For the first time in all the time I have been using Arch I have experience my first major package breakage.
The night before last I ran pacman -Syu and one the packages upgraded was the Qt package. It was upgraded to qt-4.8.1-2. Next time I booted up I was getting a KDE Crash dialog appear noting an error with KRunner. Trying to run krunner from the shell I was presented with a host of errors.
A quick search of the Arch forums I found this post reporting similar problems. Following the advice in the post I downgraded the Qt package and my problems where resolved.
To find out if you can downgrade your package you will need to search the /var/cache/pacman/pkg directory to ensure you have a package to downgrade to. If you do then you can run pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/qt-4.8.0-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz (or whatever version you have). If you can not find an earlier package in your cache then you will have to refer here (the Arch wiki) which will provide further details.
(I should mention that I am running 64bit although I have no idea if this effects 32bit).
Showing posts with label KDE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label KDE. Show all posts
16 April 2012
15 April 2012
KDE 4.8 Task Manager Launcher Issue.
Of all the great new things that arrived in KDE 4.8 one of the most annoying to me was the inclusion of a browser and file manager launcher in the Task Manager. These are the little icons that appear when the said application is not running.
I tried to remove the launchers with the usual right mouse menu option but everytime I re-booted I ended up with the icons back again.
I have finally figured it out though. For some reason you need to remove the Task Manager from the panel and add a new instance of Task Manager and that seems to solve the problem.
While it is a 2 minute fix it is something that should just work by default I think.
I tried to remove the launchers with the usual right mouse menu option but everytime I re-booted I ended up with the icons back again.
I have finally figured it out though. For some reason you need to remove the Task Manager from the panel and add a new instance of Task Manager and that seems to solve the problem.
While it is a 2 minute fix it is something that should just work by default I think.
5 June 2011
Install Dropbox in KDE
I set up a new Linux distro today and the first thing I like to do is install Dropbox.
As a KDE user this is slightly more involved than for those that like to play with Garden Ornaments!
I did post previously a simple guide that showed how to do this but the article has gone! So below is how I set up Dropbox.
First download the Dropbox package. The following two links (32 and 64 bit) should point to the latest builds :
Save the file somewhere in your /home directory and the use an extraction tool to extract the contents into your /home/USERNAME directory. (This should be your /home directory as in /home/andy). This will create a folder called .dropbox-dist (note the . character, this is a hidden folder).
Go to the KDE System Settings application and navigate to the "Startup and Shutdown" node and then the "Autostart" node. Click Add Script and use the file dialog to select the dropboxd file within the .dropbox-dist folder (and yes that is the dropboxd and not dropbox, this is a daemon that will be started on each logon).
Once the dropboxd file name is selected click OK. That is the daemon set up and ready to use.
Now to save logging out and back in again, open your file manager and navigate to the /.dropbox-dist/ directory (once again you will have to enable viewing hidden files and directories to see it), and double click the dropboxd file. This will start the daemon running and will display the Dropbox setup wizard. Within the wizard you can choose to create a new account or connect to your existing account.
As a KDE user this is slightly more involved than for those that like to play with Garden Ornaments!
I did post previously a simple guide that showed how to do this but the article has gone! So below is how I set up Dropbox.
First download the Dropbox package. The following two links (32 and 64 bit) should point to the latest builds :
Save the file somewhere in your /home directory and the use an extraction tool to extract the contents into your /home/USERNAME directory. (This should be your /home directory as in /home/andy). This will create a folder called .dropbox-dist (note the . character, this is a hidden folder).
Go to the KDE System Settings application and navigate to the "Startup and Shutdown" node and then the "Autostart" node. Click Add Script and use the file dialog to select the dropboxd file within the .dropbox-dist folder (and yes that is the dropboxd and not dropbox, this is a daemon that will be started on each logon).
Once the dropboxd file name is selected click OK. That is the daemon set up and ready to use.
Now to save logging out and back in again, open your file manager and navigate to the /.dropbox-dist/ directory (once again you will have to enable viewing hidden files and directories to see it), and double click the dropboxd file. This will start the daemon running and will display the Dropbox setup wizard. Within the wizard you can choose to create a new account or connect to your existing account.
openSuse 11.4
Today I have been sorting my work laptops Linux partition.
