> Yes, Virginia, that is the problem! Woo-hoo! :-)
> 
> Looking through the sources reveals this is a common usage
> form for desktop files. Seems then I need to amend my
> patches to change instances in the source code of
> kde-*.desktop to tde-*.desktop.
> 
> Does this sound sa[n]e?

To answer my own question, no, not quite sane. Blindly replacing all instances in the source code of kde-*.desktop -> tde-*.desktop causes a different set of weirdness and breakage. In tdebase/konqueror/konq_mainwindow:3878 I need to leave four of the references as kde-*.desktop:

kde-filepreviews.desktop
kde-filetypes.desktop
kde-khtml_behavior.desktop
kde-kcmkonqyperformance.desktop

Curiously, those four files are installed to $PREFIX/share/applnk/.hidden rather than $PREFIX/share/applications/tde, albeit without the 'kde-' prefix in the file name.

The following modules contain references in the sources of kde-*.desktop:

applications/tde-systemsettings
applications/kerry
applications/kiosktool
applications/knutclient
tde-i18n
tdebase
tdebindings
tdelibs
tdevelop

I seem to be over the hump with respect to finding the hidden hard-coding, but I don't know of a systematic way to test which kde-*.desktop references in the source code should be renamed. Thus far, a simple random usability test of the desktop reveals only those konqueror references needing to be renamed. I suppose a full package rebuild and installation might reveal more, but then again, might not.

Any ideas how to isolate which ones need renaming?

I'm curious why this weird behavior happens. Any ideas?

Darrell