Bug 251771

Summary: Cannot set multiple desktop columns: pager widget required to modify kwin settings
Product: [Plasma] plasma4 Reporter: Mats Ahlgren <ahlgren>
Component: widget-pagerAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs>
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE    
Severity: normal CC: laidig
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: openSUSE   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:

Description Mats Ahlgren 2010-09-20 00:55:07 UTC
Version:           unspecified (using KDE 4.4.4) 
OS:                Linux

This is a major usability issue with regards to multiple desktops.

When using the Desktop Wall, one can configure it to have a custom number of rows. This is not synced with the true geometry of the virtual desktops. There is no preference in Personal Settings to change the number of desktop columns. Such a preference should exist in PersonalSettings>Desktop>MultipleDesktops and should be synced with the DesktopWall plugin.

The workaround is impossible to figure out for normal users. It is this:
- right-click on kicker
- add a widget
- go through the list of widgets until you find one named "Pager"
- add this widget to kicker or the desktop
- right-click on it and modify the settings

One had to show and modify a completely unrelated UI element in an entirely different part of the operating system, that users may not even know exists, in order to change a setting which should have appeared in PersonalSettings>Desktop>MultipleDesktops.

The fact that this appears to be a kwin bug further confounds the issue. It is actually a kde desktop settings usability bug where the only solution is completely unrelated to what the user would expect.

----------------------------

further clarification, from irc chatlog:

> hello, it seems that despite setting PersonalSettings>DesktopEffects>AllEffects(tab)>DesktopGrid>(config icon)>LayoutMode="Custom" and NumberOfRows=3, the geometry of my desktops is not a grid
> for example when I switch desktops, the desktop pager shows a grid which looks like row1=[1,2,3,4,5] row2=[6,7,8,9,BLANK(invalid desktop)]
> is this a bug?
> interesting, I think it may be; the only way I've found to fix this is to find the "pager" widget and manually add it to kicker, then edit the plasma widget settings; this will tell kwin what the correct virtual desktop layout is -- going to report usability issue that pager settings should be part of Personal Settings (thank you though for the amazing work)

Reproducible: Always




OS: Linux (x86_64) release 2.6.34-12-desktop
Compiler: gcc
Comment 1 Mats Ahlgren 2010-09-20 00:58:49 UTC
refiling under component=systemsettings

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 251772 ***