Some useful KDE applications not preinstalled on aptosid KDE Lite

You may need to have non-free enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list

konq-plugins - plugins for Konqueror.

This package contains a variety of useful plugins for Konqueror, the file manager, web browser and document viewer for KDE. Many of these plugins will appear in Konqueror's Tools menu.

apt-get install konq-plugins

Highlights for web browsing include web page translation, web page archiving, auto-refreshing, HTML and CSS structural analysis, a search toolbar, a sidebar news ticker, fast access to common options, bookmarklets, a crash monitor, a microformat availability indicator, a del.icio.us bookmarks sidebar, and integration with the aKregator RSS feed reader.

Highlights for directory browsing include directory filters, image gallery creation, archive compression and extraction, quick copy/move, a sidebar media player, a file information metabar/sidebar, a media folder helper, a graphical disk usage viewer and image conversions and transformations.

KDE Deskop Search - (Nepomuk and Strigi)

KDE's Nepomuk semantic desktop search is not enabled on an aptosid-kde.iso. To enable it, do the following:

Install the virtuoso-minimal and strigi-client packages:

apt-get install virtuoso-minimal strigi-client

Navigate to System Settings > System Administration > Startup and Shutdown >Service Manager, put a check mark in the box for Nepomuk Search Module, and then click on Apply.

Navigate to System Settings > Workspace Appearance and Behavior > Desktop Search > Basic Settings, and put check marks in the boxes for Enable Nepomuk Semantic Desktop and Enable Strigi Desktop File Indexer, and then click the Apply. Note that the amount of memory allocated to the Nepomuk database can be adjusted in the Advanced Settings tab.

The KDE session must be restarted for the indexing service to become effective. Expect the first iteration of indexing to take a long time. More information about Nepomuk .

Login problems to the system under KDE

The content of the /tmp directory is normally cleaned-up on each boot, so some directories and sockets needed by the X-Server are also deleted.

Normally, during the boot-process, the script x11-common for X-Org recreates these things.

Possibly these scripts are not being called during the boot process. To recreate the needed links by calling:

# X-ORG: # dpkg-reconfigure x11-common

KDE needs a 5% allocation of the partition where the directory /tmp resides for temporary files to be created upon login. If you are running with a 95% full partition you will not be able to login with KDE and will be dropped into tty.

The same goes for kdm looping but not allowing you to log in. A solution is to log into a tty so you can delete and/or clear out some no longer needed applications or files

Alternatively you can use an X window manager that does not require so much space from the system ( for instance fluxbox is already present in an aptosid install), or chroot using an aptosid live-CD/DVD to clean out the partition to allow you to boot to KDE.

85% is the recommended absolute maximum for a partition that KDE accesses for its /tmp files.(15% free).

Installing aptosid KDE Art and Themes

To install the latest aptosid-art to an existing installation:

apt-get install aptosid-art-kde-xxxx aptosid-art-wallpaper-xxxx
(Where xxxx is the name of the release for example aptosid-art-kde-momos)

This will install the aptosid wallpaper and themes.

To change the Wallpaper:

Right click on your desktop and choose Folder View Activity Settings. Under the heading of Wallpaper there is a sub heading called Picture which provides a dropdown list for you to choose which wallpaper to display. You may also click on the Browse button next to the Picture box to use an image you may have on file elsewhere in your computer.

To change the Login screen:

To change the login screen, firstly open systemsettings with root/administration privileges:

Alt  + F2 (to bring up krunner)

kdesu systemsettings

Next click on the Advanced tab and then click on Login Manager, go to the Theme tab and choose your preferred theme. To activate the new Login manager you need to reboot the computer.

KDE information and links

Useful Xfce extras

Installing aptosid Xfce Art and Themes

To install the latest aptosid-art to an existing installation:

apt-get install aptosid-art-xfce-xxxx aptosid-art-wallpaper-xxxx
(Where xxxx is the name of the release for example aptosid-art-xfce-aptosid1)

This will install the aptosid wallpaper and themes, then change your defaults in the Settings menu of Xfce.

Xfce Documentation

Xfce wiki

Installing other desktop environments along with a preinstalled desktop:

Whenever you install another desktop environment along with your current installation, (for example you installed the aptosid-kde.iso and you now want to install the Xfce or LXDE desktop environment), a display manager (dm) will most likely be installed along with it or you may have installed it yourself, (gdm, slim or some other dm package).

The problem with this is you will end up with the default Debian runlevel configuration with the consequence that you will need to stop X manually in runlevel 3 before commencing a dist-upgrade.

The solution is:

apt-get update
apt-get install --reinstall distro-defaults
update-rc.d <dm> remove
update-rc.d <dm> defaults

Examples for update-rc.d <dm> defaults:

update-rc.d kdm defaults

update-rc.d gdm defaults

update-rc.d slim defaults

Example to manually update a <dm> of your choice is: (Note the dot . ) :

update-rc.d <dm> start 01 5 . stop 01 0 1 2 3 4 6 .

Desktop freezes

In such a situation you don't always need the reset button. This could damage the filesystem or lead to loss of data. In any way the filesystem wont be clean after a hard reset (filesystem not clean)

First try changing to a textconsole alt-ctl-F1 or restarting the X-server alt-ctl-backspace, (If either of these two options do not work, there is still hope):

The SYSRQ-key (print-key, on the upper right side of the keyboard) can help you to cleanly reboot a frozen system.

The following sequence of key-combinations are possible:
* alt+sysrq+r (should give back control of the keyboard)
* alt+sysrq+s (issues a sync)
* alt+sysrq+e (sends term to all processes but init)
* alt+sysrq+i (sends kill to all processes but init)
* alt+sysrq+u (filesystems are mounted readonly, prevents fsck at reboot)
* alt+sysrq+b (reboots the system, without the previous steps this is a 'hard reset').

Its best give every step a few seconds to complete, ending all processes for example could take a little while. The needed letters can be easily remembered with:
"Reboot System Even If Utterly Broken"

Another way to remember it is:
"Raising Skinny Elephants Is Utterly Boring"