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: /
FINDCMD: find /opt/kde/share/doc/HTML/en/ -name index.docbook
Creating index for 'kde_application_manuals'
htdig failed
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? 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 S? 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. 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
This message is from the kde-linux mailing list.
Account management:
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.

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

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? 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 S? 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. 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 NT 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, SuSE, Mandrake, or PCLS.

This message is from the kde-linux mailing list.
Account management:
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.
PGP SIGNATURE
Version: GnuPG v1.9.20 (GNU/Linux)

vQ4A2R/cXkWKIya35DMtu00=
=WqP6
PGP SIGNATURE

Gary L. Greene Jr. wrote:

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: /
>>FINDCMD: find /opt/kde/share/doc/HTML/en/ -name index.docbook
>>Creating index for 'kde_application_manuals'
>>htdig failed
>>
>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? 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 S? 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. 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 NT 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, SuSE, Mandrake, or PCLS.

>
>
>
>
>This message is from the kde-linux mailing list.
>Account management:
>Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
>More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.
>
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. course that would involve more time Sigh.
Anyway, thanks!
-drak

This message is from the kde-linux mailing list.
Account management:
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.

PGP SIGNED MESSAGE
Hash: SHA1

Drachen wrote:
Gary L. Greene Jr. wrote:

>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: /
FINDCMD: find /opt/kde/share/doc/HTML/en/ -name index.docbook
Creating index for 'kde_application_manuals'
htdig failed

Whichever distro you choose, the index thing in KHelpCenter won't work,
since it is broken for a long time already. If you care about it, try to
locate the appropriate bug report at bugs.kde.org and vote for it.

But, as with many things in Source world, this might not really
change situation: perhaps the developer, who created KHelpCenter is no
longer active, or something, and nobody is paying money to get things
useful for the end user fixed.

Donatas
PGP SIGNATURE
Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (MingW32)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

/
taTc0I=
=1Jj1
PGP SIGNATURE

This message is from the kde-linux mailing list.
Account management:
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.

Donatas G. wrote:

PGP SIGNED MESSAGE
>Hash: SHA1
>
>Drachen wrote:

>
>>Gary L. Greene Jr. wrote:
>>
>
>>
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: /
FINDCMD: find /opt/kde/share/doc/HTML/en/ -name index.docbook
Creating index for 'kde_application_manuals'
htdig failed


>
>Whichever distro you choose, the index thing in KHelpCenter won't work,
>since it is broken for a long time already. If you care about it, try to
>locate the appropriate bug report at bugs.kde.org and vote for it.
>
>But, as with many things in Source world, this might not really
>change situation: perhaps the developer, who created KHelpCenter is no
>longer active, or something, and nobody is paying money to get things
>useful for the end user fixed.
>
>Donatas
PGP SIGNATURE
>Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (MingW32)
>Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
>
>
>
>/
>taTc0I=
>=1Jj1
PGP SIGNATURE
>
>This message is from the kde-linux mailing list.
>Account management:
>Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
>More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.
>
>

To Donatas G.,

Thank you! You have saved me from wasting an immense amount of
time. I might otherwise have tried to load distro after distro, looking
for the one where the Help Center worked.
Well. I guess we can hope that someone who knows a lot more than
me will take the project up again, but for now I guess I'll have to
learn to use man pages exclusively. Too bad that so many man pages are
poorly written and un-helpful.
Anyway, thanks again!
-Drak

This message is from the kde-linux mailing list.
Account management:
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.

Drachen wrote:
Donatas G. wrote:


>PGP SIGNED MESSAGE
>Hash: SHA1
>>
>Drachen wrote:
>
>>
>
Gary L. Greene Jr. wrote:

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


>Whichever distro you choose, the index thing in KHelpCenter won't work,
>since it is broken for a long time already. If you care about it, try to
>locate the appropriate bug report at bugs.kde.org and vote for it.
>>
>But, as with many things in Source world, this might not really
>change situation: perhaps the developer, who created KHelpCenter is no
>longer active, or something, and nobody is paying money to get things
>useful for the end user fixed.
>>
>Donatas
>PGP SIGNATURE
>Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (MingW32)
>Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
>>
>
>
>/
>taTc0I=
>=1Jj1
>PGP SIGNATURE
>
>This message is from the kde-linux mailing list.
>Account management:
>Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
>More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.
>>
>>
>
>>
>
To Donatas G.,

Thank you! You have saved me from wasting an immense amount of
time. I might otherwise have tried to load distro after distro, looking
for the one where the Help Center worked.
Well. I guess we can hope that someone who knows a lot more than
me will take the project up again, but for now I guess I'll have to
learn to use man pages exclusively. Too bad that so many man pages are
poorly written and un-helpful.
Anyway, thanks again!
-Drak

This message is from the kde-linux mailing list.
Account management:
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.
--

When I had a brand new Suse 9.2 Linux delivered with whatever KDE came
with it, the HelpCentre (including search functionality) worked fine.
After a year or so I upgraded the KDE to a higher version and the search
stopped working. However I tried to re-build indexes, whatever advice I
got off the lists, nothing helped. I have now installed a brand new Suse
10.1 with KDE3.5.1 and it works fine again. Conclusion - it is not
irretrievably broken, but something (directories and symlinks?) has to
be exactly right. I'm afraid I am no nearer knowing what that something
is

Bogus

This message is from the kde-linux mailing list.
Account management:
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.