KDE neon User Edition Testing Survey Results

We made a tech preview release of KDE neon User Edition 10 days ago and I made up a survey to get results for how people’s experiences were.  We got 59 responses, here’s a summary:

Location?

Most people from Europe, a number from the US, the rest spread around the usual parts of the world.

How did you make the installable drive/disk?

First past the post is people who used a Virtual Machine, sensible enough for a testing release.

Next is ROSA which I discovered recently and seems to work on most OSes.  Then people who use dd and risk wiping out their hard disk with a 1 letter typo.  Surprisingly there are still people who write to a DVD to install, I’ve no idea why.

In the other category is:
rufus (Windows only)
usb-image-creator (Ubuntu only)
suse imagewriter (unmaintained)
gnome multiwriter (Linux only and why would you want to write multiple at once?)
using: sudo cp neon-useredition-20160426-1028-amd64.iso /dev/sdb + sync (err, does this even work?)

Problems which occurred during booting of the live system

no problems for most

several people reported the black bar in the isolinux/syslinux theme.  these themes are spooky voodoo.

people commented on UEFI not being supported, UEFI is even more spooky voodoo and secureboot is evil voodoo.

“The GRUB splash is practically blank. Pressing the arrow keys opened a dropdown list for language selection. Then I pressed the Esc key to get to the GRUB splash. The “Install” option isn’t any different from the “Try without installing” option.”

“Select the language Spanish, and half the options were translated.”

Problems which occurred running the live system

Lots of “none” here too.  Mostly querying the lack of applications, that’s a feature for now, we’ll add apps soon.

“klipper in menu? Im-config in menu? Panel icons wrong size/blurry”

“Upon mouse click in kicker panel consistently resulted in black screen with no recovery. Possible issue with Plasma 6 and AMD GPUs.”

“Baloo crashed immediately (notification in system tray), but did not seem to affect system function.”

Problems which occurred running the installer

‘The “Continue” button is available even after all the steps.’

“You do not ship with open-vm-tools-desktop, so my virtual desktop was smaller than the Ubiquity window”

“the installer was unable to install some packages: (although the provided list was blank), so i couldn’t install the system”

“Does not recognize UEFI partitions/System. Only legacy boot possible.”

“1. On the second page of the installer is a non replaced variable: “$(RELEASE)” 2. While installing there is no teaser how awesome kde is :-), just a blank page.”

‘Text “$(RELASE)” is displayed in german version of “Download updates while installing neon” * Checkbox “Download updates while installing neon” cannot be checked’

“Can’t continue installation in second step (prepare) due continue button is non-functional. Improvement: Install-Program should be in favorites”

There’s bugs in here that come from Ubuntu and bugs that come from not having various bits installed.  I don’t think there’s much point spending much time on this as I expect to change to Calamares soon.

Problems which occurred on the installed system:

Quite a few without problems

Lots complain about missing icons, this is a cache issue “On the kicker menu, there were no icons, but they appeared after a re-boot.” we’ve fixed this, I hope.

“Can not start system, just weird colors after install. ”

“After install of guest additions on VirtualBox desktop panel would load but then disappear.”

“Wanted to install it on dualboot with win 10. Grub does not appear so I cannot boot kde neon which I prefere as primary OS.”

“got a grub shell after install”

“Text garbage on the light blue loading screen after the GRUB menu.”

“if a display goes to sleep plasma partly crashes (same happens on kubuntu) it’s a qt problem as far as i know”

“Illegible characters till NVIDIA driver loaded ”

“Unable to use software-properties-kde : Error: could not find a distribution template for neon/xenial” (known bug this one)

“System boots to console login prompt. X can be started after login. ”

Problems which occurred when installing new software

“Plasma Discover crashed” I have this too and it’s a priority to look into

“There was a problem installing kde-l10n because of conflict with plasma-desktop-data”
Problems which occurred when updating the system to latest packages:

No problems for most people but some issues:

  • The updater applet didn’t seem to work for some reason. Had to use Discover.
  • * First boot after “apt-get update” and “upgrade”: the system boots to graphical login screen, but after login only the “x” pointer ist visible. –> Hard reset
  • * After reboot only console login is visbile, X does not start “Timeout locking .Xauthority”
  • Could not find repos
  • ANOTHER – using Discover, added Gwenview – it installed but closed Discover on completion?

Thanks a lot to everyone who tested and gave feedback.  That gives me a good idea of the priority areas to work on.  Keep on testing and reporting bugs and of course any help welcome 🙂

 

kver’s definition of anarchy

This amused me

Possible differences/anarchy may include:

  • Strange chewing noises if inserting a disc.
  • Never finding the correct orientation of USB plugs.
  • Your machine mysteriously moving several inches if you leave the room briefly.
  • Your printer demanding white ink to operate.
  • Small house pets may go missing, tufts of fur in keyboard.
  • Growling noises if holding the power button down.
  • Kate highlighting the PHP ‘die’ command in bold, regardless of setting.

KDE neon User Edition Tech Preview

KDE neon User Edition Tech Preview is out now.

It’s a build of KDE neon using released software, our clever CI system watches download.kde.org for new releases such as Plasma 5.6.3 and packages them pronto.  If you want to use the latest released software, this is the way to do it.

It is built on a foundation of Ubuntu 16.04LTS and comes with Qt 5.5.

Please have a look at the known issues, there are still quite a few.

Then help out by filling in our testers questionnaire which asks for problems installing and running this build.

User support on Facebook group, G+ group, KDE Forums and Telegram group, links on neon.kde.org.

