Alien Pastures

My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

Tag: kde (Page 8 of 28)

Plasma 5_17.01 for Slackware

January 29, 2017 / / 53 Comments

My previous post concerned itself with the question: what do I spend my time on? Keeping Plasma 5 working on Slackware 14.2 and -current, and for 32bit as well as 64bit architectures, is simply too time-consuming for a monthly release. I asked for your opinion and I was glad for all the feedback I have received. Predominantly, people are using 64bit Slackware and I saw both the stable 14.2 and the -current development tree mentioned. It looks like a small minority of people is running Plasma 5 on 32bit Slackware – not my target of choice but everyone has his or her own reasons and I am not here to doubt those.

So, here is the first 2017 release of the ‘ktown’ packages – KDE 5_17.01. I have updated the main package sets to their latest releases: KDE Frameworks 5.30.0, Plasma 5.8.5 and Applications 16.12.1. I have also updated the Qt  package to 5.7.1.
What can you expect of this and the future releases? You can still use this latest KDE 5 on Slackware 14.2 (only 64bit) but I will be focusing more on -current. After all, the ‘ktown’ development is all about getting the latest and greatest KDE software included in Slackware-current. This is how I think I am going to handle the releases:

I am going to do my releases first for Slackware64 14.2 and -current. During the days that follow, will compile the 32bit packages for Slackware-current. I will stop releasing Plasma 5 packages for 32bit Slackware 14.2.

What’s new in KDE 5_17.01?

  • Frameworks 5.30.0 is an enhancement release and contains one new framework compared to my previous release: prison. See https://www.kde.org/announcements/kde-frameworks-5.30.0.php
  • Plasma 5.8.5 is an incremental bug fix release for the 5.8 series. See https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.8.5.php and if you want to know more about the long term support (LTS) for Plasma 5.8, go read: https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.8.0.php
  • Applications 16.12.1 contains many changes. In these 16.12.x releases, some of the big packages have been split into many smaller ones: ‘kde-baseapps’, ‘kdepim’ and ‘kdewebdev’ (and these three packages are gone now).
    Two other packages have been removed: ‘gpgmepp’ (whose functionality has been integrated into ‘gpgme’), and ‘kuser’ (for which there is no replacement and therefore I have kept it as part of applications-extra).
    Formerly part of ‘kdepim‘, the ‘kdgantt2′ program has been removed and it is replaced by a new package ‘kdiagram‘. Another new package ‘kwave‘ was added in 16.12.0 (which I never built). See https://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-applications-16.12.1.php .
  • I have removed ‘kactivities‘, ‘nepomuk‘ and ‘nepomuk-widgets‘ from the kde4 package subset. These kdelibs4-based packages are no longer used by other packages.
    I also added a package there: ‘libcddb4‘ is the old kdelibs4 based version and it is needed to keep ‘k3b‘ running. The latest libkcddb is Frameworks5 based and incompatible with k3b.
    Unfortunately ‘kdepimlibs4‘ is still required by ‘kopete‘ and ‘klinkstatus‘. I had to recompile ‘kdepimlibs4‘ to remove gpgme++ files that are now part of the ‘gpgme‘ package. If you want to repeat this at home, make sure you only have ‘akonadi4‘ installed, not the newer ‘akonadi‘ from Applications.
  • In applications-extra, I upgraded ‘calligra‘ to the recently released Frameworks5 based version; a recompilation would have been needed anyway in order to ditch ‘kactivities‘. The new ‘calligra‘ has shed some of its code and no longer contains ‘krita‘ or ‘kexi‘, they are developed independently now. ‘Flow‘ and ‘Stage‘ have also been removed from the code but here the reason is that their code is un-maintained. Therefore I have added ‘krita‘ as a new package. If anyone needs ‘kexi‘ as well, let me know so I can add it (and its dependencies) next time. Also, ‘partitionmanager‘ (along with its dependency ‘kpmcore‘)  was upgraded and is now Frameworks5 based. Note: ‘partitionmanager‘ has issues using kdesu to gain root access to the disks even though it will ask for the root password. If all actions are greyed out, start it from the commandline with “sudo -s partitionmanager”.
  • The ‘kdeconnect-framework‘ package in plasma-extra was upgraded.
  • The ‘deps’ section has two new packages (three in the Slackware 14.2 repo as you can read below): ‘libdmtx‘ and ‘qrencode‘, both of which are requirements for the new ‘kdiagram‘ package. The ‘libinput‘ package was upgraded to the same version as was recently added to slackware-current (and compiled against the new package ‘libwacom‘ just like in slackware-current). Note that libinput and libwacom are not part of the ‘deps’ for Slackware-current since these are already covered by your Slackware install.
  • The ‘qt5‘ package was upgraded to 5.7.1, and accompanying upgrades were done for ‘qt5-webkit‘, ‘sip‘ and ‘PyQt5‘. Note that qt5’s dependencies have increased again: it now requires libinput, libwacom, libxkbcommon. I did not upgrade qt5 to 5.8.0 – it is too new and currently seems to have issues with KWin.

