# The &superkaramba; Handbook

Hans
Karlsson
karlsson.h@home.se
2005
Hans Karlsson
2005-08-04
0.3.5
&FDLNotice;

&superkaramba; is a tool that allows you to easily create interactive widgets on your &kde; desktop.

KDE
desktop
karamba

## Questions, Answers, and Tips

### Frequently asked questions

### Installation

Where can I find &superkaramba; RPM's?

The SuperKaramba web site (http://netdragon.sourceforge.net) has a list of user-submitted RPMs for several distributions. Other user-subm itted RPMs have been posted to kde-look.org and to the SuperKaramba Help forum.

When I try to compile, I get this error:

    Python.h: No such file or directory

You will need to install the `python-devel` package. Once that package is installed you should run `./configure` and `make` again.

When I try to compile, I get this error:

    cannot find -lselinux

You will need to install the `libselinux-devel` package. Once that package is installed you should run `./configure` and `make` again.

After running `./configure`, `make` and `make install`, the &superkaramba; executable is not where I expected it to be. When I try to run `superkaramba` from the command line it says `command not found`.

In some distributions ./configure has a default prefix path that differs to what you might expect. For example, in Mandrake the default prefix is `/usr/local/kde` and the executable is installed in `/usr/local/kde/bin`.

There are a few things you can do to fix this.

You could run `./configure `--prefix=/usr`` to specify the prefix that you prefer and then try `make` and `make install` again. Or you could create a symbolic link in your preferred directory that links to the executable. Or you could add the install directory to your $`PATH`.

### General

How do I get rid of the &kde; panel? Do I have to keep &kicker; running?

Many themes depend on &kicker; and will not work well without it. If you don't want &kicker; to show on your desktop, you can set it to auto-hide. Another solution is to change the auto-hide setting in a `~/.kde` file. For more information see the wiki page about secret configuration settings.

Can I run a system tray theme while the &kicker; system tray is running?

It's better not to. If you run a theme with a SysTray on it while a regular kicker systray is running, the theme will steal all the icons from the first systray. This is because in &kde; and Gnome, the systray icons are really little windows and there is only one copy of each running. If you want to run a system tray theme, you can remove the system tray from &kicker;.

How do I set up my themes to run automatically on startup?

Turn on &kde; session support in the &kcontrolcenter;. When session support is enabled, any theme that is left running when you logout will automatically start on startup. For some themes you will also need to &RMB; click and reload the theme at least once after running it so that the config file will get written to your home directory.

Another solution is to create a desktop config file in the &kde; autostart directory.

To create a desktop config file, open an editor and enter the following:

    [Desktop Entry]
    Exec=superkaramba {location of theme file}.theme
    Name={theme name}
    Type=Application
    X-KDE-StartupNotify=false

Then save it as `themename.desktop` into the autostart directory at `$`KDEHOME`/Autostart/`.

Why is the Edit Script option disabled when I &RMB; click on a theme?

Some &superkaramba; themes don't include a Python script. This is normal and those themes will still work fine without one. However, if the theme does use a Python script, &superkaramba; may have not been able to load the script. This is usually due to Python errors. Run the theme from the command line to find out the specific error message.

Why is the Configure Theme menu disabled when I &RMB; click on a theme?

The Configure Theme menu is only enabled if the theme has added options to it. Some themes do not have any configuration options or use a different configuration method.

### Troubleshooting

My themes start up in different locations each time I start &kde;.

Close all &superkaramba; themes and then delete any session files in `$`KDEHOME`/share/config/session/` that begin with &superkaramba;. Restart &kde; and start your themes again. Now they will stay in the right place.

The backgrounds of my themes are black instead of transparent.

In &kde;, transparency only works when the desktop background is a wallpaper image that is centered or scaled. If the background is a plain color or a tiled image then &superkaramba; themes will not be transparent. In Gnome, there is a known issue that themes will have a black background even when a wallpaper is set. Unfortunately there is no current solution. Your theme should work fine otherwise.

## Credits and Licenses

&superkaramba; is written by Adam Geitgey adam@rootnode.org and Hans Karlsson karlsson.h@home.se

&underFDL; &underGPL;