Fight for the Internet 1!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

KDE4 very good but still has some glitches

I really like KDE4 and I look forward to when it is "complete." By that I mean, when all of the features I previously enjoyed in KDE3 are available. I am seriously considering seeing if I can help with a few features I want right now, such as all my Desktop Wallpaper options... and a few extra features I have thought up along the way.

In an attempt to eschew being a Linux Fanboy and merely be a bigtime fan, I will list the glitches I have encountered so far. To be fair, not all of these may be relating to KDE but instead with the current Linux kernel version I am using.

I will list my problems and any solutions or workarounds that I have seen.

Konsole transparency
  • Description: There is an odd white glow to any konsole color profile transparency settings initially when the konsole is loaded. This glow remains regardless of what appears to be half of all possible colors and is present at zero percent opacity. Even when using my work around, the problem returns if the konsole is resized at all.
  • Number of times encountered so far: This is a reproducible bug.
  • Successful Solution: The glow disappears and proper opacity returns when you cause a full desktop redraw. (I believe actually a full Plasma Desktop redraw, but I'm not sure.) This can be done by going to System Settings -> Desktop -> Desktop Effects -> All Effects and changing or literally toggling an option. As long as you can and do hit the "Apply" button to force a redraw, the konsole will display the proper opacity.
  • Note: There may be other color errors, and I suspect there are, but I have not had time to properly check for them.
Keyboard failure
  • Description: My keyboard stopped working completely, and this was not related to my wireless bluetooth keyboard. I always have an axillary PS2 keyboard plugged in and this too would not function.
  • Number of times encountered so far: 2
  • Attempted (but failed) solutions: X-Windows restart.
  • Successful Solution: Rebooted.
Mouse failure
  • Description: My mouse stopped working completely. I did not attempt to use a USB mouse to check if that still worked.
  • Number of times encountered so far: 1
  • Successful Solution: Rebooted.
Application Menu Shortcut Keys
  • Description: Tried to set Meta+O to start OpenOffice writer, but this did not seem to work. No error message or related conflicts were encountered and everything looked like it should work, except that it never did.
  • Number of times encountered so far: 1
  • Attempted (but failed) solutions: X-Windows restart.
  • Successful Solution: Rebooted.
Gwenview
  • Description: Randomly seems to crash and no noticeable pattern of problems. Unfortunately Kubuntu is not compiled with backtrace abilities or I would provide bug reports.
  • Number of times encountered so far: 3 (which is pretty good since I have used this program probably over 200 times)
Ark
  • Description: When selecting "Compress to..." and choosing a specific archive type, Ark seems to crash when you use more than a single '.' (period) character in the file name, especially with .tar.gz.
  • Number of times encountered so far: This is a reproducible bug.
  • Successful Solution: Don't use an extra dot.
Konqueror crashes
  • Description: Konqueror has crashed several times on me randomly and I am not sure what to say about that, since sometimes it just crashes when I'm not even actively using it.
  • Note: Konqueror is usably stable and I expect it to only improve. At the moment, Konqueror is seriously a work in progress, based on the updating of features, protocols, refactoring of features and its unholy union with the file manager Dolphin.
  • Number of times encountered so far: Around 6 times so far.
Monitor Timed Power-off
  • Description: My monitor will not shut itself off after extended use, despite configuring it to do so. Not sure if it is a configuration bug on my part or not.
  • Number of times encountered so far: 1.
Lock Screen fails to engage
  • Description: Could not engage a session lock.
  • Number of times encountered so far: 1.
  • Successful Solution: X-Windows restart.
GTK / QT4 Button Mis-arrangement
  • Description: The Yes/No, Replace/Cancel, Overwrite/Replace, etc. buttons in some applications are in the incorrect order, as dictated by the HID standard (which I believe GTK at least adheres to, and probably QT as well). I have confirmed this in Kate and Firefox at least.
More updates to come as I see them.

No comments:

Post a Comment