[Trisquel-devel] Packages for Trisquel KDE

[Rubén Rodríguez]

> I started the effort to create the KDE variant of Trisquel some months
> ago. Since then I've been working hard, learning new things and
> experimenting.

Nice! Thank you very much for joining in. I'll write some comments for
every package:

> * trisquel-meta

Nothing to say here, I'll have to modify the trisquel-meta structure a
bit, since trisquel-desktop-common would no longer make sense. I'll not
comment the package selection until we make an iso to take a look.

> * trisquel-kdm-theme

Whenever you use a file already provided by another package (specially
if it is a big one), use a link to it and add the package containing it
to your package's dependencies:

/usr/share/kde4/apps/kdm/themes/triskel/background.png >>
/usr/share/backgrounds/taranis.jpg

That would save 1.9MB on the live cd.

> * trisquel-ksplash-theme

ditto

> * trisquel-kde-configuration

Well, although it might look like the package works, most of it needs
to be redone. :( Don't worry, many of the files are ok, it is only the
way you place them in the system what needs to be improved.

You can't replace files provided by other packages. Dpkg would not allow
you to install a package containing a file already installed, so you
overcame the problem by copying files during postinstall. That is a bad
hack for many reasons, the main one being that an update on kde packages
would overwrite your files. Also, they would not be properly removed on
uninstall, as dpkg database would not know about them. Only in extreme
cases (to avoid recompiling a huge package, as we do with one OOo file)
you can override files in a better way with dpkg-divert, but you should
avoid that method as long as possible. Using /etc/alternatives is also
possible, but only when there is a very good reason to do so.

Oh, and you should *never* replace files inside user homes! 
So, never cp /usr/lib/triskel/adjustments/kde/.bashrc /root/.bashrc
That file is placed there by base-files. In any case, why should root
(which account is disabled and is also not allowed to login into a
desktop session) need to modify his bashrc to use kde?

Uh! do not answer that, I've just found where did you get those ideas
from. Some of the files have references to linux mint, so I've read
the mint-configuration-kde package, and I understand you based your work
on it. I'm amazed to see how do they "modify" Ubuntu, what an ugly pile
of hacks! o0' They overwrite lots of files provided by other packages
and use dpkg-divert extensively. No, no, *no*.

Well, don't worry, it should be easy to fix, since there are several
proper ways to do this things. Kubuntu provides a x-session-manager
startup script (correctly placed at /etc/alternatives) that sets the
needed paths at $KDEDIRS and such. It also provides /etc/kde4rc and
other methods to do things cleanly. You should take a look at the
kubuntu-default-settings package to see how things should be done.

Don't give up, you are doing a nice job, you just took a bad example to
start with. Don't hesitate to ask any doubts, I'm also reachable as
quidam in #trisquel at freenode (and jabberes.org).