path: root/doc/faq/configkde.docbook

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<chapter id="configure">
<title>Configuring &kde;</title>

<qandaset>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I set the language used by &kde;?</para>
</question>

<answer>
<para>There are two ways to set the language &kde; uses in the
messages it will display:</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term>Using the <application>&kde; Control Center</application></term>
<listitem><para>Fire up the <application>&kde; Control Center</application> and select
<guimenu>Regional &amp; Accessibility</guimenu> followed by
<guimenuitem>Country/Region &amp; Language</guimenuitem>.  You can select your language and location
here.  If &kde; cannot find a translation in the first language
chosen, it will fall back on the default language.  This is usually
(American) English by default.</para>
<note><para>Using the <application>&kde; Control Center</application> is the preferred way of choosing
languages in &kde;.</para></note></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>Using the <envar>LANG</envar> environment variable</term>
<listitem><para>The second method uses the standard locale setting on
your system.  To change the language, simply set the environment
variable <envar>LANG</envar> accordingly.  For example, if your shell 
is <application>bash</application>, execute
<userinput><command>export</command> <envar>LANG</envar>=de</userinput>
to set German as the language used.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Is there any keyboard switcher for international keyboards for
&kde;?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Yes, you can configure it using the <application>&kde; Control Center</application>
<guimenu>Regional &amp; Accessibility</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Keyboard Layout</guimenuitem>
 configuration page.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I replace the standard text login screen with the
&kde; login screen?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<note><para>Your distribution/&UNIX; flavor may have its own setup tools to
change this (&eg; <application>YaST</application> on &SuSE; &Linux;). This will
be the safest way to enable the &kde; login screen. However, if for some reason
you do not wish to use these tools, the following instructions may be useful.</para></note>
<para>First, you need to change to the <quote>xdm runlevel</quote> (runlevel 5 on
&RedHat; and &SuSE; systems) by editing your
<filename>/etc/inittab</filename> file.  In the file, you should have
a line saying <userinput>id:3:initdefault:</userinput>.  Change it to
<userinput>id:5:initdefault:</userinput>.  Now, at the end of the file,
comment out the following line:
<literal>x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/X11/xdm -nodaemon</literal> and
replace it with
<userinput>x:5:respawn:<replaceable>/opt/kde/</replaceable>bin/kdm
-nodaemon</userinput>.
<note><para>The location of &kdm; may differ on your
system.</para></note></para>
<para>For changes to take effect immediately, type <command>init
5</command> (for &RedHat; systems) at the shell prompt. 
<caution><para>It is risky to initiate a graphical login without
checking beforehand whether it works.  If it fails to work, you would
be in for a hard time getting back....</para></caution></para>
</answer>
<answer>
<para>
For FreeBSD, you should edit the file <filename>/etc/ttys</filename>
and change one of the lines that look like
<programlisting>ttyv8   "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon"  xterm   off secure</programlisting>
to instead say <userinput>ttyv8   "/usr/local/bin/kdm -nodaemon" xterm
off secure</userinput>.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>

<para>I would like to click the &LMB; anywhere on the
desktop and have the <guimenu>K</guimenu> menu displayed.</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Open the <application>&kde; Control Center</application> and
choose <menuchoice><guisubmenu>Desktop</guisubmenu>
<guisubmenu>Behavior</guisubmenu></menuchoice>.  You
can now choose the behavior of mouse clicks on the desktop.  To have
the <guimenu>K</guimenu> menu open from a single &LMB; click, change
the entry labeled <guilabel>Left button</guilabel> to say
<guilabel>Application Menu</guilabel>.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Where do I find information regarding &kde; themes?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Go to <ulink
url="http://kde.themes.org/">http://kde.themes.org/</ulink> or <ulink
url="http://www.kde-look.org">http://www.kde-look.org</ulink>.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I change &MIME; Types?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>If you are using &konqueror;, do this instead: first, open a
&konqueror; window and choose
<menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guimenuitem>Configure
Konqueror</guimenuitem></menuchoice>, then <guilabel>File Associations</guilabel>.  Find the type you want to change
(&eg; <literal>text/english</literal> or
<literal>image/gif</literal>), and set the application preference order
to whatever you want.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>&kde; (&kdm;) does not read my
<filename>.bash_profile</filename>!</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>The login managers<application>xdm</application> and &kdm; do
not run a login shell, so <filename>.profile</filename>,
<filename>.bash_profile</filename>, &etc; are not
sourced.  When the user logs in, <application>xdm</application> runs
<command>Xstartup</command> as root and then
<command>Xsession</command> as user.  So the normal practice is to add
statements in <filename>Xsession</filename> to source the user
profile.  Please edit your <filename>Xsession</filename> and
<filename>.xsession</filename> files.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I use &TrueType; fonts in &kde;?</para>
</question>
<answer>

<para>You need to install &TrueType; font support into your &X-Window; configuration.
Please take a look at <ulink
url="http://x.themes.org/">x.themes.org</ulink> for the fonts, and
<ulink url="http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jec/programs/xfsft/">xfsft:
&TrueType; Font Support For X11</ulink> or <ulink
url="http://X-TT.dsl.gr.jp/">X-&TrueType; Server Project Home
Page</ulink> for the font servers.</para>

<para>If you have a bunch of &TrueType; fonts from &Microsoft;
&Windows;, edit the <filename>XF86Config</filename> file to get the
fonts from the font folder.  Then just tell &kde; to use these new
fonts with the font administrator utility.</para>

</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Is it possible to enter, show and work with the Euro Symbol in
&kde;?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Yes and no.  For details, look here: <ulink
url="http://www.koffice.org/kword/euro.php">http://www.koffice.org/kword/euro.php</ulink>.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question><para>How do I run a program at &kde; startup?</para></question>

<answer><para>There are many ways to do that. If what you want to do
is to run some scripts that would set some environment variables (for
example, to start <command>gpg-agent</command>, <command>ssh-agent</command> and others), you can put
these scripts into <filename class="directory">$<envar>TDEHOME</envar>/env/</filename> and make sure their names end in
<literal role="extension">.sh</literal>. $<envar>TDEHOME</envar> is
usually a folder named <filename class="directory">.kde</filename>
(note the period at the beginning) in your home
folder. If you want scripts to be executed for all &kde; users, you can
put them under <filename class="directory">$<envar>TDEDIR</envar>/env/</filename>, where $<envar>TDEDIR</envar> is the prefix &kde; was
installed to (you can find this out using the command
<userinput><command>kde-config</command> --prefix</userinput>).</para>
<para>If you wish to start a program after &kde; has started, you may want to use the 
<filename class="directory">Autostart</filename> folder. To add
entries to the <filename class="directory">Autostart</filename> folder:
<orderedlist>
<listitem><para>Open &konqueror;.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Select <menuchoice><guimenu>Go</guimenu><guimenuitem>Autostart</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> from the menubar.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Right-click in the window view area and select <menuchoice><guisubmenu>Create New</guisubmenu><guisubmenu>File</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Link to
Application</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice></para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Click on the <guilabel>Application</guilabel> tab in
the window that appears and enter the name of the command to run in
the <guilabel>Command</guilabel> text box.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</para>

</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How can I allow more than one user to be logged in a at a time?  Can &kde; do <quote>fast user switching</quote>?</para>
</question>
<answer>

<para>To enable more than one user to log in at one time on the same
computer (sometimes referred to as <quote>fast user switching</quote>) you
need to tell the program that logs you in that it can use more than one
session (or, in &X-Window; terms, <quote>display</quote>) at a time.</para>

<para>In &kde;, this program is called &kdm; which stands for <quote>&kde;
Display Manager</quote>. If you are not using &kdm; as your login screen
then you will need to consult the documentation for the software you are using on how to
accomplish multiple sessions.</para>

<para>By default, this will be configured at installation time automatically
if &kdm; supports virtual terminals on your system (currently Linux only).
If it was not configured automatically, consult the &kdm; manual, section
<ulink url="help:/kdm/kdmrc-xservers">Specifying permanent &X-Server;s</ulink>.
After modifying kdmrc, you will have to let &kdm; know about it; just
invoke <command>killall -HUP kdm</command>.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandaset>
</chapter>