My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

KDE 4.7.1 packages for Slackware

Right after the announcement of the KDE Software Compilation 4.7.1 – I present you with KDE 4.7.1 packages for Slackware.

It’s my second batch of modularized KDE. Read my previous post about KDE 4.7.0 if you want to know more about the reasons for splitting KDE for Slackware into many more (and smaller) packages.

Whereas my KDE 4.7.0 packages should still be applicable to a Slackware 13.37 system, my strong advice for these new 4.7.1 packages is to install them onto Slackware-current (32-bit or 64-bit). I can not guarantee that they will run without issues on Slackware 13.37 – I did not try myself. If you should decide to give it a go on Slackware 13.37 and it works fine for you, please tell me so that I can update this warning.

Read the accompanying README file for installation and upgrade instructions!

Some of the highlights of these KDE packages:

  • There are several updated dependencies compared to Slackware’s own KDE 4.5.5:  PyQt, QScintilla, akonadi, attica, clucene, ebook-tools, hunspell, libdbusmenu-qt, phonon, polkit-qt-1, qt, raptor2, rascal, redland, shared-desktop-ontologies, sip, soprano, system-config-printer and  virtuoso-ose.
  •  In comparison with my previous 4.7.0 there are several updated dependencies too (this list is a bit smaller): PyQt, akonadi, clucene, libbluedevil, polkit-qt-1, qt, raptor2, rascal, redland, sip and soprano. The upgrade of Qt to 4.7.4 makes this desktop a whole lot more stable, and it deals with the false SSL certificates issued after the CA authority DigiNotar got hacked.
  • KDE dpendencies that are not part of Slackware 13.37 at all (yet): grantlee, herqq, libatasmart, libbluedevil, libssh, phonon-gstreamer, phonon-xine, sg3_utils and udisks. Note that I added phonon-gstreamer and phonon-xine only after I had already released KDE 4.7.0 packages because people reported that they no longer had sound. These two packages solve that issue.
  • You will find three useful new applications, compared to Slackware’s own version of KDE: I already added bluedevil to my 4.6.5 package-set. Bluedevil is the new KDE bluetooth stack with a nice GUI, based on the BlueZ libraries already present in Slackware. And with KDE 4.7.0, I included kplayer, a KDE front-end to MPlayer. This time, I added Quanta Plus, which disappeared from KDE4 because that migrated from Qt3 to Qt4. It is now being worked on again, but no longer as a standalone application – instead it is available as a plugin to the Kdevelop Platform. My previous blog post has more information about my reasons for adding quanta.
  • I also added oxygen-gtk, which is not really an application, but a theme engine. It (optionally) makes GTK applications visually blend in with KDE’s own Oxygen theme. There is a README in its documentation directory which explains how to enable it.

The KDE 4.7.1 packages for Slackware-current are available for download from my “ktown” repository and several mirrors. The Indonesian mirror may need a bit of time to sync up but Willy is usually very fast with that:

Have fun! Eric

59 Comments

  1. T.J. L

    Just upgraded my 13.37 desktop from your KDE 4.6.5 packages to 4.7.1, and so far it’s running fine.

  2. Nille

    Thanks i will try it on 13.37 and report if i find anything strange.
    Thanks packaging kde sc 4.7.1 😀

  3. squirrl

    Kernel.org got hacked, hope you guys steered clear of any kernel sources for the past 17 days.

  4. Willy Sudiarto Raharjo

    Indonesian repository is already synced by now 🙂

  5. escaflown

    Thanks Eric!

  6. David

    Hi Eric,
    thank you very much, to you and KDE team.

    After upgrade from 4.7.0, no more crashes… that’s great news! 🙂

  7. Andry

    Hi,

    First, thanks a lot for your effort.
    However, since KDE 4.7.0 I always have a taskbar issue. It displays entries in 2 rows instead of one, and there’s sometimes gap between them. When trying to force the taskbar row setting, it always will add one more row than I want. Does someone else have this problem? And how to fix it?

  8. ??????? ????

