KDE Konfusion: 1 panel needed to be recreated; toolbox non-responsive

cfr · 2011-12-17 23:30:31

I've been using Arch for about 2 minutes and KDE for about 2 seconds.

I should say that I'm not confident I understand KDE's terminology yet and the more I read, the more confused I get. I'm somewhat frustrated by KDE's built-in help because it seems only to explain the easy things and never the difficult or detailed ones!

So I configured my desktop (I think it is a desktop - or is it a "containment" or "plasmoid"?) as follows:
- 1 panel at top left of screen containing three different launchers (menu, kickoff, lancelot) so I can try them out, knowledge base widget, various application launchers
- 1 panel at top on right of screen just to left of the desktop toolbox (not sure this is the word - it has a cashew and sometimes the word "desktop" and cannot be moved or altered as far as I can tell) containing other widgets including the system tray, notifications, monitors, clock, navigational stuff (activities, dashboard, show desktop, pager) etc.

This seemed to work fine until I started up today. The right panel continued to work fine. The left panel responded only to right-clicks. Left-clicking on the leftmost widget changed virtual desktop. Left-clicking on others either did nothing or also changed to the same virtual desktop. The desktop toolbox was entirely unresponsive initially although it now seems to also take me back to the same virtual desktop if I click on it.

Rebooting did not help.

I removed the left panel, added it again and reconfigured it. That now seems to be working - at least for now.

The desktop toolbox remains unresponsive and I cannot, as far as I know, remove and replace this. I have tried various somewhat random configuration changes but nothing seems to have any effect whatsoever. Right now, left-click on the cashew takes me to the same virtual desktop. Right-click is just like right-click anywhere else on the desktop.

One thing I've noticed is that the word "desktop" no longer shows up all the time. Also it no longer looks as 3d as it did before. It used to be slightly deeper than my configured panels but now it looks more like just another very small mini panel (which doesn't do much).

When I shutdown last night, plasma crashed. This seems to occur more frequently than I like (ever since I installed Arch - before I'd made anything really by way of changes to KDE). Every time, it takes me through a process of requesting and gathering bug info and then announces that there's not enough so it isn't worth sending a report to the developers. I don't know if this latest crash is connected to what I'm seeing or not.

I am not sure what the difference between the "Desktop" and "Desktop Icons" activities are but "Desktop" seems to be the default one and I think I'm just staying in that activity. (I did try switching just to see if it made any difference but it didn't help.) I mention this only because I'm not really clear what activities are and so I'm not sure whether it might be important or not.

I realise this sounds very confused. That's the result of spending the entire day trying to figure out what is going on with man pages (are there such things for KDE?), help centre, google, arch's forum/wiki search and random trial-and-error. I mention this only because I suspect it will look as though I haven't bothered trying to find the answer which I'm sure must be obvious really. (I'm sure there was a simpler way of rejuvenating my left panel than removing it and making another, as well!)

Any pointer would be extremely welcome.

stressat · 2011-12-18 05:03:54

http://userbase.kde.org/
To remove that Cashew/ ToolBox/ Desktop icon, install ihatethecashew-plasmoid (yaourt -S ihatethecashew-plasmoid), to hide them, drag it under panel.

cfr · 2011-12-18 21:36:53

Thanks. ihatethecashew sounds great. RIght now, KDE has randomly decided to not let me install further widgets so although it is built I cannot use it. But I expect it will randomly decide otherwise at some point.

On reboot today, my left panel was again not usable. So I decided to remove it again and add everything to the right panel. Maybe having more than one is a problem?

I appreciate the link, too. I think I've found parts of that site when googling for things but not the introductory page which you linked to.

Also, just after I installed ihatethecashew, the toolbox cashew randomly responded again although it has now refrozen.

I'm pretty sure there's some logic to this - I just haven't a clue what it is yet!

cfr · 2011-12-18 21:38:15

I just realised that you said I could _drag_ it under the panel. How? I can't find any way to move it at all - either the cashew itself or the word "Desktop".

Thanks!

stressat · 2011-12-19 04:19:37

Drag the Cashew with the mouse. http://youtu.be/ZLjm0XAi7To
Now, the problem with panels. Did you tried another theme, or just one launcher (not all three/ by the way, Menu and Kickoff are the same launcher with different aspect)?

Sorry for my poor english...

Arch Linux

#1 2011-12-17 23:30:31

KDE Konfusion: 1 panel needed to be recreated; toolbox non-responsive

#2 2011-12-18 05:03:54

Re: KDE Konfusion: 1 panel needed to be recreated; toolbox non-responsive

#3 2011-12-18 21:36:53

Re: KDE Konfusion: 1 panel needed to be recreated; toolbox non-responsive

#4 2011-12-18 21:38:15

Re: KDE Konfusion: 1 panel needed to be recreated; toolbox non-responsive

#5 2011-12-19 04:19:37

Re: KDE Konfusion: 1 panel needed to be recreated; toolbox non-responsive

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