Somehow I have managed to delete the icon in the bottom bar that let you switch between 4 desktops. For the life of me I cannot figure out how to get it back.
I looked in Personal Settings (Configure Desktop) > Workspace Behavior > Virtual Desktops and it shows “4” in the “Number of Desktops” box, and it also shows the names for each of the four desktops (desktop 1, desktop 2, etc.)
But no icon in the bar at the bottom so I cannot easily switch between desktops. (Yes, I know there is a key command Ctrl + F1 through F4.)
I searched these SuSE archives and found one poor fellow who had a similar problem back in 2008, but he never got an answer.
I tried rebooting the pooter just in the hope that maybe something was hung up and would get unstuck. No such luck.
Anyone? How to restore that icon with the four little desktops?
Its called the Pager if it got removed. Right Click on bottom right and select Add Widgets, search on Pager and double click it to be added to the Panel. If it does not go to the right place, right click again, select Panel settings then you can drag around each section where you want. To prevent this in the future, right click again and select Lock Widgets then these things can not go MIA on you in the future.
I forgot to say in my original post that in addition to losing the “pager” (now recovered) I have also lost the notification (rotating circle) icon that pops up temporarily when you launch an application – for example Firefox or KMail. It then disappears once the application has fully loaded.
I think you mean the launch feedback. Under KDE System Settings -> Application and System Notifications -> Launch Feedback, you can enable disable both the taskbar and busy cursor notifications.
And, yes, it is the launch feedback (the spinning wheel or hourglass, whatever it is) that appears briefly in the bar at the bottom of the screen. That is what has disappeared and I cannot find where to restore it.
I’m baffled. As far as I know, that should do the trick. Hopefully someone with more of a KDE background than I will chime in. Sorry I can’t be of more help.
Notifications come from the System Tray near the right bottom corner of the Panel near the clock (by default). Right click it, select System Tray Settings and on the Display (on left), under Extra Items (in the middle) make sure that Notifications has an X beside it. Select Entries (on Left) for Notifications and Visibility, select Always and then press OK.
Unfortunately it made no difference. Still missing the rotating icon in the bottom bar that announces the launch of an application. I tried both “always” and “auto” but it made no difference.
Another item to mention. With nothing on the lower bar now showing open applications if I shrink an open window the only way I can reopen (enlarge) it is to open the system monitor, click on the process table tab, right click on the process, and click “show application window.” The window will then reopen with, for example, KMail or Firefox, or whatever it was that I had shrunk.
So not having anything showing in the bottom bar is a huge pain in the you-know-what.
Thx
socref
James, a thought for you… Is there any possibility this might somehow be related?
Back in 2007 my wife was using SuSE (maybe v 10x or maybe even 9x?). Anyway, she started losing the bar at the bottom. It would just disappear. Ultimately she was able to get it back by running the following command: /opt/kde3/bin/kicker
And that would restore the bar (until it disappeared the next time).
Now that’s a really old command, and my bottom bar is not disappearing. But is it possible that something somehow related to its function is not allowing the launch notifications to appear?
At the time we were also advised to look in ~/.kde/share/config/kickerrc to see if any values looked odd.
We had no idea what values would be unusual, so looking in this file didn’t help us.
Anything in this old problem-solving for “kicker” that might help figure out why my launch notifications are not displaying?
I have been using KDE since version 3.x in openSUSE 10 and in general, when parts of the Panel (or Kicker as it was called) go missing is when you don’t understand how it works, how to get things back and if you locked your panel (or Widgets now) or not. When the Panel is locked, the Panel Tool Box on right is not shown. In this mode, you can’t move or remove panels parts. Here is another Link on the Panel that might be helpful: Plasma/Panels - KDE UserBase Wiki Or this one: How to Configure a KDE Panel.
On my KDE 4 Panel I keep the Menu icon on the far left, I have program icons next, a total of 12 right now. Next is the Pager with Virtual Desktops, next I normally place the** Program Launcher **where running apps are shown. Next is the System Tray (showing nine items for me), the Clock (with Date Below the Time), the Trash Can (which I add here) and the Panel Tool Box is last if I have Widgets unlocked (and missing if the Widgets are locked). The Program Launcher was a Mystery for me way back as its invisible unless you have a running programs in it. When you start to modify the Panel application positions, there is a need to understand just what is there, visible or not. I keep the major Panel components where they start by default, but with lots of added icons placed in it.
I encourage you to look through these links and ask more questions if you need. Take this as an opportunity to become a KDE 4 Panel Expert and teach me a thing or two. That is not really all that hard if you put in any effort at all you will find. lol!
