Kde 3.1 questions

[Collins Richey]

Despite my preference for unbloat, I bring up kde for a while after each
new release, just to see what I'm missing (known in advance: probably
not much).

Since I'm on gentoo, installing the basic kde is a big ho-hum operation
- "emerge kde" and find something else to do for 12+ hours.  Now that
I'm up and running (partially), I have a few quetions.

1. I can't seem to find the right options for kmail to allow me to send
mail (receive works fine).  On attempts to send, kmail does not fill in
the from address.  Everything is filled in, and I've set my user as
the default, but I can't find a setting to correct this.

2. Sound is flaky.  I'm using alsa, since my card (SB 16) didn't work
under the built in kernel stuff (es1371) but does with alsa (es1371). 

a. When I start kde, I get no sound unless the alsa amixer command has
been used first to unmute the card.  No amount of mixing will produce a
squawk without doing that (even as root).  I have a question open with
gentoo, because the amixer command doesn't seem to work as a part of the
"local" boot option.   So I have to do this manually each time.

b. When I start kde, I get the artsmessage box"Can't set real time
scheduling priority..."(even as root).  My user is in group audio,
and/dev/dsp, etc. are root.audio. Sound works fine(both system and kcd),
but I have to use the kmixer first (does not remember its settings).

3. Kde will not restart phoenix, but it does other stuff (sylpheed,
terms, OpenOffice, etc.).  How do I fix this?

4. How do I get X-resources aware applications like aterm to start with
the desired options?  Kde appears to ignore .Xdefaults.  As a result,
aterm starts with no scrollbar enabled.

Does anyone have a clue about these annoying little problems?

-- 
Collins Richey - Denver Area
Athlon-XP gentoo 1.4_rc2++ system xfce4-cvs