Up until recently I have been using Kubuntu on Kermit my work laptop. This was down to it being the CD I had to hand when setting the laptop up for some Linux based development work. Kubuntu was OK but it never seemed as fluid as Arch which is the distro I use by choice. When it came to running the upgrade between 10.10 and 4.11, it just failed and bricked the partition. If ever I loved Arch's rolling release model more it was then! So today, wanting a distro that I could just install and use, I opted to try openSuse 11.4. I haven't used Suse since about version 9.3, so it has been a while. So far I am very impressed. It boots fast and looks great. I have set up my standard apps and over the next few days I will get my development environment set up so fingers crossed I can use this for a while without issues.
The KDE implementation seems to be much more polished than Kubuntu. In fact I would say this is the best, most well integrated and polished 4.6 implementation I have seen so far.
The only gotcha I have faced was that the installer defaulted the host name to some standard string. It's easy to fix, open the /etc/HOSTNAME file in your favorite editor as root and change the single entry to the desired host name. Save the file and all is well in the world. Simple fix but it would be nicer if the installer did a better job with regard to this.
Up until recently I have been using Kubuntu on Kermit my work laptop. This was down to it being the CD I had to hand when setting the laptop up for some Linux based development work. Kubuntu was OK but it never seemed as fluid as Arch which is the distro I use by choice. When it came to running the upgrade between 10.10 and 4.11, it just failed and bricked the partition. If ever I loved Arch's rolling release model more it was then! So today, wanting a distro that I could just install and use, I opted to try openSuse 11.4. I haven't used Suse since about version 9.3, so it has been a while. So far I am very impressed. It boots fast and looks great. I have set up my standard apps and over the next few days I will get my development environment set up so fingers crossed I can use this for a while without issues.
The KDE implementation seems to be much more polished than Kubuntu. In fact I would say this is the best, most well integrated and polished 4.6 implementation I have seen so far.
The only gotcha I have faced was that the installer defaulted the host name to some standard string. It's easy to fix, open the /etc/HOSTNAME file in your favorite editor as root and change the single entry to the desired host name. Save the file and all is well in the world. Simple fix but it would be nicer if the installer did a better job with regard to this.
28 December 2010
KDE Dolphin Dropbox Service.
This article I have just seen via the KDE Planet details a new service for allowing Dropbox browsing from Dolphin. Looks promising and I will try and install tomorrow and play.
21 December 2010
KDE & K16 ... Send Your Pitch
So the KDE team have thrown open a challenge. What do users and developers want from KDE and where should it head in the next 5 years. They are going to hold a meeting of users, visionaries and developers early next year called K16 and they have thrown open an invitation for users to "pitch" their ideas in a one page document which can be sent to k16@kde.org for the chance to attend and sell your idea to the project. The organising team and KDE e.V. will select 15 people to attend and even cover travel costs.
I think this is a GREAT idea and one that shows despite the criticisms from some voices in the media the project does care about what people want and is in fact not a developer centric project.
However, it is quite clear from some posts I have read and some of the comments in the announcement that some users are still bemoaning issues surrounding KDE 4 and the stability of the Software. In some case's I agree that while the project has transformed from a slightly poor 4.0 release, 4.5 and soon 4.6 have polished up rather nicely. I know that some feel that certain changes from the version 3 code have not been wise but at the end of the day KDE is still a mainly volunteer FOSS project and people will work on what interests them and inspires them. If there is a feature from 3 that is really important to you then file a request, get coding yourself or inspire someone to code it.
It's funny how comments like "-Make dolphin open instant and respond better." and "-a replacement for "ark" is desperately needed" make me smile. Opening Dolphin on my Thinkpad R61e takes less than a second. How much faster does it need to be? What distro is the culprit and may have modified it, bloated it?? I like KDE plain and simple so I run Arch.
I do think that while the project plans for the next 5 years they should also keep polishing and improving what they have. However, a meeting like this may well bring some great ideas to the project that may otherwise not been thought of.
Personally, I would like to see a decent WebKit based Browser that is capable of giving Firefox and Chrome a serious run for it's money. I would like to see Tag Cloud based options in Save and Open dialogs. I would like to see decent a decent Bluetooth stack that is complete. And I would love to see changes to the UI that would make using the desktop as much fun as using my Android phone. Plasma widgets of real value and slick UI's that break the 25 year old mould and bring seamless connectivity to the KDE desktop and the web.
I might even put a page together on that one!
I think this is a GREAT idea and one that shows despite the criticisms from some voices in the media the project does care about what people want and is in fact not a developer centric project.
