Bug 462978

Summary:	Plasma - Installing widgets from the internet doesn't have any effect.
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Philip Ashmore <contact>
Component:	kdebase-workspace	Assignee:	Than Ngo <than>
Status:	CLOSED NOTABUG	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	high	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	9	CC:	fedora, kevin, ltinkl, rdieter
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2008-09-20 00:31:18 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Philip Ashmore 2008-09-19 22:39:50 UTC

Description of problem:
I've upgraded to Fedora 9 and with it KDE 4.
Now I have to learn another user interface.
I would prefer not to have to do so, considering how well the previous version worked. This is like walking with one shoe missing.

The Plasma "add widgets" dialog has an option to download and install new widgets "from the internet" - isn't it all from the internet?
I installed "Crystal Monitor" and "PicoNet" using this method.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
KDE 4.1.0

How reproducible:
Very.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Upgrade to Fedora 9
2.
3.

Actual results:
Plasma confirms that "Crystal Monitor" and "PicoNet" are installed.
I can't see them anywhere.

Expected results:
A user interface that does what it claims to do.
An option to choose "classic" kde 3.5 behaviour, like I can with the KDE menu.

Additional info:

Other gripes:
The "task bar" (KDE4 calls it a panel) no longer has kweather or ksysguard applets.
This means that whenever I look down for the weather applet to see if it's sunny out I am reminded - it's KDE4.
When my fans start going into overdrive and I look down for the system guard applet to see if something is hogging my CPU I am reminded - it's KDE4.

I cannot select multiple desktop icons - it's KDE4.
I cannot add shortcuts to the desktop - it's KDE4.
I cannot align or arrange icons - it's KDE4.
The system tray applet cannot be moved (?) you have to move _other applets_ around to get it into the position you want.
Konqueror thinks that single clicks open files and there's no way I can find to convince it otherwise. It also has some icons missing - it's KDE4.
The session manager forgets about konsole when I restart KDE after shutdown - it's KDE4.
The science screensaver insists on painting the desktop grey and I can't convince it to do otherwise - it's KDE4.
Phonon(?) complains that it cannot use my sound card (maestro3) and that it's falling back to (maestro3) (!) - it's KDE4.
Firefox version 3.0.1 using KDE on Gnome definitely has basic scrollbar and combo-box drawing issues.
System settings / appearance has two "GTK Styles and Fonts" sections.

Yes I know that most of these problems relate to KDE4 as a whole but I couldn't find a section for that.
I realise that KDE made these changes and Fedora just ships it (with a few customisations).
When I've reported problems like this before (missing features) it was suggested that I put in "feature requests" for the missing/broken components, which I did.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=455306

Consider this a feature request that developers stop arbitrarily removing features without giving users a choice in the matter.

This is a different interface - not an upgrade, just as switching from Fedora to Ubuntu isn't an upgrade.

Comment 1 Philip Ashmore 2008-09-19 22:59:20 UTC

<more gripes>:
If you remove right-click on the panel and select "remove this panel" good luck getting a new panel to move to the bottom of the screen - I eventually "fixed" it by removing plasma's configuration file under ~/.kde.

I like a slide show of pictures as a desktop background - for me it keeps the desktop fresh. Guess what? you can't do that now - it's KDE4.

So you wan't to use the "win" $soft key? Good luck with that! - it's KDE4.

Comment 2 Philip Ashmore 2008-09-19 23:49:31 UTC

<more gripes>:
You want hardware acceleration with nVidia 96xx drivers - too bad. It's KDE4.
Anyone know how to downgrade Xorg in Fedora 9?
Can anyone build KDE 3.5 on top of QT4?
Micro-kernels anyone?
Running an EFI boot manager on "legacy" hardware? This would let you boot off a USB pen drive like all those with new laptops can do.

Is there a plan in place to fix KDE4 problems / short falls?
Was there a plan in place that resulted in their introduction?

Is this a way to make people get rid of their (older) hardware quicker than they would otherwise do?

Comment 3 Philip Ashmore 2008-09-20 00:18:26 UTC

Maybe this should become a tracking bug entitled "everything that's wrong with KDE4".

<more gripes>:
I (eventually found the "show desktop" panel applet - guess what, I can't assign a keyboard short-cut to it.

There was a "frequently used programs" panel applet (or something similiar) that allowed me to group my 8 most used applets on the task bar - it's gone too.

Comment 4 Kevin Kofler 2008-09-20 00:31:18 UTC

STOP THIS ALRIGHT!

An "all the things wrong with KDE 4" "bug report" is completely useless. Bugzilla is not a place to rant. Most of, if not all, the complaints you made already have bugs filed at http://bugs.kde.org (the upstream bugtracker). If something does not have a bug filed there yet, it may be useful to file it there, at ONE BUG REPORT PER ISSUE. (It is completely impossible to work with a "bug report" which mixes 20+ issues in a single "report".)

Now if you want us to look into the one issue in the subject, we can reopen this. But I'd also suggest filing this one at http://bugs.kde.org as it is not a Fedora-specific issue and so it should be fixed in upstream KDE.

Comment 5 Kevin Kofler 2008-09-20 00:36:32 UTC

Or actually, instead of filing a duplicate, add your details to the existing bug report:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=170446

But the plasmoids which are shown are what the server (which is somewhere at kde-apps.org or kde.org) is listing, Fedora has no control over it, and if there aren't any plasmoids installable that way (only plasmoids written in interpreted languages like Python or Ruby can be installed that way, plasmoids written in C++ have to be compiled and packaged for the distribution!), there's nothing we can do about it. If the plasmoids which are listed there don't work, that's also something to sort out with whoever is operating the server, there's nothing we can do about that in Fedora.