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optikSmoke

Matthew Kay
Hi, I am optikSmoke and I create Karamba & Superkaramba, KDE 3.x Splash Screens, KDE Plasma Screenshots and more.

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Last time active : Apr 11 2016
Joined : Apr 06 2002
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xNuzeni2

Ice-WM Themes 8 comments

by typeprinthere
Score 50.0%
Nov 02 2004
What wallpaper are you using? - Nov 03 2004
Offerings (Matthew 5:13)

KDE 3.x Splash Screens 2 comments

by GeeZee
Score 50.0%
Jun 21 2004
Sorry, I really don't understand why this is rated poorly. Personally, I am not religious, but this is a tasteful image that is not poorly done (though you should try to smooth out some of your edges.... the cross is a little "rough"). I wouldn't use it because I am not a Christian, but like I said -- it's tasteful, and the author (thankfully) isn't trying to preach to anyone.

Voting it down based on a few words is childish IMHO.

Anyway, nice work. - Jun 21 2004
Home KIOSlave (idea)

Various KDE 1.-4. Improvements 25 comments

by djworld
Score 50.0%
Jun 12 2004
Hmmm, except that the existence of those ioslaves doesn't mean they will be used :). I think the idea behind this is providing a nice interface to access other parts of the system..... so things like programs:/ could even be linked to here. It's something users could start at to discover some of those other great/useful (but no so well-advertised) features.

IMHO, of course. - Jun 13 2004
SlickBar for SuperKaramba

Karamba & Superkaramba 282 comments

by optikSmoke
Score 50.0%
Jan 08 2004
Can you use *any* superkaramba themes? this sounds more like a problem with python and/or superkaramba than with slickbar. Off the top of my head, I would try 2 things:

1. type
export PYTHONHOME=[:]
in a terminal and then try running superkaramba again, and if that doesn't work...

2. type
unset PYTHONHOME
in a terminal and then try running superkaramba.

If neither of these work, and no superkaramba themes work, I'd suggest posting your problem to the superkaramba forum, here: http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=67470

Hope that helps, at least somewhat :)

---Matt - Jan 10 2004
Thanks for the congradulations :).

The TaskPanel, NoatunPanel, QuickLaunchPanel, and PagerPanel require PyKDE (which you can get here: http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/pykde/download.php) Without it, they will not run.

If you setup PyKDE and it still does not work, try looking in the file "slickbar.log" -- it should list any errors that occurred in SlickBar. Feel free to post the errors or email them to me for more help.

---Matt - Jan 10 2004
The window decoration is Plastik (its available on this site, it comes with the Plastik Style).

Can't really help with font troubles, sorry :(. I just use what Mandrake gives me :).

As for helping with SlickBar..... that'd be great! I'll welcome any help on SlickBar! I've been busy lately and haven't done much work on it, but I intend to start up again soon so that I can finish up v1.0 and release it. - Nov 25 2003
You have to be in the src/ directory of karamba in order to apply the patch. - Nov 25 2003
What distribution are you using? - Nov 25 2003
That error is a missing symbol in the libraries. You should compile PyQt and PyKDE using the sources instead of installing from RPM. - Nov 25 2003
Mandrake's QT libraries are the culprit -- they are broken. Install the rpms available here: http://mechanicalcat.net/tech/qt-NKR/ and then compiling PyQt/PyKDE should work. - Nov 19 2003
Ah yes the perrenial question :). Middle-click on the K-button to open the config menu, then click configure slickbar. Instructions used to be in he README but got lost somewhere, and I keep forgetting to mention it somewhere noticeable :). - Nov 09 2003
Is that the complete error? It looks cut off at the end there. - Nov 03 2003
No panels are displayed either? If no panels are displayed, open up the configurator (middle-click on the "K" and then click "configure") and make sure you have some panels added to the bar. If the text is overlapping, try changing the text size for time or date in the configurator. You can also install the captain podd font if you haven't (it will make the time look better). It comes with slickbar.

