My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

Month: July 2013

Security update: flashplayer-plugin

adobe_flash_8s600x600_2 I have been feeling less than optimal during the past week because of all the changes at work (new outsourcing deal to be executed) and the lack of good sleep due to the local high temperatures (Even at night). Today I decided to keep the doors to the outside world shut (a new week with predicted temperatures upward from 30 degrees centigrade has started) and work a bit on package maintenance.

After uploading some bugfixes in my KDE 4.11 RC1 package set, I noticed that there was a new security release of the FlashPlayer plugin. I have updated my Flash Player packages to version 11.2.202.297 right away!

After upgrading, use the following URL to check that you are indeed running the latest version of the Flash Player plugin: http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ .

Have fun! Eric

 

KDE 4.11 – first release candidate available for Slackware-current

A few days ago, the first release candidate of KDE 4.11 was made public – in source format of course. The source version is “4.10.95”. I had an updated KDE.SlackBuild framework ready since the first beta. A re-work was needed because KDE 4.11 splits another four of the big packages in a lot of smaller individual program packags: kdeadmin, kdetoys, kdesdk and kdenetwork.

I took the bait and built KDE 4.11 RC1 on Slackware-current. Uneventful as always if you have the proper KDE.SlackBuild ; I added the new Calligra 2.7.0 (still waiting for the official release announcement but I decided that I have waited long enough) and proposed the new build to Pat. I needed to know if he had plans for Slackware-current. We agreed on Slackware-current sticking with KDE 4.10 for now, and I would upload the package set to my ‘ktown‘ repository.

So here we are, and I can offer you KDE 4.11 RC1 for Slackware-current. Note that this is not going to work on Slackware 14.0 ! If you are eager to try out what’s going to become KDE 4.11 I encourage you to upgrade your Slackware to what will become 14.1 🙂

announce-4.11-beta1

New KWalletManager user interface; changes to Okular

What’s new in KDE 4.11 RC1 ?

It is recommended to read the feature plan for the new 4.11 series. Most notable changes are the expansion of the use of Qt Quick (the application framework which includes the interpreter language QML), faster Nepomuk indexing (many people keep complaining about Nepomuk), many Kontact improvements, and the start of support for the Wayland compositor in KWin (the window manager of KDE) as well as OpenGL improvements. Overheard during Akademy 2013 (held in Bilbao, ended yesterday) was the fact that KWin may depend on SystemD in future. Bad move, kDE!

How to upgrade to KDE 4.11 RC1 ?

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. Earlier blog posts have more information on rebuilding from source and upgrading from Slackware’s own 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/4.10.95/ and packages in /current/4.10.95/ 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

LibreOffice 3.6.7 (last in series) packaged for Slackware 13.37

I thought that with 3.6.6 the LibreOffice developers had released the last update in the 3.6 series. However, there is yet another release. and it looks like 3.6.7 is really going to be the final incremental release. LibreOffice 3.6.7 is a bugfix release (changes in 3.6.7.1 and 3.6.7.2) which was added to the release schedule in a late stage. This means end-of-life for the 3.6 series and everybody is encouraged to migrate to the stable 4.0 series.

These LibreOffice 3.6.7 packages which I am making available have been built on Slackware 13.37. They can be installed on Slackware 14 as well, but of course I have LibreOffice 4.0.4 packages (32bit, 64bit) in my repository for Slackware 14 and -current. Perhaps it is time for you to upgrade your Slackware along with LibreOffice in a little while, if you are still running 13.37? The new Slackware 14.1 should not be too far off.

The LibreOffice 3.6.7 packages are available here:

Eric

OpenJDK security update: 7u40_b31was built with IcedTea 2.4.1

It’s Java security update time again, folks. The IcedTea team just released version 2.4.1 of their “build harness” (which builds the OpenJDK source code using Free Software tools and allows for other  features such as support for alternative virtual machines and ARM support).

The new IcedTea will build OpenJDK 7 Update 40 Build 31 – or 7u40_b31 in short.

This includes the latest security updates. IcedTea 2.4.x continues to track the upcoming Java 7u40 release “upstream”. For the official announcement check out GNU/Andrew’s blog post.

The security fixes are all listed on that blog page but I will repeat them here verbatim.

The list with OpenJDK enhancements and fixes on the other hand,  is so long that I will not even attempt to duplicate it. 😉

OpenJDK 7u40_b31 for Slackware:

java_is_working

My packages for OpenJDK have been compiled on Slackware 13.37 (and are useable on 13.37 as well as 14.0 and -current!). Get them preferably from a mirror site (faster downloads):

Further packages that are recommended/required:

  • Optional: If you want a Java browser-plugin you must install icedtea-web (OpenJDK itself does not contain such a plugin).
  • Required: The rhino package is a dependency of the openjdk/openjre package. It contains the JavaScript engine for OpenJDK.

Note that you should only install one of the two packages, either openjdk or openjre, do not install both at the same time or things will break! The openjdk package contains the jre (java runtime) as well as the java development kit.

Eric

KDE 4.10.5 – final increment in the 4.10 series

While there already is a second beta release of KDE 4.11, the next development cycle of the KDE Software Compilation, the team released their final increment (stability and bugfix release) of the 4.10 cycle today.

KDE SC 4.10.5 sources were made available online for the larger public – and since I have early access to the sources, I built Slackware 14 packages already.The packages are available on several mirrors, see below. Note that these are built for – and should be used only on – Slackware 14. Pat should hopefully add KDE 4.10.5 to Slackware-current soon. 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.

It is still undecided what I will do with KDE 4.11 once that is ready for production. According to the Release Schedule, KDE 4.11 will be available on 14 August. It depends on what Pat will decide for the current development release of Slackware (which is going to be Slackware 14.1). If he moves to KDE 4.11 before he finalizes Slackware 14.1, then I will keep building KDE 4.11 packages for Slackware 14 in parallel for a while. But somehow I do not think he will make that jump. If you look at the previous Slackware releases, they never shipped the latest KDE but rather the final increment of an earlier KDE release. In that case, I will start building KDE 4.11 packages for Slackware 14.1. If you decide to stick with Slackware 14, you will be able to run KDE 4.10.5 which is an altogether pleasant experience.

plasma-tasks-mini

KDE’s Dolphin File Manager

What to expect of KDE 4.10.5?

As with every incremental KDE release, this brings you “bugfixes and translation updates” and no new functionality. The over 30 recorded bugfixes include improvements to the Personal Information Management suite Kontact, the File Manager Dolphin, and others, according to the KDE 4.10.5 fix set.

Note that I upgraded kscreen (and its dependency libkscreen) which is one of the ‘extragear’ packages. Kscreen 1.0 is an important improvement in screen management for people who work with multiple monitors, TV’s and projectors, and particularly for laptop users with external monitors.

How to upgrade to KDE 4.10.5?

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/4.10.5/ and packages in ./14.0/4.10.5/ 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

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