Where are the toys?

[rn5a]

I am working on Mandriva. I downloaded a few toys which the software media manager installed but after installing, I donīt find them in KMenu (the menu which is the counterpart of the Windows Start menu).

I searched for them & found them & even added them to the KMenu using the KDE Menu Editor but they refuse to run (I added the files which have the gear icon). How do I run those toys?

Also the description of some of the toys says that they are meant for X Window System. What is this X Window System? When I navigate to Mandriva Control Centre-->System-->Choose the display manager that enables to select which user to log in, I find 2 options - KDM (KDE Display Manager) & XDM (X Display Manager). Does XDM mean the X Window System or are both KDM & XDM parts of the X Window System?

Thanks,

Ron

[oz]

The X Window System is what gives you the GUI part of your system. Without it, you'd have to do everything by command line.

KDM is KDE's display manager and XDM is the X display manager. KDM is the nicer of the two and preferred by most KDE users. If you want lightweight components, XDM might be better. If you should ever run Gnome, you might use GDM, the gnome display manager. I don't run a display manager at all, and start X from the command line using startx.

[rn5a]

Thanks, Ozar, not only for the prompt response but also for describing the differences between KDE & XDE.

Could you please answer my first question i.e. how do I run the toys that I installed?

Thanks once again,

Regards,

Ron

[oz]

I don't usually install KDE Toys, but the last time I did so, they showed up in Kmenu automatically. If they didn't show up there for you, something must have gone wrong during the installation. Did you try installing them again? Probably won't help, but it might.

Maybe someone that runs Toys and knows more about them can provide additional information.

[kevkim55]

AFAIK toys normally are in the form of applets. Right click on KMenu or on a blank space anywhere on the kicker bar and select 'Add Applet To Panel'. Scroll thru' the list of applets, double click (or select and click 'Add To Panel') the toy applet you want to launch...

[rn5a]

No, Ozar, uninstalling & re-installing the toys did not add them to KMenu which you had already opined. BTW, do you remember in which folder in KMenu (like Multimedia, Office, System, Internet, More Applications etc.) did those toys get added?

Kevkim, I tried your suggestion as well but none of the installed toys were listed in the list of applets.

Any other ideas, friends?

Thanks to both of you,

Regards,

Ron

[oz]

If I remember correctly, they were in a category of their own, and were called Toys, or KDE Toys. It's been too long, so I'm not sure.

Referring to what Kevkim said, I do remember that the KDE weather applet is in KDE Toys and indeed you do get to it by right-clicking the panel and choosing "add applet", then choose the weather applet. I don't recall if it applied to all toys.

[kevkim55]

What toys did you install ? Post the link to the download site here.

There could be a README file or documentation somewhere. Try KHelpcenter and search for the toys documentation.

[rn5a]

I unearthed the reason why they were not running. Right-click on the desktop & then navigate to Configure Desktop-->Behavior & the Allow programs in desktop window checkbox was unchecked. When I checked it, the toys ran! But they eat up quite a lot of RAM!

Anyway, thanks once again for helping me out,

Regards,

Ron

[oz]

Not sure, but I think that's a different set of apps from what I was thinking of.

I was referring to KDE Toys, which is an official part of the KDE release.

Glad you got it figured out, though.