If you cannot get any panels displayed, and no errors are being output, something very weird is going on. Make sure you check slickbar.log for any output. - Oct 27 2003
No errors at all? Perhaps slickbar is being displayed, but off-screen. Open up ~/.superkaramba/slickbar.rc and make sure that "widgetPosX" and "widgetPosY" are greater than or equal to 0. Even if it is off-screen by 1 pixel, superkaramba doesn't display it (I've had that problem before). - Oct 26 2003
First, the minmizing stuff.... (beacuse thats easier :) ). You have to manually edit slickbar.theme and add TOPBAR=TRUE to the KARAMBA line. This will make slickbar a part of the "reserved" screen real estate so apps dont maximize over it. You can add ONTOP=TRUE as well to make it always-on-top.

As for the crashes.... hmmm. The next time it crashes, send me your slickbar.log before you open slickbar again. It should contain all the output for tracking python errros. Segfaults and such, unfortunately are more likely related to PyKDE or superkaramba (even more likely: using PyKDE on superkaramba) and aren't something I can spend the time looking into just yet.

Hope that helps (at least somewhat). - Oct 24 2003
Before you start looking for other solutions, I would upgrade to SuperKaramba 0.33 (the latest) and try running SlickBar again. That might just magaically fix everything :).

The "import os" error is one which I recall seeing discussed over on the superkaramba discussion boards, and is unrelated to SlickBar itself. I'd check that out first (go to netdragon.sourceforge.net and click on "discuss").

As for your PyKDE problems, I'm not sure. Did you install from source? These problems may be related to the os importing bug above.

Like I said, try the latest superkaramba and see what happens. - Oct 22 2003
I'll take a guess and say you're using Noatun, right? One of the problems at the moment is that the only way I have been able to obtain current information on noatun is through continuously making DCOP calls, which take a good chuck of CPU. This should go down slightly if you turn your music off (or remove the NoatunPanel). I hate to say it, but the only other option I can provide at the moment is to use XMMS and the XMMSPanel. It's calls are much less expensive (for eg I use XMMS and SlickBar hovers around 15% CPU on my Duron 900). If you are already using XMMS, I'm at a loss to explain it :).

Never fear though :) I have been doing little optimizations here and there throughout development, but I will be looking at some more drastic measures soon. Frankly, I am also annoyed at the CPU usage of SlickBar. - Oct 21 2003
You need superkaramba 0.33. The createTaskIcon function that is now used to draw icons has only been available since that version. - Oct 21 2003
Change PYTHONPATH back to what it was. I don't think the problem is a bad pythonpath, its more likely that you have installed the python libs to the wrong spot.

You have to edit setup.cfg in the pyxmms directory (or pykde directory or whatever you are installing) to insure that it is installing to the right place (by changing the "prefix" option). For example, on my system the python libraries are in /usr/lib/python-2.2, so my prefix is /usr. Find out where python is installed and then adjust your prefix accordingly. - Oct 13 2003
You appear to be installing it to the wrong spot. You have to edit setup.cfg in the pyxmms directory to insure that it is installing to the right place (by changing the "prefix" option). For example, on my system the python libraries are in /usr/lib/python-2.2, so my prefix is /usr. Find out where python is installed and then adjust your prefix accordingly. - Oct 11 2003
Hmmm, you should not have to "place" it anywhere, it should be installed in the correct location in PyXMMS's installation procedure. Have you compiled it from source and followed all the install steps? - Oct 06 2003
Indeed, as mentionned by the above poster, you must install PyKDE. All of the panels you have listed are trying to load, but cannot, likely because PyKDE is not installed and/or working. Also, XMMSPanel requires PyXMMS. - Sep 29 2003
You can add

TOPBAR=TRUE

to the "KARAMBA" line in slickbar.theme to make it act as a "panel" (apps will not maximize over top of it). Also, IIRC, ONTOP=TRUE will make it always-on-top.

This works with any superkaramba theme. - Sep 28 2003
Hmm.... Have you changed the font size using the config GUI? If so, it may occasionally be using the default size for some reason -- perhaps it is a bug in superkaramba's handling of .theme text objects (as as opposed to text objects created from python).

If that is the case, I don't think there's much I can do :( - Sep 28 2003
Is it just sometimes or is it all the time? - Sep 25 2003
Thanks...... now, lets wee if I can help you with some of those problems :)

the final second of the track (noatun/xmms bar) is concealed by the prev-track arrow. Presumably a font issue on my system.

Hmmm... yeah, thats sounds like fonts. You should be able to change the font and font size of the track time using the config GUI.

