My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

KDE 5_15.03 for Slackware-current

qt-kde-620x350Here’s the latest and greatest of KDE’s software collection (Frameworks, Plasma, Applications). SInce my last ‘ktown’ release, all of KDE’s sources have been renewed, and today I am making public a package set for KDE 5 aka Plasma 5 with version 5_15.03: my March ’15 release.

This incremental release of KDE 5_15.03 consists of Frameworks 5.8.0, Plasma 5.2.2 and Applications 14.12.3 plus the latest updates of the KDE 4 Long Term Support (LTS) packages kdelibs, kdepimlibs, kdepim, kdepim-runtime and kde-workplace.

About Plasma 5

Slackware-current will stick with KDE 4, and therefore the next version of Slackware will likely ship with KDE 4.14.3 plus the latest LTS updates. KDE 5, or Plasma 5 as many people like to call it, is not yet fit for the average user. It is stable, has some nice new concepts but if you are not the curious or tinkering kind, you will be better off with Slackware’s KDE 4.10.5 or my own KDE 4.14.3.

If you are curious and like to tinker, and don’t care if some functionality is temporarily missing from Plasma 5 that you were used to in KDE 4, then my Plasma 5 packages will be a nice and interesting update for your Slackware-current computer (32-bit or 64-bit).

Much has been said and written about Plasma 5, not all of that has been positive, but like with so many things, sometimes you need to look for yourself and make your own judgement instead of having to rely on others. You can also read some of my older posts on the blog that give you a good introduction about why I started this KDE 5 project for Slackware even though it may take years to see its appearance in Slackware. These posts contain notes and tips that enable you to transision to Plasma 5 more easily. Worth reading them all if you haven’t yet:

So after installing these packages there will no longer be a KDE 4 desktop on your computer. There is no choosing between KDE 4 and Plasma 5 – KDE 4 will be mostly replaced (I say “mostly” because there are still a lot of KDE 4 applications in this release – wait for Applications 15.04 to see more applications transition to Frameworks 5).

I run this Plasma 5 desktop on my laptop all the time and it’s getting better with every incremental release. Don’t worry, if you are disappointed with Plasma 5, you can always revert to one of the KDE 4 releases (Slackware’s or mine).

The highlights of this 5_15.03 March release are:

  • KDE Frameworks have been updated to 5.8.0 (includes two new Frameworks: KPeople and KXmlRpcClient)
  • KDE Plasma has been updated to 5.2.2 (bugfixes only)
  • KDE Applications have been updated to 14.12.3 (bugfix release, no new KF5 ports)
  • KDE Extragear was updated with version 2.9.1 of the Calligra office suite
  • The “deps” directory for this release contains two updates to stock Slackware packages: libwpd and grantlee. These version bumps are required by the new versions of calligra and kdepim respectively
  • And there’s two new “deps” packages as well: librevenge and libodfgen. Both of those are required for the new version of libwpd

Installing or upgrading Frameworks 5, Plasma 5 and Applications

As always, the accompanying README file contains full installation & upgrade instructions. Note that the packages are available in several subdirectories below “kde”, instead of directly in “kde”. This makes it easier for me to do partial updates of packages. The subdirectories are “kde4”, “kde4-extragear”, “frameworks” “plasma”, “plasma-extra” and “applications”.

Upgrading to this KDE 5 is non-trivial. You will have to remove old KDE packages manually. If you do not have KDE installed at all, you will have to install some of Slackware’s own KDE 4 packages manually. I can not guarantee that there will be no deal-breakers for you (missing functionality or persistent crashes).

Note:

If you are using slackpkg+, have already moved to KDE 5_15.01 or newer and are adventurous, you can try upgrading using these four commands, this seemed to work (assuming in this example that you tagged my KDE 5 repository “ktown_testing”):
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg install ktown_testing
# slackpkg upgrade ktown_testing
# removepkg sddm-theme-breeze

Where to get the new packages for Plasma 5

Download locations are listed below (you will find the sources in ./source/5/ and packages in /current/5/ subdirectories). If you are interested in the development of KDE 5 for Slackware, you can peek at my git repository too.

