Cannot upgrade Plasma 5

[stuarte]

Hi all,

I have run into a brick wall trying to upgrade my Plasma 5.18.5 desktop on Kubuntu 20.04.1.

On YouTube I found the video "How to easily upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.22 on Kubuntu 20.04" and followed the instructions given therein. Specifically, issue the following commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports This completed without error or warning.

sudo apt update & sudo apt full-upgrade This seems to be where the problem lies.
The video shows this command causes many, many files to be downloaded. However, in my case no files were downloaded although this command also completed without error or warning. I checked in Discover/Settings/Software Sources and found that "Focal Backports (main restricted universe multiverse) was already ticked.

Aside: This may be the problem as according to " https://9to5linux.com/you-can-now-in...1-04-heres-how " Kubuntu 20.04 is also known as Hisute Hippo. How would I change this in Discover/Settings/Software Sources and any where else it needs to be changed ?

Having run both commands, I went into KInfoCentre and found that the system was still running Plasma 5.18.5. Is it possible to upgrade Plasma from 5.18.5 to 5.22 or is that too big a version jump ?

Any insights into why this is not working would be very much appreciated.

Best regards,

Stuart

[claydoh]

You can't get Plasma 5.22 in Kubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa), the Qt version there is not high enough for anything newer than 5.18. Plus it is LTS, which normally does not see new major Plasma releases anyway.
The instructions you are looking at are specifically for 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo), there are no 5.22 packages for other Kubuntu releases.

[GreyGeek]

What Claydoh said.
If you check your "sources.list" under /etc/apt you'll notice that executing "sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports" followed by "sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade" only results in downloading and installing any packages which were already available for downloading and installing. Any activity you saw is related to a normal update. Here is what is in sources.list:

## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted
# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security universe
# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security multiverse
# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security multiverse

What you see in my sources.list is the results AFTER doing the commands shown above. The add a ppa repository command didn't actually add a ppa repository. So, your system is essential what it was before you ran those commands except you may have updated one or more packages, which explains why your total download was much less than what your thought it would be.

Unless you enjoy repeatedly installing Kubuntu from USB sticks I'd stay with 20.04 until the next LTS is released. Meanwhile, if your system has the ponies, you can download the latest KDE Neon User Edition and install it as a virtual system using qemu & kvm (installing vert-manager, virt-viewer). Give it half your RAM and half your cores. On my system with 4 cores and 8GB RAM it runs almost as fast as if it were on bare silicone. Neon's a rolling update system and is pretty much on the leading (sometimes bleeding) edge of plasma, and not as stable as the current Kubuntu 20.04 LTS. Life is full of choices, except don't forget to back up.

[claydoh]

And to add some more clarity, the Kubuntu-Backports PPA you added DOES have Plasma 5.22, but these are only applicable to 21.04 Hirsute Hippo. The PPA contaions packages for many different Kubuntu releases, there just are very few in it for 20.04

https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-ppa/+...s_filter=focal
One can use the filter to see what is in there for each release.