Last week I uploaded packages for KDE SC 4.11.5 and those were targeting Slackware 14.1. A solid and safe update of KDE for the stable release of Slackware, a wise choice. Today however, I present the first increment to the newer KDE SC 4.12 series. The two series are being developed in parallel with both delivering their final batch on 29 april 2014 (with releases of KDE 4.11.9 and 4.12.5) . KDE SC 4.12.1 was announced today.

KDE Software Compilation 4.12 focuses on improving and polishing KDE Applications. This package set also features the latest version 4.11.5 of the Plasma Workspaces (aka the kde-workspace package). The Workspaces have been feature-frozen at the end of the 4.11 cycle which is why you won’t find a 4.12.1 version of the package. Starting with KDE SC 4.12.2, the KDE Workspaces 4.11.x releases will be synchronized with those of KDE Applications and Development Platform 4.12.x.

I built these packages on Slackware-current. I have not tested them on Slackware 14.1 but people have reported that the previous KDE release 4.12.0 ran on it without issues.

What’s new in KDE 4.12?

KDE keeps an up-to-date feature plan page for the 4.12 release, as they do for every release past and future. The Kwebkit package has been updated as promised in my previous post. I also updated (lib)kscreen and oxygen-gtk{2,3} packages. A LibRaw package was added as a new dependency for KDE 4.12.0 and of course it’s still there for KDE 4.12.1. An updated version of partitionmanager was added to my repository shortly after the release of KDE 4.12.0 because the version which Slackware ships in its “/extra” package section stopped working. I realize now that I never announced that in the ktown ChangeLog.txt. Due to it being New Year’s Eve at the time I guess.

How to upgrade to KDE 4.12 ?

You will find all the installation/upgrade instructions that you need in the accompanying README file. That README also contains basic information for KDE recompilation using the provided SlackBuild script.

You are strongly advised to read and follow these installation/upgrade instructions!

Where to find packages for KDE 4.12 ?

Download locations are listed below (you will find the sources in ./source/4.12.1/ and packages in /current/4.12.1/ subdirectories). Using a mirror is preferred because you get more bandwidth from a mirror and it’s friendlier to the owners of the master server!

Have fun! Eric