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

36 Comments

  1. Eduardo

    Great news! Thank you Eric!

  2. Crdone

    Would there be any benefit to using any of the updated packages in kde4 and/or kde4-extragear with your KDE 4.14.3 package. For example kdelibs-4.14.6 and the kde pim files?
    BTW, will we ever see KDE 4.14.3 in -current? It has been almost 17 months since the release of Slackware 14.1. Has Mr. Volkerding been ill?

  3. alienbob

    Hi Crdone – no, yes, no.
    I have on my TODO list an update for the KDE 4.14.3 packages in my repository, using the new sources for kdelibs, kdepim*, kde-workspace, calligra but for now you just have to be patient.

  4. Michelino

    Thanks Eric,
    good job, as usual.
    With this release even the owncloud icon bug disappears.

  5. MiRacLe

    after upgrading (current / kde 4.14.3 -> kde 5_15.02_02) lost suspend/hibernate actions from kde\’s menus, update to KDE 5_15.03 not fixes this issue. This is known problem of kde5?

  6. alienbob

    MiRacLe, yes that is a known bug, and that is why I advised everyone to read my previous blogs so that I do not have to keep repeating myself…
    See https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=344456

  7. Arief JR

    Hi eric !!! i want update new kde using slackpkgplus. but i found this:
    # slackpkg install ktown5

    and output:

    Looking for SLACKPKGPLUS_ktown5 in package list. Please wait… DONE

    No packages match the pattern for install. Try:

    /usr/sbin/slackpkg reinstall|upgrade

    and my configuration on /etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf:

    # Configuration for slackpkg+. See /usr/doc/slackpkg+-*/README for more details

    # Enable (on) / Disable (off) slackpkg+
    SLACKPKGPLUS=on

    # set to \’0\’ to never show the download progress bar
    # set to \’1\’ to show the bar only in download packages (default)
    # set to \’2\’ to always show the download bar
    # set to \’3\’ for a debug mode
    VERBOSE=1

    # By default slackpkg+ deny to install 32bit packages.
    # Set this flag to \’on\’ allow slackpkg+ to install 32bit packages on a 64bit slackware
    # installation (possibly unsafe). Please, do not install both 32 and 64bit of the same
    # package to avoid problems, and NEVER upgrade exitant 64bit packages with relative 32bit package.
    # Do not forget to install the multilibs.
    ALLOW32BIT=off

    # Enable (1) / Disable (0) the official slackpkg blacklist. May be useful to temporarily skip
    # the slackware blacklist. You can also override it from command line:
    # \’USEBL=0 slackpkg upgrade-all\’
    USEBL=1

    # Add custom option to \’wget\’.
    # You can solve the repository indisponibility issue by set a timeout here
    WGETOPTS=\”–timeout=20 –tries=2\”

    # Enable (on) / Disable (off) notification events (see notifymsg.conf)
    #ENABLENOTIFY=off

    # Enable (on) / Disable (off) the greylist feature. See /etc/slackpkg/greylist
    GREYLIST=on

    # If two or more repositories contains some same packages, you can specify
    # from which repository you prefer to search it.
    # The syntax is \”:\”
    # Accepts regular expressions. To give priority to an entire repository use \”\”

    # Examples:
    #PKGS_PRIORITY=( restricted:vlc )
    #PKGS_PRIORITY=( myrepo )
    #
    PKGS_PRIORITY=( ktown5 )

    # If you want a multilib system, uncomment the multilib repository and set:
    #PKGS_PRIORITY=( patches:gcc slackware64:gcc multilib )
    #
    # (Use /usr/doc/slackpkg+-*/setupmultilib.sh to setup a multilib configuration)

