Hi Paul, Paul E Condon wrote:
On Sat, Dec 10, 2005 at 12:37:28PM -0700, Paul E Condon wrote:I was confronted recently with a request for the password of my KDE Wallet. I didn't know I had one. I guessed my logon password for Debian, but that didn't seem to work ("seem" because I had no idea why the request was made, or by what module). I decided to try to undersand, but I am confused.
KWallet Manager docs also say that "A system tray icon indicates that a wallet is open." What is the system tray? I can't find a definition or an example image.
The system tray is part of the KDE panel, i.e. the bar which has the button for the K menu, other icons, maybe a clock, etc. It might be disabled on your system. You should be able to turn it on by right clicking on an "empty" spot of the panel and selecting "add to panel > applet > system tray". If this point is grayed out in this menu that means it is already activated. If you suspect that there is a configuration problem, it might help to deactivate it ("remove from panel > applet > system tray") and activate it again. The system tray itself is "invisible", but can be filled with all sorts of useful icons, for example to access klipper (a clipboard management tool), KDE notes ("sticky notes" for your desktop), the K-organizer for tasks and appointments, etc.
If the system tray is activated, you should be able to get the icon for the wallet manager by selecting "K menu > settings > wallet management tool". Make sure, however, that your settings in "K menu > control center > security & privacy > KDE wallet" allow the icon to be displayed, i.e. check the box "show manager in system tray" and uncheck the box "hide system tray icon when last wallet closes". The icon itself looks like a wallet, opened or closed depending on the status of the wallet manager. If you left click on this icon, a window should open which displays all existing wallets and allows you to access and manage them (e.g. adding and deleting wallets with a right click context menu).
Since you seem to have inadvertently set an unknown password for the standard wallet it will probably be best if you delete it and generate it again as a new wallet. You should then be prompted to type your password twice (as usual when setting new passwords). The wallet password can and should be different from your user password. Afterwards you can go to the control center again and tell KDE to use the new wallet by default. (It will probably do that anyway if there is only one wallet.)
If you suspect a configuration problem, you can start "from scratch" by deleting the file "~/.kde/share/config/kwalletrc" and the directory "~/.kde/share/apps/kwallet". (These will be recreated automatically from default templates when they are needed again.) Before you do that it might be worthwhile to create a new "clean" user and see if the wallet system works when you log in as this user, just to be certain that the problem is caused by the configuration files and not by something else.
I hope this helps you to get the KDE wallet system working. It is a really handy feature: A central repository for all KDE applications to store and manage passwords in a secure way. (The information is encrypted on the harddisk.) Whenever you have to type a password in Konqueror, for example, you are prompted if you want to add it to the wallet and the next time you access this webpage (or other resource) again it will be automatically retrieved. It is also possible to add your own items to any existing wallet, for example to store credit card numbers in a safe way (e.g. on a laptop which might get stolen).
Best regards,
Florian