My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

New KDE: 4.13.3

The weekend in San Diego was a good time to get rested from my training activities (training a new helpdesk team here) and prepare Slackware packages for KDE’s monthly maintenance release 4.13.3. These packages were built for Slackware -current and have not been tested to work properly on Slackware 14.1. YMMV

I hope that this final 4.13 release will work its way into Slackware-current. After the recent kernel updates in -current and other stability updates and functional enhancements, today saw an awesome upgrade of X.Org and the stage is now set for an upgrade from the rather stale KDE 4.10 to a new super stable and feature-rich KDE 4.13!

Then I can finally move to working on a package set for Frameworks 5 and Plasma 5, both of which got released after I started my US trip (Plasma 5 was released earlier today). The evenings in my hotel give me little opportunity to do the required testing/rebuilding/retesting. And yes, getting loaded with two pints of Stone IPA, the local alcoholic beverage, causes the brain to wander off .-)

News for all you conservative types: when moving to KDE 4.14 in august, I will build a set of KDE 4.13 packages for Slackware 14.1 to please those who prefer a stable Slackware and have no desire to run -current.

What’s new in KDE 4.13.3 ?

This is another maintenance release, so it’s targeting more stability and fixing bugs. The packages I upgraded next to KDE 4.13.3 are kdeconnect-kde (even more cool things to do with your Android phone) and the Calligra office suite (upgraded to the very latest version 2.8.5). Search my older posts on KDE 4.13 if you want to know more about what the highlights of this release cycle are.

How to upgrade to KDE 4.13.3 ?

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 4.13.3 ?

Download locations are listed below (you will find the sources in ./source/4.13.3/ and packages in /current/4.13.2/ 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

56 Comments

  1. Deny Dias

    Whoa! This one was scary!

    First issue: Patrick did not provided a new xf86-video-intel with the yesterday’s X updates. This brakes X entirely after reboot for the ones the relies on this hardware. Luckly, he realized this after a while (and a linuxquestions.org post: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/tue-jul-15-23-53-10-utc-2014-x-updates-breaks-x-4175511224/#post5204557) and provided the package later, but it was not spread to mirrors yet (at least it was not when I was writing this). So, for the ones which got no KDE at all after the update, get the package at http://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware64-current/slackware64/x/xf86-video-intel-2.99.912-x86_64-1.txz and install it manually.

    Second issue: Eric did not provide updated libxcb packages yet. So there is no libxcb-compat32 yet. You have to download the i486 version at http://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-current/slackware/x/libxcb-1.10-i486-1.txz and create your own compat32 package with the command:

    $ convertpkg-compat32 -i libxcb-1.10-i486-1.txz -o libxcb-compat32-1.10-x86_64-1compat32.txz

    Third issue: when you boot your KDE up, you’ll find that you have no window decorations, which makes things feel (and look) very strange… This is because Kwin has not been loaded as it’s expecting some libxcb missing parts (the package from the second issue). It has no /usr/lib*/libxcb-sync.so.0 link to /usr/lib*/libxcb-sync.so.1.0.0. You have to create these manually with the commands:

    $ cd /usr/lib64;ln -s libxcb-sync.so.1.0.0 libxcb-sync.so.0
    $ cd /usr/lib;ln -s libxcb-sync.so.1.0.0 libxcb-sync.so.0

    After reboot (or exit KDE and startx), you’ll get the things as they used to be.

    A note: there are glitches with this new X. Some parts of the screen just doesn’t get rendered. If you type something and nothing comes on the screen, try minimize/maximize the window. Also, some resizing could not work fine for the same reason.

    Anyway, thank you Eric for this new KDE milestone. I’m looking forward for the new Framework/Plasma 5 in August.

