently readweb pages.

CookiesLets you enable or disable Cookies. Cookies contain information stored on yourcomputer by a remote server.

Enhanced BrowsingAllows you to configure some enhanced features offered by the Konqueror browser.

Konqueror BrowsingSome of Konqueror’s browser functionality can be configured here, including appearance options, the use of Java and JavaScript, and whether the use of plugins isallowed.

Netscape PluginsThe Konqueror web browser can be set here to use Netscape plugins to show specialcontent.

ProxyProxy settings can be set here. This is only of interest if you access the networkthrough a proxy server.

StylesheetsLets you apply your own color and font settings to Konqueror by using stylesheets(CSS).

User AgentThe user agent control screen allows you to have full control over what type ofbrowser that Konqueror will report itself to be to remote systems and how muchinformation it provides.

While all these configuration settings are stored in a text file, usually somewhere in$HOME/.kde/share/, and can be altered by manually editing the proper file, it is mucheasier to use KDE’s Control Center with its GUI approach.

On the other hand, you can use the Control Center modules without having to run theentire Control Center. If you only want to configure one particular feature of KDE, it issometimes easier simply to access the appropriate module from within that feature, orfrom the Preferences option on the K menu.

KDE ApplicationsWhat is a desktop environment without its own applications? These applications arewritten with KDE-Lib, giving them both KDE’s common user interface, and its look and feel. While these applications are a part of KDE, you shouldn’t forget that basically, they’re X Window System applications. That means they don’t need necessarily require KDE as a desktop environment, just the necessary libraries, which are usually deliveredwith KDE, not the application.

New KDE applications are continuing to appear on an almost weekly basis. Somerepresentative applications are listed here to give you an idea of their broadness inofferings. You’ll find many others on the K menu. In the later sections “User Applications” and “System Tools”, the headings give the full name of each application,while the descriptions use the program name as you would enter it on the command line.

Note that if you didn’t install all of the KDE packages on your system, you might not have all of the applications described here. You can always install missing applicationslater, from your installation CDs or by downloading the appropriate package. Thedocumentation page of the KDE website (http://docs.kde.org) lists the applications bypackage, which you can use not only to learn more about the applications, but also to findout which package to download to get the applications you want.

KOfficeKOffice, like StarOfficeand its open-source follow-on OpenOffice,** is an integratedoffice suite for KDE. KOffice 1.1, released with KDE 3, includes a full suite ofapplications, which are described briefly in Table 9-1.

Table 9-1: KOffice components

Component Description

KWord A word processor application for KOffice. It can be used for “normal” word processing like writing letters, reports, etc. or more complex taskssuch as DTP (desktop publishing).

KSpread A powerful spreadsheet application

KPresenter Full-featured presentation application used for talks and presentations

Kivio A flowcharting application.

Kontour A vector drawing application.

Krita A raster-based image manipulation program similar to The GIMP orAdobe Photoshop.

Kugar A tool for generating business quality reports.

KChart KChart helps you draw charts and diagrams.

Native file formats are XML-based, and work on filters for proprietary binary file formatsis underway. KOffice components work together using the KParts object model; you canembed any KOffice component in any other KOffice component. In addition to thecurrent KOffice applications, other programs may be embeddable into KOfficedocuments in the future.

User ApplicationsKDE also contains many user applications written and contributed by the KDEdevelopment team.

Editors: Kate, KWrite, and KEdit

KDE has several text editors available: kate and kwrite include features designed forprogrammers, while kedit is a simple text editor. All three editors are used to edit ASCIIfiles and are not to be confused with word processing programs, which contain manymore formatting features.

StarOffice, Sun Microsystems’ integrated office software, runs onLinux, various flavors of Unixincluding Solaris, and on Microsoft Windows.** OpenOffice is documented at http://www.openoffice.org. Its mission is to create, as a community,the leading international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to allfunctionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format.

kate is a text editor designed for programmers. (That does not mean, however, that youhave to be a programmer to use kate). It’s the newest and most sophisticated of the editors. kate’s features include configurable syntax highlighting for many different programming languages, project management capabilities, and the ability to have multipledocuments open simultaneously. You can use plugins with kate, set and unset bookmarks,and open an embedded konsole terminal emulator.

kwrite has also been optimized for programming. Like kate, it provides syntaxhighlighting and the ability to use different fonts and styles (e.g., italics and bold). Youcan also configure kwrite to specify such features as indentation options and various otherediting options.

kedit is a basic text editor that is used as the default KDE text editor. Simpler than kateand kwrite, kedit is not a programmer’s editor and doesn’t include most of the more extensive features of the other two editors. On the other hand, it starts quickly and isperfectly adequate for simple text-editing tasks.

Mail and news: KMail and KNode

Although the Konqueror web browser does not include mail capabilities, KDE providesthe dedicated program, kmail for that purpose. Apart from expected features likereceiving and sending mail using different mail protocols, kmail can filter mail intodifferent folders using user-defined filters. This is useful, for example, for keepingimportant business mail separate from mail received from a general mailing list. Sortedthis way, mail can be read in a quiet moment or just quickly browsed and deleted, withoutthe worry that something important may be lost. kmail also provides seamless PGP

integration for encrypting and signing your email messages.

knode is KDE’s tool for reading Internet-based newsgroups (Usenet). Though it offersmany features for the advanced user, knode was designed to be easily understood even ifyou’ve never used a newsreader before. The newsreader supports you with many hints and warnings.

