warriorness

I'm using Beryl, actually. Come to think of it, I've never noticed the small window when using Kwin. Any chance of getting a fix for Beryl users? - Feb 22 2007

Works fine (gentoo, I just emerged kgtk and did the symlink thing), but sometimes freezes/hangs for a while before opening up. There should be an image preview section in it, like with native KDE apps.

Also, what's with the tiny window that pops up behind the file open dialog?

- Dec 30 2006

Thank you for alerting me to this; I was not aware that the Oxygen icons were not to be GPL'd until after release. I have removed every Oxygen icon from this icon set, and double checked to ensure that all my other icons are GPL'd.

- Feb 10 2007

All you need to do is download the .tar.gz, de-compress it (with Ark or similar utility), and follow the instructions in the README text file. "kcontrol" refers to the KDE Control Center - typically accessible via K Menu > Settings > Control Center (or K Menu > Settings > Appearance and Themes > Icons) - Feb 10 2007

I see the patch is only for the monolithic kdebase package. Any chance of getting a patch for the modular packages (i.e. one for each konqueror, kicker, whatever)? - Feb 10 2007

Done, see the second download link.

What'd you do with the shadow? (As it is now, it produces an annoying shadow effect on KoolDock that defeats the purpose of its transparency) - Jan 09 2007

I tried both; ksmoothdock just didn't click with me. I love this one; only problem is (like all the other docks besides kicker itself) it can't handle kicker applets, and I'm rather a fan of my clock and KSysGuard CPU and RAM monitors.

As for transparency, the implementation is the best I've seen yet. Granted, it is pseudo-transparency (I don't think we'll see real transparency until 100% of KDE users use XGL/Beryl), but instead of simply grabbing the wallpaper as a background, KoolDock looks at the windows too. The effect is the closest to real transparency I've ever seen. See the screenshot at the bottom of my post.

Now, there are a few things that are lacking that make me hesitant to use this (instead of Kicker, which I'm currently using). My main issue is with the lack of kicker applet support (although systray is being worked on). There are a few other suggestions/issues:

1) Sometimes when un-hiding, the animation is very slow. I don't know if that's my CPU's fault or the program's fault (I think it has to do with trying to un-hide both KoolDock and Kicker at the same time).
2) Lack of customizability. While the preferences editor was very easy to use, it lacked a few features. Dock placement is not an option (although I don't mind having it on the bottom), and animation speed was not adjustable.
3) I would like to see an additional Taskbar option: "Only show minimized windows" (much like OSX's dock). Having used OSX before I moved to Linux, I'm used to not having a taskbar (takes up too much space), but I would like to be able to manage my minimized windows without having to use Alt+Tab.
4) Finally, Beryl applies a shadow to this window! I know it's Beryl's fault, but there seems to be no way to adjust it, and it makes it very ugly. See the screenshot.

Here's a screenshot: http://zenixstudios.com/files/wn/kooldock.png - Dec 31 2006

Never mind that last comment, I got it all worked out. Here's how you do it, fellow Gentoo users:

1) Don't be using the monolithic kdebase (kdebase-meta is fine) - as long as you can 'emerge -p konsole" without any blocks, you're good to go.

2) Install layman.

3) Add the 'xeffects-experimental' overlay.
# layman -a xeffects-experimental

4) Emerge konsole with USE="transparency".
# echo "kde-base/konsole transparency" >> /etc/portage/package.use
# emerge -av konsole

Alternatively, you could create your own overlay and patch the ebuild:

1) Make the overlay, and put the patch in the files/ directory.
# mkdir /usr/local/portage
# mkdir /usr/local/portage/kde-base
# cp -r /usr/portage/kde-base/konsole /usr/local/portage/kde-base
# cp /path/to/file/konsole-3.5.5-trans.patch /usr/local/portage/kde-base/konsole/files

2) Open the 3.5.5 ebuild with your editor of choice, and add to the end:
src_unpack()
{
kde-meta_src_unpack
cd "${S}"
epatch "${FILESDIR}/konsole-3.5.5-trans.patch"
}

3) Re-emerge konsole.
# emerge -av konsole - Nov 29 2006

I love this feature, but I run Gentoo, and the instructions seem to be intended for Apt users. What changes to the commands would I have to make to get it to work in Gentoo? Or, would it be possible to make an ebuild?

And another thing: where are these changes applied? It seems to me from the instructions that these changes are applied in /var/kde/whatever... Could I do it instead in /home/warriorness/.kde/whatever ? It seems to me that the changes would be overwritten with the next KDE update, and I'd like to keep them in ~/ anyway for consistency. - Nov 29 2006