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My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

Tag: kde411 (Page 1 of 2)

KDE 4.11.5 for Slackware 14.1

January 7, 2014 / / 5 Comments

Last month I made packages available for KDE 4.12, for those of you who are adventurous and are running Slackware-current. But the older 4.11 series is also getting updated still. Today we are at release 4.11.5. If you are really curious, you can examine the list of changes and fixes in this release. This will not be the last update, either. The maintenance cycle ends with 4.11.9, to appear somewhere in April 2014. However the Workspaces (package name: kde-workspace) will get long-term support, until August 2015. This package is also used in KDE 4.12.x which does not have a versioned kde-workspace package itself (yes, I will update KDE 4.12 soon with a kde-workspace-4.11.5 package).

This is how it goes during the next couple of months: I will keep building packages for newer versions of KDE 4.12, and they will target Slackware-current. I will probably be building all the KDE 4.11 releases as well, but targeting Slackware 14.1 with these. I want to be a bit more conservative with KDE packages for the stable Slackware release.

With KDE 4.11 and 4.12 releases alternating, it may be possible that I do not have the time to build all the 4.11 updates, but I definitely will do the final 4.11.9.

There is a third track in KDE’s evolution and that is Plasma Workspaces. Just before Christmas, the KDE community revealed the first Technology Preview of Plasma2. Since this will not be available in any kind of stable form for a long time, I do not have any intention of building packages for it and will stick with the stable releases (I don’t do Betas either usually). If you really feel up to it, try compiling Plasma2 and share your experiences. I promise you a bumpy ride.

How to upgrade to KDE 4.11.5 ?

Note: you have to be running Slackware 14.1 (or current)! These packages are not suited for Slackware 14.0.

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!

Note that you can also use slackpkg+ (the 3rd-party repository extension to slackpkg) for these upgrades if you want, it makes the process a bit easier for the less seasoned Slacker.

Where to find packages for KDE 4.11.5 ?

Download locations are listed below (you will find the sources in ./source/4.11.5/ and packages in /14.1/4.11.5/ 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

KDE 4.11.4 for Slackware 14.1

December 4, 2013 / / 11 Comments

Even though the KDE community has already made available a Release Candidate for the upcoming KDE 4.12, they also continue with the bugfix releases for the 4.11 series. Yesterday saw the source code release of KDE Software Compilation 4.11.4, as announced on kde.org. This is again a maintenance release, containing updates for Workspaces, Applications and Development Platform. Note that the KDE 4.11 Workspaces will continue to receive updates for the next two years – from what I understood, its version will remain 4.11 while KDE SC moves on to 4.12 and onwards.

Since the release of KDE 4.11.3 last month, we were also treated to Slackware 14.1 so it made sense to build the new Slackware packages on Slackware 14.1. They will of course work just as well on slackware-current since that has not diverged all that much from the stable release.

How to upgrade to KDE 4.11.4 ?

Note: you have to be running Slackware 14.1 (or current)! These packages are not suited for Slackware 14.0.

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!

Note that you can also use slackpkg+ (the 3rd-party repository extension to slackpkg) for these upgrades if you want, it makes the process a bit easier for the less seasoned Slacker.

Where to find packages for KDE 4.11.4 ?

Download locations are listed below (you will find the sources in ./source/4.11.4/ and packages in /14.1/4.11.4/ 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

KDE 4.11.3 ready for install

November 5, 2013 / / 10 Comments

Here is KDE Software Compilation 4.11.3 – it was announced a little earlier today. The third incremental maintenance release for KDE 4.11 contains updates for Workspaces, Applications and Development Platform, and has eliminated over 120 bugs from the Window Manager KWin, the file manager Dolphin, the personal information management suite Kontact, the UML tool Umbrello, and others.

Packages are available for Slackware-current in the usual 32-bit and 64-bit flavours. I am running them on this very laptop and I find no flaws. I am also working on other interesting stuff, that is why it took a few hours to write the blog article. Be sure to be here when I publish the next one (hopefully tomorrow). One hint: SilverLight.

