Alien Pastures

My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

Tag: release (Page 2 of 3)

KDE 4.5.0

August 10, 2010 / / 40 Comments

KDE 4.5.0 is available!

… and I can offer you packages for KDE Software Compilation 4.5.0 for Slackware-current. The 4.5.0 packages are accompanied by a README which explains the straight-forward  installation/upgrade steps. As always, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available.

This marks another milestone for the KDE project with numerous improvements to the KDE 4.4 which we have in Slackware at the moment. Congratulations to everyone who helped in making this release possible, even if its release date slipped a bit instead of delivering on time as usual.  The delay allowed for the fix of a few severe application bugs, so in the end we all benefit.

You will need to run Slackware-current dated Saturday July 31, 2010 or newer. My packages for KDE 4.5.0 are not guaranteed to work on Slackware 13.1, so if you want KDE 4.5.0 you are encouraged to upgrade to Slackware-current!

The additional dependencies which you have to take care of on slackware-current (i.e. non-KDE and/or non-Slackware packages) are limited to just one package, thanks to Pat Volkerding who applied several updates to Slackware-current recently – so that the requirements for running KDE 4.5.0 would be met from the start. That single remaining dependency is libdbusmenu-qt (which does not yet exist in Slackware).  You’ll find it in the “deps” directory.

If you are adventurous and want to try this on Slackware 13.1 anyway, I think you could get lucky by installing/upgrading the packages which you will find in the “deps” directory of my KDE 4.4.5 package repository for Slackware 13.1. Basically, all those updated “deps” packages are are the real difference between Slackware-13.1 and slackware-current at this moment.

NOTE 1:

The kdepim and kdepim-runtime packages are not part of KDE 4.5.0 !!
The PIM developers decided that their applications are not yet stable enough to get included, and instead you are encouraged to keep the kdepim and kdepim-runtime packages of Slackware 13.1 (version 4.4.3) or slackware-current (version 4.4.5).
There is one caveat: the consequence is that you will only be able to use the english localization of kdepim, because the language files are contained in the kde-l10n-* packages of the old version. You can not install that in parallel with the 4.5.0 version of your language files.  Perhaps I will try and split off the kdepim language files into separate packages, if I have the time (unfortunately at this moment I do not have that luxury).

NOTE 2:

If you have been running my previous alpha or beta builds of KDE 4.5.0, and if you experience strange application or plasma behaviour in 4.5.0, try with a fresh user profile. Data migration from KDE 4.4.x to 4.5.0 should not be an issue, but there may be some incompatible changes during the early betas, as mentioned by Maciej on Aaron Seigo’s blog.

And in case you think, “what a strange location for the packages, why have they not been placed in the ‘ktown’ repository“… that is a good question! By the time  this post appears on my blog, I will not be connected to the Internet. Therefore I have scheduled this post to be published in the future after I finished compiling. And since I could not make the packages publicly available ahead of the official release, I decided to hide them in plain sight… Once I get my Internet back I will move the 4.5.0 packages to the correct location, which is indeed my ktown repository.

Update (22-aug-2010): the 4.5.0 directory has finally been moved into my ktown repository and I have updated the links in this article which point to it.

Enjoy, Eric

Preparing for a release is tedious

May 18, 2010 / / 6 Comments

Now that Slackware is nearing a new release (that would be 13.1 of course), it is again obvious how tedious this process of finalizing is. Even though I am not the maintainer, just someone on the side (albeit pretty close to the fire) there are so many small issues to be taken care of… I am glad about all the people installing the release candidate and reporting their findings through http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/ , Freenode’s ##slackware channel and other means (email, this and other  blogs). It’s typical that there is always a flurry of bug reports right before a release. Apparently many folks out there are triggered by the message “this is Release Candidate…” and decide that Slackware-current is stable enough to try it out.

I welcome any remarks about installing slackware-current over a network (NFS/HTTP/FTP/Samba) and using LVM/LUKS. If anything should be added to the README files, this is the moment, and it will pass soon.

There are (again) several items on my private TODO list which I did not find time for during this release cycle… I want to write a script to create a Live DVD out of the installation ISO (for demonstration purposes) – nothing like the Linux-Live scripts which enable you to convert a running Linux system to a Live CD… those scripts are awfully complicated and I want to have something basic. I also wanted to work on the mkinitrd_command_generator.sh and the liloconfig scripts – I want to make it easier to create an initrd.gz during installation, for use with the generic kernel and especially in those cases where an initrd is required like when you are using LVM, or LUKS encryption.