However, it is quite clear from some posts I have read and some of the comments in the announcement that some users are still bemoaning issues surrounding KDE 4 and the stability of the Software. In some case's I agree that while the project has transformed from a slightly poor 4.0 release, 4.5 and soon 4.6 have polished up rather nicely. I know that some feel that certain changes from the version 3 code have not been wise but at the end of the day KDE is still a mainly volunteer FOSS project and people will work on what interests them and inspires them. If there is a feature from 3 that is really important to you then file a request, get coding yourself or inspire someone to code it.
It's funny how comments like "-Make dolphin open instant and respond better." and "-a replacement for "ark" is desperately needed" make me smile. Opening Dolphin on my Thinkpad R61e takes less than a second. How much faster does it need to be? What distro is the culprit and may have modified it, bloated it?? I like KDE plain and simple so I run Arch.
I do think that while the project plans for the next 5 years they should also keep polishing and improving what they have. However, a meeting like this may well bring some great ideas to the project that may otherwise not been thought of.
Personally, I would like to see a decent WebKit based Browser that is capable of giving Firefox and Chrome a serious run for it's money. I would like to see Tag Cloud based options in Save and Open dialogs. I would like to see decent a decent Bluetooth stack that is complete. And I would love to see changes to the UI that would make using the desktop as much fun as using my Android phone. Plasma widgets of real value and slick UI's that break the 25 year old mould and bring seamless connectivity to the KDE desktop and the web.
I might even put a page together on that one!
12 September 2010
KDE Articles
Having been caught up with real work this week I have only just really caught up with my RSS feeds. Within which this week I find a number of interesting articles on various elements of KDE.
The first two are Bruce Byfields 7 Things you can do in KDE but not in Windows 7 and KDE and the Expansion of the Desktop. Both articles offer some interesting and articulate advice regarding KDE's Virtual Desktops, Activities, KWin effects and more. It's nice to see Bruce standing up for a desktop that only a couple of years ago he was so critical of.
A Look At KDE Desktop Effects does just that and provides a nice step by step guide to using the "System Settings" to get the best from the effects offered by KWin.
Last, but not least is KDE SC 4.5 Desktop Activities Exposed which once again comes from an author who was critical of the KDE activity implementation but after play with it and reading further articles himself (see article for links) comes to the conclusion that they might not be so bad after all.
The first two are Bruce Byfields 7 Things you can do in KDE but not in Windows 7 and KDE and the Expansion of the Desktop. Both articles offer some interesting and articulate advice regarding KDE's Virtual Desktops, Activities, KWin effects and more. It's nice to see Bruce standing up for a desktop that only a couple of years ago he was so critical of.
A Look At KDE Desktop Effects does just that and provides a nice step by step guide to using the "System Settings" to get the best from the effects offered by KWin.
Last, but not least is KDE SC 4.5 Desktop Activities Exposed which once again comes from an author who was critical of the KDE activity implementation but after play with it and reading further articles himself (see article for links) comes to the conclusion that they might not be so bad after all.
5 August 2010
KDE 4.5 SC Delayed For A Week
For those that have not heard, the KDE Release Team have decided to move the release date for the KDE 4.5 SC back a week. This is due to some last minute fix's made after the last RC3 release.
As is right and proper Aaron has a blog post up with the details.
As is right and proper Aaron has a blog post up with the details.
31 July 2010
KDE - New Developer Projects
I have just read this post from Lydia Pintscher who has been trying to find projects within the KDE community that are in need of some love and which would provide a great way to get started in contributing to the KDE community.
There are a few varied idea, although any part of the community could do with more developers, technical writers or even people happy to help on the forums.
Why not join the mailing lists and get contributing.
There are a few varied idea, although any part of the community could do with more developers, technical writers or even people happy to help on the forums.
Why not join the mailing lists and get contributing.
30 June 2010
27 May 2010
Inovating Open Source Software
This is a great article over at info world about Open Source Software that is "doing it's own thing". Seven applications that are not based on existing products and which are developing new ideas and pushing software in new directions.
Nice to see the KDE SC social desktop stuff makes it in the list.
Nice to see the KDE SC social desktop stuff makes it in the list.
26 May 2010
24 May 2010
KDE 4.5 Activities
Chani has created a screen cast to show off the work on activities that will be included in the upcoming 4.5 release of the KDE SC.
Watch it here
Watch it here
17 May 2010
New KDE Focused Podcast.
