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I've been running KDE v3.1-13, which came with my Red Hat 9.0 installation, for over a year, and now I'd like to upgrade to v3.3.1. I used Konstruct to build it and took their advice, installing it in ~/kde3.3.1.

It seems to start up okay, but now I'd like to test it out a bit before migrating completely. Rather than going to the trouble of recreating all the settings from my v3.1 installation, I'm hoping just to copy files from the v3.1 directory tree into the v3.3.1 tree, so that I can do a real comparison and test out the things I do most often.

Is it safe just to copy files in the kde/share directories, or is there a risk that I'll overwrite a v3.3.1 file with one from v3.1 that is not upwards compatible with v3.3.1?

Are there any files in particular I should be sure to get or to stay away from?

thanks,
Bruce E.

Thanks, mart_k. Since I followed the Konstruct instructions under my normal user id, I now have two .kde directories in my home directory: my default directory for v3.1 and a new test directory for v3.3. The intent was to leave my v3.1 installation unchanged until I've verified that v3.3 is working correctly.

My question had to do with whether I can safely copy configuration files from my default ~/.kde directory to the new ~./kde3.3.1 directory. It sounds as if this will be okay, from your response. I'm less concerned with the applications settings than I am with the KDE Desktop settings, in particular the panel and menu settings, since I've customized both with items that point to new applications.

On a separate note, I now wish I had thought of running Konstruct as new test user. This is the suggested procedure in the step-by-step procedure at http://quality.kde.org/develop/cvsguide/buildstep.php, which I did not see until after I'd run Konstruct. I recommend this for anyone else who is considering using Konstruct to build KDE.

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Original von mart_k

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Original von belliott4488

It seems to start up okay, but now I'd like to test it out a bit before migrating completely. Rather than going to the trouble of recreating all the settings from my v3.1 installation, I'm hoping just to copy files from the v3.1 directory tree into the v3.3.1 tree, so that I can do a real comparison and test out the things I do most often.

Settings are not stored in the kde-directory, but in a .kde-directory in the users home-directory. If you upgrade to a new kde-installation, the updates are converted to a new version. The means particulary that someone who have runned kde 3.3 once could have difficulties in starting kde 3.1 again.

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Original von belliott4488

Is it safe just to copy files in the kde/share directories, or is there a risk that I'll overwrite a v3.3.1 file with one from v3.1 that is not upwards compatible with v3.3.1?

KDE 3.3 should be binary compatible with KDE 3.1 AFAIK. Thus programs that worked under KDE 3.1 should work in KDE 3.3.

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Original von belliott4488

Are there any files in particular I should be sure to get or to stay away from?

thanks,
Bruce E.

I suggest to make a test user. You can copy the settings of a existing user to this user. That way, you can cerefully check if everything does what it have to do.

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Okay, things have gone partially successfully. I start up KDEv3.3 and now come up with my standard wallpapers, sounds, and so forth. But ...

I have only some panel items: only two of the seven application icons that I keep there, no taskbar, and most importantly, no KDE Application Starter menu.

When I copied files from my ~/.kde menu (for v.3.1) to the new ~/.kdetest menu (for v3.3), I added the .kde/share/aplnk-redhat/ directory, since it had not existed at all in the new share/ directory - there had only been an empty share/applnk/ directory. I had seen that the old share/applnk-redhat/ directory was where my Application Starter menu items were listed, and figured I needed that.

What do I need to do to get my panel items?

thanks again,
Bruce E.

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Original von mart_k

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Original von belliott4488

What do I need to do to get my panel items?

The panel items are stored in ~/.kde/share/apps/kicker/. I don't know exactly how removed items are stored.

[edit]I think that applets that are not removed are stored in ~/.kde/share/config/kickerrc, because there is a list there with kicker-buttons.[/edit]

I've copied both the ~/.kde/share/apps/kicker/ directory and the ~/.kde/share/config/kickerrc file to the new location, so that seems okay. The only items in the kicker/ directory, though, are three of the seven items that appear on the panel when I run v3.1. Since these are customized items, i.e. they don't appear when other users run KDE, I'd expect them to appear somewhere in my home directory tree.

Is there another place for these items to be identified?

In case it helps, items that do appear include a Noatun button and a terminal button. Ones that don't appear include the KDE Start Applications button and a Mozilla button. All except the KDE menu are ones that I added myself at one point or another.

thanks for any help on this, - Bruce