Version: (using KDE 4.4.2) OS: Linux Installed from: Ubuntu Packages When starting Kate e.g. with KRunner, via KickOff or with the terminal, it starts without a terminal (and the whole bar below, with also "Find in Files"),I think there is no way to add it. The terminal only appears when Kate is opened by giving as argument the file it has to open. I don't know if this is a feature or a bug, but at least it is a bug that when KDE starts and restores the previous session (Kate included), it should show the terminal, if in the previous session it was there.
Settings > plugins: activate the missing plugins. If you leave a kate session open on shutdown, the session management does not "remember" the activated plugins --> close kate sessions before shutdown.
Actually both terminal and find-in-files are enabled by default. @etienne: How do your settings wrt. session save and load look like?
The "Behaviour on Application Startup" was Load last-used session. Now the problem seems to be fixed: I saved a session, and now every works again. I don't know why, it's quite a long time that I had this problem (but never saved the session). Thanks for the quick reply.