The new Plasma Network Management applet which I added to the previous KDE 4.11.2 set, has been seriously reworked by its developers, and the updated version I have as part of the new KDE 4.11.3 needs a bit of manual work if you are currently using that first version. After upgrade, you will notice that the old applet has transformed into a red cross and calls itself an “unknown applet”. Just remove it from the system tray and add the updated one (called again “Network Management v0.9.3.1”).

How to upgrade to KDE 4.11.3 ?

Note: you have to be running Slackware-current! These packages are not suited for Slackware 14.0.

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 4.11.3 ?

Download locations are listed below (you will find the sources in ./source/4.11.3/ and packages in /current/4.11.3/ 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

KDE SC 4.11.2 and new networkmanagement applet for testing

October 2, 2013 / / 19 Comments

As part of the 4.11 development cycle, the KDE Software Compilation 4.11.2 has been released yesterday.

I built the packages but (no) thanks to not feeling well, I was not able to get them ready in parallel with the source code release. Not a big deal really, since this is a minor bugfix release. The upgrade will be straightforward.

There is one thing I want to mention however. A Redhat team (as far as I know at least) is working on a replacement for the networkmanagement widget (which you can use in KDE to manage the Network Manager connections). The new  Plasma applet is written in QML/C++ and is meant to be a drop-in replacement for the older widget-based networkmanagement applet. The new applet is optimized for Plasma active (the touch interface of KDE) but should also work well with the Plasma desktop UI.

To this purpose, I have added three new packages to the kde/ directory: libmm-qt, libnm-qt and plasma-nm. If you install these, you will be able to add a new networkmanagement widget and remove the old NM widget. I have only tested this briefly on my own desktop with wired network (without issues), but I have no idea how it behaves on a laptop with wireless. Apparently this applet will be the way forward, so I added the packages for preliminary testing.

How to upgrade to KDE 4.11.2 ?

Note: you have to be running Slackware-current! These packages are not suited for Slackware 14.0.

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 4.11.2 ?

Download locations are listed below (you will find the sources in ./source/4.11.2/ and packages in /current/4.11.2/ 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

KDE SC 4.11.1

September 3, 2013 / / 40 Comments

KDE Software Compilation 4.11.1 has been released today. The first incremental improvement in the 4.11 release offers more than 70 bugfixes, most importantly: “improvements to the Window Manager KWin, the file manager Dolphin, and others“. Startup times of the Plasma Desktop and scrolling in Dolphin have been improved, and the memory requirements of various applications have been lowered. All in all, a more pleasant experience can be expected after upgrading your current KDE.

Compiling KDE was easy as usual, and between one increment and the other there is not so much to see as perhaps there is to “feel” in terms of responsiveness of the desktop. So I have been thinking how to spice up the experience. I came up with a potential candidate which I may or may not add to the ‘ktown’ set because I doubt that Pat will add it to Slackware eventually. That added spice could be the Plasma Media Center. It looks like an intriguing piece of software with a good chance to end up on tablet computers (it supports the Plasma Active desktop). I still feel that I should buy the new Nexus 7 tablet if it finally hits the stores here in the Netherlands, and if it is indeed possible to install a common Linux on it, Slackware should get its share on the device.

If I do decide to package the Plasma Media Center without adding it to the main ‘ktown’ repository, I might just create a ‘ktown-media’ repository for it. That would allow me to also create some rebuilt KDE packages for everything that will profit from stuff Slackware does not ship with, like FFmpeg or VLC. Not decided yet on this, but it sounds like a useful addition.

How to upgrade to KDE 4.11.1 ?

Note: you have to be running Slackware-current! These packages are not suited for Slackware 14.0.

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 4.11.1 ?

Download locations are listed below (you will find the sources in ./source/4.11.1/ and packages in /current/4.11.1/ 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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