Packaging a new KDE Software Compilation is verging on boring – believe it or not.
The KDE developers are so unbelievably focused on quality and co-ordination that preparing packages for the new release is a matter of checking the “kde-packagers” mailing list for messages about updated dependencies, adjusting the build scripts (disabling obsolete patches, bumping version numbers) and starting the build on a fresh clean virtual machine. It usually does not take more than a single pass to build all the packages for incremental releases.
Real investigative work is usually waiting around the corner only when jumping to a new major release (re-designing KDE.SlackBuild for the new modular build, almost two years back was a good example of that).
And today’s release of KDE SC 4.10.4 is no different – the packages were built without issues soon after I got hold of the sources. Now that the sources are available for public download, I have uploaded my Slackware 14 packages to the servers.
Note that these are built for – and should be used only on – Slackware 14.
I assume it will not take long for Pat to add KDE 4.10.4 to Slackware-current. So if you are running our development version of Slackware, just wait for Pat and do not install my packages – they will have issues on -current.
KDE’s Dolphin File Manager
What to expect of KDE 4.10.4?
As with every incremental KDE release, this brings you “bugfixes and translation updates” and no new functionality. The over 50 recorded bugfixes include improvements to the Personal Information Management suite Kontact, the File Manager Dolphin, and others, according to the KDE 4.10.4 fix set.
How to upgrade to KDE 4.10.4?
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. Please note that if you are not yet running one of my KDE builds, you should upgrade from a (preferably) full installation of Slackware 14. I had some feedback from Slackware users who installed Slackware 14, excluded the whole “KDE” package series from that installation, and then installed my KDE packages on top. That way, you will be missing a lot of packages, several of them essential to the proper functioning of KDE! If you skipped the whole KDE series and install my KDE packages, you still need to get these from a Slackware 14 package tree (the essentials are highlighted in blue):
amarok
k3b
kaudiocreator
kdevelop-pg-qt
kplayer
polkit-kde-agent-1
polkit-kde-kcmodules-1
wicd-kde
You are strongly advised to read and follow these installation/upgrade instructions!
Where to find packages?
Download locations are listed below (you will find the sources in ./source/4.10.4/ and packages in ./14.0/4.10.4/ 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!
- http://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/ (the master repository), rsync URI: rsync://alien.slackbook.org/alien/ktown/
- http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/alien-kde/ (my fast US mirror), rsync URI: rsync://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/alien-kde/
- http://repo.ukdw.ac.id/alien-kde/ (willysr’s Indonesian mirror), rsync URI: rsync://repo.ukdw.ac.id/alien-kde/
- http://slackware.org.uk/people/alien-kde/ (fast UK based mirror, run by Darren Austin), rsync URI: rsync://slackware.org.uk/people/alien-kde/
Have fun! Eric
Excellent as always Eric! Many thanks!
Well, if packaging KDE SC 4.10 is getting boring for you, perhaps packaging the 4.11 pre-releases might entertain you? Is that testing initiative KDE started with KDE SC 4.9 still going? Also, I noticed that KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.11 will be an LTS release. Do you think such LTS updates might make it into a Slackware release containing KDE SC 4.11?
As an aside, I may just find myself reviewing the mirror list for slackpkg next month in anticipation of Slackware 14.1
Hi, after upgrading to KDE 4.10.4 when I type a network path like “smb://192.168.1.1/somefolder” in the address bar, Dolphin says me “invalid protocol”.
I’m sure that the same network path worked well in KDE 4.10.3.
Anyone can confirm this bug/behavior?
KDE people says me that this is not a Dolphin issue.
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=320871
Worked perfectly on my Sager notebook.
Thank you for making this available for Slackware stable users.
+David: have same problem in -current branch after upgrade to 4.10.4
Yeah that is a bug in the Samba kioslave. I found a fix, and it will be applied to the kde-runtime package for Slackware 14 (by me) and -current (by Pat).
Eric
After upgrading to -current, Dolphin works fine.
Thanks to Eric and Pat!
David (and MiRacLe) – the dolphin bug had been fixed in my own kde-runtime package a few days ago already… same patch as used by Pat in -current. There was no need to upgrade to -current just for that fix…
FYI, there is a RSS feed of “Alien’s Unofficial KDE Slackware Packages” in the right sidebar of this blog, the update to kde-runtime is mentioned there.
Eric
Many thanks, worked perfectly.