Hot on the heels of the announcement from KDE, the openSUSE KDE team is happy to announce the availability of packages for the latest stable release of the KDE Platform, Workspaces, and Applications.

Packages are available in the KDE:Distro:Factory repository (which is where the packages to land in 12.3 are tested) for openSUSE Factory (soon to be 12.3) and openSUSE 12.2 and soon (when the Open Build Systen finishes rebuilding a number of packages) in the KDE:Release:410  repository for openSUSE 12.2 users.

If you want to contribute and help KDE packaging in openSUSE, use the KDE:Distro:Factory version, otherwise stick to the KDE:Release:410 repository.

Enjoy!

During the discussions for the release of openSUSE 12.3, the topic of update notifications and applets was brought up again. Originally openSUSE shipped with a custom update applet, but since it was basically unmaintained, the decision was made to switch to Apper for openSUSE 12.2

The original Apper used in that version had a number of issues, which the upstream developer (Daniel Nicoletti) fixed in a newer version, which also had a lot of other improvments. However we originally couldn’t switch because it depended on a newer, API-incompatible version of PackageKit, meaning that the PK bindings for libzypp (the heart of openSUSE’s package management) needed to be adjusted and ported.

So, for a while it was not clear on how to proceed, until at the recent hackathon, Stephan “coolo” Kulow ported the PK zypp backend to the newer PackageKit version. Once that issue was solved, the KDE team was able to update Apper to the latest version (0.8) and push it to the distribution. So openSUSE 12.3 (KDE) will make use of Apper as main method of notification for updates.

I would like to stress that Apper is not meant as a full blown replacement of YaST or zypper, but mainly as a way to handle distro and maintenance updates, integrated with the KDE Workspaces.

The Apper program is actually divided into two pieces: the main application itself and a plasmoid. We’ve been testing the plasmoid the past weeks and consensus is that it’s not yet ready to be pushed to users, so only the main application will get installed by default.
When you have new updates, an icon will pop in the system tray informing you:

Clicking on it will bring up the main interface, where you can review and select the updates:

Afterwards, the update process will start.

Of course, such an addition means that more testing is required, to ensure that outstanding bugs get fixed before the openSUSE 12.3 release. Therefore, if you are willing to test – jump aboard!

Following up on the announcement from KDE, the openSUSE KDE team is happy to announce the availability of 4.10 RC3 packages.  Remember that they are packages meant for testing and reporting bugs, so that the next release will be as polished as possible.

You will find the packages in the KDE:Distro:Factory repository. An updated live media based on the upcoming openSUSE 12.3 (see previous post) is also available (files named KDE4-4.10.RC3) .  The openSUSE 12.2 based version is also available (files named KDE Reloaded) at the same address.

Enjoy!

Following up on my previous post, a different type of image has been made by the openSUSE KDE community members. In particular, alin has created images sporting the same software from KDE (4.10 RC2) but using the upcoming openSUSE 12.3 as base. 

Download links:

• 32 bit version
• 64 bit version
• Release directory (in case the above links go 404; the files are named KDE4-.4.10.RC2-Live)

These images are provided not only to test 4.10 in openSUSE, but also to test part of the distribution itself, without touching existing systems. Should you encounter a bug, please report it as follows:

• Bugs in KDE software will need to be reported to bugs.kde.org
• Bugs in openSUSE will need to be reported to bugzilla.novell.com

Don’t forget that those images are not persistent, i.e. the settings will not be saved between sessions.

With that said, let the testing commence (or continue)!