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The “desktop”
is just the name for the layout of
the screen when you start KDE. It looks something like this (on your
own system, it might look slightly different, but the main features
should be the
same):
Let us look at the most important parts:
-
Most of the screen is
taken up by the background
. At the moment, there is a picture making up
the background. This picture is usually referred to as the
“wallpaper,”
and you can change it to make KDE suit your
taste.
-
In the top left-hand corner are two icons:
Trash and Home. Clicking on
these will open your Trash folder and Home
folder, respectively. You can add more icons to the desktop so that
you can open your favorite programs, or access removable media, with
just one click.
-
At the bottom is the KDE Panel
, also known as
“
Kicker
”. The Panel contains several useful ways of
interacting with KDE. It houses the
menu, from where you can open
any KDE application installed on your computer, it shows all the
programs that are currently running, as well as the time, and more.
Take a look at Chapter�3, The Panel and the Desktop
for more
information about the KDE Panel.
Logging In and Logging Out
Basic KDM & startkde stuff.
There are two ways to log into KDE: graphically and via the
command line. We'll look at them both briefly:
If you see a screen a little bit like the one below when you
start up your computer, then you are all set for logging in
graphically. Just enter your username in the
Login
text box and your password in the
Password
text box. Your password will not be shown
as you type it; it will probably be shown as asterisks. When you have
entered that information, click on the
Login
button, and KDE will start up. The KDE splash screen will appear,
and keep you informed about the progress of KDE startup, and when
it is done, KDE will be ready to use.
Logging in via the Command Line
If you prefer using the command line, you can log in to KDE
with the
startx
command. Add the line
exec startkde
to the
.xinitrc file in your home folder (create it
if it does not exist), save the file, and then run
startx
. KDE should start in the same way as if
you had logged in graphically.
Once you have finished using KDE for the moment, you will
want to log out until next time. The easiest way to do this is to
click on the
menu at the bottom left of your screen, and then
select the
item. A dialog with the
text
End session for
username
will appear. To confirm
that you want to log out, click on the
End Current Session
button. If you change your mind, and decide to carry on using KDE
for now, hit
Cancel
.
The Desktop�
�Getting Help
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