"Widget Dashboard" Message Disables Panel -- Solved

[llanitedave]

OK, for the most part I really like my Kubuntu 13.04 installation. But it's got one very annoying quirk. I have my KDE panel moved to the left side of the screen and hidden, to somewhat emulate the Unity Launcher. It works out pretty well. HOWEVER, occasionally -- not always -- when I move my mouse cursor to the left side to activate the panel, as soon as the panel appears a blue drop-down with the words "Widget Dashboard" drops down from the TOP of the screen. The screen then dims, and I can't select anything until I click the close "x" on that drop-down panel. It doesn't do anything, it has no choice buttons, it gives me no information. It just sits there until I close it.

What the heck is it, and how do I disable it permanently?

[Erik1984]

You could check under WorkSpace Behavior > Screen Edges if the widget dashboard is somehow associated with any of the left edges. It shouldn't be by default. It could also be a mouse gesture but I don't know where to check that. AFAIK the widget dashboard should only be associated with CTRL + F12 by default.

[llanitedave]

Well, doing CTRL + F12 definitely allowed me to see just how the Widget Dashboard appears. OK, it doesn't really dim the screen, it just transparently covers it with another window -- a blank one, since I have no widgets on the dashboard. It seems this is a KDE feature that I never learned to use.

So I followed your advice and there it was. I replaced it with the Desktop Cube,which I can have more fun with. Thanks, Euroman!