Fwd: Kubuntu Karmic: OK, but sometimes like uncontrolled horse (Was: Switching a friend to Ubuntu)

[Bas Roufs]

P.S. The two screenshots I refer to in the message below, are
apparently too big for transmission via the list. That's why I have
brought them together in a PDF at this address:
http://circleletter.rainbowinfo.net/Screenshots.pdf
(203 KB).




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bas Roufs <basroufs at gmail.com>
Date: 2010/1/26
Subject: Re: Kubuntu Karmic: OK, but sometimes like uncontrolled horse
(Was: Switching a friend to Ubuntu)
To: Dotan Cohen <dotancohen at gmail.com>
Cc: Kubuntu Help and User Discussions
<kubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>, "Ubuntu user technical support, not
for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>


Hello Dotan and Everybody Else


>> .... I  "lock" the widgets. When I forget to do so ...terrible mess......

> What does the terrible mess look like?

For a proper summary on how this mess looks like, I would need to
discover some 'chaos patterns'  helping me to put it into words. A
'chaos pattern' I have discovered so far, has to do with the panel at
the bottom of the screen. If I 'unlock' the widgets there, each icon
or group of icons tends to move and to arrive at a new place in a
somewhat unstable, unpredictable way - such that working with the
panel becomes more difficult. This happens especially when working
(too) quickly, with a lot of 'routine' actions.  After a bit of
experimenting, it became clear that the best way to deal with this
problem is to "lock" the widgets.
> Is it a smaller version of your  desktop, with the rest as a chequered pattern?
Something like this came up last Saturday - see screen shot "strange
screen", attached to this message. It happened after clicking 'by
accident' and in a hurry at that specific half-oval icon at the upper
right side of the screen: see screen shot "half-oval icon".

> Or something else?

In a few other cases, I remember to have seen lines or squares
throughout the whole screen - including the place where normally the
panel ought to be visible. In a a situation, I can even not reach
K-Menu.The only remedy at that moment was restarting the computer -
via CONTROL-ALT-DEL, ALT-R or via rightclick - clicking at 'restart'.

> Please describe it, or post a screenshot (if PrintScrn does not open
> Ksnapshot, then try launching it from Alt-F2).

PrintScrn works here quite well. So, I will use that command again in
case something strange will happen again. If I can constructively
contribute to the development of Kubuntu via such feedback, I am happy
to do so.

>
>> Sometimes ... uncontrolled horse.....

> I would have to know what they look like. A screenshot would help.

In general, it looks as described above - lines or squared patterns or
other strange things throughout the WHOLE screen - in such a way that
I can't reach the K-menu or anything else at the panel. If ever again
something like this will happen again, I will try to make a snapshot

> I suspect that these are features, not bugs! I think that you are
> tripping over KDE activities.

You might be right about this.

> If that is the case, I would like to know how you are accidentally activating them, so that it can be
> made less sensitive.

Often as described above - when working quickly while I heavily rely
on routine patterned actions.
In case something strange will happen again, I will try to snapshot
and document the course of events more clearly and precise and report
about it to this forum.

Thanks anyway for your efforts. Respectfully yours,

Bas.