Subject: FVWM: Running selected KDE apps together under FVWM

From: [email-masked] (D. Michael McFarland)
Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2005 12:41:46 -0600

Hello,

I post very rarely, so let me first say thanks to all those who work
on and document FVWM.  The steady, low-key development is one of its
best features.

I've been trying out a few KDE applications, such as Konqueror and
Kmail, and am generally quite pleased with them individually.  But the
way I'm starting them, from FVWM menu entries like

    + "Konqueror"                   Exec exec konqueror ~/tmp

they don't really communicate with one another.  For example, clicking
on an URL in Kmail doesn't open it in Konqueror.  I'm not surprised; I
know I've skipped virtually all of KDE's usual start-up sequence.

The FVWM FAQ explains how to use KDE with FVWM replacing Kwin as the
window manager.  This works, but gives me more KDE than I really
want.

Ideally, I'd like the KDE apps to work together more or less as they
do under KDE without starting up KDE per se, with all the icons, task
bars and GUI configurators it brings with it.  I hope I'm just missing
some daemon (kdeinit? ksmserver? klaunch? so many pieces...) that
will automagically connect the KDE bits to one another, but maybe
that's too much to ask.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Best regards,
Michael

-- 
D. Michael McFarland
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
mailto:[email-masked] https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/dmmcf/www/
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---

From: Thomas Adam <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 20:05:38 +0000

> Hello,

Hello 

> bars and GUI configurators it brings with it. I hope I'm just missing

If I am right, this has nothing to do with Fvwm, really.  It has more to
do with the ability to configure kmail correctly such that it uses the
correct settings.  Whether this is possible via the application or not,
depends.  You'd have to see.  Also, whether you need to load a subset of
KDE [1] or not to provide that functionality -- I couldn't say.

Have a poke around in Kmail's configuration/preference settings.  You
didn't mention which distribution you're using, either -- this might
have an impact.  For instance, Debian provides an alternatives mechanism
which may or maynot be used by Kmail to determine which browser to use.

Oddly enough, I know nothing about KDE whatsoever.  I'd like to keep it
that way, too.  :)

-- Thomas Adam

[1] "subset" is used lightly here -- it could be many, many programs, in
the context of KDE.  :P

-- 
I know nothing, and understand even less.

---

From: [email-masked] (D. Michael McFarland)
Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2005 18:57:05 -0600

Thomas Adam <[email-masked]> writes:

> If I am right, this has nothing to do with Fvwm, really.

You're right, of course, but I thought it better to ask on the FVWM
list, "How do I use a little (more) KDE?" than to ask on a KDE list,
"How do I rip out as much of the desktop as possible?" :-)

> It has more to do with the ability to configure kmail correctly such
> that it uses the correct settings.  Whether this is possible via the
> application or not, depends.  You'd have to see.  Also, whether you
> need to load a subset of KDE [1] or not to provide that
> functionality -- I couldn't say.

That's the first thing I tried.  I can't swear it's not possible, but
I didn't find anything in the GUIs that looked promising.

> which may or maynot be used by Kmail to determine which browser to use.

Good point.  I'm running Gentoo with pretty much all of KDE installed,
and FVWM from CVS.  (It's not that I'm a compler junkie, I just happen
to live in a processor-rich environment run by a friendly sysadmin.)
I believe Gentoo does provide a mechanism for selecting among session
managers, but I've never looked at it closely.  The Gentoo startkde
script is customized slightly, but not in a way that would seem to
affect the operation of the desktop.

> Oddly enough, I know nothing about KDE whatsoever.  I'd like to keep it

Ah, so you _do_ see why I asked. :-)

> [1] "subset" is used lightly here -- it could be many, many programs, in

Too true.  And I'm not gonna be the guy to find out.  Unless an answer
falls in my lap, I think I just about have this KDE business out of my
system.  I go through this every couple of years...sorry to have
bothered the list this time.

Thanks very much for your response, Thomas.

Best regards,
Michael

-- 
D. Michael McFarland, Research Associate Professor

---

From: Thomas Adam <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 02:00:55 +0000

> "How do I rip out as much of the desktop as possible?" :-)

Hehehehe.  :)

> That's the first thing I tried. I can't swear it's not possible, but I
> didn't find anything in the GUIs that looked promising.

Out of curiosity's sake, I installed kmail and friends, and took a look
for myself.  As I thought, it's not application dependent -- it's
controlled via KDE itself.  From what I've ascertained, you need to have
certain KDE background processes running.  Just loading konqueror up
should do this for you.  Again, I am no expert... :)  I did find
something [1], which confirms that it is a central KDE task.

> affect the operation of the desktop.

Cool.

> > Oddly enough, I know nothing about KDE whatsoever. I'd like to keep
> > it that way, too. :)
>

I do, indeed. :)

> falls in my lap, I think I just about have this KDE business out of
> my system. I go through this every couple of years...sorry to have

It's no bother as far as I am concerned.  I quite like to look at how
applications built for desktop environments can be used in different
window managers.

> Thanks very much for your response, Thomas.

You're welcome, even if I was unable to directly answer your question.
:)

-- Thomas Adam

[1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-kde/2002/01/msg00598.html