Alien Pastures

My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

Month: July 2014

New KDE: 4.13.3

July 16, 2014 / / 56 Comments

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

Field trip

July 2, 2014 / / 5 Comments
Me

Me

During the next few weeks, my package and article output will be rather limited. You probably already noticed the relative silence.

I have been preparing for a “field trip”, i.e. a visit to one of my customers. If you are going to watch the Indepencence Day fireworks in San Diego you might just bump into me. I’ll be the gray guy with “Slackware @alien” written on his cap 🙂

But seriously, I have no idea what kind of connectivity I will have while traveling. I hope to post a few stories and pics if time and opportunity present themselves.

Let me part with a reminder (not previously announced on this blog but if you follow my RSS feed you’ll have noticed): there are new packages for LibreOffice. The version 4.2.5 was released a little over a week ago and I built this for Slackware 14.1 and -current.

Also updated, but then in the ‘ktown‘ repository of KDE packages (Slackware 14.1 and -current), is kdeconnect-kde. The new 0.7 release fixes a lot of bugs, allows you to use your Android phone as a mousepad for your KDE desktop, and finally there is a working two-way file transfer between your KDE computer and your Android phone (provided they are on the same network).

Take care! Eric

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