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.