Using KDE4 and KDE3 parallel

Starting with Ubuntu 8.10 only KDE4 is delivered. The old installations have KDE3. Switching between the different desktops may be a problem, because both KDE versions use '.kde' as their configuration directory. With a simple version check in the .bash_profile (if you are using the bash) it is possible to maintain two different KDE setups. Add the following code snippet to your .bash_profile:

if [ -f /etc/lsb-release ];  then
    . /etc/lsb-release
fi

if [[ "$DISTRIB_RELEASE"  == "8.04" ]]; then
    export KDEHOME=~/.kde3
fi

The old tree is held under '.kde3' an may be deleted if no more KDE3 installations are alive.

Especially this technique is useful if you are working on an new host and want to use the nxserver for remote logins. Login server is running Ubuntu 8.04 and will do it for a while. For normal X-Session this works also .bashrc or .profile. For NX Sessions only the .bash_profile is evaluated. Please beware: If you have a .bash_profile your .profile will no longer used.