maemo.org - Talk - [KDE] KDE Rotation - Krandr and sliderotate

I don't know what exactly to categorize this as, because it's not really a bug, more of an incompatibility. As some of you have probably realized, KDE on the tablet doesn't behave nicely with respect to screen rotation.

To show that I've done my homework, this problem is discussed in fairly isolated posts scattered throughout the forums; in Penguinbait's Clone OS to SD Deb!! thread, in the How to rotate screen on os2008 thread, in the KDE Installation Poll, and in the original KDE 3.5.6 Available thread posted by Penguinbait.

None of the above threads contain a long-term definitive answer, (although Benson did come pretty close here, more on that later). So I thought, well, I'll look into it and come up with my own answer :o. Easier said than done.

Myth #1: KDE's screen resolution doesn't change to 480x800
-Okay, so easy answer: just change the resolution beforehand using KrandrTray. However you have to add the resolution to either Xfree.conf or Xorg.conf or Xorg.config according to several Kubuntu forums I looked at, and the tablet version has none of these files, so only one resolution is available:
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/9523/snapshot4.png
But this turns out to be a moot point anyway:
TRUTH #1: The resolution rotates just fine, but the window manager doesn't, as evidenced by the screenshot below:
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/3443/snapshot5.png

Okay so Myth #2: KDE just plain doesn't support screen rotation.
TRUTH #2: Yes it does! Following Benson's suggestion (thanks man) I started up KDE with my screen already rotated, and it comes up beautifully:
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/8015/snapshot1.png

This is all well and good, but when I slide out my keyboard, due to emjayes' sliderotate, KDE switches to the normal orientation as it's supposed to, but then when I close the keyboard, or switch back using the power key I get this familiar crap:
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/4069/snapshot3.png

So my conclusion is that the KDE window manager/desktop app isn't being rotated back correctly. My suspicion is further confirmed by the fact that KDE displays the same behavior when rotated by KrandrTray or by the Desktop settings panel.

Why would this be though? I assume KDE can actually rotate the display correctly, (I can't check because my VirtualBox installation of Kubuntu won't let me access the rotation settings) So my current opinion is that it's just a bug(?) in the tablet KDE.

So now, is there any way to fix this? Any ideas? Sorry to bug you Penguinbait, but I'm really hoping you could take a look at this if it isn't too much to ask :o I really really appreciate the work you've put into KDE and I love my K810, but rotation support would make this the best handheld user interface I've ever used!

In particular, the hildon-apps menu looks MUCH better:
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/7214/snapshot2.png

And this would really help with dialogs that extend too far in the vertical direction as KDE has no qualms about you dragging dialogs off the sides of the screen to your heart's content :)
Many thanks in advance :)
Josiah