Ktip message regarding panels

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Ktip message regarding panels
by Josep on Tuesday 08/Jan/2008, @01:10

Hi, today I runned KDE4 on a new user from a saturday's build on kde 4.0 branch and I found Ktip first tip was on a way for adding new panels that I'm not sure if it still valid on Plasma, because it remainds to me the kicker way to do it, even if the Ktip message doesn't mention kicker. I attached the Ktip message.

BTW, it is possible in Plasma to have another panel? I ask this because my brother can't live without a top panel with knewsticker. I haven't seen any GUI method to do it, but I'm interested if it is possible editing a Plasma configuration file.

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File Attachment

ktip.png
52KB (53555 bytes)

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Re: Ktip message regarding panels
by Anon on Tuesday 08/Jan/2008, @02:14

KTip will probably be killed off relatively soon.

I'm not sure if Plasma in its current state supports multiple panels, but it is almost guaranteed to come 4.1.

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Re: Ktip message regarding panels
by Charles Fryett on Tuesday 08/Jan/2008, @07:30

To get a second panel edit .kde4/share/config/plasma-appletsrc and add something like this at the bottom:

[Containments][3]
formfactor=2
geometry=0,829,1440,71
location=3
locked=false
plugin=panel
screen=0
transform=1,0,0,0,1,0,0,-906,1

then you will need to restart plasma (killall plasma & plasma is a quick way to do this) and you will be able to drop widgets in your new top panel

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Re: Ktip message regarding panels
by Luca Beltrame on Tuesday 08/Jan/2008, @10:55

If someone can explain the rationale for the different parameters I'll add it in my in-progress Plasma FAQ. THis is surely a feature that's going to be requested and if there's a workaround like this, better.

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Re: Ktip message regarding panels
by Charles Fryett on Wednesday 09/Jan/2008, @08:55

I have a 1440x900 LCD so with some of the parameters are easy (I'll guess the other poster below has a 1280x1024.
location=3 is the top edge
location=4 is the bottom edge
location=1 & 2 are the sides I would guess (but don't work atm)

And for the rest I guess someone will ahve to look at the code ;)

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Re: Ktip message regarding panels
by chris on Thursday 08/May/2008, @14:40

Hi Charles, thanks for your very informative post. I have been using kubuntu for a year and just switched to KDE4 (with a fresh install of hardy).

I have a feeling I'm about to start REALLY tweaking KDE settings... I almost started writing a php tool to rewrite the plasma-appletsrc file... maybe instead I need to research how to use kdialog for it??

Anyhow, I'm replying because I'm having an interesting problem and hope that you could reply with your thoughts on my situation with where to look, post, search terms to use, etc... I have googled like mad (which finally came up with this dotKDE thread) and there is SO much content that searches come up with little real info (like yours).

My situation:

Hardware:
I have a laptop with 1440x900 attached LCD... at work, I drop it onto a docking station and use a 24" monitor to run 1920x1200 ... at home, I plug in a 19" LCD at 1280x1024.

KDE4 behaviour:
There is a "transparency" the size of 1440x900 with the taskbar on it. This is 1440x900 regardless of which monitor is present. The plasma "button" thing is in the top right corner of the 1920x1200 desktop (again, doesn't matter the size of the viewing area of current monitor).

With the taskbar at the "bottom", it is at the bottom edge of the 1440x900 area and on the external monitors (with more vertical pixels than laptop) windows can be moved down but the taskbar stays on top of them. So I move the taskbar to the top, no problem. Buuut, on the 19" monitor, there is no plasma button and the taskbar's tray is off the right of the screen. (mouse still goes out there and can click on things, too!)

My next workaround may be to change its length via various different plasma-appletsrc files and a bash script to execute the change. (I already do this to alter my /etc/hosts and .ssh/known-hosts files so things work when moved from home to work, etc)

I'm trying to learn more about xorg, but prior to KDE4, the desktop and ubuntu worked seamlessly in the above 3 cases. I suspect this is a temporary situation caused by hard coding (and will be fixed soon) so I'm hoping for a quick fix or something "simple" that I'm not aware of.

Right now, I'm going to try a fresh install using the kubuntu+kde4 mix iso... Maybe there are some small changes to it that are better than my current brew of unbuntu + adding packages??

:) Chris

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Re: Ktip message regarding panels
by SVGCrazy on Tuesday 08/Jan/2008, @06:23

It is possible in plasma to have another panel today. What we don't have is the UI to make it yet. I think it's because this feature isn't completely done yet and need some minor adjustments(as well as the knewsticker applet). I'd say that it will be ready and shiny in kde 4.1.

If you want to test this feature anyway, all you have to do is edit the plasma-appletsrc file. On Opensuse, it is located at:
(don't forget to backup the file first)

~/.kde4/share/config

All you have to do is put a third Containment, plugin panel. (Since the first containment is the desktop and the second is the panel). Remember to change the location to 3 (location 3 is top). That means a panel at the top of the screen.

Example:

[Containments][3]
formfactor=2
geometry=0,5,1280,10
location=3
locked=false
plugin=panel
screen=0
transform=1,0,0,0,1,0,0,-1030,1

Restart plasma.
You can easly put and widget to the panel after that (the way we usually do).

It is very fun to play with this file and make some tests...

As I say before, I think this feature is not completely done, but don't worry, Kde developers will make it work perfectly :D

Here's a screenshot to prove it

snapshot1.jpg
216KB (221665 bytes)

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Re: Ktip message regarding panels
by Josep on Tuesday 08/Jan/2008, @06:48

Thank you!!!

I've got another question, it will be possible to make the top panel a bit smaller?

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Re: Ktip message regarding panels
by SVG Crazy on Tuesday 08/Jan/2008, @07:10

I tried to change the size of the panels by changing the geometry parameter but it didn't work for me. I don't know if it's either a plasma bug or an opensuse's package problem. I think it wasn't implemented yet (maybe that's why we don't have a UI to change panel sizes).

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Re: Ktip message regarding panels
by fenerli on Sunday 24/Feb/2008, @01:11

I noticed the same issue. I tried to halve the default panel's size to 24 (+4 for separator), and set all the coordinates correctly, and nothing changed. I made sure to kill off plasma before making the changes. Maybe it needs a restart.

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Re: Ktip message regarding panels
by Anon on Sunday 24/Feb/2008, @01:18

There's a lot of stuff in Plasma that was hard-coded in the frenzied rush for the release date - I'd wait until you use packages where re-sizing has been officially added by the devs, if I were you :)

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