Can't reproduce on SVN r624k. I open konq in my home dir, set detailed view, open a pdf, hit Alt+Up, and konq is still in detailed view. Do you have a ".directory" file in the directory containing the PDF? 

>------- Additional Comment #1 From Philip Rodrigues 2007-01-28 17:59 -------  
>Can't reproduce on SVN r624k. I open konq in my home dir, set detailed view, >open a pdf, hit Alt+Up, and konq is still in detailed view. 
Exactly what I do.
>Do you have a ".directory" file in the directory containing the PDF? 
No one .directory file there, I also tried in different dirctories;
I also tried instead of Detailed View, Text View and Information View (well that's in Italian).  And with both after entering PDF file and doing Alt+Up the folder is displayed with Icon view.
So I am wondering whether it depends on any setting in ~/.kde/share/bar
Maybe I could grep some variable setting in there if someone'd tell me the name.

Sorry I cannot possibly try SVN code compiled on this machine. 
By the way it is running the Ubuntu Edgy package for kde*.

Try changing the default view type by setting a different view type, and then Settings->Save View Profile. How does that affect the behaviour?

I tried I tried, different profile and view type, same behaviour.
Oh well I did not say this before but, not only occurs when doing ALT+UP, but also if, I change dir by clicking in the navigational panel (either home or root tab if you know what I mean), or by entering address manually in the address bar. Kind of odd KPDF interference indeed. Not indeed KPDF's only since there is an identical behaviour for viewing an image with the integrated viewer. (I have to add I cannot try with other types of files since archive integrated and text integrated are uhm disabled, I believe - but it seems that on this platform this occurs with all file displayed directly in Konq.: now I more and more wonder whether could be a mis-setting more that a bug, either mine or kUbuntu's package maintainers)

Also happens with other types of files that get viewed integrated in konqueror such as most images. Using 'Back' button shows no problem, 'Up' button on the other hand switches view mode from "detailed list view" to "icon view". View mode also gets changed when moving away from an opened file by clicking a directory in the tree view.

Reported on Ubuntu as https://launchpad.net/bugs/69168 against 3.5.5 and 3.5.6

I eventually found how this bug really acts,

When going a directory up from an integrated view of a file (archive pdf text whatever), alt+UP ARROW, the view does not get back set to its previous setting nor to tab's profile default.

Instead, it gets set to : konqueror settings-->file associations-->type inode/directory-->integration tab-->preference order services-->the first entry here

do you have "Settings -> Save View Changes per Folder" enabled?

What you describe is normal behavior when this setting is disabled.
It reverts to the global default view for directories, as nothing else is saved anywhere.

If you use Kubuntu you might not have the settings menu-entry, if you want it back you can do this:

 Open ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/konqueror.rc
 
 Browse to somewhere around line 65.
 
 You should find a section like this:
 
   <Menu noMerge="1" name="settings" >
    <text>&amp;Settings</text>
    <Action name="options_show_menubar" />
    <Merge name="StandardToolBarMenuHandler" />
    <Separator/>
    <Action name="loadviewprofile" />
    <Action name="saveviewprofile" />
    <Action name="saveremoveviewprofile" />
    <Separator/>
    <Action name="options_configure_extensions" />
    <Action name="options_configure_keybinding" />
    <Action name="options_configure_toolbars" />
    <Action name="options_configure" />
   </Menu>
 
 
 That defines the contents of the Settings menu in konqueror.
 We want to add two items, make the section look like this:
 
  <Menu noMerge="1" name="settings" >
    <text>&amp;Settings</text>
    <Action name="options_show_menubar" />
    <Merge name="StandardToolBarMenuHandler" />
    <Separator/>
   <Action name="saveViewPropertiesLocally"/>
   <Action name="removeLocalProperties"/>
   <Separator/>
    <Action name="loadviewprofile" />
    <Action name="saveviewprofile" />
    <Action name="saveremoveviewprofile" />
    <Separator/>
    <Action name="options_configure_extensions" />
    <Action name="options_configure_keybinding" />
    <Action name="options_configure_toolbars" />
    <Action name="options_configure" />
   </Menu>
 
 Now save the file, and restart your konquerors. 
 The settings menu should have two new options.

Another issue to reproduce:

-make a directory ~/test1
-make a directory ~/test1/test2
-go into that directory (test2) with konqueror
-start konsole and do a "rm -rf ~/test1"
-click "up" in konqueror, so you would be in "test1" - it fails because that dir doesn't exist any more
-ok, click on any other directory:

konqueror is back again in the "default view" of
konqueror settings-->file associations-->type inode/directory-->integration tab-->preference order services-->the first entry here

So a bug fix would be that saving konqueror profiles changes this default list?

I am unable to reproduce the problem with either KDE 3.5.7 or SVN trunk (r803711). Could the reporter confirm he can still reproduce the problem?

I'm not the reporter, but I confirm I can reproduce the bug on KDE 3.5.9 on Kubuntu Hardy. Please also see https://launchpad.net/bugs/69168 as mentioned above.

i cant reproduce this bug on kubuntu8.04, 4.0.3 this time. so i will close it. if it happens again in kde4 feel free to reopen it.