Something needs to be left for the future I guess, so that I have something to look forward to 🙂

On the other hand, I am glad that I managed to update the usbimg2disk.sh script though so that you can create a complete USB installer for Slackware quite easily now (without destroying the data on your USB stick even, if you want). Read my old blog post for usage instructions. The move to KDE SC 4.4.3 in Slackware 13.1 is something I am delighted by as well – I had not thought Pat Volkerding would accept this version into 13.1. Perhaps I should now shift my attention to the development of KDE 4.5 packages…

On another note, the http://slackbuilds.org/ site has closed the submission form in anticipation of the new Slackware release. The admin team needs time to get the database ready for accepting new entries and there are very interesting new features coming up. Be sure to watch the site closely in the near future!

Have fun, Eric

It’s been released: KDE SC 4.4.0

February 9, 2010 / / 26 Comments

The KDE community has announced the immediate availability of the KDE Software Compilation 4.4.0 (“KDE SC” is the new name of what used to be called just “KDE“). In preparation for this event, the kde.org website was re-vamped yesterday to reflect their “shift in marketing and promotion vocabulary”. Looks shiny and new! Also, I think that the new layout makes it easier for people to find information about the KDE community and the software compilation.

Users of small form-factor laptops will be interested to learn that the new Plasma desktop manager now offers two workspace choices. One is the usual desktop-oriented workspace. The interesting addition is a netbook-oriented workspace, with special consideration for the netbook’s smaller screen and typical mobile usage patterns. I have not yet installed KDE 4.4 on my own Asus EEE netbook but I will most certainly do so, later this week!

In order to fully appreciate the work that went into KDE SC 4.4 and learn what has changed since KDE 4.3, you should definitely take the visual tour. Lots of new functionality and usability improvements are hidden beneath this new desktop workspace and just waiting to be discovered and used to the fullest.

Slackware packages galore!

Like I did with the pre-releases of KDE 4.4, I have prepared new goodies for all you Slackers. Get those 32-bit and 64-bit packages for Slackware Linux and install them on your computers (or build them yourself using the accompanying SlackBuild scripts, patches and sources).

You will find all of those at http://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/4.4.0/ .

Please take good notice of the fact that these packages are built for Slackware-current. You can safely install the KDE 4.4.0 packages if you are running a slackware-current from around 01 february 2010 or newer. Do not try to install these packages on Slackware 13.0.

Slackware 64-bit:

  • Don’t forget to also install the updated or new dependencies! These “deps” packages can be found in the “x86_64/deps” directory.
  • The KDE 4.4.0 packages themselves can be found in “x86_64/kde“
  • And of course, the localization packages (non-english language translations of KDE) are available in “x86_64/kdei“.

Slackware 32-bit:

  • Don’t forget to also install the updated or new dependencies! These “deps” packages can be found in the “x86/deps” directory.
  • The KDE 4.4.rc2 packages themselves can be found in “x86/kde“
  • If you need a language pack, you can grab one from the 64-bit package tree “x86_64/kdei” since these packages are in fact architecture-independent.

Here are the steps on how you download the packages and install them. You can have an older version of KDE installed, but that is not required. You will end up with KDE 4.4.0 installed on your system.

Instructions are for the 64-bit packages, I think you can figure out how to change them if you want the 32-bit versions:

  1. Download everything in the directory http://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/4.4.0/x86_64/ :
    # lftp -c "open http://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/4.4.0/ ; mirror x86_64"
  2. Change into the directory “x86_64? which has just been created in your current directory:
    # cd x86_64
  3. Remove the no longer required kdelibs-experimental package if you still have that installed. It is part of KDE 4.3.x (i.e. Slackware 13.0 did not have this package). If you do not have kdelibs-experimental on your system, you will get a harmless error message that you can ignore:
    # removepkg kdelibs-experimental
  4. Install/upgrade the KDE 4.4 dependencies:
    # upgradepkg --reinstall --install-new deps/*.t?z
  5. Install/upgrade KDE4.4.0 packages:
  6. # upgradepkg --reinstall --install-new kde/*.t?z
  7. Install/upgrade a language package if you prefer to have the KDE interface in your local language (I used “nl” in the example command, you should substitute your own language code there):
    # upgradepkg --reinstall --install-new kdei/kde-l10n-nl-*.t?z

Of course, you should not run those commands while running KDE…!

If you want to compile the packages from source like I did, that is entirely possible using the provided sources and build scripts. It will take quite a while though…

Have fun, Eric

Note for users of any KDE 4.4 pre-releases:


If you never before installed and used one of the Betas or Release Candidates of KDE 4.4 , then you can safely remove one package,  virtuosoconverter. This package is only needed if you were using “nepomuk desktop search” before this final release of KDE 4.4.0.

