runtime/doc/faq/tips.docbook

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   3 <!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//KDE//DTD DocBook XML V4.2-Based Variant V1.1//EN"
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   6
   7 <chapter id="tips">
   8 <title>Useful tips</title>
   9
  10 <qandaset>
  11 <qandaentry>
  12 <question>
  13 <para>Reading documentation in &kde;</para>
  14 </question>
  15 <answer>
  16 <para>Pop up the <guilabel>Run Command</guilabel> window (<keycombo
  17 action="simul">&Alt;<keycap>F2</keycap></keycombo> by
  18 default) and type:
  19 <itemizedlist>
  20 <listitem>
  21 <para><command>man:<replaceable>command</replaceable></command> for man pages.  It
  22 even unpacks on the fly if the man pages are gzipped.</para>
  23 </listitem>
  24
  25 <listitem>
  26 <para><command>info:<replaceable>command</replaceable></command> for info
  27 pages.</para>
  28 </listitem>
  29
  30 <listitem>
  31 <para><command>help:<replaceable>kdeappname</replaceable></command> for &kde;
  32 application help pages.</para>
  33 </listitem>
  34
  35 </itemizedlist>
  36 </para>
  37
  38 <para>You can also enter any of these in the <guilabel>Location</guilabel> text
  39 box in &konqueror;.</para>
  40 <para>Or you can use the <application>&kde; Help Center</application> if you are using &kde;
  41 2.  Simply start the <application>&kde; Help Center</application> by clicking on the icon (the blue
  42 book with the yellow key) on the toolbar.  Once the <application>&kde; Help Center</application> has
  43 loaded, the window on the left will contain an entry called
  44 <guilabel>Unix manual pages</guilabel>.  Click once on this entry, and
  45 you can browse through all the installed manual pages on your
  46 system.</para>
  47 </answer>
  48 </qandaentry>
  49
  50 <qandaentry>
  51 <question>
  52 <para>Move or resize windows quickly</para>
  53 </question>
  54 <answer>
  55 <para>To move a window, use <keycombo
  56 action="simul">&Alt;<mousebutton>left</mousebutton></keycombo> mouse
  57 button.  <keycombo
  58 action="simul">&Alt;<mousebutton>right</mousebutton></keycombo> mouse
  59 button will resize the window.  Last but not least, <keycombo
  60 action="simul">&Alt;<mousebutton>middle</mousebutton></keycombo> mouse button
  61 raises/lowers the window. The <application>&kde; Control Center</application>
  62 allows you to change these mouse bindings.</para>
  63 </answer>
  64 </qandaentry>
  65
  66 <qandaentry>
  67 <question>
  68 <para>Killing windows in &kde;</para>
  69 </question>
  70 <answer>
  71 <para>There is a standard keybinding (<keycombo
  72 action="simul">&Ctrl;&Alt;&Esc;</keycombo>)
  73 that gives you a skull &amp; crossbones cursor.  Click that cursor on a
  74 window to kill it.  The keybindings are viewable/changeable from the
  75 <application>&kde; Control Center</application>.
  76
  77 <caution><para>Using this option kills the program forcibly. Data may be lost,
  78 and some processes related to the program may remain active. Use only as a
  79 last resort.</para></caution>
  80 <!-- fixme: use only if necessary; processes might remain --></para>
  81 </answer>
  82 </qandaentry>
  83
  84 <qandaentry>
  85 <question>
  86 <para>What if something is so wrong that I can't even get the skull
  87 &amp; crossbones cursor? How do I get out of a total lockup?</para>
  88 </question>
  89 <answer>
  90 <para>These kind of locks tend to occur when an application locks up
  91 while it has a so called <quote>mouse/keyboard grab</quote>. When that
  92 happens you can try to select a virtual text console with <keycombo
  93 action="simul">&Ctrl;&Alt;<keycap>F1</keycap></keycombo> and login. With the
  94 following command you will get a list of all running processes:</para>
  95
  96 <screen><userinput>        <command>ps</command> <option>-aux</option> | <command>more</command></userinput></screen>
  97
  98 <para>By killing the process that has the mousegrab, your desktop will
  99 come to life again. Unfortunately you can't see which process that is,
 100 so you will have to find out through trial and error. To kill a process
 101 use:</para>
 102
 103 <screen><userinput>        <command>kill</command> <option>-9</option> <replaceable>pid</replaceable></userinput></screen>
 104
 105 <para>Here <replaceable>pid</replaceable> is the process id of the
 106 process, which is the first number on each line reported by
 107 <command>ps</command> <option>-aux</option>.</para>
 108
 109 <para>You can switch back to the desktop with <keycombo
 110 action="simul">&Ctrl;&Alt;<keycap>F7</keycap></keycombo> (or
 111 <keycap>F8</keycap> through <keycap>F9</keycap> depending on your
 112 operating system) to see if things work again. When you press
 113 <keycombo action="simul">&Alt;<keycap>Tab</keycap></keycombo> you should get a
 114 response from the window manager. If not, you need to get back to the
 115 text console and try to kill another process.</para>
 116
 117 <para>Good candidates to kill are: the application you were working
 118 with, &kicker;, &klipper; and &kdesktop;.</para>
 119 </answer>
 120 </qandaentry>
 121
 122 <!-- fixme: how to do in KDE2.x
 123 <qandaentry>
 124 <question>
 125 <para>Switching window managers on the fly in &kde; 1.x</para>
 126 </question>
 127 <answer>
 128 <para>If you want to switch your window manager on the fly, type the
 129 following into a terminal window: <command>kwmcom
 130 go:<replaceable>blackbox</replaceable></command>.  This switches to
 131 Blackbox, but you can substitute any window manager you like.</para>
 132 </answer>
 133 </qandaentry>
 134 -->
 135
 136 </qandaset>
 137 </chapter>