    ??????? ???????? ????? ?? ???? ?????????? ???????! 🙂

  9. michelino

    First: thank’s really really much!!!!
    Second (very very very humbly): but is amarok part of kde4 sc?….so, is there a specific reason for wich you don’t upgrade it to the latest (bugfix) version (a part from time, obviously)?

  10. alienbob

    Michelino,

    I really dislike Amarok therefore I do not touch it…

    Eric

  11. gmg

    Thanks, Eric

    Gérard

  12. dr_alex

    Should I remove raptor after upgrade?

  13. michelino

    Ok, this reason is enough for me 🙂

  14. firekage

    There is something wrong with rsync – i can’t download it

    (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(1516) [Receiver=3.0.8])

  15. alienbob

    @firekage ….

    That’s why there are also several mirrors in the list… the server that hosts slackbook.org is just overloaded with anxious people.

    Try taper.alienbase.nl , that server has no bandwidth cap or connection limit, and it has a big Internet pipe.

    Eric

  16. firekage

    Thank You. I thought that i done again something wrong. I didn’t see mirrors in the list (and what list :D). From taper.alienbase.nl i can download it 🙂 Thank You again.

  17. alienbob

    @firekage…

    “I didn’t see mirrors in the list” – did you actually read my article? Several download locations are listed at the end of it.

    Eric

  18. firekage

    “The KDE 4.7.1 packages for Slackware-current are available for download from my “ktown” repository and several mirrors. The Indonesian mirror may need a bit of time to sync up but Willy is usually very fast with that:”

    and after that there are few of them and i couldn’t download from all of them.

    I don’t know why, i downloaded it after when i went to taper.alienbase.nl, from there i put in console: rsync -av rsync . When i copied and pasted links from listed mirrors i had info about limit cap 😉 Yes, i read it.

  19. firekage

    Hm,i think that i know what was the problem. I’ve opened mirrors, and copied:

    rsync -av rsync://alien.slackbook.org/alien/ktown/4.7.1 .

    that’s why. But i also tried with it:

    rsync URI: rsync://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/alien-kde/4.7.1/

    and couldn’t. I downloaded it without URI:

  20. Grissiom

    after upgrading qt to 4.7.4, assistant won’t rander the help files well. Need I update the qt-doc together or it’s a assistant regression? 😉

  21. alienbob

    @Grissiom

    I do not see any issues with displaying help files through applications’ help menu, and running “assistant” shows the Qt documentation flawlessly.. What issues do you have?

    Eric

  22. SVU

    I’ve just tried your KDE 4.7.1 packages on a +/- fresh Slackware 13.37 32bit installation after experiencing some problems with Konqueror and the Flash plugin I installed.(plugin worked fine in Firefox but not in Konqueror btw).

    Thus far the updated KDE / Konqueror works fine with flash now!

    Thanks a lot for your work Eric!

  23. Arvent

    Hi. Thank You very much for the effort and compiling time. Downloading right now. Be posted after upgrade to 13.37.

  24. amigib

    works great, thanks

  25. Arvent

    Well, everything went well. Now The PC is with Slackware 13.37, the latest kernel from 2 series, AMD Sempron CPU (2.6.39.4-smp AMD Sempron(tm) 2400+) and with your KDE 4.7.1 build. I must say that it works GREAT, so thank You again.

  26. specialized

    works great!!!
    why you dont use amarok? which one do you?

  27. alienbob

    @specialized –

    I think most people who use amarok choose it because it allows you to manage your music library. I do not have a need for such functionality, because I use a combination of icecast audio streaming server with calliope as the front-end. Calliope (http://sourceforge.net/projects/kalliope/) is a music jukebox server which stores the information about all my music in a MySQL database and allows me to create a playlist for the icecast streaming server using a browser interface. Very nice stuff, and if I do not schedule anything manually, calliope picks random songs from my collection 24/7. Basically it turns my music collection into a private Internet radio station.

    I primaily use vlc to tune into my icecast stream but mpg123, audacious or soma are perfect as well for that.