  2. Deny Dias

    Oh! There is another one…

    Fourth issue: if your NetworkManager Applet do not load, that’s because the libnm-qt package is also missing something. To solve it, run:

    # cd /usr/lib64;ln -s libNetworkManagerQt.so.1 libNetworkManagerQt.so.0

    One last thing: all the commands from my previous comment (except convertpkg-compat32) should be run with root privileges (#), not as user ($). After you create the libxcb-compat32, you can install it with:

    # installpkg libxcb-compat32-1.10-x86_64-1compat32

  3. Deny Dias

    More info on the X glitches: it appears that it is, in some extent, related with conky using composites in some weird way. If you you use conky and get glitches, try to close it and disable its autoload, then restart X. WFM.

  4. Robby

    Thanks Denny, I had exactly the same issue – I found the libxcb-sync issue but wasn’t sure if a soft link was the right option. All working fine now. Tricky!

  5. José Ribeiro

    Today, I upgraded to kde 4.13.3 but I have some problems. libxcb-dri3.so.0 doesn’t exist tough it’s required by X system. I had to install libevdev because I can’t move mouse and use keyboard on KDM. I also had to remove libxcb-1.9.1-x86_64-1alien.txz (from alienbob-current) and install libxcb-1.10-x86_64-1 from slackware64-current. Now, when I run slackpkg upgrade-all it tries to downgrade libxcb. What can I do to prevent that?

  6. Deny Dias

    José,

    Are you using slackpkg/slackpkg+? If yes, you can black/greylist libxcb. See /etc/slackpkg/ for the files you have to change.

  7. José Ribeiro

    Hello Deny,

    Sould I black/greylist libxcb or remove alienbob-current repo from /etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf?

  8. cwizardone

    Make the mistake of deleting the 4.13.2 files before running 4.13.3.
    Are the 4.13.2 files available anywhere?
    Thanks.

  9. Deny Dias

    José,

    Just black/greylist is enough. No need to remove the entire repo (multilib, not -current). And you could even remove it from the list as soon as Eric make these packages available at multilib repo.

  10. alienbob

    I’ll remove the custom libxcb from my slackware-current repository. It is no longer needed because the new package in -current was built with the configure parameters I need for SDDM.

    I will probably have to recompile kwin. And I will probably have to change the BUILd number of the plasma-nm package from “1alien” to “2alien”. People for whom the NetworkManager Plasmoid won’t start: please use “upgradepkg –reinstall” to re-install the plasma-mn package and see if that solves the issue.

    My bandwidth is insufficient to attempt an upgrade to Slackware-current and my new KDE… so I’ll have to rely on your feedback to make the required changes.

    cwizardone – 4.13.2 packages won’t come back online. They will have the same issues as 4.13.3 because of the upgraded X.Org. If you want safety and stability you should not be running -current.

    Eric

  11. cwizardone

    > cwizardone – 4.13.2 packages won’t come back online.
    > They will have the same issues as 4.13.3 because of the > upgraded X.Org. If you want safety and stability you
    > should not be running -current.
    > Eric

    Well, there were no problems with KDE 4.13.2 and -current. No problems at all, until I installed 4.13.3, so I don’t think this can be entirely blamed on -current.

  12. alienbob

    cwizardone, then mention your issues with KDE 4.13.3 that were absent when running 4.13.2.

  13. Grissiom

    I don’t use conky but there is flicking some how on the desktop. So maybe we need to give the maintainers more time to test.

  14. Willy Sudiarto Raharjo

    i think it’s timing issue
    Eric built KDE long before Pat announced the changes in current, so for now, please wait until Eric rebuilt some packages to link against the correct library version available on -current.

  15. Grissiom

    Update: It seems the flicker is only happens to Chrome(latest unstable). Firefox seems to be OK.

  16. Deny Dias

    Eric,

    ‘upgradepkg –reinstall’ or ‘removepkg;installpkg’ don’t did the trick here. The cd /usr/lib64/libNetworkManagerQt.so.0 symlink isn’t there after reinstall.

    I see you have just updated multilib. Thank you! I’m updating right away.

    For the ones complaining about this and that, here’s what I think: if you can’t afford some downtime once in a while, you MUST to stay away from Slackware -current as well as Eric’s -current ktown. Things can and will happen and it’s far more productive to help than to blame anyone for that. It’s not their fault, it’s yours.

