I spent a bit of time early this morning trying to get my scanner working. My previous instructions on getting it to work didn’t seem to be doing the trick. I played with a lot of settings in conf files all over the place before finding reference online to the Scanner component in YAST, the openSUSE configuration tool.

Boy do I feel dumb.

A couple clicks later I was up and running.

I was also pleased to learn about a KDE app, Skanlite which is much more pleasant to use than XSane (although I have nothing against what XSane can do).

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As I’ve started using KDE (alright- the KDE Software Compilation), one thing I’ve run into is that all the dialogs seem to default to certain folders. I ascribe to David Allen’s Getting Things Done and have tried to create a desktop environment that reinforces those habits. So I don’t use the ‘Documents’ folder. As it turns out if I had just deleted the folder the Documents path would have reverted to the home folder (supposedly).

But the better way is to adjust the paths the system looks for. You can find them under System Settings > About Me > Paths. That cleared up some of my problems. Say what you want about having too many options- it’s nice that there’s a nice UI to change those options.

For the longest time I’ve been getting this error dialog when I log in:


Error activating XKB configuration.
It can happen under various circumstances:
- a bug in libxklavier library
- a bug in X server (xkbcomp, xmodmap utilities)
- X server with incompatible libxkbfile implementation

If you report this situation as a bug, please include:
- The result of xprop -root | grep XKB
- The result of gconftool-2 -R /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/kbd


Nothing bad happens (I think). Just annoying. I have the layout set to USA Macintosh and the keyboard model as MacBook/MacBook Pro. If I set it to Apple Laptop it works without the error. But- I have a MacBook Pro. Through trial and error I changed the layout to plain USA and now have no errors with MacBook/MacBook Pro selected. Yay.

For others with similar issues- this thread may be enlightening.

This morning I read about a new theme being developed for openSUSE 11.2, called Sonar. It’s really easy to try it out in 11.1. You can download the files manually at this page- or you can add the repository to your list:

1. Open ‘Software Repositories’
2. Click the ‘Add’ button
3. Choose the ‘HTTP’ type and click ‘Next’
4. Enter a Nickname for the Repository- something bizarre like ‘Sonar’. The server name is download.opensuse.org and the directory on server is /repositories/home:/aaronbockover:/opensuse-refresh/openSUSE_11.1/ – just click ‘Next’ and finish off the wizard.
5. Go into ‘Install Software’ and search for ‘sonar’ and install the packages. Make sure your Murrine gtk2 engine is up to date.

It’s just beautiful. I’m someone rarely satisfied by a theme but I have to say that I have found nothing about this one that bugs me. I love it.