KDE4 packages to test for upcoming soho release

[vector]

Hi Everyone,
Sorry to be silent for so long. I have been adjusting to having a very limited dev crew now that Uel has taken a leave of absence do to family and work related responsibilities. I have created a group of kde4 packages that I would like tested on top of a clean install of vl6 standard. The packages are here:
http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/Uelsk8s/kde4-test/
I would like as many as possible to download the entire folder and install. This should give you a working kde4 desktop. To install open a terminal and cd to folder you downloaded to then do upgradepkg -r -i *.tlz
then reboot your machine. You should be greeted by kdm and ready to start kde4.
I need feedback as to usability bugs any crashes and whether we should be using kde4 for next soho or should we continue with 3.5.x as some other distros have done. I have been using kde4 for several weeks now and its stable and works but it's a leap from what your used to in kde3. So please start testing and discussing where we want soho to go from here. Please everyone get involved even if you don't like kde need as many testers/helpers as possible.

Thanks,
Vec

[nightflier]

Installed on VL6 Std.

Initially, akonadi server would not start, indicating a need for mysql. Installed mysql, no change.

Found that akonadi looks for /usr/bin/mysqld. Pointing it to /usr/libexec/mysqld got it working as regular user. It starts without error messages, but looking through the log I see it still complains about "QtSQL" missing.

Running KDE as root, akonadi does not launch, log shows "control process not registered at D-bus", "server process not registered at D-bus" and "No resource agents found".

Back running as regular user; it took several reboots before system settled down and error messages went away. An address book got migrated twice. The Dragon player popped up two or three times on boot but doesn't do that any more.

Konqueror web browser seems slow. Scrolling down a complex page is slow and jerky compared to FF.

Done complaining for now. Playing around with the system, adding bling and finding lots of new toys. The DE concept has changed some, now that the old Desktop is a "desktop folder" on the, um, workspace (?). Added my home folder, a weather station and a network widget. Gadgeteers will love this, but it can also be toned down to appeal to more conservative users. I think it holds a lot of promise, but it's gonna take a while to tame this beast.

[vector]

nightflier thanks for testing..............yes you do need mysql installed. I did the following after the mysql install. I symlinked /usr/bin/mysql_safe to point to mysqld ie cd /usr/bin ln -s mysqld_safe mysqld............then set up a basic mysql database as root...............mysql_install_db --user=mysql. Everything works ok after that as normal user as root expect akonadi errors as mysql is not intended to work with the root user for security reasons. Just to update everyone we have been setting up a development site on a dedicated server that was kindly donated to the project by Vault Networks  (thank you once again!!) We hope to do most of the SOHO work here: http://vlcore.vectorlinux.com/trac/vlcore/blog
Please take a look around tell us what you think. We have branded the development branch of vectorlinux as vlcore and with any luck will continue to do our development and bug tracking from this site. This offers a whole new level of development possibilities for VectorLinux but without community participation its just wasted webspace. Pretty please test the kde4 packages, without testing and comments opinions gonna be real hard to come up with a decent SOHO version. Finally let us know what you think about our vlcore project.

Thanks,
Vec

[sparkyhall]

Downloaded and installed on a clean install of VL6.0 Std, had the same issue with akonadi as nightflier so will try installing mysql, otherwise installation was fine.

To be honest this is my first time with kde as tend to prefer a lighter DE such as xfce so it's difficult to know what works well and what doesn't. Will experiment some more when I get home from work and if I find anything I'll let you know.

Chris

[nightflier]

New test, fresh install. I guess I should do one base install and clone the partition, but the VL installer is so fast and familiar it's almost effortless. 

This time I prepared the system with mysql as Vec outlined above, before installing the KDE4 packages. Big improvement.

First boot brought up the "starting akonadi" progress bar and the report. I go to save the report but it closes before I finish typing the file name. Is there any way of increasing the time it stays on the screen?

On second boot, the same progress bar flashed by, then the address book was successfully migrated.

On the third boot there were no more messages or progress bars, just a nice, familiar startup progress, yay!

The kickoff menu does have a kicka** feature: The search field. Typing "cursor" quickly led me to the locations for changing the launch feedback (don't like the bouncing cursor), and the mouse theme (the black cursor easily gets lost in the dark theme).

[sparkyhall]

Hmmm.....after booting the PC this evening slapt-get notifier said there were three upgrades available, qt 3.3.8b and k3b 1.0.5 sorry can't remember the last one. Without thinking I allowed the upgrade, foolish I know, and now I get stuck at rc.x...Going multi user. I think I'll start from scratch rather than trying to fix this.