    # List repositories you want to use (defined below)
    # remember to launch \’slackpkg update\’ if you modify that row.
    #REPOPLUS=( multilib ktown5 alienbob restricted slackpkgplus )
    REPOPLUS=( slackpkgplus ktown5 )

    # Define mirrors (uncomment one or more mirror; remember to add it to REPOPLUS)
    # GPG Note: after adding a repository, you must to run \’slackpkg update gpg\’
    # some repositories as salixos or slackel, have a partial GPG support;
    # for that repositories you may need to run slackpkg with \’slackpkg -checkgpg=off …\’

    # Slackware 14.1 – x86_64
    #MIRRORPLUS[\’multilib\’]=http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/multilib/14.1/
    #MIRRORPLUS[\’alienbob\’]=http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/sbrepos/14.1/x86_64/
    #MIRRORPLUS[\’restricted\’]=http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/restricted_sbrepos/14.1/x86_64/
    #MIRRORPLUS[\’slacky\’]=http://repository.slacky.eu/slackware64-14.1/

    # use this to keep the slackpkg+ package updated
    MIRRORPLUS[\’slackpkgplus\’]=http://slakfinder.org/slackpkg+/

    # Slackware current – x86_64
    #MIRRORPLUS[\’multilib\’]=http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/multilib/current/
    #MIRRORPLUS[\’ukdw_current\’]=http://repo.ukdw.ac.id/alien-kde/current/testing/x86_64/
    MIRRORPLUS[\’ktown5\’]=http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/alien-kde/current/testing/x86_64/
    #MIRRORPLUS[\’alienbob\’]=http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/sbrepos/current/x86_64/
    #MIRRORPLUS[\’restricted\’]=http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/restricted_sbrepos/current/x86_64/

    # Local repository:
    #MIRRORPLUS[\’alienbob\’]=file://repositories/alien/sbrepos/14.1/x86/
    #
    # Local packages (you do not need metadata nor \’slackpkg update\’ command):
    #MIRRORPLUS[\’myrepo\’]=dir://repositories/mypackages/

    #
    # Supported Repositories (see /usr/doc/slackpkg+-* for details and notes):
    #

    #Supports GPG
    #slackpkgplus: http://slakfinder.org/slackpkg+/
    #multilib: http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/multilib/{13.37,14.0,14.1,current/
    #alienbob: http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/sbrepos/{13.37,14.0,14.1,current}/{x86,x86_64}/
    #ktown: http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/alien-kde/{13.37,14.0,14.1,current}/{latest,testing}/{x86,x86_64}/
    #restricted: http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/restricted_sbrepos/{13.37,14.0,14.1,current}/{x86,x86_64}/
    #slacky: http://repository.slacky.eu/slackware{,64}-{13.37,14.0,14.1}/
    #mled-desktop: http://www.microlinux.fr/slackware/desktop–14.1-{32,64}bit/
    #mled-extras: http://www.microlinux.fr/slackware/extras-14.1-{32,64}bit/
    #mles: http://www.microlinux.fr/slackware/server-{14.0,14.1}-{32,64}bit/
    #msb: http://slackware.org.uk/msb/{14.0,14.1}/{1.6,1.8}/{x86,x86_64}/
    #slackers: http://www.slackers.it/repository/
    #slacke17: http://ngc891.blogdns.net/pub/slacke17/slackware{,64,arm}-{14.0,14.1}/
    #studioware: http://studioware.org/files/packages/slackware{,64}-{13.37,14.0,14.1}/
    #slackonly: http://slackonly.com/pub/packages/14.1-{x86,x86_64}/
    #rlworkman: http://rlworkman.net/pkgs/{13.37,14.0,14.1}/
    #
    #Does NOT support GPG
    #salixos(*): http://download.salixos.org/{i486,x86_64}/{13.37,14.0,14.1}/
    #slackel(*): http://www.slackel.gr/repo/{i486,x86_64}/current/

    first time i update kde using slackpkgplus, what supposed to do?
    big thanks alienbob

  8. lems

    I’ve been waiting for this. Thanks, Eric. Running smooth so far.