This is a link to the new KDE focused podcast, KDE & The Masters Of The Universe.
Guillermo Amaral the host starts off by interviewing the one and only Aaron Seigo and has one question that makes Mr Seigo stop and think!
Guillermo Amaral the host starts off by interviewing the one and only Aaron Seigo and has one question that makes Mr Seigo stop and think!
11 May 2010
KDE Global Menu.
I have just seen this article outlining a new global menu system developed by Aurelien Gateau.
The article does not provide much detail other then it is aimed for Netbooks and will be in the next Kubuntu release. Looks interesting but I was not aware this was something that many people would be interested in.
The article does not provide much detail other then it is aimed for Netbooks and will be in the next Kubuntu release. Looks interesting but I was not aware this was something that many people would be interested in.
5 May 2010
KDE 4.4.3 "Cuality" Is Out!
KDE 4.4.3 is out. This is the monthly bugfix and translation release code name "Cuality".
The main highlights this month are :
* Numerous fixes in Konsole, KDE's terminal emulator, among them two possible crashers in session management
* Flash plugin support in KHTML has been enhanced to work with newest Youtube skins
* Case-sensitivity in renaming fixes in KIO, KDE's network-transparent I/O library
* Hiding the mouse cursor in some special cases in presentation mode and two possible crashers have been fixed
The full change log can be read here.
pacman here I come!
The main highlights this month are :
* Numerous fixes in Konsole, KDE's terminal emulator, among them two possible crashers in session management
* Flash plugin support in KHTML has been enhanced to work with newest Youtube skins
* Case-sensitivity in renaming fixes in KIO, KDE's network-transparent I/O library
* Hiding the mouse cursor in some special cases in presentation mode and two possible crashers have been fixed
The full change log can be read here.
pacman here I come!
8 April 2010
KDE 4.4 Positive Spin
This is a nice, short, article on the Linux Journal website about the latest KDE SC release.
It's interesting to see that even now, 2 years down the line people are still bringing up the KDE 4.0 release. Perhaps it's me but I don't (either as a user or developer) feel that KDE 4.0 was labelled a "Complete" or "User ready" release. I feel that distros where far to quick to package it all up and release it to the users. Kubuntu took what I consider to be the correct path by offering both KDE 3.5 and 4.0 in their next available release. I have been reading some articles recently stating that they may do the same with GNOME 3.0. The approach they took allowed those users who wanted to try the new desktop to do so while vanilla users could carry on with 3.5 until they opted to upgrade.
I do agree that with the author in the article above that we really need to push the message to users that may have left KDE since the 4.0 release. KDE 4.4 is a GREAT release which many 3.5 users, I think, will find not only usable but a great step forward.
It's interesting to see that even now, 2 years down the line people are still bringing up the KDE 4.0 release. Perhaps it's me but I don't (either as a user or developer) feel that KDE 4.0 was labelled a "Complete" or "User ready" release. I feel that distros where far to quick to package it all up and release it to the users. Kubuntu took what I consider to be the correct path by offering both KDE 3.5 and 4.0 in their next available release. I have been reading some articles recently stating that they may do the same with GNOME 3.0. The approach they took allowed those users who wanted to try the new desktop to do so while vanilla users could carry on with 3.5 until they opted to upgrade.
I do agree that with the author in the article above that we really need to push the message to users that may have left KDE since the 4.0 release. KDE 4.4 is a GREAT release which many 3.5 users, I think, will find not only usable but a great step forward.
1 April 2010
KDE Approach Kim Kardashian To Promote The Next SC
Kim Kardashian has been approached to help market the next release of the KDE SC. This is great news and just what the project needs to lift it's profile.
30 March 2010
KDE SC 4.4.2, "Colibri", Released.
10 February 2010
KDE 4.4 Is Released!
KDE Software Compilation 4.4 has been released.
Codenamed "Caikaku" you can read the official release notification here.
There is also a Visual Guide. which covers this software compilation further.
Not only another great release by everyone involved in the KDE community but also a shiny new web site just in time for release of 4.4 which looks great.
For further info you can check out the following KDE related places on the internet :
Update/Install and enjoy.
Codenamed "Caikaku" you can read the official release notification here.
There is also a Visual Guide. which covers this software compilation further.
Not only another great release by everyone involved in the KDE community but also a shiny new web site just in time for release of 4.4 which looks great.
For further info you can check out the following KDE related places on the internet :
Update/Install and enjoy.
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