Chris

[GrannyGeek]

I installed a clean VL 6 Gold and then downloaded and installed all the KDE packages. I use text login and after I rebooted, startx brought up XFce. I used VASM as user in XFce and changed my default X windows manager to KDE. Then I was able to get to KDE when I typed startx.

KDE 4 will take some getting used to. I didn't have time to do much but start it and look around. I've never been much of a KDE fan but will keep an open mind.

I'm testing on the 1.3 GHz Celeron, which is not exactly a screamer by today's standards. I'll try to get a sense of how performance compares with XFce on the same computer.

Will post more as I test more.
--GrannyGeek

[GrannyGeek]

I took a look at vlcore and most of it is way beyond me, but I hope to learn a bit more as we go on.
--GrannyGeek

[nightflier]

Development is rapid in KDE4 land:
http://www.kdenews.org/2009/06/02/kde-424-aka-cornrow-released

I guess it will be necessary to eventually settle on one version for final SOHO development. Maybe 4.3?

[GrannyGeek]

I did more testing today and am writing this from Konqueror under VL6 proto-SOHO.

I wonder what that Desktop folder is supposed to be doing and why it's there. I'm not fond of the new Kickoff Application Launcher and am trying to figure out how it's supposed to improve my life. I'll give it more time before I switch to Classic Menu Style.

Opera won't start. I tried from a terminal prompt and got a complaint about missing libqt-mt.so.3. I'll wait for the next test version before I try to fix this.

I can't change the time from the 24-hr. clock to the AM-PM clock. I've followed the directions in the help file but nothing changes. I don't see a way to start System Settings as Administrator.  It does ask for my root password when I try to change the clock, but when setting the time to 12+x (12 hours plus hours to make the time right in PM), as the Help says to do, nothing changes and I still have the accursed 24-hour time.

Perhaps if you do a graphical login you can choose to run as Administrator. However, I use a text login and there is no evident option to run as Administrator other than to su to root and start KDE as root (which I don't know how to do--start KDE, that is, other than through setting it as my desktop default).

Plus I can't find a way to log out and shutdown the system in the Leave menu. I believe in the GUI logout you do have this option or are presented with a screen that includes that option. However, I do a text login and am not interested in changing. It seems to me that KDE (or VectorLinux) is making text login users the poor stepchild. Can't we PLEASE have an option to shut down the system? I know there is a command for this with sudo, but I can't remember commands and would like the option in the menu, just as it is in XFce.

The default association for PDF is Gimp. Gimp doesn't understand the format, however--says it lacks a plugin or library or something. I changed the association for PDF to XPDF. It certainly shouldn't be Gimp.

I have run into the same Akonadi error messages as already mentioned. I'm running as user. I've never run KDE as root. I haven't tried the suggested fixes. For one thing, I don't understand them.<g> For another, the error messages haven't affected my running of KDE yet, so I'm not inclined to fix them before the next test release. What does Akonadi do anyway? Why would I need mysql? What database is involved?

I also got the notification for the three bogus updates. I didn't do them, needless to say.

I'm using the xorg radeon driver. My glxgears score is about 100 FPS lower than it is under XFce. Or I should say on my VL6 Deluxe partition. I haven't tried it under XFce on this test partition, just under KDE.

I have noticed some scrolling jerkiness with Konqueror, as already reported. I haven't used Firefox at all and SeaMonkey very little, so I don't know if it's just Konqueror.

On the whole, things seem to be performing acceptably on this aging 1.3 GHz computer. I haven't tried many applications yet.
--GrannyGeek

[nightflier]

Opera works for me. Looks good so far, considering it is an alpha release.

The panel behaves badly when positioned vertically (left edge). Widgets float around, get distorted or don't fit.

[kc1di]

Opera won't start. I tried from a terminal prompt and got a complaint about missing libqt-mt.so.3. I'll wait for the next test version before I try to fix this.

--GrannyGeek

Hi Granny,
install qt3 opera should work then
Dave

[GrannyGeek]

install qt3 opera should work then

Would that dirty my box? I use VL Light only for packaging and I'm very careful not to add anything except for patches.

UPDATE: Scratch that. I got confused between my VL Light partition for packaging and my VL6 Standard with KDE 4 for testing. I don't have to worry about dirtying the box for the testing partition.
--GrannyGeek

[vector]

granny .............
did you install the opera that was included with the kde4 packages as a  upgrade cause that works with qt4 kde4 although alpha just went beta i heard. I'll try to do new package.

Vec

[rbistolfi]

The problem appears while running Qt3 shared version of Opera, as Qt3 has been replaced with Qt4. The solution is either to run the static Qt3 version of opera or the beta Qt4 package. Afaik, only static versions of the Qt4 edition are being build, so it doesn't really needs Qt4 for running.

HTH