Command Line Options

Every KDE applications has its own unique command line options. Additionally, each application has access to general KDE options and general Qt options. To see only the application options, open a terminal window (such as Konsole), and type the application name followed by “--help”

For example,

kate –help

To see all options, add “-all”

kate –help-all

You can also use “--help-qt” and “--help-kde“.

An example of a powerful KDE option is “--config“, which gives you the ability to use an alternate configuration file, different that the standard one used by the application. With this option, you can run two separate variations of the same application.

With the Qt options, you can access advanced features like “--display“, which allows you to specify which X server display you want your application to appear on, something useful when working with multiple instances of X.

Other KDE options include titlebar caption, application icon, disabling the crash handler, GUI style, and geometry. Other Qt options include session ID, disabling mouse/keyboard grab, font, background color, application name/title, input style, and more.

KDE Hidden Folder

KDE configuration and application files are kept in the home folder under ~/.kde. This is a hidden directory that you can access by clicking at the end of the Dolphin breadcrumbs to “edit location” and then typing it into the box. You can also hold the Alt key and press the period key (Alt + .) to show hidden files. Some of the folders like cache, socket, and tmp are ones you will rarely, if ever, need to access. Others, like share, are very useful for advanced configuration.

Accessing the share folder

The share folder holds a number of important subfolders, including config, apps, icons, and wallpapers.

1. The config folder holds the user’s configuration files for KDE applications. These files are specific to the user, and changes to them will only change the KDE settings for that user. The main KDE config file is kdeglobals. All of the configuration files are text-based and easily editable in a normal text editor like KWrite. Generally, you do not need to manipulate these files directly, but there are cases when you might tap into undocumented features.

Configuration files are formatted with group names, enclosed in brackets [GroupName] and keys listed under them.

For example, this is one config group from the amarokrc file:

[Playlist Search]
MatchAlbum=true
MatchArtist=true
MatchTrack=true

Editing configuration files is one way to configure KDE and then distribute those configuration changes over multiple systems via a network.

In addition to the local user configuration files, those changes to files in /etc/skel will affect any new users that you create, making it easy to have a custom installation of KDE that defaults to the settings you configured for each new user.

2. The apps folder holds folders containing user files for every KDE application. For example, the akregator folder will hold the local user’s feeds.opml file. Similarly, the kmail folder holds the user’s mailboxes.

3. The icons folder holds user-installed icons. You can download icon sets from KDE-Look.org and extract their subfolder directly into this folder. You can also create your own icons and place them here.

4. Similar to icons, user wallpapers are stored in the wallpapers folder. This is only where the KDE wallpaper installation component places them, so you do not need to put wallpapers here in order to use them.

Both the icons and wallpapers folders are for the local user and will not affect other users globally.

Environment Variables

KDE has a plethora of Unix/Linux environment variables that you can use to control how KDE starts up and runs. For example, KDEHOME determines where the default KDE files are held (~/.kde is the default). KDETEMP determines what temporary directory it uses. There are also number debugging environment variables for troubleshooting.

More Advanced Administration

Including all of the documentation on KDE administration and configuration would make this article unduly long, but there are plenty of resources to help you along the way. The most important resources are KDE UserBase and KDE TechBase. In particular, you should read the System Administration section of KDE TechBase.

NotifyOSD Configuration is a GUI for you to customize your NotifyOSD. It is built on top of the patched NotifyOSD (post is in Russian) that allows you to customize your notification bubble via a simple text file.

Download NotifyOSD Configuration

To get NotifyOSD Configuration working, we need to first install the patched NotifyOSD. In your terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:leolik/leolik
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Once you have patched your NotifyOSD, install NotifyOSD Configuration via the following command:

For Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:amandeepgrewal/notifyosdconfig
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install notifyosdconfig

If you are using Ubuntu Maverick, the above repository won’t work. You have to download the .deb file and manually install it in your system.

After the installation, you can find the application at Applications -> Accessories -> NotifyOSD Configuration.

Customizing your notification bubble

On the main screen, you will see plenty of options. The options are mainly divided into two sections: the bubble and the text (within the bubble). In the bubble tab, you can configure the positioning (fixed or dynamic), the time the bubble will appear on the screen, the background color, opacity, corner radius etc.

In the text section, you can customize the text color, size, opacity, shadow and many other settings.

When you are done with the customization, simply click Apply and a preview of the configured bubble will appear on the screen.

Saving theme

Another feature of NotifyOSD Configuration is that after you have done your configuration, you can save it as a new theme. You can use this theme file as a backup of your current settings, or if you have multiple computer running Ubuntu, you can move the theme over and get the other computer to run with the same setting.

