Announcement

**acheron** · Jun 30, 2016, 04:04 AM

Originally posted by NoWorries View Post

Today I was updated from KDE Plasma 5.6.4 to KDE Plasma 5.6.5. I did find the release schedule for KDE Plasma 5 at: https://community.kde.org/Schedules/Plasma_5. In this schedule, 5.6.5 was scheduled for release on the 16th June, which was 2 weeks ago.

Packaging, then testing the new release, even when it's a point update to a stable series, takes some time.

Originally posted by NoWorries View Post

I have seen a report that the external display bugs will be fixed in KDE Plasma 5.7. This is due for release on the 5th July. Hopefully we will get it soon after.

Could be even longer for plasma 5.7 on Xenial, as it requires Qt 5.6 and Xenial is only on 5.5.1+fixes.

Providing Qt 5.6.x as an update, even just in a kubuntu ppa, is a thorny problem to get it to work without causing other problems with ubuntu and their archive packages. Neon can do it, as they can decide not to be bothered so much as long as KDE/plasma works with whatever packages they decide are wanted. kubuntu are more constrained in their options.

**NoWorries** · Jul 01, 2016, 06:57 PM

**acheron** · Jul 02, 2016, 12:03 AM

Ah, you are on KDE Neon then, not kubuntu.

**acheron** · Jul 02, 2016, 12:04 AM

Neon will also be getting Qt 5.7 soon. Currently in testing.

**NoWorries** · Jul 02, 2016, 12:25 AM

I have Kubuntu 16.04 installed and I added the source shown in the first image above, and it it gave 322 packages to upgrade and 19 newly installed. I let that go ahead and, after that, I installed neon-desktop. I had to do sudo dpkg --configure -a for it to complete and then I had to remove one package which also removed neon-desktop, libkf5screen-bin, kscreen, powerdevil, kde-spectacle and libpowerdevilcore2. After doing this with some trepidation, I then installed neon-desktop and it also installed updated versions of these packages.

I must say that when I was doing the above, there were many heart stopping moments as this Laptop is my primary one. At least I am on Fibre to the home and new installation is not such a big deal it I break the system.

All is working well at the moment with a few quirks such as the system starts with default panel plus an "empty panel" on the external display and Muon Package Manager > Configure Software Sources has a few oddities.

**acheron** · Jul 02, 2016, 12:30 AM

Neon runs on a Xenial base, but once you install the neon-desktop and settings meta-packages and everything they pull in, you can't really claim it's 'kubuntu' any more. Neon desktop is a very separate thing with it's own settings, packages, configs, etc.

**NoWorries** · Jul 02, 2016, 05:11 AM

Originally posted by acheron View Post

Neon runs on a Xenial base, but once you install the neon-desktop and settings meta-packages and everything they pull in, you can't really claim it's 'kubuntu' any more. Neon desktop is a very separate thing with it's own settings, packages, configs, etc.

From what you are saying, is Kubuntu XX going to exist anymore? Will it now be called KDE Neon but be based on the ubuntu repositories?

**acheron** · Jul 02, 2016, 05:18 AM

Originally posted by NoWorries View Post

From what you are saying, is Kubuntu XX going to exist anymore?

Not saying that at all. Kubuntu will continue to exist and get updates via their ppas, and yakkety as a new version

Originally posted by NoWorries View Post

Will it now be called KDE Neon but be based on the ubuntu repositories?

No, as the Neon project is something completely separate to kubuntu.

It just uses the Ubuntu Xenial repositories as a base to build their project on top off, but it is not kubuntu or a replacement for it.

**acheron** · Jul 02, 2016, 06:07 AM

https://neon.kde.org/faq

Can I turn Kubuntu into KDE neon with a PPA?

We recommend that you install a fresh KDE neon from the provided ISO images. But you can indeed add an APT repository to switch from Kubuntu to KDE neon. This is absolutely not tested or supported. If things take a turn for the worse you are expected to be knowledgable enough to repair your system on your own. A web search should quickly give you relevant information on how to do this.

Is KDE neon an add-on to Kubuntu?

KDE neon sits on top of the Ubuntu core foundations, which means the majority of software built for Ubuntu core will work fine, even when not explicitly supported by the KDE neon team. KDE neon is however not compatible with Kubuntu, as there is vast overlap in the base offerings of both Kubuntu and KDE neon. You can not use both systems at the same time. Installing KDE neon will simply replace Kubuntu.

**NoWorries** · Jul 03, 2016, 05:18 AM

I was very much aware of the warnings that were give by the approach I took. That is why I said

there were many heart stopping moments as this Laptop is my primary one

I have noticed that the neon iso file is 914MiB as against 1.4GiB for the Yakkety iso. The reason for this difference is the number of applications in the neon iso. The Applications launcher from the neon iso gives:

For this system under Graghics, Internet, Multimedia and Settings, there is only one application listed in each sub-menu. Also there is no Office or Education menu item.

By comparison the Xenial launcher gives:

So if I had failed by using the ppa approach, I would re-installed Xenial and not tried neon again as doing the neon iso install would have involved a lot more time to get it to the stage I wanted.

So far my system is working quite well with only a few annoyances which I hope are fixed in the coming weeks. I have been able to use all the applications for the jobs that I have to do.

The developers have done a great job to get it to this stage and I look forward to seeing the coming improvements. The main one I am waiting for is the correct handling of the external display.

**acheron** · Jul 03, 2016, 06:23 AM

Originally posted by NoWorries View Post

I was very much aware of the warnings that were give by the approach I took. That is why I said

I gathered that, but I was posting more for anyone else who may be reading this thread.

If you see what I mean.

**acheron** · Jul 05, 2016, 07:05 AM

https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.7.0.php

**NoWorries** · Jul 05, 2016, 07:00 PM

Originally posted by acheron View Post

https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.7.0.php

It is certainly great to see a positive report on Plasma 5.7. This morning I found another one at: http://news.softpedia.com/news/kde-p...s-505994.shtml This also lists the release dates for 5.7. I certainly look forward to these releases and I hope they soon fix the problems with external displays soon.

You will find that external displays are still not working and the bug report on this is still active. You can see comments on problems with 5.7 at https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=356225#c125. You can scroll up and down around the bug comments to see what the current status is regarding external displays.

**acheron** · Jul 05, 2016, 10:49 PM

Hmm.. looks like the author of the softpedia article didn't check the actual release very hard, as that new login screen/greeter has been reverted for now. 5.7 still has the same Breeze style for the time being.

For ref, the actual proposed plasma release schedule can be found here: https://community.kde.org/Schedules/Plasma_5

Announcement

KDE Plasma 5.7

KDE Plasma 5.7

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment