KDE Desktop Preview: too many desktops.

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1

This is annoying. Whenever I boot the computer the “Desktop Preview & Pager” menu shows 19 tiny desktops. If I select “Configure desktops” I have set it to 4 desktops. 17 don’t do anything and clicking on # two makes the entire panel vanish. If I hit Ctrl F1 the panel returns. Sometimes the panel spontaneously reloads with the correct number of desktops.

If I go to the Compiz icon and click “Reload Window Manager” Compiz fires up and everything is fine. However, I don’t want to have to run Compiz all the time.

This all started when I loaded in Gnome just to see what it is all about. I deleted Gnome and that didn’t fix anything.

Does anybody have a cure?

BTW I am using suse 10.3. Thanks.

2

It’s something to do with kwin settings and compiz.

As I recall, set kwin to either 1 or 2 desktops
and in compiz the same
just try some combinations of that.

I stopped using compiz, so it’s a while since I had my fingers dirty on this.

3

Compiz works fine. What I want is to have 4 desktops displayed in kwin, which is what I have it set at. Why do I get 19?

4

Did you try what I said.

I’m sure it’s set 2 in kwin
and either 1 or 2 in compiz

5

Yes I have tried many combinations. Compiz is set to 1 and works fine. However, my default is kwin and no matter what I set it at when I restart the xserver it is set at 4 and 19 little desktops show up. Most do not do anything. Desktop 2, 3 and 4 make the entire panel vanish.

Previous to loading Gnome I had kwin set to 4 desktops and it worked fine. So did Compiz.

6

I’m not up to speed on the terminology. There are two types of virtual desktop - one where there are M disjoint workspaces, and one where there are N viewports looking onto one big area that’s split up. I think KDE does the former and fvwm2 the latter by default but I could well be wrong.

Anyway, when messing with compiz, KDE and gnome you’re likely to end up with M*N of the pesky things, more so if you chop and change between desktop environments.

caf4926 has the right suggestion. Wind everything down to one, choose your DE and then wind up to have the right number of desktops. Your pager may or may not track this change, so you may have to choose the pager that goes with your desktop environment. So stick with KDE’s pager in KDE using KWin and if you use Compiz stick with whatever whizzes the cube around.

I’m a long time KDE3 fan who has just moved to gnome and cairo-dock after trying all the eye candy. I prefer stability.