And the taskbar doesn't update with apps

Ah yes.... a known bug :) Actually, I will probably submit a patch to superkaramba that will allow me to fix this without using a lot of CPU (which is why it currently is not fixed)

It would be great if it displayed the sites favicon instead of Konq's default icon though.

Interestingly, I have already submitted a patch that will allow SlickBar (and any taskbar) to get accurate task icons ;). Unfortunately, the latest version of superkaramba hasn't been released yet, so I can't unleash the next SlickBar (which already has these changes) yet :(

Plus (just to sweeten the anticipation :) ) the TaskBar now indicates which task is currently active, and also functions much better (as far as responding to clicks) due to another superkaramba patch I submitted. - Sep 18 2003
Hmmmm.... I'll look into this. Gimme a little bit of time and I'll get back to you :)

It could be a problem in PyXMMS..... but I could just be making that up ;) - Sep 16 2003
It looks like config.py is attempting to be run by something other than python. Try "python ./config.py" instead of just "./config.py"

As well, to be fully useful you should open the config GUI from within slickbar by middle-clicking on the K-button then clicking "Configure SlickBar". If you run the GUI outside of SlickBar, it will save changes but it will not auto-update SlickBar. - Sep 12 2003
Cool! feel free to email it to me.

I am often busy with school, so getting more people working on SlickBar is great!

Thanks! - Sep 12 2003
I can't get gaim or the redhat notification icons to display though.

This might be more of a problem with superkaramba's systray implementation. I'd try posting about this bug on the slickbar discussion board. On the other hand, I could be crazy and it might be my fault.... does the system tray work for you in any other themes? If not, it's likely superkaramba.

By the way, your work on this theme is fantastic. Keep it up! Thanks.

Thanks.... I'm always trying to push the limits of whatever I work on. So what started as a simple theme, has kind of mushroomed into this huge project! It's fun to work on, though, and great to get feedback :) - Sep 11 2003
--force is not the appropriate flag for this problem, try --nodeps. The problem itself is just related to some video drivers, if you don't have them it doesn't matter so installing the packages with --nodeps should be fine.

If it still doesn't work, you may have to recompile PyQt and/or PyKDE. Try running the example files in /usr/share/doc/PyQt-3.7 (for PyQt) and
/usr/share/doc/PyKDE/examples//examples3/ (for PyKDE) to make sure both of them are working properly. - Sep 10 2003
I am pretty sure you can only have 1 running at a time... 2 or more and they will try to "steal" icons from each other. Also, make sure you are running superkaramba 0.32, as the systray requires it to function.

If it still doesn't work, run superkaramba from a terminal and see if it gives any error output. - Sep 10 2003
All I can say is ..... thanks :)

its great to get feedback like this :) - Sep 10 2003
Hmmm.. I chose Tkinter because it is the standard GUI for python -- thus it should either be installed on your machine already, or readily available as a package from your distro.

I didn't use karamba because, quite frankly, its API is extremely limited for full-fledged GUIs. The panel preview would simply not have been possible.

It seemed like a good idea at the time :) - Sep 08 2003
Hmmm.... weird. First thing to do is make sure you have xmms-devel (or the SuSE equivalent) installed, if there is one. If that doesn't help, I don't think there's much I can do to assist you. I'm currently considering switching XMMSPanel to something other thatn PyXMMS, since some people have been having problems with it, but at the moment it seems to be the best (in speed/features) for what I need. - Sep 07 2003
Thanks :)

The font problem might be solvable now -- try playing with the options in the new version's (0.9) config GUI. It looks like you should probably just reduce the font size.

The new version also includes a system tray ;)

As for the ontop thing... I've had a few requests for it. You can do it manually by adding TOPBAR=TRUE to the "KARAMBA" line in slickbar.theme. I'm not sure I like how that's implemented though, so I'm not going to provide an "official" option just yet. - Sep 07 2003
At the moment, this is not possible without modifying the code. However, I designed my task code to be pretty flexible, so I should be able to add that feature pretty quickly, depending on what else I am working on (within the next 2 releases... I'm kinda busy, :) ). - Sep 04 2003
Heh... did you update python before building PyKDE/PyQt? You may have to rebuild them.

Or, you might not have installed python 2.3 with all the necessary modules (the xml module, for eg, is neeeded)...

