> 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.