KDE4

From MEPIS Documentation Wiki

This page reports (most recent first, please) the status of development work being done for KDE 4 and MEPIS.

March 1, 2009

[The Jan 17 info is now obsolete, because KDE 4.2 has been released into 'Debian experimental'.]

The latest MEPIS release, MEPIS-8.0, still includes KDE-3.x, (as does the newest Debian 'Lenny').

That said, there is an updated recipe for how to install KDE 4.2 from Debian experimental available here:

 http://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/experimental.html

But, bear in mind that it is NOT the recommended approach on Mepis-8.0 to try to incorporate KDE-4.2 into MEPIS yourself...try that at your own risk! The present recommended strategy would be to try installing the community-developed re-master of the LiveCD, developed by user 'Danum'. Note that it is too large for a CD, and thus was a 'LiveDVD' initially, although there are now also LiveCD versions becoming available. To find these, search the MepisLover forums, for 'KDE4 remaster'.

It is projected that Warren MIGHT finally officially repackage MEPIS with KDE-4.2 or KDE-4.3 later in 2009.

January 17, 2009

KDE-4.0 has mostly been 'abandoned'. KDE-4.1 was re-factored (from KDE-4.0) and is now reaching a relatively mature stage, though it has been NOT been formally adopted as the DEFAULT KDE version (in preference to KDE-3.x) by any major Linux distribution. [A growing number of 'KDE4-interested-users' are starting to use KDE-4.1 for their everyday work.]

KDE-4.1 has matured and is about to migrate into KDE4.2...it now at an "RC" (release-candidate) stage. Many evaluators believe that KDE-4.2 will finally be the first viable KDE-4.x stream that has a reasonable chance of being adopted as the DEFAULT KDE version for a major Linux distribution.

MEPIS 8.0: KDE-4.2(RC) can be MANUALLY installed on MEPIS 8.0 [as a REPLACEMENT for KDE-3.x], as a number of users in the MepisLovers community have learned.

For ongoing details (and manual installation instructions) for KDE-4.2, use this website: KDE42-dot-DEBIAN-dot-NET.

August 10, 2007

KDE4.0-Beta1 Live DVDs have been built to verify the compatibility of KDE 4 with SimplyMEPIS 7.x. The 32 and 64 bit DVD isos are available from the testing directory of the MEPIS subscriber site and the MEPIS public mirrors. The isos are about 1 GB each and include all of the KDE 4 applications that are working at this time.

KDE 4.0 Beta 1 is a very early release and is meant for developers, testers, and reviewers. Warren recommends "The release is sluggish, be patient when clicking to launch something. If you look past the rough edges, you will see the beginnings of a world-class desktop experience. If something doesn't work, you could consider reporting a bug at the KDE project, but I would recommend holding off until the next Beta release before submitting a lot of bug reports." For more information about KDE 4.0 Beta 1 see: http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-4.0-beta1.php

The Live DVDs were built using a MEPIS 7.0 Etch core and include the usual MEPIS kernel and hardware compatibility features. Since KDE 4 is functionally different than KDE 3 and also in an early Beta state, a minimal KDE 3 installation remains on the disk to facilitate exploration by the user.

The KDE 4.0 packages were built from the Deb-untu developer upstream source. Experimental packages from Debian svn and from Ubuntu universe were tested. Both built and ran, but the ubuntu packages were more functional.

Additional test CDs/DVDs are expected every few weeks.