[Mandrakeot] First Impressions: Mint 6 Universal

[Gene Heskett]

On Friday 02 January 2009, David wrote:
>Gene Heskett wrote:
>> On Wednesday 31 December 2008, David wrote:
>>> Gene Heskett wrote:
>>> [...]
>>>
>>>>> What the heck does Mint use for a 'switchdesk' utility?, I couldn't
>>>>> find
>>>>
>>>> it in synaptic.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks all you freshly minted Mint guru's :)
>>>
>>> It isn't in the login screen?
>>>
>>> By hand edit  /home/<username>/.dmrc
>>>
>>> [Desktop]
>>> Session=KDE   <<< probably says GNOME might say Default
>>>
>>> same for root
>>
>> Prelude to this message.  I changed the optical drives to one that work,
>> and it boots at a normal speed now, before there was about a 3 minute
>> delay while it sat there dead telling me to press F1 for setup.
>>
>> I also swapped the nvidia Vanta (a tnt rage card without much memory) for
>> an ATI 9200SE-256 card, which it found without incident at boot time, but
>> the default font makes garbage blocks of noise for an apostrophe.
>>
>> It didn't have one, so I copied ~/gene/.dmrc to /root/.dmrc
>> It now reads like this:
>>
>> [Desktop]
>> #Session=default
>> Session=kde
>>
>> Other than disabling the gnome login in favor of a tty0 login, no effect.
>>
>>> /root/.drmc
>>
>> Humm, I've been changing ~/.dmrc, but all I've done is make it give me a
>> login on tty0, from which I can't:
>> startkde
>> start kde
>>
>> But startx runs gnome as usual.  With one virtual screen. :(
>>
>>
>>big snip<
>
>Right click on the bottom bar > Select 'Add to panel' > scroll to the
>bottom and highlight 'Workspace switcher' > click on 'Add' button.
>
>This cam be moved anywhere you like and locked into place. Note that the
>other applets on the bar are probably already 'locked in place'. Right
>click and uncheck 'Lock in place'. Be sure to relock things when you get
>them placed as you like them.
>
>Right click in the Workspace Switcher and select 'Preferences' Here you
>select how many and of you want them stacked.
>
>BTW if the bar is too narrow. Right click and again select 'Properties
>to change the size.

I got it working this morning.  One clue was that I had to edit 
the /etc/init.d/kdm script to allow it to start if it wasn't the default 
choice.  Then as I was browsing the kde menus, I ran across the graphical 
login, and was informed that this was disabled if a theme was installed.  So 
I nuked the theme and rebooted, it came up in a graphical login screen, and 
ran kde when I logged in.  This was, however, after logging in to tty1, and 
execing 'dpkg-reconfigure -phigh kdm' which brought up an ncurses gui with no 
way to click on the ok, and the tab keys were void effect.

Then from that same tty1 screen I ran /etc/init.d/kdm start, and was informed 
that it was not going to because it wasn't the default.  That is when I found 
the message about setting one of the scripts variable from true to false 
would allow it to start.

I would assume the default was not changed by the dpkg-reconfigure operation 
because the tty1 screen has no mouse, gpm seemingly non-existant on ubuntu.

So I assume that if I could run it from a terminal in kde, that I could effect 
this default setting, wherever the hell it may be recorded, but that brings 
up the next question, which is, how the heck do you get a terminal window in 
this new kde?  It is not on the K menu, and it is not on the right click 
menu.

I'll send this to the kubuntu list too, as they have been throwing ideas my 
way, but will have to send it twice as that list isn't subbed through gmail.


-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
In war it is not men, but the man who counts.
		-- Napoleon