KDEROOTHOME set incorrectly; user settings ignored

This fixes the problem, without creating any new problems.

Problem present in KDE-3.5.2, on both Dapper and Breezy.

Does this happen when you log in as root or when you use sudo/kdesu ?

Cut&Paste from irclogs:
< yogi> Pardon me... has anyone noticed that the 'share' dir which belongs in /root/.kde is suddenly in /root??
< Riddell> yogi: that's deliberate, otherwise we end up with files in ~ that are owned by root and users can't write to them

It's caused by kubuntu_28_fix_sudo.diff in kdelibs which sets KDEROOTHOME to /root if the user id is 0. Is there any reference for what KDEROOTHOME should be set to? I remember looking it up at the time and must have found it should be /root but I could well have made a mistake.

I think KDEROOTHOME should be ~/.kde
For that to work with sudo it should be set to /root/.kde/ for root. Don't you think?

L.S.

The patch proposed above fixes the problem, with one minor exception: A directory tree "share/config/" is still created under "/root/". In the beginning this "share/config/" contained a file kickerrc, but after having deleted this tree I have not seen it back. The final fix to the problem should also prevent the "share/config/" tree to be created.

    Best regards,
    Boudewijn

Hi Johnathan,

I found the answer your question on what KDEROOTHOME should be here:

<http://www.kde.org/areas/sysadmin/fsh.php>

I founc additional information in chapter 24 of the KDE User Guide of my openSUSE 10.1 installation:

---------
KDE Internals
Specifying Directories

Environment Variable: KDEHOME
Example Setting(s): ~/.kde
Comment:

Environment Variable: KDEROOTHOME
Example Setting(s): /root/.kde
Comment: Different variable to prevent root writing to $KDEHOME of the user after running su.

Environment Variable: KDEDIR
Example Setting(s): /opt/kde3, /usr, /usr/kde3
Comment: Vendor dependent. Used by KDE 2. If not set, falls back to compiled-in default.

Environment Variable: KDEDIRS
Example Setting(s): /opt/kde3, /usr, /usr/kde3
Comment: New in KDE3. Can list multiple locations separated by a colon. If not set, falls back to $KDEDIR

Don't need to be set, defaults work just fine.

Running KDE2 next to KDE3? Point $KDEDIR to KDE 2 and $KDEDIRS to KDE 3.

A staff member at a university could have the following settings:

KDEHOME='~/.kde3'
KDEROOTHOME='/root/.kde3'
KDEDIRS='/opt/kde_staff:/opt/kde3'
---------

Hope this helps.

    Best regards,

    Boudewijn

[22:59] <Riddell> Hobbsee: 44920 is fixed in edgy