Some of you may have noticed that source tarballs for KDE 4.5.1 are available now.

I talked to Pat about this last week, to see if this release could end up in Slackware-current. He answered that that would be a possibility. There are several other things brewing for slackware-current, so I have no real good estimate of when that will happen.

If it takes too long, I will just build packages for KDE 4.5.1 myself. There are no new dependencies and slackware-current is fully up to date with regard to support for KDE 4.5.1.

Here’s hoping!

Eric

As you may know I am using KDE for my daily work. However, I use XFCE from time to time – for example when I have to run a remote X session over XDMCP and want to keep a fluid feel to the desktop.

When I was working in XFCE yesterday I wanted to use VLC to check a video file on my computer, and I was in for a surprise when clicking “Media > Open file” made my VLC hang indefinitely!

I remembered a discussion about this phenomenon on LinuxQuestions.org and indeed the solution as pointed out in that thread works for me.

What happens here?

The core of the issue, is that Qt4 makes an incorrect assumption about which GTK+ theme engine to use. A GTK+ theme engine makes a Qt4 application blend in nicely with a GTK+ based desktop environment such as XFCE, by using GTK+ instead of Qt4 to render all graphical components.

There are a few GTK+ theme engines available – one of them is QGtkStyle which is part of Qt4 in Slackware. However, Qt4 libraries look at the environment variable “GTK2_RC_FILES” in order to find out how to configure the GTK theme engine.

If this environment variable is not (or incorrectly) set, then Qt4 assumes that GTK+ is using GTK-QT-Engine which is not part of Slackware (GTK-QT-Engine is used to give GTK appplications a Qt feel when they are running in KDE) and it will not correctly apply the QGtkStyle engine. It sets QGtkStyle to use the GTK style Clearlooks, and outputs an error message which you will sometimes be able to see if you started a Qt-based application from a terminal:

QGtkStyle cannot be used together with the GTK_Qt engine.

This can be solved by explicitly telling Qt4 where Slackware keeps its GTK+ configuration files, and then making sure a GTK+ theme is configured there.

• Define the environment variable “GTK2_RC_FILES” in one of these files: ${HOME}/.xinitrc (applies to just you) or in /etc/profile.d/qt4.sh (applies system-wide) by adding the follwing two lines to that file (assuming you are using bash as your default shell):

  GTK2_RC_FILES="$HOME/.gtkrc-2.0:/etc/gtk-2.0/gtkrc"

  export GTK2_RC_FILES

• Create a new file (or edit the existing) ${HOME}/.gtkrc-2.0 (so that the GTK theme applies to just you) or /etc/gtk-2.0/gtkrc (so that it applies system-wide) and add the following line to it:

  gtk-theme-name="GTK+"

That should fix VLC’s “Media > File Open” dialog which will now appear instantly.

Note: You can choose a GTK+ theme for all your QT4 based applications if you want by running “qtconfig” and in the tab “Appearance” set the “Select GUI Style” to “GTK+” instead of “Desktop Settings (default)“.

Eric

KDE 4.5.0 is available!

… and I can offer you packages for KDE Software Compilation 4.5.0 for Slackware-current. The 4.5.0 packages are accompanied by a README which explains the straight-forward  installation/upgrade steps. As always, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available.

This marks another milestone for the KDE project with numerous improvements to the KDE 4.4 which we have in Slackware at the moment. Congratulations to everyone who helped in making this release possible, even if its release date slipped a bit instead of delivering on time as usual.  The delay allowed for the fix of a few severe application bugs, so in the end we all benefit.

You will need to run Slackware-current dated Saturday July 31, 2010 or newer. My packages for KDE 4.5.0 are not guaranteed to work on Slackware 13.1, so if you want KDE 4.5.0 you are encouraged to upgrade to Slackware-current!

The additional dependencies which you have to take care of on slackware-current (i.e. non-KDE and/or non-Slackware packages) are limited to just one package, thanks to Pat Volkerding who applied several updates to Slackware-current recently – so that the requirements for running KDE 4.5.0 would be met from the start. That single remaining dependency is libdbusmenu-qt (which does not yet exist in Slackware).  You’ll find it in the “deps” directory.

If you are adventurous and want to try this on Slackware 13.1 anyway, I think you could get lucky by installing/upgrading the packages which you will find in the “deps” directory of my KDE 4.4.5 package repository for Slackware 13.1. Basically, all those updated “deps” packages are are the real difference between Slackware-13.1 and slackware-current at this moment.

NOTE 1:

The kdepim and kdepim-runtime packages are not part of KDE 4.5.0 !!
The PIM developers decided that their applications are not yet stable enough to get included, and instead you are encouraged to keep the kdepim and kdepim-runtime packages of Slackware 13.1 (version 4.4.3) or slackware-current (version 4.4.5).
There is one caveat: the consequence is that you will only be able to use the english localization of kdepim, because the language files are contained in the kde-l10n-* packages of the old version. You can not install that in parallel with the 4.5.0 version of your language files.  Perhaps I will try and split off the kdepim language files into separate packages, if I have the time (unfortunately at this moment I do not have that luxury).

