Hi, yesterday, for some unknown reason, the widgets on the right hand side of my taskbar all went up to the left hand side. I am running Mandriva 2010.2. I managed to get them back to the left by using the screen edge tool in panel settings and a space bar separating them from the left hand widgets. Trouble is, when you are using email or Firefox and you knock them down to the task bar, they do not show there, meaning you cannot pick them up again. It looks like they have actually been shut down. This means, if you follow an email link, you do not get to Firefox. Does anyone know why this has happened? Thanks.
Hi joe
Firstly what desktop environment are you running on Mandriva?
When you say you ‘knock them down to the task bar’ do you mean minimise the window? If they aren’t showing in the task bar but you haven’t closed the window try to Alt+Tab to cycle through all application windows.
I am aware of an issue with KDE a few years ago which sounds similar to your problem. See here for a forum discussion and here for the bug. Unfortunatley I can’t seem to find a solution other than in the bug documentation it talks about removing the ‘eye-dropper’ tool.
What happens when you log off and back on again?
A solution may be to kill the current taskbar process and restart it (turn it off and back on!). The command for this will vary depending on the environment you are using.
I’m afraid I have never used task bar widgets so I’m at a bit of a loss. get back to us anyway and we’ll see how we can progress.
Thanks for your help. I am on KDE (4.5 I think). This is not a bug as it has worked perfectly until Monday. I did something with the mouse and everything changed on the task bar. You “alt tab” works a treat, it brings the window (minimised) back up to use. Before this the window was showing on the task bar and needed a click to get it back, now it does not show. To get the widgets back to the right of the task bar (and keep them there) I have had to put a space bar on. Perhapd this is hiding the minimised legend.
Can you remember what you did with the mouse before this error appeared? Have you ran any updates recently?
It may be that somehow the window list applet on the task bar has been removed. Can you open the task bar properties, usually by right clicking on the panel, and see what applets are listed.
I have a KDE virtual machine running at home but I’m in work at the moment so I’m trying to rely on my (poor) memory!
OK, I’m no KDE4 expert, and this series of commands is from the developer of PCLOS (NOT Mandriva) … I currently have no way of testing them, so this is strictly a “Try at your own risk” affair.
This is what texstar say will reset the desktop to defaults in (PCLOS) KDE4
texstar@localhost ~]$ su Password: [root@localhost texstar]# cp /etc/skel/.kde4/share/config/plasma* /home/texstar/.kde4/share/config cp: overwrite `/home/texstar/.kde4/share/config/plasma-appletsrc'? y cp: overwrite `/home/texstar/.kde4/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc'? y cp: overwrite `/home/texstar/.kde4/share/config/plasma-desktoprc'? y cp: overwrite `/home/texstar/.kde4/share/config/plasmarc'? y [root@localhost texstar]# chown -R texstar:texstar /home/texstar/.kde4 [root@localhost texstar]# exit exit [texstar@localhost ~]$ exit(Obviously you'd need to replace all instances of "texstar" with your username in the above commands .. and I'm unsure if you'd need to log off/on again)
Does that look about right glitch (or any other KDE4 user) ?
Source:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=72607.0
I can’t say whether it is right but it certainly looks like a heading in the right direction.
I would say that if it isn’t a simple error like the window list has been removed from the task bar then the probable cause would be an error in the config file.
By running the commands stated by Texstar I imagine it will correct any config errors.
As Mark says this is a ‘at your own risk’ solution. If you could let us know the outcome we can help if still required.
I have had this problem when I was running Mandriva (some time ago) and used this script
to restore the taskbar:
#!/bin/bash
clear
kquitapp plasma-desktop
rm -fv ~/.kde4/share/config/plasm*
plasma-desktop &
Ha the old turn it off and back on again trick! Told you that was the answer 
@joe - See if SeZo’s solution fixes it.
Yeh, I think the commands contained in that script are also discussed on the link I provided … but the person who suggested them says something about not being logged on when you run them, because KDE4 has a habit of IMMEDIATELY replacing the files with your currently running config.
Does that ring any bells SeZo ?
That said … it can’t hurt to try that first 
Hey, thanks for the help. I added a widget which lists all running applications so they can be accessed and used. It needed a space bar of flexible sizing so all is well. Not quite what it was but good enough. I must have deleted the old one with my mouse by accident. All is good, consider this resolved, thanks again, Joe.
Joe, glad you got it sorted
@Mark
I suppose it does the same as Textar’s commands, except it is operating on the current user.
Yeah, the plasma-desktop (if it is running) will replace/re-create the config files.
That is why that script stops it running, remove the files then re-start it.
Running this script would re-set the environment to defaults (like when you create a new user).
@glitch
You are right, it is a sledgehammer approach, but quicker than trying to figure out what has gone wrong.
Heh … that’ll teach me not to read things carefully enough:
kquitapp plasma-desktop
Kinda obvious really :-[
I jumped the gun, solely because someone else (at that link) had said it didn’t work for them … IIRC he said the plasma-desktop was respawning itself faster than he could enter the commands … but that’s probably why your version is scripted ?
Heh .. that'll teach me not to read things carefully enough:Never mind :D
the plasma-desktop was respawning itself faster than he could enter the commands ... but that's probably why your version is scripted ?It is not my work so cannot take credit for it. But found the link to that script which I kept since 2010 http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=89142 Thought it might come useful someday
Haha so I’m not the only one! I have hundreds of bookmarks or saved web pages which might come in useful some day!