This upgrade should be relatively straightforward if you already have Plasma 5 installed. See below for install/upgrade instructions. For users who are running slackware-current, the most crucial part is making sure that you end up with Slackware’s packages for ‘libinput‘ and ‘libwacom‘. Failing to do so, may render your input devices (mouse and keyboard) inoperative in X.Org.

You may want to check out the new Plasma 5 before installing. For this purpose, I have generated a new Live ISO for the PLASMA5 variant. Look for that ISO on http://bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/slackware-live/latest/ . The timestamp of the “slackware64-live-plasma5-current.iso” file should be Jan 27, 2017.

Installing or upgrading Frameworks 5, Plasma 5 and Applications

You can skip the remainder of the article if you already have my Plasma 5 installed and are familiar with the upgrade process. Otherwise, stay with me and read the rest.

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“, “kdepim“, “plasma“, “plasma-extra“, “applications“, “applications-extra” and “telepathy“.

Upgrading to this KDE 5 is not difficult, especially if you already are running KDE 5_16.12. You will have to remove old KDE 4 packages manually. If you do not have KDE 4 installed at all, you will have to install some of Slackware’s own KDE 4 packages manually.

What I usually do is: download all the ‘ktown’ packages for the new release to a local disk. Then run “upgrade –install-new” on all these packages. Then I check the status of my Slackware-current, upgrading the stock packages where needed. The slackpkg tool is invaluable during this process of syncing the package installation status to the releases.

Note:

If you are using slackpkg+, have already moved to KDE 5_16.12 and are adventurous, you can try upgrading using the following set of commands. This should “mostly” work but you still need to check the package lists displayed by slackpkg to verify that you are upgrading all the right packages. Feel free to send me improved instructions if needed. In below example I am assuming that you tagged my KDE 5 repository with the name “ktown” in the configuration file “/etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf“):
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg install ktown (to get the newly added packages from my repo)
# slackpkg install-new (to get the new official Slackware packages that were part of my deps previously)
# slackpkg upgrade ktown (upgrade all existing packages to their latest versions)
# slackpkg upgrade-all (upgrade the remaining dependencies that were part of my repo previously)

And doublecheck that you have not inadvertently blacklisted my packages in “/etc/slackpkg/blacklist“! Check for the existence of a line in that blacklist file that looks like “[0-9]+alien” and remove it if you find it!

Recommended reading material

There have been several posts now about KDE 5 for Slackware-current. All of them contain useful information, tips and gotchas. If you want to read them, here they are: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/tag/kde5/

A note on Frameworks

The KDE Frameworks are extensions on top of Qt 5.x and their usability is not limited to the KDE Software Collection. There are other projects such as LXQT which rely (in part) on the KDE Frameworks, and if you are looking for a proper Frameworks repository which is compatible with Slackware package managers such as slackpkg+, then you can use these URL’s to assure yourself of the latest Frameworks packages for Slackware-current (indeed, this is a sub-tree of my KDE 5 repository):

The same goes for Frameworks for Slackware 14.2 (change ‘current’ to ‘14.2’ in the above URLs).

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/ and  /14.2/5/ 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

KDE 5_16.11 available for Slackware 14.2 and -current

November 9, 2016 / / 103 Comments

plasma5_startupBack after a hiatus due to my changing employment status: KDE 5_16.11 is my November release of the combined KDE Frameworks 5.27.0, Plasma 5.8.3 and Applications 16.08.2 for Slackware, built on top of Qt 5.7.0. You can use the latest KDE 5 on Slackware 14.2 and -current.

My intention is to keep releasing versions of the stable Plasma 5 software through the “14.2/latest” and “current/latest” URLs. I still carry a “testing” repository but that does not get updated nearly as often and is currently outdated. So please disregard that “testing” area until further notice and be sure to check your automated package management programs for the correct repository URL.