  17. alienbob

    Deny, what file does still link against /usr/lib64/libNetworkManagerQt.so.0 then? I could not find any.

  18. Deny Dias

    Eric, here I manually linked to:

    libNetworkManagerQt.so.0 -> libNetworkManagerQt.so.1

  19. MartinOwaR

    cwizardone, I upgraded to the latest -current and tested KDE 4.13.2, it was totally unusable. So, according to the kwin issue 4.13.2 and 4.13.3 behave equally. Deny Dias’s sym link fixes my issues, I’m now on working 4.13.3.

  20. Gabriel Yong

    at startx, i have this message:

    xauth: file /root/ .serverauth.1800 does not exist

    /usr/bin/X: error while loading shared libraries: libxshmfence.so.1: connot open shared object file: No such file or directory

    what’s the reasons?

  21. Willy Sudiarto Raharjo

    Gabriel: It’s a new package added along with the updated XOrg
    run slackpkg install-new to install the added new packages

  22. Gabriel Yong

    Thanks Willy. No wonder. I had tried to roll back to KDE 4.13.2 but still not good. After slackpkg install-new i can now log-in to 4.13.2….upgrading to 4.13.3 now, lets see how it will goes…

  23. Gabriel Yong

    In KDE 4.13.3 now. Everything seem fine.

  24. cwizardone

    @alienbob,
    Issues? The “decorations” as mentioned in the first post of this thread above. Specifically, no frames. I didn’t stick around to see what else didn’t work, but logged out and switched to Xfce.

    @MartinOwaR,
    That was not my experience. I installed all the -current upgraded/added/removed files, rebooted and KDE 4.13.2 ran just fine for 3 hours up to and including the time it took to download the 4.13.3 files. Log out of KDE 4.13.2, installed the 4.13.3 files, rebooted, and the fun (trouble) started.

  25. alienbob

    Hi Deny

    What I meant was, what error were you getting before you symlinked libNetworkManagerQt.so.0 -> libNetworkManagerQt.so.1 ?

    I can not reproduce the issue here.

  26. alienbob

    cwizardone – the missing window decorationswere caused by kwin refusing to start because it wanted to link to a library which no longer exists in slackware-current.

    The rebuilt kde-workspace package in my repository fixes that and kwin works properly now.

    I also upped the BUILD number of plasma-nm package because that one was rebuilt against the new libnm-qt and needed a different package build number because of that.

    If any issues remain please report them here. I can test in a virtual machine which means, everything except OpenGL (compositing) related issues I should be able to reproduce and fix.

  27. Deny Dias

    Eric,

    I misunderstood your question. Sorry.

    Nevermind the libNetworkManagerQt.so.0 issue. I haven’t checked it right. After removepkg/installpkg plasma-nm, the error is gone. I deleted the manually create symlink and everything still works just fine.

    Also, I forgot to keep the first error message in the now vanished .xsession-errors. I’ll be more careful debugging next time.

    Sorry for the noise.

  28. Deny Dias

    Eric,

    Just so you know, kde-workspace-2alien is working great know. I removed the symlinks I’ve created before.

    The only issue still around are the xf86-video-intel glitches with OpenGL. They’re less frequent with conky off, but still happens as Grissiom reported before. As these are not related with any of your packages, so… god job and thank you, Eric!

    Let’s hope that freedesktop.org fix these glitches on upcoming branches and Patrick could release them anytime soon.

  29. José Ribeiro

    Denis,

    I will black/greylist libxcb. By the way, it is alienbob_current not alienbob_multilib: MIRRORPLUS[‘alienbob_current’]=http://192.168.0.1/slackware/sbrepos/current/x86_64/.

    Thak you 😉

  30. cwizardone

    alienbob wrote:
    > the missing window decorationswere caused by kwin
    > refusing to start because it wanted to link to a library > which no longer exists in slackware-current.
    > The rebuilt kde-workspace package in my repository
    > fixes that and kwin works properly now.
    > I also upped the BUILD number of plasma-nm
    > package…

    That did the trick. KDE 4.13.3 is now working fine.
    Thank you!

  31. alienbob

    José Ribeiro,

    I have since removed the custom libxcb package from my slackware-current repository. There is no more need to black- or greylist this.

    I left the libxcb package in the slackware 14.1 repository because the X.Org in Slackware 14.1 did not get updated and you’ll still need this custom version if you want to install SDDM.

  32. alienbob

    cwizardone, great!

    It was unfortunate that Pat’s update of X.Org and my build of KDE crossed paths, but that’s the kind of situation that has a greater-than-zero chance when you are using/testing Slackware’s development tree.
    With all the quirks worked out, I’d like to see this KDE added to -current.

    But first, looking out for the weekend!

  33. cwizardone

    Alienbob wrote:

    > I’d like to see this KDE added to -current….

    Agreed. A new version of KDE for -current is long overdue and 4.13.3 would be an excellent choice (IMHO). 🙂
    Are you still in San Diego? I haven’t been down there since I went through MCRD a couple of hundred years ago.

  34. alienbob

    Yes, I will be here for another week. Tomorrow I’ll visit the Midway together with a collegue, sunday I will hike up Elfin Forest (again) and afterwardswill find myself at the Stone Brewery (with another collegue) drinking beers. Pat is invited but chances are slim he’ll bite 😉

  35. José Ribeiro

    alienbob,

    My slackware box runs the latest stable kde version, 4.13.3. I owe it to you.

    Thak you for your effort! 😉

  36. PrinceCruise

    Hi,

    I’m on Eric’s 4.13.2 on Slackware -current and yeah the latest updates bricked the kwin, though symlinking of libxcb-sync.so.0 did the job as mentioned in this LQ thread.
    http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/no-kwin-with-new-slackware-current-x11-4175511239/

    I just wanted to thank Eric and other Slackers here.
    Boy, running current feels adventurous. Eric’s KDE4.13.3 is in my download queue and I shall report here once I install it, for any issues or for success.

    Happy weekend guys.

    Regards.

  37. alienbob

    There won’t be issues PrinceCruise. The KDE 4.13.2 is too old for Slackware-current but 4.13.3 is OK.

  38. Robby Workman

    Aside from all of the nice changes in -current and your KDE stuff, I’m happy to see that you’re getting to enjoy some great local craft brews — Stone’s IPA is one of the best. If you get a change to try Founder’s Centennial IPA, don’t pass it up either.

  39. PrinceCruise

    Well, I just started upgrade to KDE4.13.3 and I noticed something horrible on my shell midway, it said “xz(stdin) file format not recognized” after every package and nowmy entire KDE is gone when after completion I logged in. Looks like the packages got corrupted somewhere in the process moving from my desktop to my laptop using a USB drive. Haha.
    I rsynced the master repo for Alien, I will try downloading it again.

    Regards.

  40. Gerald Morris

    Thanks for rebuilding kde-workspace-4.11.11-x86_64-2 for us Eric. I’d already hacked the symlinks and libraries other folks were having problems with too, so I’m glad to see I’m not uniquely screwed up…. (w.r.t. Slackl anyway)

    ‘Hack on!

  41. Deny Dias

    Good news for the ones experiencing glitches with xf86-video-intel/OpenGL.

    Pat upgraded Mesa today in -current (mesa-10.2.4-x86_64-1.txz). This package was built with –with-egl-platforms=”drm,x11″, which was the last piece left behind for full Glamor support (see http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/Glamor/).

    With this update in place, add a file ‘/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf’ with this content:

    Section “Device”
    Identifier “Intel Graphics”
    Driver “intel”
    Option “AccelMethod” “glamor”
    Option “TearFree” “true”
    EndSection

    The ‘AccelMethod’ enables Glamor engine on your Intel video hardware. ‘TearFree’ tries to remove screen tearing (a video artifact) and it may or may not work for you, so remove this line if X fails to start.