  9. alienbob

    Arief JR – if this is your first time using that “ktown5” repository, did you run “slackpkg update gpg” and “slackpkg update” first?

  10. Ed

    Thanks Eric! Will be testing this one tonight!

  11. Arief JR

    yes i’m run “slackpkg update gpg” and “slackpkg update” before “slackpkg install ktown5”. i following this instruction in http://slakfinder.org/slackpkg+/src/README

  12. fabio

    i was waiting for it to get solved somehow in the future but since you mentioned your TODO about kde 4.14.3 update. When the time comes could you look at the phonon/gstreamer/vlc/amarok issue. Some friends have the same issue (all use intel_hda). When music starts to play it’s very loud. upon trying to change the volume it gets stuck at a very low level. If it could be of some help, i have noticed the same issue on FreeBSD with the same version of kde, with both vlc and gstreamer backend (so, not a slackware problem). Sorry if it’s off topic and thanks for the new plasma 5 packages.

  13. alienbob

    Arief JR, there is one thing that strikes me as weird: all the backslashes in your pasted slackpkgplus.conf file. Like this:

    MIRRORPLUS[\’ktown5\’]=http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/alien-kde/current/testing/x86_64/

    These backslashes do not belong in the file, how did they get there?

  14. alienbob

    fabio, if that’s a KDE bug (and it looks like it) then you should report it there, otherwise you may have to wait a long time.

  15. Arief JR

    i’m sorry, i just copy paste on konsole with command # cat /etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf and output too.
    and i don’t know backslashes show on this comment, but in my configuration slackpkgplus.conf nothing backslashes.

  16. Robby

    Hi Eric, thanks for the update. I’m having a random ( more often than not ) issue with Amarok where it is immediately unresponsive after starting it up. The following thread has more info:

    http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?p=5337338#post5337338

    And it looks like I’m not the only one.

  17. phenixia2003

    Arief JR, Maybe you have blacklisted alienbob packages. Check your /etc/slackpkg/blacklist, and remove lines with pattern:
    [0-9]+alien

  18. Arief JR

    this problem has solved, thanks for answer. yes phenixia, i forget to comment on /etc/slackpkg/blacklist but thank you.
    and my kde has smooth, thanks eric. 🙂

  19. Darren Drapkin

    When will it be possable to migrate one’s kde4 configs to kde5, rather than making a big jump and having to start again?

  20. alienbob

    Hi Darren,

    KDE 5 writes to the same configuration directories as KDE 4 (~./kde , ~/.config and ~/.local). As long as the developers took care of migration paths where required, you should just upgrade and be fine. Most applications are still KDE 4 based anyway. And the Plasma 5 workspace is not compatible with the old Plasma 4 workspace, you will have to dress up your desktop with all the wallpapers icons and widgets from scratch.
    Only my preview for KDE 5, last summer, used separated configuration directories and at that time, you could install the KDE 5 preview in parallel with KDE 4. That is no longer the case.

  21. alienbob

    Darren, I just noticed http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/migrating-from-kde4-to-kde5-4175539110/

    You aren’t worried about migrating KDE 4 settings to KDE 5 but want to know what happens to all the programs you added yourself?
    They will work just like they do on KDE 4. As long as the library dependencies are still met, they will start and use their configurations as always.
    Perhaps you’ll have to recompile some packages in case they are depending on versions that are shipped with KDE 4 and are no longer available in KDE 5, but I can not make any assumptions about those.

  22. Darren Drapkin

    Thanks, I no longer need to play hide and seek looking for configurations. Probably also, I will not have many worries with my own hand-installed stuff. However, there may remain the problem with wigets and wall papers, or are these stored in~/.kde etc. ?

  23. MiRacLe

    With last update from -current branch icu4c was upgraded from 51 to 54. All qt5 libs and apps now broken.

