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Release candidate 3 for KDE 4.5

July 27, 2010 / / 24 Comments

A third and final release candidate is available now for the upcoming KDE SC 4.5. Target for the final release of KDE 4.5 is still august, 2010.

This time, the packages which I created are for Slackware-current only (32-bit as well as 64-bit). The packages are available in my ktown repository. Slackware 13.1 users who want to move to KDE 4.5 should take this opportunity to upgrade to Slackware-current now. If you want to stick with Slackware 13.1 but still want the latest stable KDE then your best shot will be my version of KDE 4.4.5 packages and dependencies that are good for Slackware 13.1 (I will keep those around for quite a while).

With regard to my new set of KDE 4.5-rc3 packages: there is one dependency which is not yet part of Slackware (libdbusmenu-qt) and a single dependency which got updated (soprano) but other than that, Slackware-current is fully up-to-date for KDE 4.5. You will find the libdbusmenu-qt and updated soprano packages in the “deps” directory.

The 4.5-rc3 packages are accompanied by a README which explains the straight-forward  installation/upgrade steps.

This will be your last chance to influence the quality and stability of this new KDE. Go and find bugs… and get them fixed  by reporting them on http://bugs.kde.org/ .

Cheers, Eric

KDE SC 4.4.4 available for Slackware 13.1

June 6, 2010 / / 22 Comments

I asked Pat if he was planning on an early start of slackware-current now that the sources for KDE SC 4.4.4 are available. But he said, go ahead, build your own set.

So here they are, my packages (32-bit and 64-bit) for Slackware 13.1 that give you KDE SC 4.4.4!

The routine has not changed, and the README explains the simple upgrade process as always. This time, it is even easier because I did not have to update or add any dependencies. The KDE and KDEI packages are all that’s new.

There will be a source release of KDE 4.4.5 too, somewhere near the end of june, and then it’s waiting for a stable 4.5 release. I have no idea if there are going to be Slackware packages for 4.4.5 in slackware-current, but I am going to invest some time in checking out the build process for KDE SC 4.5.

Have fun! Eric

Edit (07-jun-2010):

And oh, there is an easy way to mirror my KDE packages… using rsync! The rsync URI is rsync://alien.slackbook.org/alien-kde/ and these are the commands to either download 32-bit packages (will create a local “x86” directory) or 64-bit packages (will create a local “x86_64” directory):

$ rsync -av –progress rsync://alien.slackbook.org/alien-kde/4.4.4/x86 .

$ rsync -av –progress rsync://alien.slackbook.org/alien-kde/4.4.4/x86_64 .

Note the dot at the end of the command!


Slackware 13.1 BETA1

May 6, 2010 / / 15 Comments

My shiny new KDE 4.4.3 packages were short-lived… surprising perhaps, but I knew it was going to happen.

Pat Volkerding “grabbed” the sources I have accumulated at http://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/ (they were mostly his to start with of course) and added KDE SC 4.4.3 officially to Slackware-current. This update marks the first beta release of Slackware 13.1 folks!

This blog gets a nice mention in the “Thu May  6 21:02:02 UTC 2010” ChangeLog entry too 🙂

Do not forget to update your slackpkg blacklist file if you had added my packages there. None of my KDE packages are needed anymore.

Enjoy, Eric

KDE 4.4.3 packages for Slackware-current

May 5, 2010 / / 15 Comments

Another release from the KDE community.

Here it is, KDE Software Compilation 4.4.3. The sources were unveiled today by the KDE release team, and Slackware packages are now ready for you to download. Get them at the usual location: http://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/4.4.3/

The usual warnings apply – do not install my KDE 4.4.3 packages if you are not running the latest slackware-current (64-bit or 32-bit). Also note that the list of dependency packages you need to upgrade/install has grown a bit.

Read the README in the top-directory for full installation/upgrade instructions, or look for my older http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/its-been-released-kde-sc-4-4-0/ post.

With this shiny new KDE release and all the recent updates in Slackware-current, you’ll have plenty to play with.

Have fun, Eric

Upgrading the eeepc to 2.6.33

March 18, 2010 / / 14 Comments

Last week I finally took the time to upgrade my Asus Eeepc 1000H to the latest Slackware-current.

I had two issues after the upgrade, which were related to the new 2.6.33 kernel.

  1. My WPA-secured wireless connections would not last longer than a few seconds. After days of despair, I finally found out that the 2.6.33 kernel has a new driver for my wireless card, the “rt2800pci”. This driver is being loaded by default now. Slackware’s kernel also ships the “rt2860sta” driver which is part of the Linux “staging area” i.e. not considered fully stable. This is the driver which would be used with Slackware kernels before 2.6.33. It is in fact a very stable driver which never failed me before.
    By coincidence I saw that both modules were mentioned as supporting the Eeepc’s wireless card in the output of “lspci -v”. After I added the line “blacklist rt2800pci” to the file “/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf” and rebooted the Eeepc, I had fully functional and stable wireless connectivity again, now using the “rt2860sta” driver!
  2. My sound was gone, or at least working at a very very low volume… I could hear the KDE logout sound if I put my ear to the keyboard but that was about it. Getting normal sound output levels through my headphones was no problem at all, however.
    The ALSA troubleshooting guide for HDA Intel audio hardware pointed me in the right direction: not getting sound through the built-in speakers while the headphone output works well is quite common, and often caused by not raising the correct channel’s volume.
    It turned out that after the upgrade to the 2.6.33 kernel, I need to set the “speaker” channel’s output level to anything non-zero or else there would be no sound…

I have to mention one other piece of strangeness I experienced on my netbook:

It is an issue not related to Slackware-current but rather to my use of the new “netbook” interface of KDE 4.4’s plasma workspace manager. I toyed with the netbook interface a bit, because it lets you use the small screen more efficiently – by removing unnecessary stuff like window elements and task bars. One typical treat is that every application window in the plasma-netbook workspace runs full-screen exclusively – there is no “minimize” button but instead you have to use the application switcher in order to access other running applications’ windows. Unfortunately, when I switched back to the “normal” plasma workspace, the “minimize” buttons did not re-appear in the title bar!
I had to manually re-add this button through “system settings > appearance > windows > buttons” and drag the “minimize” button into the titlebar preview.

Just so you know.

Eric

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