Category Archives: openSUSE

KDE Platform, Workspaces and Applications 4.10.3 for openSUSE

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KDE released 4.10.3 versions of the Platform, Workspaces and Applications yesterday, with more than 70 bugs being fixed. Notably:

  • Several fixes in handling encrypted mails in KMail
  • Fixes for KDEPIM syncing and ownCloud
  • A number of improvements in Dolphin, including crash fixes
  • Optimizations in the Plasma Workspaces
The full list has other important changes.
As usual, there are two different repositories from which you can get them:
  • KDE:Distro:Factory in case you are interested in contributing to packaging for the next openSUSE release;
  • KDE:Release:410 (openSUSE 12.3 or openSUSE 12.2) in case you just want to upgrade to the latest and greatest version
In case you upgrade now, you should be aware of an issue with KDM that makes it not start: thankfully there’s a workaround available, and updated packages are already being built by the OBS, so it will be solved soon.

Report bugs in packaging to Novell’s Bugzilla, and bugs in the software directly to KDE.
Have fun with 4.10.3!

KDE Platform, Workspaces and Applications 4.10.2 packages available for openSUSE

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KDE has released its monthly update for the 4.10 release, and after a brief wait while the Open Build Service worked over the released tarballs, the openSUSE KDE team is pleased to announce the availability of the 4.10.2 release packages for openSUSE 12.2 and 12.3.

KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.10.2 and Dolphin

Despite being a minor release, more than 100 bugs were fixed, in particular there were many KDEPIM fixes touching both the low level stack and KMail/KAddressbook/Kontact. Some highlights on the fixed issues:

  • Issues creating IMAP folders with KDEPIM (KDE bugs 291143, 292418, 305987)
  • Issues with encrypted mails in KDEPIM (KDE bugs 301088, 313478)
  • KMail not creating required folders at startup (KDE bug 303117)
  • Crashes when using the semantic desktop framework (KDE bug 313478)
  • Improvements to CalDAV support in KDEPIM

And this is just a small part of the complete list.

As usual, packages live in the KDE:Release:410 (openSUSE 12.3, openSUSE 12.2) repository. You can add the repositories through zypper or YaST.

The KDE:Distro:Factory repository has also been updated. If you want to contribute and help KDE packaging in openSUSE, use the KDE:Distro:Factory version, otherwise stick to the KDE:Release:410.

The package manager may complain about needing a downgrade of the branding packages: it is harmless, as some packages were splitted and as such they report a lower version number. Just accept the downgrade in the branding packages and all will be well.

Report bugs in packaging to Novell’s Bugzilla, and bugs in the software directly to KDE.

Have fun with 4.10.2!

KDE Platform, Workspaces and Applications 4.10 available for openSUSE

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Hot on the heels of the announcement from KDE, the openSUSE KDE team is happy to announce the availability of packages for the latest stable release of the KDE Platform, Workspaces, and Applications.

Packages are available in the KDE:Distro:Factory repository (which is where the packages to land in 12.3 are tested) for openSUSE Factory (soon to be 12.3) and openSUSE 12.2 and soon (when the Open Build Systen finishes rebuilding a number of packages) in the KDE:Release:410  repository for openSUSE 12.2 users.

If you want to contribute and help KDE packaging in openSUSE, use the KDE:Distro:Factory version, otherwise stick to the KDE:Release:410 repository.

Enjoy!

Package updates in openSUSE 12.3 KDE

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During the discussions for the release of openSUSE 12.3, the topic of update notifications and applets was brought up again. Originally openSUSE shipped with a custom update applet, but since it was basically unmaintained, the decision was made to switch to Apper for openSUSE 12.2

The original Apper used in that version had a number of issues, which the upstream developer (Daniel Nicoletti) fixed in a newer version, which also had a lot of other improvments. However we originally couldn’t switch because it depended on a newer, API-incompatible version of PackageKit, meaning that the PK bindings for libzypp (the heart of openSUSE’s package management) needed to be adjusted and ported.

So, for a while it was not clear on how to proceed, until at the recent hackathon, Stephan “coolo” Kulow ported the PK zypp backend to the newer PackageKit version. Once that issue was solved, the KDE team was able to update Apper to the latest version (0.8) and push it to the distribution. So openSUSE 12.3 (KDE) will make use of Apper as main method of notification for updates.

I would like to stress that Apper is not meant as a full blown replacement of YaST or zypper, but mainly as a way to handle distro and maintenance updates, integrated with the KDE Workspaces.

The Apper program is actually divided into two pieces: the main application itself and a plasmoid. We’ve been testing the plasmoid the past weeks and consensus is that it’s not yet ready to be pushed to users, so only the main application will get installed by default.
When you have new updates, an icon will pop in the system tray informing you:

Update notification

Clicking on it will bring up the main interface, where you can review and select the updates:

Update interface

Afterwards, the update process will start.

Of course, such an addition means that more testing is required, to ensure that outstanding bugs get fixed before the openSUSE 12.3 release. Therefore, if you are willing to test – jump aboard!