I can't delete a KDE4 widget

Last week I installed Furius Weather, a cool widget for KDE4 that displays the weather in your preferred location. This widget, though, is not perfectly integrated in the KDE4 plasma, and for example you can't add it to the task bar at the bottom, or at least I didn't manage to do it.

I tried to add it by following the usual procedure: select "Add widgets" on right-click at the desktop, and then drag the entry for Furius weather to the bar. When I did that, a dialogue appeared that prompted for a theme. I selected my default theme which I had downloaded from Furius Weather. To my horror I saw that the default theme uses large icons which did not fit on the task bar.

I tried to delete the widget using the usual way: select "Add widgets" and click on the star next to Furius Weather, but nothing happened. Actually, I don't know how I ended up having three instances in my task bar! See the image. Now I had almost no space for anything else in the bar.

Today, finally I found the solution. You need to edit the file ~/.kde4/share/config/plasma-appletsrc. In the file I found 18 references to FuriusWeather! I guess that was how many times I added the widget and tried to delete it. I removed all references, restarted the window manager (ALT CTRL <-; don't just log out or restart the computer or KDE will overwrite your modifications), and the desktop came back clean.

Wonderful!

How can I add a personalised wallpaper to KDE4?

I have been trying KDE4 for a few months. This is the new version of KDE, a Linux desktop that has a beautiful interface. But currently it's not as easy to customise as the old trusty KDE 3. For example, do you know how to use one of your own photos as a wallpaper? There are no right-click actions on dolphin, the file manager, and I didn't find any settings anywhere that would tell where to put your images for wallpapers.

If you right click on the desktop and select "Configure Desktop..." you are offered with a selection of wallpapers, and you can even download new ones. But what if you want to use your own photos?

Finally I found out. You can copy your photo to the hidden folder ~/.kde4/share/wallpapers. If you're using dolphin you will need to select "Show Hidden Files" in the "View" menu. Then, next time you right-click on the desktop and select "Configure Desktop..." you can select your new wallpaper.

Easy! But I didn't find any documentation on the webpages about this... how are we supposed to know?

... update ... I found an easier way to add your own wallpaper. In "Configure Desktop" there's a tiny icon next to the drop down selection of the picture. If you click on that icon a file selector will appear to find your own file... see the picture of this blog. I didn't see that one!