    About amarok, I have always hated its interface, and most of the releases I try have not been able to tune into an icecast stream anyway or if they did, refused to play any sound. VLC all the way!

    Eric

  28. dado

    Thanks!

  29. altor

    If you want to manage your music library with nepomuk, you can use bangarang. It tags your song automatically thanks ID3 and lastfm, add a counter and note directly in nepomuk.

  30. laitcg

    Thank you Eric. I had 4.7.0 installed and it was so bad, I started uses xfce (like Linus). Now, back to KDE. 🙂

  31. alienbob

    @altor –

    Bangarang looks nice indeed. I built a package for it on Slackware 13.37 (which has KDE 4.5.5) but the same package runs equally well on Slackware-current with KDE 4.7.1.. Try it! http://slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/bangarang/

    Eric

  32. Oleg

    Alien!
    Thanks You!
    Thus KDE version work on mu slackware 13.37 x64 successfully

  33. Eduardo

    Hi Eric! Thanks for the packages. They work great for the most part. However, I’m seeing virtuoso-ose processes eating my CPU. A single process is right now taking ~150% of CPU power (I have a dual core processor).

    If you have a pointer on how can we deal with it other than killing the process, I’ll be very grateful.

    Thanks again!

    Eduardo
    from Asunción, Paraguay, South America

  34. escaflown

    Thanks for the calliope tip, Eric. I’ve been using icecast scripts to achieve the same results so far.

  35. altor

    @Eric

    Thank you very much for bangarang. I used package from src2pkg, but I don’t really like this. I tried it and it works well.

    However, to use nepomuk with accent, you can apply this patch https://bugs.kde.org/attachment.cgi?id=63510&action=edit to virtuoso-6.1.3 from this bug :https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=271664

  36. slayerwpww

    Everything fine and smooth here; I’ve just upgraded KDE 4.7.0 to 4.7.1 under Slack 13.37 64 bit. Thank you Eric.

  37. alienbob

    Hi altor

    I am compiling new virtuoso-ose packages now, with that patch applied.

    Thanks, Eric

  38. alienbob

    Patched virtuoso packages are now available, please check if they solve your issues with Unicode path names.

    Eric

  39. altor

    @eric

    It’s perfect. I don’t have any issues with kmail, bangarang or dolphin. Thank you for your quickness.

  40. Gabriel Magno

    I’ve upgraded from KDE 4.6.4 to KDE 4.7.1 in 13.37 x86_64.

    Everything is fine, except Amarok: it cannot play MP3 files because of Phonon issues.

    My guess is that the newest versions of Amarok (2.4.3) uses the new phonon-xine, while the old version (2.4.0) that comes with 13.37 doesn’t support it.

  41. Arvent

    I am sad to report, that I downgrade to KDE 4.6.5. Even with the patch the 4.7.1 version have flickering allover the programs windows. I tried it with 13.37, custom(to now date). I really wanted this to happen, but my old hardware(2.6.39.4-smp AMD Sempron(tm) 2400+ and mostly the videocard NV GF) says, that 4.6.5 is as far as it goes with the upgrades. Don’t get wrong. The packages for 4.7.1 are and the work on them is awesome for which I am really grateful. Just wanted people to know.
    Thank You!

  42. Gabriel Magno

    I’ve just realized how to make Amarok 2.4.0 work on KDE 4.7.1. You just need to put Xine in the top of the priority list on Phonon configuration menu.

    Thank you for the packages, Bob.

  43. mamik

    is slackware 13.1 64 bit DVD can upgrade to this KDE version?
    i’m newbie :<
    thanks for answer.

  44. toudi

    hating amarok for it’s interface it’s so oldschool 😀
    but i totally agree it sucks!
    what amarok does nicely though is show you lyrics while playing mp3s so if you like to sing along with your stars than you dont have a choice 🙂

  45. alienbob

    @mamik –

    If you are running Slackware 13.1 then you can not use these KDE 4.7.1 packages.
    You have to upgrade to Slackware 13.37 first (I have KDE packages for 64bit as well as 32bit Slackware). My KDE packages were compiled on Slackware-current but several people have reported that they work with Slackware 13.37 too.