  24. alienbob

    Well yes, that is why this is called “testing”… it was fairly predictable that the big update would wreck havoc in KDE 5. I have not been able to upgrade my KDE 5 laptop yet, so I can not yet tell what is required. It will probably take until the weekend before I can free up some time to look into this. Worst case, everything needs to be recompiled and that will take a long time…

  25. MiRacLe

    Sorry for annoyance, i\’m found LQ-thread about this.

  26. alienbob

    Don’t be sorry. This is the perfect place to discuss your issues with KDE 5 and the -current update.

  27. Eduardo

    Hi Eric. Do you have any points on what to do with our KDE5 setups after yesterday’s big update?

  28. alienbob

    Hi Eduardo,

    Unless you want to find out yourself by recompiling anything that gives you errors, you’ll have to wait until I have time for a new KDE 5 myself. The slackware-current update has many of the deps now, so I can get rid of those. And instead of recompiling the KDE packages I have, I will update Frameworks, Plasma and Applications with new releases.

    However, I have only one computer that compiles my packages in virtual machines. It is currently compiling a new LibreOffice for slackware-current (that too is broken) ahd it takes a _long_ time to compile in a virtual machine… and then I still need to do the 32-bit package.
    The changes to the new versions of Plasma and Applications are quite extensive and I have been working all night to update the KDE.SlackBuild framework for new and renamed packages. Part of the new sources are kdenlive and kde-telepathy but I think I will skip those for now, because they demand many new deps.

  29. Alan Aversa

    I had to downgrade icu4c from 54.1 to 51.2 and upgrade libxcb from 1.9.1 to 1.11. I’m not sure why to get Plasma to start. I’m not sure why.

  30. Alan Aversa

    Emacs says libopenjp2.so.7 is missing, and dolphin says libgstapp-0.10.so.0 is missing.

    And my kwallet is broken, too…

  31. alienbob

    Hi Alan

    Like I said and as shown in the repository URL, Plasma 5 is a “testing” environment on top of slackware-current. You can expect some breakage at some points in time. A massive library upgrade in -current causes such breakage. Unfortunately, there are other broken packages too, and because I decided to fix LibreOffice first, creating new packages for that software eats up two of my working days… I start the compilation while I am at home and then the compilation runs while I am at work. First try, there was an ICU related linking error and I noticed that when I came back from work… a day wasted.

    The libgstapp-0.10.so.0 library is part of the new gst-plugins-base0 package, did you install all the new packages that were added in the latest slackware-current batch? That’s 77 NEW packages to install.
    This weekend I will work on an uodate for my KDE 5 packages which should resolve the current breakage.

  32. alienbob

    About Emacs: the library it’s reporting as misisng is part of another NEW package: openjpeg.

  33. Alan Aversa

    Thanks, Alienbob, for all your work. Plasma works very well otherwise: it’s fast and beautiful.

  34. Alan Aversa

    Can we update to KDE 4.14.3 applications? Will that break anything?

  35. alienbob

    Hi Alan

    I would not try to mix the two. If KDE 5 is too unstable at the moment, it might be wiser to (temporarily) switch to the KDE 4.14.3 of Slackware-current.

    Off the top of my head, this should remove KDE 5 cleanly and install Slackare’s KDE if you are using slackpkg+ :

    (1) with my http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/alien-kde/current/testing/ URL still present in your slackpkgplus.conf :
    # slackpkg remove kde

    (2) comment my ktown repsitory out in slackpkgplus.conf

    # slackpkg update
    # slackpkg install kde
    # slackpkg install-new
    # slackpkg upgrade-all

    And if you want to clean up any dependencies I added for KDE 5, you can examine the output of:

    # slackpkg clean-system

  36. Alan Aversa

    Thanks, but it’s actually stable enough, and the video a lot faster. (I was having some strange corrupt font problems before, but not since using Plasma; I’m using an Intel Integrated Graphics Controller rev. 18 graphics card on a 4 year old System76 laptop.) Your LibreOffice update made it work with Plasma. Firefox, Thunderbird, etc. work.

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