What’s new in KDE 5_16.11?

  • Frameworks 5.27.0 is an enhancement release with no new frameworks this time. See https://www.kde.org/announcements/kde-frameworks-5.27.0.php
  • Plasma 5.8.3 is an incremental bug fix release for the 5.8 series. Note that this is the first Plasma 5.8 that goes into my ‘ktown’ packages as you will notice straight away when starting a Plasma session. There is a new ‘loading’ animation again.
    Plasma 5.8 is labeled a Long Term Support (LTS) release. In part this has been done because the developers think that 5.8 marks the point where users who loved KDE 4 and turned away from Plasma 5 should re-evaluate this desktop environment and hopefully want to stay.
    The 5.8 LTS release should work with Qt 5.6.1 but I think it is better to stick with the Qt 5.7 which I already used for the previous ‘ktown’ iteration.
    See https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.8.3.php and if you want to know more about the LTS, go read: https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.8.0.php
  • Applications 16.08.2 is a maintenance upgrade. See https://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-applications-16.08.2.php .
  • Upgrades for kdeconnect and sddm can be found in the ‘plasma-extra’ subdirectory, while a newer skanlite can be found in ‘applications-extra’.

This upgrade should be straightforward if you already have Plasma 5 installed. See below for install/upgrade instructions. And if you want to check it out before installing, I will be generating a new Live ISO’s soon for the PLASMA5 variant. Look for that ISO on http://bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/slackware-live/latest/ soon. Check the timestamp of the “slackware64-live-plasma5-current.iso” ISO.

Installing or upgrading Frameworks 5, Plasma 5 and Applications

You can skip the remainder of the article if you already have my Plasma 5 installed and are familiar with the upgrade process. Otherwise, stay with me and read the rest.

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“, “kdepim“, “plasma“, “plasma-extra“, “applications“, “applications-extra” and “telepathy“.

Upgrading to this KDE 5 is not difficult, especially if you already are running KDE 5_16.08. You will have to remove old KDE 4 packages manually. If you do not have KDE 4 installed at all, you will have to install some of Slackware’s own KDE 4 packages manually.

What I usually do is: download all the ‘ktown’ packages for the new release to a local disk. Then run “upgrade –install-new” on all these packages. Then I check the status of my Slackware-current, upgrading the stock packages where needed. The slackpkg tool is invaluable during this process of syncing the package installation status to the releases.

Note:

If you are using slackpkg+, have already moved to KDE 5_16.08 and are adventurous, you can try upgrading using the following set of commands. This should “mostly” work but you still need to check the package lists displayed by slackpkg to verify that you are upgrading all the right packages. Feel free to send me improved instructions if needed. In below example I am assuming that you tagged my KDE 5 repository with the name “ktown” in the configuration file “/etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf“):
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg install ktown (to get the newly added packages from my repo)
# slackpkg install-new (to get the new official Slackware packages that were part of my deps previously)
# slackpkg upgrade ktown (upgrade all existing packages to their latest versions)
# slackpkg upgrade-all (upgrade the remaining dependencies that were part of my repo previously)

And doublecheck that you have not inadvertently blacklisted my packages in “/etc/slackpkg/blacklist“! Check for the existence of a line in that blacklist file that looks like “[0-9]+alien” and remove it if you find it!

Recommended reading material

There have been several posts now about KDE 5 for Slackware-current. All of them contain useful information, tips and gotchas that I do not want to repeat here, but if you want to read them, here they are: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/tag/kde5/

A note on Frameworks

The KDE Frameworks are extensions on top of Qt 5.x and their usability is not limited to the KDE Software Collection. There are other projects such as LXQT which rely (in part) on the KDE Frameworks, and if you are looking for a proper Frameworks repository which is compatible with Slackware package managers such as slackpkg+, then you can use these URL’s to assure yourself of the latest Frameworks packages for Slackware-current (indeed, this is a sub-tree of my KDE 5 repository):

The same goes for Frameworks for Slackware 14.2 (change ‘current’ to ‘14.2’ in the above URLs).

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

KDE 5_16.06 for Slackware -current

June 15, 2016 / / 49 Comments

plasma5_startupIt’s that time of the month again, where the three main software collections of the KDE community have had new releases. Time to package and release for Slackware!