# removepkg virtuosoconverter

If you ran any Beta or Release Candidate of KDE 4.4.0 prior to upgrading to 4.4.0, then you will notice that your nepomuk database will automatically be converted from virtuoso v5 to v6, the very first time you login to your KDE 4.4 desktop. This process will take a while (not too long) and will temporarily double the size of your nepomuk database (by default, this database consumes a maximum of 50 MB in your homedirectory below ~/.kde).

If this database is not valuable to you, you can also decide to skip this database conversion by just deleting the database before starting KDE:

$ rm -r ~/.kde/share/apps/nepomuk/repository/*

or by following the instructions in Sebastian Trueg’s tutorial: http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Metadata/Nepomuk/TipsAndTricks#Remove_all_Strigi-indexed_data

If you manually remove the old nepomuk data, you can also remove the virtuosoconverter package of course.

If you do not have any clue about what I am talking about and what you should do, just don’t do anything… and all will be well.

A final remark about nepomuk and strigi – I think that KDE 4.4 finally has a desktop search which is optimized to a level that it no longer eats all your CPU cycles or claim a large chunk of your harddrive. Now I just wish that the strigi developer properly fixes the indexing of my PDF files!

KDE Software Compilation 4.4 RC2

January 25, 2010 / / 7 Comments

The KDE team are getting closer to the 4.4 release of the KDE Software Compilation (“KDE SC” is the new name of what used to be called just “KDE“).

The second release candidate has been released today (the release was delayed for several days). For Slackware Linux I have prepared 32-bit and 64-bit packages with the accompanying SlackBuild scripts. You will find those at http.//alien.slackbook.org/ktown/4.3.95/ (Version “4.3.95” is the same as “4.4.rc2”).

As before, these packages are built for Slackware-current. You can safely install the KDE 4.4.rc2 packages if you are running a slackware-current from around 20 january 2010 or newer. Do not try to install these packages on Slackware 13.0.

Slackware64:

  • Don’t forget to also install the updated or new dependencies! These “deps” packages can be found in the “x86_64/deps” directory.
  • The KDE 4.4.rc2 packages themselves can be found in “x86_64/kde“
  • And of course, the localization packages (non-english language translations of KDE) are available in “x86_64/kdei“. For the first time, I was able to build all of the non-english language packs without errors.

Slackware:

  • Don’t forget to also install the updated or new dependencies! These “deps” packages can be found in the “x86/deps” directory.
  • The KDE 4.4.rc2 packages themselves can be found in “x86/kde“
  • If you need a language pack, you can grab one from the 64-bit package tree.

Here are the steps on how you download the packages and install them. You can have an older version of KDE installed, but that is not required. You will end up with KDE 4.4.rc2 installed on your system. Instructions are for the 64-bit packages, I think you can figure out how to change them if you want the 32-bit versions:

  1. Download everything in the directory http://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/4.3.95/x86_64/ :
    # lftp -c "open http://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/4.3.95/ ; mirror x86_64"
  2. Change into the directory “x86_64? which has just been created in your current directory:
    # cd x86_64
  3. Remove the no longer required kdelibs-experimental package if you still have that installed. It is part of KDE 4.3.x (i.e. Slackware 13.0 did not have this package). If you do not have kdelibs-experimental on your system, you will get a harmless error message that you can ignore:
    # removepkg kdelibs-experimental
  4. Install/upgrade the KDE 4.4 dependencies:
    # upgradepkg --reinstall --install-new deps/*.t?z
  5. Install/upgrade KDE4.4.rc2 packages:
  6. # upgradepkg --reinstall --install-new kde/*.t?z
  7. Install/upgrade a language package if you prefer to have the KDE interface in your local language (I used “nl” in the example command, you should substitute your own language code there):
    # upgradepkg --reinstall --install-new kdei/kde-l10n-nl-*.t?z

Of course, you should not run those commands while running KDE…!

A big project like KDE needs fast hardware in order to compile in a reasonable time, and I have only one machine (which also happens to be my desktop computer) where I can do this. I strive to have 32-bit packages available as well as 64-bit packages for the final 4.4 release of KDE SC like I did for this release candidate.

If you want to compile the packages from source like I did, that is entirely possible using the provided sources and build scripts.

Have fun, Eric

KDE 4.4 release candidate 1 packaged for Slackware

January 11, 2010 / / 4 Comments

Just a quick update:

I have finished building Slackware packages for KDE 4.4 RC1 (aka version 4.3.90). Compared to the previous Beta2, several of the dependencies have been updated. And just as with Beta2, I was unable to create language packs for ca, da, es, et, it, sr due to docbook errors.

Get KDE 4.4.RC1 packages for Slackware-current (64-bit only) here: http://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/4.3.90/ … Because the sources and SlackBuild scripts are available as well, you should be able to create 32-bit packages quite easily yourself.

Have fun, Eric

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