    After reboot your box, you’ll be back to your KDE with glamorous 2D video acceleration, no tearing and no glitches at all. I’m even loading Conky again at system startup. All the compositing, alphas, bells and whistles works just perfect.

    Thanks Pat for providing this update so quickly.

    I really wish Eric to have such a terrific time at SanFran, enjoy all the great IPAs he could get and also have a safe trip back home.

    Robby was very happy in his sidenote. 😉

  42. PrinceCruise

    Okay, just reporting here to update that after upgrading to 4.13.3, everything looks great. I removed the symlink I created earlier and logged out / in , everything’s smooth. Thanks Eric, praise Bob.
    Regards.

  43. José Ribeiro

    Hi!

    I noticed that I’m unable to reboot my machine from kde menus. I tried it 3 diferent ways: KDE menu => Leave => Restart, Desktop => Leave => Restart Computer and Ctrl + Alt + Del => Restart Computer. None works. It returns a black screen with a white cursor, a small trace, blinking in the upper left corner. Anyone knows how to fix this?

  44. alienbob

    Hi José

    Looks like an issue I had with my laptop in the past, where the X server would not properly be reset and had to be terminated instead.

    Try this if you are using KDM as your session / login manager:

    In the file /etc/kde/kdm/kdmrc uncomment the following line:

    TerminateServer=true

    And then restart KDM. That should do the trick.

  45. José Ribeiro

    Hi alienbob!

    I added the line TerminateServer=true in the file /etc/kde/kdm/kdmrc under the section [X-:*-Core].

    Unfortunately, It didn’t the trick.

    Do you have any idea?

  46. alienbob

    For it to work you must start the computer in runlevel 4 (graphical login) and have KDM handle the logins. Are you doing that?

  47. José Ribeiro

    alienbob,

    Yes, my computer starts in runlevel 4 and i’m using KDM.

  48. James

    Thanks for the updates while …stoned… but really, you should concentrate more on the beer. There are so many excellent breweries in northern San Diego county, I encourage you to try them all. I’ve never gone wrong with any of the tasting rooms.

  49. alienbob

    There’s 90 breweries in San Diego, and I have seen only four before I returned to Europe: Stone, Karl Strauss, Lost Abbey and Port Brewery (the last two share a building, coincidentally this is the same building where Stone started).
    There was simply no time to visit them all.

  50. Grissiom

    Thanks Deny Dias! The glamor in intel driver is amazing!

  51. igor

    it has given an error , root@DarkSlack:~# rsync -av rsync://alien.slackbook.org/alien/ktown/source/4.13.3

    Welcome to the rsync daemon on harrier.slackbuilds.org.

    This service is bandwidth capped, so you might wish to
    find a mirror of whatever you’re downloading…

    @ERROR: max connections (10) reached — try again later
    rsync error: error starting client-server protocol (code 5) at main.c(1635) [Receiver=3.1.0]

  52. alienbob

    I think the error is clear, don’t you?

  53. igor

    hi alienbob!

    I solved the problem, sorry for the question is that my english is not so good. 😛

  54. alienbob

    Hi igor, no problem 🙂 I was hoping that you would figure it out yourself.

  55. José Ribeiro

    Hi alienbob,

    It’s a xorg issue.
    I found out that if I downgrade xorg-server from 1.15.2 to 1.14.3 I can reboot/poweroff from KDE menus.
    I’m not interested in downgrade xorg. I’m still looking for other solution which won’t obligate me to downgrade any package.

  56. Me

    I can’t send emails with kmail after update.
    “kmail SASL(-4): no mechanism available: No worthy mechs found”

    $ ls /var/log/packages/|grep sasl
    cyrus-sasl-2.1.23-x86_64-5
    cyrus-sasl-compat32-2.1.23-x86_64-5compat32
    qca-cyrus-sasl-2.0.0_beta3-x86_64-1

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