NOTE 2:

If you have been running my previous alpha or beta builds of KDE 4.5.0, and if you experience strange application or plasma behaviour in 4.5.0, try with a fresh user profile. Data migration from KDE 4.4.x to 4.5.0 should not be an issue, but there may be some incompatible changes during the early betas, as mentioned by Maciej on Aaron Seigo’s blog.

And in case you think, “what a strange location for the packages, why have they not been placed in the ‘ktown’ repository“… that is a good question! By the time  this post appears on my blog, I will not be connected to the Internet. Therefore I have scheduled this post to be published in the future after I finished compiling. And since I could not make the packages publicly available ahead of the official release, I decided to hide them in plain sight… Once I get my Internet back I will move the 4.5.0 packages to the correct location, which is indeed my ktown repository.

Update (22-aug-2010): the 4.5.0 directory has finally been moved into my ktown repository and I have updated the links in this article which point to it.

Enjoy, Eric

Apparently a lot of laptop users are confronted with the issue of very low sound levels – not just in Slackware. Note that this is different from the “sound can not be un-muted” issue I experienced and which I wrote about in a previous article.

If you are among the affected users for whom the sound levels remain too low even when cranking the volume all the way up, there is away around this.

It works by enhancing the ALSA sound system with a sound pre-amplifier and adding that to the available controls. ALSA uses dmix to create the new software volume control. You can then play around with varying percentages of sound amplification. You will have to find an optimum between acceptible sound levels and the possible sound distortion which will be introduced by this pre-amp.

To add the software pre-amp system-wide you need to open the ALSA configuration file “/etc/asound.conf” in an editor (Slackware does not create that file by default, so you may have to edit a new file) and add the following definition to it (note that if you have multiple sound cards and the default is not “card 0” you may have to alter the definition a bit):

pcm.!default {
      type plug
      slave.pcm "softvol"
  }

  pcm.softvol {
      type softvol
      slave {
          pcm "dmix"
      }
      control {
          name "Pre-Amp"
          card 0
      }
      min_dB -5.0
      max_dB 20.0
      resolution 6
  }

If the Pre-amp control does not appear in your mixer window, you may have to replace the line that says:

type plug

with this line:

type hw

I received a report that the default block of code does not always work. Changing “plug” to “hw” may be necessary with some laptops.

Then, save the file and reboot your computer (you could also try running “/etc/rc.d/rc.alsa restart” but I can not guarantee that that will re-initialize ALSA correctly).

After reboot, you will find an additional control in your mixer (alsamixer or kmix) called “Pre-Amp”. Note that KDE’s mixer does not show all controls by default and you may have to add “Pre-Amp” to the visible controls.

This information was taken from the unofficial ALSA Wiki: http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/How_to_use_softvol_to_control_the_master_volume and it was also offered as a solution in this LinuxQuestions.org post on the Slackware forum.

Eric

There is a pending KDE 4.5.0 release, which needs to be built for slackware-current. Then there is also VLC 1.1.2 which was released a few days ago… and those packages need to be built for Slackware 13.1 (so that they can join my main repository). I have only one “build box” which is fairly old and sporting a CPU without hardware virtualization capabilities.

Decisions, decisions… there’s only 24 hours in a day.

So I decided to start with building a test set of KDE 4.5.0 (the sources of which I already have) because that will be a big event for a lot of people, and leave the new VLC for another time. Don’t worry! Linux users will find that the 1.1.2 release of VLC does not offer anything worthwhile, except perhaps for some bugfixes in the DVB (digital video) module. The VLC 1.1.1 packages which I have created for Slackware are still very much OK.

Having to build packages for Slackware 13.1 as well as -current, and for two architectures (32-bit and 64-bit) is proving a bit too much for that old computer (which happens to be my home desktop as well), so I decided to use the donation money that has been accumulating and order an Athlon II X4 640 boxed CPU, along with an Asus M4N68T motherboard and 8 GB of RAM, completed with a 2 TB SATA hard drive. Once all that arrives on my doorstep, I will assemble a full computer using the case I have here (with a motherboard that caught fire last month because of a crappy condensator). That machine will become my new server.

Thanks to all of you who took the trouble to click my PayPal button – you know who you are, even if I did not thank you in person. Your gracious gifts will be spent with the purpose of making Slackware an even better experience.

By the way – I intend to use qemu-kvm to run a load of virtual machines on that computer, so that it will be easier to build in parallel. I have been considering VMware, VirtualBox and Xen as well. I decided against VMware for being closed-source. VirtualBox could still find its way onto the computer at some later stage; I decided against it because of the mixed license model where you get additional functionality only in the closed-source version. And Xen, well I am quite interested in how that works and performs, but unfortunately it requires a patched “xenified” kernel for the host and Linux guest. That was one bridge too far for me.

Nevertheless, there was a recent post from Chris Abela on the slackbuilds.org mailing list about the “The Xenification of Slack” which will most certainly help Slackware users get jumpstarted into the Xen world. Worth checking out, there is a tarball attached to that post with scripts and configuration files. Well done.

Enough of this, time for a beer.

