Trying to switch to kde but...

Question

So I'm trying to switch to kde not because I dislike gnome but because I'm curious about kde.  So far I've had a few issues that keep me going back to gnome where I haven't even had to deal with this problems.
I have a Thinkpad X201 which is a small laptop (12.1 inch screen).  When I get to work I dock and close the lid and use a 21 inch screen.  The laptop screen is off.  When I un-dock it, it seamlessly switches back to the laptop screen.  I didn't have to do anything to get this to work in gnome other than set it up under the display settings.  KDE, I have to configure it on each boot, and it seems a little buggy sometimes (as in it doesn't do the same thing each time even though I go through the same proceedure, like the laptop monitor says even when I say to disable it, until I re-enable it and disable it a second time).  It doesn't always happen but it does sometimes.  I know I can default it to one setting but when I un-dock it or reboot it with the external monitor as default it doesn't go back to the laptop display like gnome does (which mean I don't get a screen on my laptop to switch it back to the laptop).  I went through the intel/xorg/kde wiki's and either I missed it or it doesn't really say anything about my situation.  I saw the multi-monitor settings for xorg and tried it but it did nothing.
This alone make kde not an option as I'm constantly going back and forth from docked to un-docked and can't keep manually switching display settings.
Also, I tried my vm's in virtualbox and it complained as I started the vm that it was configured for 32 color but that kde is set to 24 bit.  I see no settings to change it in kde and forcing it with an xorg config file does not take.  How do I change it to 32bit color?
Some of the other quirks I can sort of deal with (clock size, qt/gtk integration, others) but those above will keep me gnome until they can be solved.
$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 06)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 06)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev 06)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev 06)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a6)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 06)
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (rev 35)
ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 02)
ff:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 02)
ff:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 02)
ff:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 02)
ff:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)
ff:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)

Answer 1

The problem I'm having is more extreme than yours but possibly related. (There's a thread here somewhere and a forum thread on the KDE site.) I need to sit down and try to recreate the issue in my office.
Apart from the configure-every-time on connect and configure-twice on disconnect, I also tend to find I lose all display on disconnect (not immediately but shortly after). Either ll display for X or all display period.
It is probably the biggest issue I have right now (apart from the new kernels - but the lts one works great).
Possibly related:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=291819
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 0#p1079700
http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=101058
There are some other bugs/threads on the KDE sites if you search...