    Eric

  46. mamik

    Thanks for the answaer. maybe i’ll upgrade slackware first. wish me luck :>

  47. Fellype

    @Eric, Thanks for your efforts in the maintenance of KDE SC in Slackware.

    @Gabriel Magno, I made a reset in my amarok configuration files and the result is that my mp3 files play with no problems using GStreamer in the top of the priority list on Phonon configuration menu.

  48. Arvent

    Well, after a few more tries with KDE 4.7.1, finally got it. I do have working kwin(without any window flashes or whatever unwanted aktivity or inactivity). Without reinstalling, but upgrade to slackware-current, then upgrade KDE 4.6.5(Erik’s packages) and finally upgrade 4.7.1(again his packages). I know is kind of long “road”, but it is worth it. My old videocard(GF4 MMX 128MB) is happily singing with the improved performance of this KDE release.
    Thanks again! Great work!

  49. Alex

    Hi Eric,

    thanks once more for providing KDE SC to us!
    I’ve tried the 4.7.1 packages on Slackware64-13.37 and -current, and they work great, in general, but I have a little problem on both -13.37 and -current: The KDE device notifier doesn’t work. When I plug in a USB disk, the system detects it, as I can see with dmesg, but KDE doesn’t take any notice of it.
    I have to say, that following your installation README I only removed KDE polkit, but not Gnome polkit, and as I use Xfce with some goodies, I have GDM as a login manager. Also, my system is set up as RAID-1 + LUKS + LVM. Not sure, if this or GDM has anything to do with the problem.
    Apart from that I followed your instructions word by word, as far as I can tell.

    Clueless…

    Alex

  50. Janis

    thinking lazily about granulation of KDE 4.7.1+ – for those not going to install everything it could be really helpful some additional tags (or type directories) for every of this myriad of packages, for example
    [edu]-kalgebra-4.7.1-x86_64-1alien.txz instead of plain kalgebra-4.7.1-x86_64-1alien.txz etc.
    While the undeniable progress, the granularity makes installation optimization just marginally better comparing to historical blob packages.

  51. alienbob

    I am open to suggestions –

    if more people think the split-off package names should be prepended with their origin (like, “kdeedu-kalgebra” instead of just “kalgebra”) I’d like to know.

    Cast your votes please!

    Eric

  52. toudi

    very good idea 🙂

    how many ppl ever used kdeedu ^^

  53. escaflown

    As far as I’m concerned, the original naming convention is good enough for me (just “kalgebra”).

  54. Arvent

    kalgebra is just fine.

  55. Arvent

    As I am pointing to my previous post , that on some legacy hardware there should be going through a long road for the KDE 4.7.1 work properly. Well today I just discover, that this is not the case at all. A have been mislead myself in the hurry and so misleading you. For which I really Apologize! All the flickering in programs (GTK UI) windows was cause by oxigen-gtk theme engine. I try with several versions(1.1.0, 1.1.2 and current at the moment 1.1.3) but no luck. In the moment I switch to QCurve(from SBo site) or just remove it everything work flawlessly. Again, there is no need for upgrade after upgrade. If one just the instruction in README file and remove the oxigen-gtk package should be great.

  56. Eugene

    4.7.1 on two of my three 13.37 systems seems to be working fine so far, thank you for the hard work.

  57. firekage

    I’d like to thank You for your hard work. I’ve recently updated KDE from 4.6.5 to 4.7.1 and i’m very pleased with the new one. I think it works faster, looks much, much better. Everything works fine so far 😉

  58. hua

    Hi. First of all I would like to thank You alienbob too for the KDE updates.
    My question is do anybody run ktorrent or kget successfully with torrent files. I just cannot get to work it 🙁

  59. Troy

    KTorrent works wonderfully here. In fact, with encryption on and switching to ports to VPN port number, I get around my ISPs bandwidth throttling of the torrent protocol as well. Yay!

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