Re: [kde-linux] Trying to build a Help Search Index in KDE

Gary L. Greene Jr. wrote:

On Saturday 26 August 2006 23:22, Drachen Birch wrote:


Hello.

I have an ancient, 500 MHz Compaq running Slackware 10.2, and KDE
3.4.2 (bundled with the Slack distro). When I press the button to build
a Help search index so that the KDE Help can actually help, I get this
message:

INDEXDIR: /home/drak/.kde/share/apps/khelpcenter/index/
FINDCMD: find /opt/kde/share/doc/HTML/en/ -name index.docbook
Creating index for 'kde_application_manuals'
htdig failed

On the screen with the "build index" button, opposite the checkbox
for the Help application manuals, it says: "missing".
Is it possible that the distro simply didn't load the help files? Would
any distro builder be that mental? Or does this happen all the time?
As you may have guessed, I'm a newbie, CLI skills very rudimentary, and
patience wearing thin. I assume that htdig is one of the zillion or so
tiny programs within the OS? I have run across a few posts on the KDE
site and elsewhere that quote exactly the same error message, on other
distros and on Slack. Unfortunately, the discussions of how to fix the
problem were old, and sufficiently complex as to blow my little newbie
doors off. One guy that already knew a dozen programming languages was
talking about having to learn yet another in order to kluge a fix for
the problem. Problem was never solved on that thread. Problem was
declared "unconfirmed" on the KDE site thread (also old). If
confirmation is really needed, I apparently can re-create this problem
reliably and infinitely. Any ideas? Thanks!


-drak



First, I have to give apologies to any folks on this list that are Slack
users. Now that that's out of the way...

Drak, I hate to say it but if you're not comfortable with the command line in
some way, Slackware is NOT the distribution for you, as it is far more unixy
than many of the other distributions. It along with Gentoo and others of
their ilk are not very suitable for beginning users of GNU/Linux. I would
really recommend checking out Kubuntu, OpenSuSE, Mandrake, or PCLinuxOS.


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Howdy, Gary, and thanks for the input, but...

-Here's the skinny. I am only uncomfortable with CLI _because_ I'm a
newbie. I am learning, but this will take time. I hope to learn this
because I'm fascinated by the FabLab concept, wish ultimately to get
involved with it, and FabLabs are being implemented using Linux.
I _did_ have a Mandrake distro running before switching to Slack on
the advice of a minor Linux god of my acquaintance. I figured from the
beginning that it would be a slightly steeper learning curve, but I need
a better than passing understanding of Linux, for my future plans. What
I'm hoping to find are specific details, explanations, or instructions
for getting past this KDE Help issue, and that should make me a lot more
self-sufficient with the GUI, while I'm learning the CLI.
I had a hard time getting Mandrake to recognize most of my antique
hardware, but Slack just did it. Also, Mandrake had a lot of trouble
while failing to get me on the net, and Slack got the job done right
away. That was the first thing I needed, in order to access the
boards. Next, I need help files and man pages. I really _want_ to do
it myself, but I need to find and configure some basic tools to do that,
first. Then maybe I can start being a little more self-sufficient on
this issue, and waste fewer and fewer people's time with newbie questions.
That is my goal. If you have any suggestions on where to go for that
sort of basic jump-start help with delinquent help files, I'd appreciate
it. I tried SuSe briefly, (live CD I think), and couldn't even get a
desktop. Haven't tried Kubuntu or PCLinux yet, but I really need to
dive into this and really learn it. I need to get on with learning CLI
and then Python, ultimately. Now, if you think that learning Slack will
slow me down from reaching those goals as oppossed to some other distro,
I'd love to hear about it. I was considering loading Debian for a
while, but that also looks like a distro for Linux veterans. Maybe I'll
try creating another set of partitions on the drive, and see if I can't
get a triple-boot system, and start checking out the other distros in
more detail. Of course that would involve more time... Sigh.
Anyway, thanks!
-drak
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