Cheers, Eric

This time, the packages which I created are for Slackware-current only (32-bit as well as 64-bit). The packages are available in my ktown repository. Slackware 13.1 users who want to move to KDE 4.5 should take this opportunity to upgrade to Slackware-current now. If you want to stick with Slackware 13.1 but still want the latest stable KDE then your best shot will be my version of KDE 4.4.5 packages and dependencies that are good for Slackware 13.1 (I will keep those around for quite a while).

With regard to my new set of KDE 4.5-rc3 packages: there is one dependency which is not yet part of Slackware (libdbusmenu-qt) and a single dependency which got updated (soprano) but other than that, Slackware-current is fully up-to-date for KDE 4.5. You will find the libdbusmenu-qt and updated soprano packages in the “deps” directory.

The 4.5-rc3 packages are accompanied by a README which explains the straight-forward  installation/upgrade steps.

This will be your last chance to influence the quality and stability of this new KDE. Go and find bugs… and get them fixed  by reporting them on http://bugs.kde.org/ .

Cheers, Eric

Just a quick message before I hit the bed,

I uploaded some Slackware packages for your consumption.

• vlc – the new stable release 1.1.1 became available for download today and my packages are now ready to be grabbed at http://slackware.org.uk/people/alien/restricted_slackbuilds/vlc/ (this UK mirror hosts the packages with export restrictions – they contain mp3 and aac audio encoders) or http://slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/vlc/ . Several bugs got fixed and features added. See the VLC ChangeLog for details.
• wiipresent – this package needed a rebuild (actually the supporting libwiimote needed a rebuild) because of the updated BlueZ stack in Slackware 13.1.
  I use the wiipresent software for presentations (duh)… It allows me to use my son’s Wii controller (the wiimote) as a pointing/navigation device so that I can walk the stage comfortably.
• wine – this was recently released in a stable 1.2 version, after lots and lots of release candidates. Please note that my wine packages will only run 32-bit Windows binaries. Even the package I created for Slackware64 ! If someone convinces me that it is worth the effort to add support for 64-bit Windows to my wine package, I will add that, but not before. Also note that wine on Slackware64 requires multilib. You could build wine on a pure 64-bit Slackware but then it would only run 64-bit Windows binaries. That is not what I chose to offer you.

I hope you enjoy these updates!

Eric

Still, already we have the next installment (and it was announced on the dot so fast that I was not able to finish compiling my packages in time)… the second release candidate of KDE Software Compilation 4.5!

The packages which I created for Slackware 13.1 (32-bit as well as 64-bit) are available in my ktown repository. Do not forget to check out and update the “dependencies” (non-KDE packages), Qt being the largest of those. Qt 4.6.3 is supposed to fix a few bugs that affect KDE’s plasma desktop. Yes, this time you really get qt-4.6.3… my initial mix-up  when I released packages for kde-4.4.5 has been resolved.

You will find the updated dependencies in the “deps” directory. These are the same packages as the ones I uploaded together with my KDE 4.4.5 packages – only the “libdbusmenu-qt” package is new – so that the transition should be easy.

The 4.5-rc2 packages are accompanied by a README which explains the straight-forward  installation/upgrade steps.

Target for the final release of KDE 4.5 is still august, 2010.

Enjoy! Eric

Anyway, you can find the packages for Slackware 13.1 (32-bit as well as 64-bit) in my ktown repository. This time, there are several non-KDE packages which received an update, Qt being the largest of those. Qt 4.6.3 is supposed to fix a few bugs that affect KDE’s plasma desktop. You will find the updated dependencies in the “deps” directory.

There is a README which explains the straight-forward  installation/upgrade steps.

I expect that slackware-current will follow suit (soon-ish… perhaps in one of two weeks?) with an official set of packages from Pat, and with the same updates to non-KDE packages which should make the upgrade from my packages to slackware-current real easy.

I invite you to check out my KDE packages  before that time (your feedback gives us the chance to iron out any wrinkles before KDE 4.4.5 enters slackware-current).

In case you had not noticed earlier, there are koffice-2.2.0 packages too, inside the KDE 4.4.5 directory tree. I had built them after I uploaded KDE 4.4.4 but they never got a real good announcement. By the way, if you subscribe to my ktown RSS feed, you will not miss out on updates like that!

Now that koffice-2.2.1 is about to be released, I hope that Pat uses that for the next Slackware update.

Have fun!

Eric

There is still no official announcement from KDE team about this RC1 but it will without doubt appear soon on kde.org after the weekend.

In the meantime I have been building packages (32-bit and 64-bit) that you can install on Slackware 13.1 or -current. See my ktown repository for installation/upgrade instructions.

Please note that this release candidate will likely still have bugs – if you find any please report them to bugs.kde.org so that we can expect a great 4.5 release in august.

You can download 4.4.90 from the server using http:

lftp -c “open http://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/ ; mirror 4.4.90″

or using rsync (mind the dot at the end):

rsync -av rsync://alien.slackbook.org/alien-kde/4.4.90 .

Also next week, there will be a release of KDE SC 4.4.5 (the last in the 4.4 series) and if everything goes as planned, this should end up in slackware-current – meaning, I won’t have to build packages for 4.4.5.

Cheers, Eric