Happy Inspection of Hippo Kubuntu 21.04

[acheron]

In case people are wondering, Plasma 5.21.0 released today is on the way, but has some hurdles to jump 1st.

1) The hirsute archive was closed to most package builds today due to a serious bug in the file permissions of some built packages, and may not re-open fully until tomorrow. See: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ry/041385.html
2) A new version of glibc (the package that provides the core libraries for a GNU Linux system) is in the -proposed pocket, and has some issues to fix. Even if I were to upload the new Plasma, most of it would be 'stuck behind' that glibc update, and not hit the release pocket until the issue cause by new glibc are fixed by the Ubuntu core dev team.

So in an experimental PPA you can find and try 5.21.0 if your dare. No warranties, no promises, at your own risk. If it breaks your system, you get to keep both halves.

ppa:kubuntu-ppa/experimental

[MYOUTUBE]ahEWG4JCA1w[/MYOUTUBE]

[Don B. Cilly]

FWIW, neon User is on 5.21.0. Unstable on 5.21.8. Nothing breaks that I can see.

[NoWorries]

Looks like Neon is not the only one with 5.21.0. See attached Image.

[MeMyself]

Have to admit, so far Hirsute has been a nice upgrade. Just noticed when backing up, my first Hirsute backup was late November. Didn't realize that I've been running it that long, which is a testament to how smooth it has been.

Add in the 5.21 and I've been running the 5.11 kernel - a really enjoyable OS

Looks like Neon is not the only one with 5.21.0. See attached Image.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9307[/ATTACH]

[NoWorries]

We are now in the final 2 months before the release of Hirsute Hippo.

Currently I appreciate the excellent progress of Hirsute Hippo development. I wish to thank acheron and his associates for their support as they oversea the porting of KDE to work on Kubuntu 21.04. Also, thank you for the superb updates from those working on KDE Plasma, Frameworks, Applications and Qt.

The progress over the past month is shown in the table below.

	Last Month	2 Months to go
KDE Plasma Version	5.20.5	5.21.0
KDE Frameworks Version	5.78.0	5.79.0
QT Version	5.15.2	5.15.2
Kernel Version	5.10.0-12-generic	5.10.0-14-generic

With the exception of QT Version, progress has been made in all other major areas. From acheron #76, we now have Plasma Version 5.21 which has many new features.

I couldn't help but notice at: https://9to5linux.com/ubuntu-21-04-i...led-by-default where it claimed that Ubuntu 21.04 will have Wayland installed by default. Every time I try out Wayland on my HP Laptop with UHD displays, I always find that System Settings > Display and Monitor does not have any option to define a Primary Display. I think this is the reason why a presentation from LibreOffice Presentation is totally unsatisfactory, ie a mess. So I wait with bated breath for this to be fixed. When it is, I will then believe that Wayland can be used by default. In the meantime, I boot with X11.

[hstoellinger]

Hello,

I am aware that this is probably not the right place to ask a question about Kubuntu 21.04, but there is no 21.04 section in the forum as yet...

I just installed it and it works fine mostly, so far. At the moment I have one "complaint":

I find the fact "a bore" that Ubuntu-based distros don't include LibreOffice Base in the download/install LibreOffice. What is the reason for not including it? I know one has to spend some time to get connections to databases working, eg. one must have the right connector on one's system. But to find out how to "close that gap" cost me a couple of hours. Of course, in the end I downloaded LO 7.1.1.2 from LO's own download page, and everything works o.k.

On a more positive note: My ancient Sony laptop uses a NVIDIA G98M [GeForce 9300M GS] graphics card. inxi -F shows that it runs the open SW nouveau driver on the Kubuntu 21.04 system just installed. Having experienced absolutely NO crashes or freezes, I am a happy bunny; especially so as the proprietary NVIDIA 340.108 driver seems to not be supported officially anymore on kernel 5.10. I hope this isn't just temporarily so...
Regards
H. Stoellinger

[dequire]

I find the fact "a bore" that Ubuntu-based distros don't include LibreOffice Base in the download/install LibreOffice. What is the reason for not including it? I know one has to spend some time to get connections to databases working, eg. one must have the right connector on one's system. But to find out how to "close that gap" cost me a couple of hours.

Installation of L.O. took around 5 minutes here, installing via Flatpack using Discover. Very easy.

[jlittle]

... don't include LibreOffice Base in the download/install LibreOffice. What is the reason for not including it?

Historically, the need to keep the isos small enough to fit on a CD, then on DVDs, then on 2 GB USB sticks, drove a lot of decisions like that. I wouldn't be surprised if the non-inclusion of LO Base goes back to that era.

[hstoellinger]

See my previous post regarding downloading from LO directly - NO Flatpak, by the way, just download, extract the debs and install, using dpkg.

[acheron]

I find the fact "a bore" that Ubuntu-based distros don't include LibreOffice Base in the download/install LibreOffice. What is the reason for not including it?

Ubuntu do not want it as it would then pull java/JRE/stuff onto the ISO. Both bloat, and stuff that they do not want to be in the 'main' pocket of supported things.

[MeMyself]

Just noticed 5.80 is in the Staging branch. Haven't tested it yet. Has anyone tested it out?

[NoWorries]

I have had it for a couple of days now and I have not had any problems with it. I was keen to see if it solved my problem with my UHD external monitor problem that I previously reported. Sad to say, nothing has changed with KDE Frameworks 5.80.0.

[Radcliff]

No trace of Frameworks 5.80 after a fresh install of today's build (03132021), not even in Proposed.

The installer takes longer to boot again. There was no bug all the way to the end. The new Kernel runs normally. The Kmenu in plasma 5.21.x won't be the invention of the year.

Operating System: Kubuntu 21.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.21.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.79.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Kernel Version: 5.11.0-11-generic

[NoWorries]

No trace of Frameworks 5.80 after a fresh install of today's build (03132021), not even in Proposed.

The installer takes longer to boot again. There was no bug all the way to the end. The new Kernel runs normally. The Kmenu in plasma 5.21.x won't be the invention of the year.

Operating System: Kubuntu 21.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.21.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.79.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Kernel Version: 5.11.0-11-generic

On my system, I have added ppa's for staging-plasma and staging-frameworks which give me Frameworks 5.80 and Plasma 5.21.3.

Hope you find this helps you get the latest without comprising your performance.

[Radcliff]

Thanks for replying. The ppa is labeled staging-frameworks at launchpad. Nothing wrong so far after restart. Latest plasma is from regular updates.

Frameworks PPA:
177 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Operating System: Kubuntu 21.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.21.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.80.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Kernel Version: 5.12.0-051200rc3daily20210318-generic
OS Type: 64-bit
Graphics Platform: X11

All good except that FF 87.0 opens pretty slowly.