The theme is saved in the .notifyosdconf folder in your Home directory. It is a hidden folder, so you will need to press “Ctrl + H” in your Nautilus to view all the hidden folders.

There is also a Reset feature, so if you messed up the settings, you can easily revert back to the default settings.

Conclusion

Even though I find the default NotifyOSD useful, there are times where it is disruptive and break my concentration level. I am glad that finally there is a mean to configure it. It is not a tool that you will use everyday (most of the time, you just configure it and leave it), but it is definitely a tool that you will need for better productivity. What I hope to see in the future is the integration of this customization ability into the core of Ubuntu. What do you think?

Note: Even though the title says Ubuntu Lucid, NotifyOSD Configuration will work in Ubuntu Karmic as well.

gpedit.msc

Press Enter

This will open the Local Group Policy Editor window. On the left pane, navigate to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update.

On the right pane, double click on the entry “No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automated updates installation”.

In the next window, select the box “Enabled” and click Apply. Click OK to close the window.

Other options that you can play with

Now, if you don’t want to disable the auto-restart function completely, there are also other ways that you can make it less disruptive.

Delay Restart

The default duration for the system to restart after an update is 15 minute. You can change the default timing to the one you prefer.

Double click on the entry “Delay Restart for scheduled installations”. Check the Enabled box. At the bottom left pane, change the timing to your own preferences.

Change the Restart Re-prompt timing

The Automatic Updates usually wait for a period of time before it prompts you again to restart your computer. The default timing is 10 minutes. You can change the setting so that it won’t bother you during the time that you are using your computer.

Double click on the “Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations”. Click the Enabled button and specify the time in the bottom left pane.

Improve Windows 7 startup time by preventing the Automatic update from running immediately after the startup

As you startup your Windows, it will load a lot of files and applications. In some occasion, you might have to wait for several minutes before the computer is fully functional. One such application that the system runs automatically is the Automatic Update. Its default setting is to wait for 1 minute after the system bootup before it runs in the background. To speed things up a little bit, you can increase the lag time such that the Automatic Update will only run itself after a specified amount of time (say 15 minutes).

Double click on the entry: “Reschedule Automatic Update scheduled installations”. Click Enabled and specify the time in the bottom left pane.

Conclusion

There are plenty of stuffs that you can play around in the Local Group Policy Editor window. Most of them don’t really hurt your computer unless you choose to turn off automatic update completely. Do play around and find the best match for your usage patterns.

But, there is still so much more that OS X is capable of and it is not always possible to harness all that power from the Graphical interface, and that is where our application of the day, Secrets, comes in handy.

Secrets installs in the System Preferences Pane and provides you access to hundreds of hidden OS X settings. Almost all of these settings can be accessed from the command line also and if you’re a regular follower of the Mac OS tips website, Mac OSX Hints, you might have come across some of them earlier. But, with the hundreds of hidden settings that Secrets unlocks, you’re bound to find some that you’ve never come across and will find useful.

To install Secrets, just download the zip file, extract it and double click the Secrets.prefPane file that is a part of the zip archive.

Now, you can just click on the icon in System Preferences and OS X will launch Secrets.

Secrets divides all the settings into various categories that are displayed in a vertical sidebar on the left side of the window. This classification makes it easy to find what you’re looking for. For example, if you want to change the dock style from the default 3D type to the older 2D style dock, just click on Dock in the left sidebar and select the 2D style from the drop down menu under Dock Appearance.

If you follow the popular OS X blogs, you’d recall that this particular setting was widely published for users who wanted to go back to the older Dock style when Apple decided to change the default Dock appearance to the 3D style in OS X 10.5. I, on the other hand, actually like the 3D look more so that’s what I keep.

How about something more useful?

One of the features of OS X that I use most often is Quick Look. This feature lets you quickly preview a document right from the Finder without even opening the document. The feature works even if you don’t have the required application installed, and Apple has been nice enough to bundle plugins for the most common type of documents along with OS X.

I use Quick Look all the time to read Word and Power point documents even though I don’t even have Microsoft Office installed on my system.

By default, if I use Quick Look on a folder all it tells me is the size of the folder and the number of files in it.

The two Finder settings that I like to enable using Secrets is to let Finder display hidden files and enable the Quick Look X-ray folders which enables Quick Look to display thumbnails of all the items inside the folder.

Changing the above settings require you to restart Finder. You can do so by clicking the Quit This button at the bottom of the window.

Now, whenever you use Quick Look to view a folder, you’ll see thumbnail images of all the documents inside the folder. Isn’t that cool ?

Go ahead and use Secrets to customize OS X as you see fit. Let us know which are your favorite Secrets.