KDE 5_16.06 is the June release of the combined KDE Frameworks 5.23.0, Plasma 5.6.5 and Applications 16.04.2 for Slackware.

plasma5_about_distro

You will certainly have noticed that I am still using the words “current” and “testing” in the URLs for my Plasma5 Slackware repository. With the release of Slackware 14.2, I want to change that. The Plasma5 repository on http://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/ will move from “current/testing” to “14.2/latest” to indicate that I no longer consider Plasma5 a “testing ground”. Plasma5 is production-ready as far as I am concerned. When a new iteration of slackware-current starts rolling post-14.2 I will see if there is again something that needs “testing” otherwise “current” and “14.2” will become equal in the repository for the time being.

What’s new in KDE 5_16.06?

This upgrade should be straightforward if you already have Plasma 5 installed. See below for install/upgrade instructions. And if you want to check it out before installing, I am currently generating new Live ISO’s for all variants, PLASMA5 included. They will become available at http://bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/slackware-live/latest/ soon. Check the timestamp of the “slackware64-live-plasma5-current.iso” ISO.

Installing or upgrading Frameworks 5, Plasma 5 and Applications

You can skip the remainder of the article if you already have my Plasma 5 installed and are familiar with the upgrade process. Otherwise, stay with me and read the rest.

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”, “kdepim”, “plasma”, “plasma-extra”, “applications”, “applications-extra” and “telepathy”.

Upgrading to this KDE 5 is not difficult, especially if you already are running KDE 5_16.04. You will have to remove old KDE 4 packages manually. If you do not have KDE 4 installed at all, you will have to install some of Slackware’s own KDE 4 packages manually.

What I usually do is: download all the ‘ktown’ packages for the new release to a local disk. Then run “upgrade –install-new” on all these packages. Then I check the status of my Slackware-current, upgrading the stock packages where needed. The slackpkg tool is invaluable during this process of syncing the package installation status to the releases.

Note:

If you are using slackpkg+, have already moved to KDE 5_16.05 and are adventurous, you can try upgrading using the following set of commands. This should “mostly” work but you still need to check the package lists displayed by slackpkg to verify that you are upgrading all the right packages. Feel free to send me improved instructions if needed. In below example I am assuming that you tagged my KDE 5 repository with the name “ktown_testing” in the configuration file “/etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf“):
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg install ktown_testing (to get the newly added packages from my repo)
# slackpkg install-new (to get the new official Slackware packages that were part of my deps previously)
# slackpkg upgrade ktown_testing (upgrade all existing packages to their latest versions)
# removepkg xembed-sni-proxy ktux amor kde-base-artwork kde-wallpapers kdeartwork (they don’t exist in the repo anymore)
# slackpkg upgrade-all (upgrade the remaining dependencies that were part of my repo previously)

And doublecheck that you have not inadvertently blacklisted my packages in “/etc/slackpkg/blacklist“! Check for the existence of a line in that blacklist file that looks like “[0-9]+alien” and remove it if you find it!

Recommended reading material

There have been several posts now about KDE 5 for Slackware-current. All of them contain useful information, tips and gotchas that I do not want to repeat here, but if you want to read them, here they are: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/tag/kde5/

A note on Frameworks

The KDE Frameworks are extensions on top of Qt 5.x and their usability is not limited to the KDE Software Collection. There are other projects such as LXQT which rely (in part) on the KDE Frameworks, and if you are looking for a proper Frameworks repository which is compatible with Slackware package managers such as slackpkg+, then you can use these URL’s to assure yourself of the latest Frameworks packages for Slackware-current (indeed, this is a sub-tree of my KDE 5 “testing” repository):

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

KDE 5_16.05 for Slackware -current

May 17, 2016 / / 41 Comments

plasma5_startupWhile everyone is waiting for the 14.2 release of our beloved Slackware Linux distribution, those pesky developers keep releasing their own software. So this was the week where KDE Frameworks, Plasma and Applications all had newer versions than I have in my repository. Guess what – I have prepared a new set of Plasma5 packages for the month of May so that I am ready for a new Live ISO… next Slackware release or not.

KDE 5_16.05 is my May release of the combined KDE Frameworks 5.22.0, Plasma 5.6.4 and Applications 16.04.1.

plasma5_about_distro

What’s new in KDE 5_16.05?

