Version: (using KDE 4.1.1) OS: Linux Installed from: Fedora RPMs This isn't really resolved. This has been a problem for me ever since Fedora Core 1 (and I've used FC1, FC5, FC6, FS9). Whenever my system has an abnormal termination, desktop settings are lost. In particular (and most annoyingly), all of the workspace names revert to their pre-login values. It becomes a nearly futile effort to make changes to workspace names, because I almost never log off from my system. I simply lock it. The settings should be flushed to the configuration files more than once every logout. Preferably, at least once every 15 minutes (if there are any changes). The way to avoid corrupted configuration data, is to write to a temporary file. Then when satisfied that it has been written correctly, rename (mv) it to the configuration file (for all practical purposes, an atomic operation). By the way, my current KDE version is 4.1.1.
Also, it is easy to confirm this bug. Make an obvious change to any number of your workspace names. Then, pull the plug on your machine (no shutdown). You may wish to wait a reasonable amount of time for the cache to be written out to disk, though.
This is essentially the same as bugs: 83778 and 82840 But, those were closed with no apparent verification that the issue was truly resolved. It was never resolved for me. I simply lived with it "forever".
Maybe try to avoid unclean shutdown, it's called unclean for a reason... ;)
(In reply to comment #3) > Maybe try to avoid unclean shutdown, it's called unclean for a reason... ;) Unclean shutdowns happen due to buggy software, changed APIs (especially X Window System), power glitches (I don't yet have a UPS on this system), memory leaks, etc. With any of the above issues and not logging out occasionally, an unclean shutdown is virtually guaranteed. And, logging out occasionally is not practical for me. It is partly for this reason that I decided to instead use Gnome for the past few months. Gnome doesn't lose the workspace configuration. And that is very important for me. But for nearly a month now, I've gone back to KDE. But, between the incessantly lost configurations and the non-hiding panels (I hear this is fixed in 4.1.2), it is driving me nuts. I'm going to have to move back to Gnome on this machine until I hear that the configuration stability problem is actually resolved. I mentioned "pulling the plug" as a way to recreate the issue. It was not a description of my shutdown procedure.
>> Maybe try to avoid unclean shutdown, it's called unclean for a reason... ;) >Unclean shutdowns happen due to buggy software, changed APIs (especially X Window System), power glitches (I don't yet have a UPS on this system), memory leaks, etc. Sorry, I see now it was a bad joke... :) I understand your problem. It should remember settings even on unclean shutdown. You may consider an upgrade to KDE 4.1.2, it's out there for a while now, and it contain monthly bugfixes and updates, so may be this issue is sorted out already (I hope so). On ma laptop I've had never experienced power failure (thanks to battery of course). I use KDE4 on daily basis since 4.1.0 and don't remember ever any case when things went so badly to cause an shutdown or kernel crash. And my uptime is like 4-7 days usually. But when plasma crashes, all new setting are gone.
I have 4.1.1 now in Fedora Sulphur 9. I expect that 4.1.2 will come down the pike anytime now. I'll give it another shot then (with an unclean shutdown) to see what happens. Prior to the death of my UPS, I typically would have about 25 or more (sometimes much more) days of uptime. And the real problem with that, is that I may change a workspace name a few days after a restart. But, then on that 25th day (or so), I'd have some sort of unclean shutdown. And I cannot remember what the workspace names were supposed to be. I organize my work around the workspace names. So, I will really appreciate seeing some real stability there. I really like KDE, but I need more stability right now. Thank you for responding, though.
(In reply to comment #6) > I have 4.1.1 now in Fedora Sulphur 9. I expect that 4.1.2 will come down the > pike anytime now. I'll give it another shot then (with an unclean shutdown) to > see what happens. > > Prior to the death of my UPS, I typically would have about 25 or more > (sometimes much more) days of uptime. And the real problem with that, is that > I may change a workspace name a few days after a restart. But, then on that > 25th day (or so), I'd have some sort of unclean shutdown. And I cannot > remember what the workspace names were supposed to be. I organize my work > around the workspace names. > > So, I will really appreciate seeing some real stability there. > > I really like KDE, but I need more stability right now. > > Thank you for responding, though. Well, I've just tried 4.1.2. It is just as bad there. I did a "Ctrl-Backspace" after changing a workspace name to verify that the problem is still there. When I logged back in, the workspace name was gone. In response to my earlier comment, I've just read that panel hiding is available in OpenSUSE with KDE 4.1.2. But, it won't be in Fedora until 4.2.0. And, 4.2.0 may not appear at all in Fedora Sulphur 9. But, it is expected to appear in Fedora 10.
fwiw, Fedora's builds too will include a backported autohide (for better or worse)
I know you have your own custom workspace-workflow, but maybe try ease the pain (with this bug) by using kwin features like Kopose (go to upper-left corner of screen or ctrl+f10) :) I use it whenever I dont remember where's what ;) I hope it helps a bit.
Desktop workspace names are a kwin thing; Plasma does flush out its config file pretty aggressively these days.
SVN commit 896722 by lmurray: When the desktop names change save them immediately to disk. BUG: 172869 M +3 -0 workspace.cpp WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=896722
Thank you. It works great now! I'm now up to 4.2.00 (KDE 4.2.0), which appeared in a Fedora 9 patch. It took a while for the patch to appear for me. But, it was well worth the wait. I tried Kompose, but it really bogs down when I'm running 20 workspaces. Again, thanks for the save patch, Lucas.
*** Bug 145121 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***