How can I downgrade from KDE 4 to 3.5? I want to try the more stable desktop environment to run my programs
All you need to do is install the 3.5 environment with the package installer. There is a meta package there. Then logout and select the kde3.5 environment instead of kde4. You can uninstall the kde4 environment afterwards from kde3.
Once you have installed KDE3, copy over any hidden files which contain relevant data from KDE4 applications to KDE3 before deleting it.
In practice you don’t need to; just select the KDE3 session in the login screen and you can forget KDE4 thereafter though one or two QT4 aware applications will continue to use the Oxygen theme even in KDE3 and you can still use some KDE4 applications like Kate from within KDE3 if you want.
Once you have installed KDE3, copy over any hidden files which contain relevant data from KDE4 applications to KDE3 before deleting it.
You should try your ideas before sharing them. Moving files from ~/.kde4 to ~/.kde would defenitely create chaos. Bad idea.
I agree with gropiuskalle. Moreover, not only “some” but practically “all” KDE 4 applications work in KDE 3.x. Also, no “hidden files” need to be copied over: the desktop just works right out of the box (I should know; I’m using KDE 3.x 24/7). I’m not particularly keen of having a buggy desktop, what can I say;)
I did and I am speaking from experience. Obviously not all programs are backwards compatible but many KDE programs used by KDE4 are still in KDE3 versions and therefore there are no problems moving the relevant files across.
Hmmm… :|That obviously means that moving files from ~/kde4 over to ~/kde does no harm. I speak from experience too, and can honestly say that no moving is required - KDE 3.x definitely works out of the box, with KDE4 applications transparently storing/retrieving their settings in/from ~/kde4. Although probably no two programs behave in the same manner in this regard, I can confirm that at least one KDE4 program - namely, ktorrent - always keeps its settings in ~/kde4, regardless of which desktop it is run off. So, by moving its settings from ~/kde4/share/apps/ktorrent over to ~/kde, you actually make it lose its settings and if you start it in a KDE3 (or KDE4, for that matter) environment, it reacts by recreating a new set of default settings in its default folder ~/kde4/share/apps/ktorrent! But, as already said, probably no two programs behave exactly the same in this regard.
Usually a program acts like this, when started: 1. Looking for configuration-data and use them 2. If no data is found, it creates a new profile. No matter whether it is a KDE3 or KDE4-program (or whatever).
>All you need to do is install the 3.5 environment with the package installer. There is a meta package there. Then logout and select the kde3.5 environment instead of kde4. You can uninstall the kde4 environment afterwards from kde3.
Ok, forgive my ignorance, but does this mean to use YaST2 software installation? I selected package groups, and looked through kde stuff, mainly looking at those with 3 in their names, and I didn’t see anything that looked like a meta package, whatever that is.
Am I looking in the right place? I really can’t stand the default KDE 4 menu system. I was able to switch which menu style I got under SuSE 10.3, but I’m unable to find a place to change it under SuSE 11.0. I am also unable to change other desktop settings, like making the taskbar auto-hide and stuff like that. Why was this removed?
Thanks in advance,
Alan
You’re absolutely looking in the right place, except that, on the first screen, you must select Patterns instead of Search in the Filter drop-down list.
You’ll see, YaST is a great tool.
Thanks very much, I found the patterns shortly after I posted, and it’s much better now. I don’t understand why they dropped the other menu settings and did away with the options for the task bar. If it’s just that they didn’t get that far with it yet, why make the KDE4 the default for the KDE disk?
Anyway, now to track down some of my other issues… Thanks much for the help!
-Alan
KDE 4 has caused some major problems in the way that most users have used KDE for several years … good and bad habits are hard to break
However, I would like to add that the KDE 4 under Suse is as close to KDE 3.5 as far as usability, capability, and over all functionality as any distro out there. Should try Fedora or Kubuntu version of 4.0 you will be pulling your hair out for weeks…KDE 4.0 in Suse is very nice …