If you need help post any error messages you get and I'll see what I can do. - Sep 04 2003
Indeed, Mandrake's qt packages are broken, and this is the problem. You can download and install the fixed packages from here: http://mechanicalcat.net/tech/qt-NKR/

Then, PyQt and PyKDE should compile properly (you should probably recompile PyQt after you update your qt libraries) - Sep 03 2003
It doesn't seem like you are missing any packages. Send me the output from when you run it from an xterm or konsole, that will help determine the problem.

Also, read the reply I posted to anderruiz, above, it might help diagnose the problem. - Aug 31 2003
Interesting.... this is a PyQt/PyKDE problem I have not seen before.

First, make sure the PyQt and PyKDE examples work. They are in the source package, or if it is installed they will probably be somewhere like /usr/share/doc/PyQt-3.7/examples3/ and /usr/share/doc/PyKDE/examples/. Just try one of the scripts in those directories, and make sure they run. If they don't, than your PyQt or PyKDE installations are not working properly.

As for the XMMSPanel problem -- that isn't related to PyKDE. Do you have PyXMMS installed? Also: What is the error message XMMSPanel gives when it fails -- that could be useful in determining why it doesn't work. - Aug 31 2003
Thanks. I never noticed the problem, I always have a couple of windows in sticky mode :) - Aug 29 2003
Hmmm.... this is very odd. Presumably, this is caused by a crash in the TaskBar code.... likely it isn't happy that you have no apps open. If so, it should be easy for me to reproduce and fix.

Just to be sure, try removing the taskbar from your configuration (temporarily, of course :) and see if it the bug still happens. - Aug 25 2003
Pressing both the left and right mouse buttons at the same time is usually set to act like the middle mouse button.

Or, you can simply open up the file slickbar-config.xml in the slickbar directory using your favourite text editor :). - Aug 20 2003
Stainless

KDE 3.x Window Decorations 15 comments

by ceebx
Score 50.0%
Feb 07 2004
I like it, it's clean. The only criticism I have is that the buttons look a little squished.... like they were squares but have been scaled down vertically. - Nov 15 2003
SuperKaramba addMenuTaskItem Patch

Karamba & Superkaramba 3 comments

by optikSmoke
Score 50.0%
Oct 19 2003
Hmmm, can't be done unfortunately. This is a source patch, so it requires the superkaramba sources to work. It was also made against superkaramba 0.33, so you need that in order to use it. - Oct 24 2003
Look and Live

Wallpaper Other 19 comments

by timbrown527
Score 50.0%
Sep 28 2003
Personally, I'm agnostic. But, I don't really mind people posting wallpapers like this one -- It seems like there is a group of people on this site who want something like that on their desktop, and really it doesn't bother me. Frankly, people who complain about Christians trying to force their beliefs on others (which I admittedly do, when I meet Christians who actually do that) and then turn around and yell that this stuff shouldn't be on this site are being hypocritical.

I find the wallpaper itself to be pretty nice looking, minus the message (which I don't believe in) and the blue border (which doesn't really fit in :) ). So, in the spirit of community, I'm going to give it a "good" vote.

And frankly, I think a lot of people here need to grow up. - Sep 28 2003
Super SuperKaramba

Karamba & Superkaramba 17 comments

by Chromakode
Score 50.0%
Sep 18 2003
I have thought about doing something similar to this myself, mainly to reduce some of the complexity of SlickBar's code. It will be interesting to see how this turns out... :) - Sep 04 2003
Plastik

KDE 3.0-3.4 Themes 233 comments

by ceebx
Score 50.0%
Oct 17 2003
First of all, I have to say I love this style. I used Galaxy for a long time, then Alloy for quite awhile, and now this -- and quite frankly, its the cleanest and most unified of all them.

That said, there is one small thing I miss from Galaxy and Alloy -- their splitter bars. Alloy's especially -- it appears to "blend in" with the surrounding area, and be a part of it, instead of having that ugly squarish look about it at the ends (a la Keramik).

Anyway, thanks for the great theme and windeco! - Aug 30 2003
0kmeleon

Various KDE 1.-4. Styles 5 comments

by somekool
Score 50.0%
Aug 18 2003
Indeed, kasbar is a great taskbar.......... much more useful than kicker's builtin one, IMHO. - Aug 18 2003