Calculator: KCalc

kcalc is a simple but useful scientific calculator. It supports the X Window System’s cut-and-paste capabilities, explained in Chapter 2, Getting Started Using X. This means that anumber from anywhere can be copied with the left mouse button and then inserted intothe numerical display with the middle mouse button.

Organizer: KOrganizer

KDE also supports a professional level organizer: korganizer, which provides daily,weekly, and monthly views and can handle repeating events.

Image viewers: KView and KuickShow

KDE provides two image viewers: kview and kuickshow. Both are image viewers, notimage processing applications, but kview has limited image-processing support. If you

PGP, short for Pretty Good Privacy, is public-key encryption for the masses.

need to do serious image processing, you should turn to The GIMP or xv. Both areexplained in Chapter 3, A Selection of Useful X Clients.

kview has more features than kuickshow, including lightness control, gamma correction,and smoothing, which is especially important for enlarging. You can also filter, rotate, flipimages, and place an image on the desktop as the background image. If you have ascanner, you can scan an image into kview.

kuickshow is a viewer whose main goal is speed--but at the cost of functionality. It has aslideshow mode, and it can display an image either as a preview in the kuickshow windowor full size in a separate window.

Screen snapshots: KSnapshot

ksnapshot lets you capture screen images. Most of the figures in this book were takenusing ksnapshot. You can capture either the whole screen or a window, and save it in oneof the following formats: GIF, JPEG, BMP, XPM, PNG, or as a PostScript image. (SeeChapter 3 for an explanation of these image formats.)

Special viewer: KGhostView

For viewing PostScript and PDF files, KDE provides the program kghostview.

Alternative non-KDE programs are gv (Ghostview) for PostScript files, and acroread(Acrobat Reader) or xpdf for PDF files.

Audio: KsCD, Noatun, and KMix

You can listen to audio CDs using the program kscd or MP3 files with noatun. kmix is amixer with a friendly user interface.

kscd is a CD player that supports the CDDB, the Internet-accessed database of availableaudio CDs. Using the unique number assigned to every commercial CD, you candownload a list of the titles on the CD, and use that list to play particular tracks. A slide-control in kscd is used to adjust the output volume. You do not need a soundcard--theCD-ROM’s audio output is used for either earphones or speakers.

noatun is a plugin-based media player for KDE. Actually, it’s a front-end to aRts, whichis an analog real-time synthesizer. By default, noatun supports MP3 and MPEG-1 butbecause of its plugin support, you can expand its capabilities by using third-party pluginsor even by writing your own.

In fact, noatun is so plugin-oriented that it requires both a play plugin and one or moreuser interface plugins. A default user interface plugin provides an interface that iscompatible with other KDE applications, but you’re free to choose a different plugin fromthe large selection that is available.

kmix is a sound card mixer program that doesn’t just let you change the volume of your system; nor the volume of all your sound cards; this small, full-featured program givesyou slider controls for all devices on all your sound cards.

Games

KDE comes bundled with many small games. They might not be comparable to themodern 3D real-time action or strategy games, but that doesn’t make them less addictive.

Games are grouped into arcade games like KAsteroids, board games like KBattleship andKReversi, card games like KPoker, and strategy games like KMines and Konquest.

System ToolsKDE also has its own repertoire of tools that help you work with and manage the system..

File tool: Find Files

kfind (analogous to the Unix find command and also known as KFind) doesn’t have all of find’s features, but it’s certainly much easier to use. You can specify a filename, filesystem location, age, and filetype to help kfind find the file you want.

Process management: KDE System Guard

ksysguard (also known as KSysguard) is KDE’s task manager and performance monitor. Its client architecture allows monitoring of your local system as well as remote hosts. Notonly does it display the processes, as the top command does, it allows you to “kill” processes, that is, send the kill signal to the processes that you have marked. Enabling theTree checkbox results in the display of the process hierarchy; e.g., which process startedwhich other processes.

Behind the System Load tab is a graphical output of the CPU load and its load average,use of the physical memory in regards to application, buffer, and cache usage, and theamount of swap memory being used.

Disk management: KDiskFree

kdf (analogous to the df command) shows how much space is available on each filesystemor device. In addition, if you right-click on an entry, you can mount or unmount thatdevice.

Scheduling tasks: KCron

kcron is a graphical front-end to the Unix cron command. It displays a list of scheduledtasks, and lets you add, modify, and delete tasks.

Managing user accounts: KUser

kuser is a tool for managing user and group accounts; as such, it requires root privilegesand prompts you for the root password if you aren’t logged in as root.There are two tabs,for user accounts and group accounts; from each tab, you can add, edit, and deleteaccounts.

KDE and XineramaWhile KDE 3.0 supports Xinerama along with the more traditional multi-screentechnology, the user is often referred to the upcoming KDE 3.1 release for better softwarequality. Remember, independent of which KDE version that you’re using, the X server must first be started with the Xinerama option.

The Window Behavior module in the Look & Feel section of the Control Center offerssome Xinerama settings on the Advanced tab. These settings are only available if

Xinerama is enabled. The settings are: Enable Xinerama Support, Enable WindowResistance Support, Enable Window Placement Support, and Enable Window MaximizeSupport.