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Bug 287

Summary: empty left pane in kdesu kcontrol
Product: TDE Reporter: Denis Prost <denis.prost>
Component: tdebaseAssignee: Timothy Pearson <kb9vqf>
Status: CONFIRMED ---    
Severity: minor CC: bugwatch, darrella, denis.prost, ktbz.aoneshot.eliddell, slavek.banko
Priority: P5    
Version: 3.5.13.x [Trinity]   
Hardware: i386   
OS: All   
Compiler Version: TDE Version String:
Application Version: Application Name:
Bug Depends on:    
Bug Blocks: 1397    

Description Denis Prost 2010-10-01 03:05:38 CDT
When I run kdesu kcontrol, the left pane is empty. No ability to choose an item to configure.
No such problem when running kcontrol as simple user.

Regards,

Denis
Comment 1 Timothy Pearson 2010-10-01 11:35:35 CDT
Is the sudo-trinity package installed?
Comment 2 Denis Prost 2010-10-01 11:39:38 CDT
dpkg -l|grep sudo

  ii  libgksu2-0                              2.0.13~pre1-1                        library providing su and sudo functionality
  rc  sudo                                    1.7.2p7-1                            Provide limited super user privileges to specific users
  ii  sudo-trinity                            1.7.2p7-1                            Provide limited super user privileges to specific users
Comment 3 Timothy Pearson 2010-10-01 11:44:11 CDT
OK, I can replicate the problem.  Workaround for now is to start kcontrol itself as a normal user, then click the "Administrator Mode" button if a control module needs root access. 

Initial thought is that sudo strips kdedirs or a similar variable from the environment, causing kcontrol to be unable to locate the .desktop files that describe the installed control modules.
Comment 4 Denis Prost 2010-10-01 12:19:11 CDT
I just wanted to change the look of kde apps running as root, so the workaround you propose can't be used for that.
But this is definitely not an emergency matter !
Comment 5 ktbz.aoneshot.eliddell 2011-12-10 12:17:26 CST
I had a problem very similar to this except that it didn't involve kdesu.  It turned out that I needed to set the XDG_ environment directories (XDG_CONFIG_DIRS, XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_DIRS, and XDG_DATA_HOME) for the affected user to get kcontrol to work right.  Maybe the problem is that these aren't set for the superuser?
Comment 6 Darrell 2013-07-29 13:12:44 CDT
Is this report still valid?
Comment 7 Slávek Banko 2013-07-29 13:27:48 CDT
For this I have a simple observation:

ssh -CX user@test-machine /opt/trinity/bin/kcontrol

KControl is ok.


ssh-CX root@test-machine /opt/trinity/bin/kcontrol

Left panel in KControl is empty.


The same machine, different user => normal user × root.
Comment 8 Darrell 2013-07-29 13:53:25 CDT
Interesting.

I tried the following:

ssh -CX warbler kfmclient openProfile filemanagement

The KDE4 version of konqueror opened rather than the Trinity version. That indicates a $PATH problem. I have KDE4 installed in /usr and Trinity in /opt/trinity.

When I ssh into the other system without launching apps in the same command, then the session correctly sources variables from /etc/profile.d scripts. Then when I run kcontrol or kfmclient openProfile filemanagement everything functions correctly and I see icons as expected and the kcontrol left panel.

Trying to ssh and run apps in the same command suffers from the problem of not correctly setting environment variables and $PATH. Is this a Trinity corner case issue or Not Our Problem?
Comment 9 Darrell 2013-07-29 14:06:51 CDT
Although I confirm the problem exists when using ssh and Trinity is installed in a location other than /usr, the original problem description focused on local machines. I can't replicate the problem within a local machine.
Comment 10 Slávek Banko 2013-07-29 15:46:40 CDT
(Odpověď na komentář #9)
> Although I confirm the problem exists when using ssh and Trinity is installed
> in a location other than /usr, the original problem description focused on
> local machines. I can't replicate the problem within a local machine.

Yes, I know, the problem was originally reported for local launching. However, it is clear that with the remote launching although both users have the same initial conditions, behavior is different.

I assume that the cause of the problem may be the same in both cases - as remote launching, and originally reported local launching.