Can you try modifying the startkde script like so:
Replace this portion of text (text after the "&&"
remains the same as before)
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS:/opt/kde3/etc/xdg:/etc/xdg/
&&
With this:
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS:/opt/kde3/etc/xdg:/etc/xdg/:$HOME/.config
&&
and see if your problem #7 above is resolved?
I added the following temporary changes to startkde to help me verify the changes were
effective:
echo "startkde: XDG_CONFIG_DIRS is set to $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS." 1>&2
# Temporary mod for testing:
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS:$HOME/.config
echo "startkde: XDG_CONFIG_DIRS is set to $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS." 1>&2
I still had messages about starting hplip-systray.