MX-15 - favorite KDE tweaks

[DBeckett]

All you KDEers, I'm putting you on notice -- I'm gonna be a pita.

Like you weren't already?

[Stevo]

I installed MX 15 over my M12 KDE, saving home, so I saved all my KDE configuration. I was using a dark Kvantum theme, so I reinstalled the MX 15 kde-style-kvantum and restarted KDE. I don't have any trouble with tooltips, they are whitish text on a dark background.

The Kvantum package also installs a color configuration that goes well with it, as well as including some light themes. You pick Kvantum in the System Settings under Application Appearance/Style, but then use the Kvantum Manager app (in the menu under Settings) to chose an individual theme.

[uncle mark]

All you KDEers, I'm putting you on notice -- I'm gonna be a pita.

Like you weren't already?

I do have a reputation to maintain.

[Stevo]

Hopefully we can get a KDE snapshot respin created with all these tweaks preapplied; I bet that would be a popular download. I'd leave the xfce4 desktop on the ISO, it does not take up much space, and it's possible to make the KDE desktop unbootable by fooling around with certain settings or if you break openGL, so xfce as a backup is very useful.

[joany]

Around February 2014, I posted a list of things I had to do in order to get KDE up and running on MX-14. I haven't attempted this with MX-15 64-bit as of yet because things are much too busy ATM, but I'll probably get around to it sometime in January '16.

It should only take 15 minutes to get a semi-workable KDE desktop, but afterwards you should plan on devoting two whole days to get everything right (depending how fussy you are). The hardest part is tracking down and installing missing libraries needed to get the sound and display working properly. It also takes a bit of patience to tweak the desktop settings and arrange the panel to make the desktop functional and attractive.

Installing KDE was a project that was kind of fun, and it gave a sense of accomplishment when it was finished. But if you expect everything to work perfectly OTB, then you might be a bit disappointed.

[Stevo]

I notice that root applications (such as kwrite) launched with kdesu respect the style settings for the root user (oxygen by default), but ones launched via kdesudo, used by the root actions service menu, end up with that nasty Windows 95 type interface. Let's see if that can be fixed.

i.e.: kdesudo systemsettings get this:



Update: rebuilt the root action servicemenu package to depend first on the package containing kdesu instead of kdesudo (requires the user manually create that kdesu symlink in /usr/bin),

Code: Select all

su -c 'ln -s /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/kdesu /usr/bin/kdesu'

and uninstalling kdesudo. Now the service menu will use kdesu by default, so no more ugly.

https://copy.com/P6JgwEIBfs9QYoVw

[arjaybe]

I installed MX 15 over my M12 KDE, saving home, so I saved all my KDE configuration. I was using a dark Kvantum theme, so I reinstalled the MX 15 kde-style-kvantum and restarted KDE. I don't have any trouble with tooltips, they are whitish text on a dark background.

The Kvantum package also installs a color configuration that goes well with it, as well as including some light themes. You pick Kvantum in the System Settings under Application Appearance/Style, but then use the Kvantum Manager app (in the menu under Settings) to chose an individual theme.

Kvantum works for the items in System Settings, but the non-KDE items in the tray still have pale-on-pale tooltips (eg Apt Notifier) and now the Kmenu text is dark-on-dark.

[Stevo]

I installed MX 15 over my M12 KDE, saving home, so I saved all my KDE configuration. I was using a dark Kvantum theme, so I reinstalled the MX 15 kde-style-kvantum and restarted KDE. I don't have any trouble with tooltips, they are whitish text on a dark background.

The Kvantum package also installs a color configuration that goes well with it, as well as including some light themes. You pick Kvantum in the System Settings under Application Appearance/Style, but then use the Kvantum Manager app (in the menu under Settings) to chose an individual theme.

Kvantum works for the items in System Settings, but the non-KDE items in the tray still have pale-on-pale tooltips (eg Apt Notifier) and now the Kmenu text is dark-on-dark.

Which Kvantum theme and which KDE color scheme are you using? I'm using the stock Kvantum dark grey and Kvantum color scheme, and get a white text on black tooltip for apt-notifier. I've inherited the setup from M12, though...but that means there is some darn way to get it working.

I've also done this per the Debian wiki:

The appearance of GTK-applications in Plasma

To get gtk-applications look native in Plasma you need install these packages and configure appearance of them through System Settings > Application appearance.

kde-config-gtk-style KDE configuration module for GTK+ 2/3.x style selection

gtk2-engines-oxygen Oxygen widget theme for GTK2+-based applications

gtk3-engines-oxygen Oxygen widget theme for GTK3+-based applications

the gtk2-engines-qtcurve might work for gtk+2 apps...

I think this might mess with colors in some applications if you switch to the xfce4 desktop, though.

[uncle mark]

I've currently got two appearance issues. My install is 64 bit with KDE standard added along with a bunch of programs, but I've not done anything of any consequence as far as theming or UI mods. (I'm used to pretty much using MEPIS as Warren had it.)

One is the same thing arjaybe is talking about. I'm using the Oxygen desktop theme. The tooltips in System Settings are white text on a very light beige background. Not really readable in a practical sense.

The other is an oddity in Dolphin. I use double click. When I highlight a file or folder (single click) and hover my pointer over it, it disappears. Moving my mouse pointer off of it and it's there, highlighted. Very disconcerting.

Suggestions appreciated. Dumb "how do I do that?" or "where do I find that?" responses guaranteed to follow.

[Stevo]

I've currently got two appearance issues. My install is 64 bit with KDE standard added along with a bunch of programs, but I've not done anything of any consequence as far as theming or UI mods. (I'm used to pretty much using MEPIS as Warren had it.)

One is the same thing arjaybe is talking about. I'm using the Oxygen desktop theme. The tooltips in System Settings are white text on a very light beige background. Not really readable in a practical sense.

The other is an oddity in Dolphin. I use double click. When I highlight a file or folder (single click) and hover my pointer over it, it disappears. Moving my mouse pointer off of it and it's there, highlighted. Very disconcerting.

Suggestions appreciated. Dumb "how do I do that?" or "where do I find that?" responses guaranteed to follow.

I wonder if that has anything to do with file tooltips being disabled by default in Dolphin. I also installed baloo and baloo-utils, which are supposed to be the replacement for the widely reviled nepomuk. The checkbox to enable tooltips in Dolphin's Settings/General.