  • Frameworks 5.22.0 is an enhancement release with one new framework which was moved here from Plasma: kwayland (we do not yet use this in Slackware). See https://www.kde.org/announcements/kde-frameworks-5.22.0.php
  • Plasma 5.6.4 is another bugfix release of the 5.6 series. See https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.6.4.php .
  • Applications 16.04.1 is also a maintenance release. See https://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-applications-16.04.1.php .
  • I have fixed the ‘sddm-qt5’ package and now SDDM starts (almost) instantaneously again when entering runlevel 4. Some months ago, the “sddm” user account which is used by SDDM was added to Slackware by Patrick, but it was configured with homedirectory which is not useful (“/var/empty” instead of what my package uses, “/var/lib/sddm”). The “sddm” user account writes its status files to its homedirectory. The ‘sddm-qt5’ package’s post-installation script (doinst.sh) will now modify the homedirectory of the “sddm” user if it already exists on the system. Tip: after upgrading, please check the “sddm” account (using “getent passwd sddm” command) and fix the homedirectory manually if for whatever reason, the ‘doinst.sh’ script was not successful in its modification.

All in all, a fairly trivial upgrade if you already have my Plasma 5 packages installed. See below for install/upgrade instructions. If you want to give it a trial run, I hope to have a Live ISO available at http://bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/slackware-live/ soon. Check the timestamp of the “slackware64-live-plasma5-current.iso” ISO.

Installing or upgrading Frameworks 5, Plasma 5 and Applications

You can skip the remainder of the article if you already have my Plasma 5 installed and are familiar with the upgrade process. Otherwise, stay with me and read the rest.

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”, “kdepim”, “plasma”, “plasma-extra”, “applications”, “applications-extra” and “telepathy”.

Upgrading to this KDE 5 is not difficult, especially if you already are running KDE 5_16.04. You will have to remove old KDE 4 packages manually. If you do not have KDE 4 installed at all, you will have to install some of Slackware’s own KDE 4 packages manually.

What I usually do is: download all the ‘ktown’ packages for the new release to a local disk. Then run “upgrade –install-new” on all these packages. Then I check the status of my Slackware-current, upgrading the stock packages where needed. The slackpkg tool is invaluable during this process of syncing the package installation status to the releases.

Note:

If you are using slackpkg+, have already moved to KDE 5_16.04 and are adventurous, you can try upgrading using the following set of commands. This should “mostly” work but you still need to check the package lists displayed by slackpkg to verify that you are upgrading all the right packages. Feel free to send me improved instructions if needed. In below example I am assuming that you tagged my KDE 5 repository with the name “ktown_testing” in the configuration file “/etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf“):
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg install ktown_testing (to get the newly added packages from my repo)
# slackpkg install-new (to get the new official Slackware packages that were part of my deps previously)
# slackpkg upgrade ktown_testing (upgrade all existing packages to their latest versions)
# removepkg xembed-sni-proxy ktux amor kde-base-artwork kde-wallpapers kdeartwork (they don’t exist in the repo anymore)
# slackpkg upgrade-all (upgrade the remaining dependencies that were part of my repo previously)

And doublecheck that you have not inadvertently blacklisted my packages in “/etc/slackpkg/blacklist“! Check for the existence of a line in that blacklist file that looks like “[0-9]+alien” and remove it if you find it!

Recommended reading material

There have been several posts now about KDE 5 for Slackware-current. All of them contain useful information, tips and gotchas that I do not want to repeat here, but if you want to read them, here they are: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/tag/kde5/

A note on Frameworks

The KDE Frameworks are extensions on top of Qt 5.x and their usability is not limited to the KDE Software Collection. There are other projects such as LXQT which rely (in part) on the KDE Frameworks, and if you are looking for a proper Frameworks repository which is compatible with Slackware package managers such as slackpkg+, then you can use these URL’s to assure yourself of the latest Frameworks packages for Slackware-current (indeed, this is a sub-tree of my KDE 5 “testing” repository):

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

KDE 5_16.04 for Slackware-current

April 21, 2016 / / 54 Comments

plasma5_startupYou may already have tried it through the PLASMA5 variant of the Slackware Live Edition which I uploaded yesterday, and here is the announcement of the addition of KDE 5_16.04 to my ‘ktown’ repository – the April release of the combined KDE Frameworks 5.21.0, Plasma 5.6.3 and Applications 16.04.0.

What’s new in KDE 5_16.04?

  • Frameworks 5.21.0 is an enhancement release with one new framework: kactivities-stats. See https://www.kde.org/announcements/kde-frameworks-5.21.0.php
  • Plasma 5.6.3 is the third iteration of the 5.6 series, a jump from the previous 5.5.x release in my repository. I have upgraded Qt5 to 5.6.0 to accompany this Plasma release. Lots of visual improvements, the task manager is much more informative about running tasks and the weather applet is back…
  • Two packages were removed that I added to ‘plasma-extra’ to cover for the period after release of Frameworks 5.20.0 and before Plasma 5.6.0. The package ‘kactivities-workspace’ has been absorbed in Plasma and
    Applications packages, and ‘kactivitymanagerd’ is now part of Plasma itself. See https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.6.3.php .
  • Applications 16.04.0 was just released. KColorChooser, KFloppy, KMahjongg and KRDC have now been ported to KDE Frameworks 5, and the Kontact Suite (KDEPIM) has been subject to massive bughunting (and -fixing). Lots of PIM related libraries were split-off into their own source tarballs, resulting in 16 new packages. For the announcement, see https://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-applications-16.04.0.php .
  • KDE Telepathy now officially has a voice & video GUI application. Previously I shipped a beta release of the “ktp-call-ui” package. Also I upgraded or recompiled the complete stack of “deps/telepathy” packages.
  • ktorrent (and libktorrent) have also been ported to KF5, and packages for these have been added to kde/applications-extra/ .
  • Phonon, and its plugins for gstreamer and VLC backends, have been upgraded offering improvements for the Qt5 build, better volume slider and muting support, and use of the VLC 2.2 API. Remember, if you actually want to use the VLC backend for phonon you will have to install a VLC package separately (it is not included with the ‘ktown’ releases).
  • And finally (as hinted before), QT5 was updated to the latest release 5.6.0. A new package was also added (qt5-webkit) because the Qt5 WebKit source code has been removed from Qt5 since 5.6.0 and it needs to be compiled/packaged separately now.
  • New source tarballs I did not compile into packages: minuet (music education software) because it required several additional dependencies; breeze-grub (a theme for GRUB which blends in with the Plasma 5 theme);
  • I removed the “kde-workspace” package from “kde/kde4” because I think it is no longer needed. Let me know if that was an incorrect assumption.

Installing or upgrading Frameworks 5, Plasma 5 and Applications

You can skip the remainder of the article if you already have my Plasma 5 installed and are familiar with the upgrade process. Otherwise, stay with me and read the rest.

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”, “kdepim”, “plasma”, “plasma-extra”, “applications”, “applications-extra” and “telepathy”.

Upgrading to this KDE 5 is not difficult, especially if you already are running KDE 5_16.02. You will have to remove old KDE 4 packages manually. If you do not have KDE 4 installed at all, you will have to install some of Slackware’s own KDE 4 packages manually.

Note:

If you are using slackpkg+, have already moved to KDE 5_16.01 and are adventurous, you can try upgrading using the following set of commands. This should “mostly” work but you still need to check the package lists displayed by slackpkg to verify that you are upgrading all the right packages. Feel free to send me improved instructions if needed. In below example I am assuming that you tagged my KDE 5 repository with the name “ktown_testing” in the configuration file “/etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf“):
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg install ktown_testing (to get the newly added packages from my repo)
# slackpkg install-new (to get the new official Slackware packages that were part of my deps previously)
# slackpkg upgrade ktown_testing (upgrade all existing packages to their latest versions)
# removepkg xembed-sni-proxy ktux amor kde-base-artwork kde-wallpapers kdeartwork (they don’t exist in the repo anymore)
# slackpkg upgrade-all (upgrade the remaining dependencies that were part of my repo previously)

And doublecheck that you have not inadvertently blacklisted my packages in “/etc/slackpkg/blacklist“! Check for the existence of a line in that blacklist file that looks like “[0-9]+alien” and remove it if you find it!

Recommended reading material

There have been several posts now about KDE 5 for Slackware-current. All of them contain useful information, tips and gotchas that I do not want to repeat here, but if you want to read them, here they are: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/tag/kde5/

A note on Frameworks

The KDE Frameworks are extensions on top of Qt 5.x and their usability is not limited to the KDE Software Collection. There are other projects such as LXQT which rely (in part) on the KDE Frameworks, and if you are looking for a proper Frameworks repository which is compatible with Slackware package managers such as slackpkg+, then you can use these URL’s to assure yourself of the latest Frameworks packages for Slackware-current (indeed, this is a sub-tree of my KDE 5 “testing” repository):

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

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