Vote Loony to Add K to the Welsh Language


There’s elections in Scotland and other countries of the UK next month and I’ve been writing blog posts on the various party manifestos as I work out who should run the country.

KDE has always had an adoption problem in Wales.  Elite hackers like Alan Cox and Dafydd Harries have been big supporters of Gnome and the main reason why is because Welsh doesn’t have a letter K, something KDE has always had an obscure fetish for.

Well no more, the Monster Raving Loony Party of Wales is standing on a platform to introduce the letter K into the Welsh language.  Please give your support to this worthy campaign which will allow KDE to at last make inroads into this most beautiful of countries.

Party Election Broadcast

KDE neon upgrades to 16.04LTS

KDE neon on 16.04 showing Ken’s new wallpaper

KDE neon is a package archive of KDE software built on a stable foundation.  We use Ubuntu because it’s good technology that we’re familiar with and which provides a Long Term Support foundation we can use.  When we started the only practical version to use at the start was 15.10 so our packages have been built using that.  But with 16.04LTS due out next week it’s time to move to a solid foundation where we expect to stay for the next couple of years.

If you have installed KDE neon on 15.10 (you can run Info Centre to check) you can now upgrade that foundation to 16.04LTS.

Neon offers no support for this I’m afraid, it’s not brilliantly well tested and I’m afraid there’s no GUI because that’s written in PyQt which we don’t yet have in Neon.  And obviously Ubuntu offer zero support for it because we’re an unrelated project.  16.04LTS isn’t released until next Thursday 21st so you may want to hold back until then.

Firstly check it’s all up to date:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install neon-desktop
sudo apt full-upgrade

In /etc/apt/sources.list.d/neon.list make sure you’re using the new archive address (with the /dev/)
deb http://archive.neon.kde.org/dev/unstable wily main

run the upgrade
do-release-upgrade

and follow its prompts.  You’ll need at least 1.5GB of free disk space.

Alternatively you can just do a reinstall from one of our daily images which are already on 16.04LTS.  Download KDE neon.

This still contains only KDE Frameworks and KDE Plasma.  The packages are built from Git branches and intended for KDE contributors and testers.  The packages are not compatible with many packages from Kubuntu, e.g. KDE PIM will get uninstalled.

Coming soon, user edition packages built from released software and installable images for them.  Qt 5.6 on its way too.  Then KDE Applications and other bits.

 

KDE neon Developer Edition Installable Image FAQ

The tech preview of the KDE neon developer edition installable image was out yesterday.  It’s an 800MB download you can dd onto a USB disk and run live or install.

files.kde.org

Why are there no apps?

KDE neon doesn’t have builds of applications yet, we’re doing Qt, Frameworks and Plasma for now to keep it manageable while we get it up and running. Apps will come in future weeks.

No Konsole?

No apps yet as I say, xterm is included.

How do I install software?

Appstream issues mean Muon isn’t working well, you can use apt on an xterm.

It has “stable” in the name, does that mean it’s stable?

Not necessarily, it’s built from Git stable branches, not released software.

When will the user edition be available?

No timelines, whenever we can get it done

Does this include Qt 5.6?

It comes with Qt 5.5.  Backporting Qt will be done when possible, it’s not our priority and there’s a bug with 5.6 currently anyway.

Why no Xenial?

Neon only uses a stable base, we’ll move to Xenial when it’s stable.

How do I install this?

It’s the developer edition, if you don’t know how to install it then it’s probably not for you.

Is this or is this not a distribution? You are a leader we must be told!

Look, you’ve got it all wrong! You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody! You’ve got to think for yourselves! You’re all individuals!

 

KDE neon developer edition install tech preview

To celebrate the release of KDE Plasma 5.6 we’ve made a tech preview of our KDE neon developer edition installable images built directly from developer Plasma/5.6 Git branches
files.kde.org
neon5

Remember it’s the developer’s edition built directly from Git.  There’s still plenty bits we need to tidy up still.  Have fun with it and let us know how you get on.

 

 

KDE neon Press

Since it’s announcement KDE neon has had some pleasingly positive press coverage (and one not so positive).

First off was Swapnil’s article on CIO.com Jonathan Riddell to announce project Neon at FOSDEM

On the Rio Noguera Palasera in sunny Catalunya I learned freestyle kayak by surfing against the current on a standing wave and realized we should go to the source. Upstream is where the beauty comes from so working upstream is where we should be.

Not the force it once was but still a badge of achievement, Slashdot covered it Project Neon Will Bring Users Up-to-Date KDE Packages
KDE neon is a project to give KDE users and contributors a way to get KDE’s desktop software while it’s still fresh

I gave a talk at FOSDEM and the video is up.

For video podcast views with chatty Americans I did an interview for the Linux Action Show (start 37 minutes in).

And for English audio podcast polite chat with tea and biscuits I did an interview for Linux Luddites.

I also gave an interview to Hacker Public Radio podcast at FOSDEM.

Even Bryan “Terrible Idea” Lunduke gets a ribbing on his podcast Bad Voltage.

 

Neon Gains Developer Stable-Branch Builds; Plasma Wayland Update

KDE neon’s developer edition has gained builds of Git stable branches for Plasma.  These are ideal for contributors and testers who want to check out the state of Plasma 5.6 branch and check it’s still sane.  sources.list line is:

deb http://archive.neon.kde.org/stable wily main

Of course it’s not compatible with the unstable git branch packages.


And I updated the Wayland image so you can check out how well Plasma works running Wayland.  Main issue today seems to be that strangely the window decorations are blue instead of black.

GPL Fun

Everyone who cares about the continued smooth running of the free software world where communities of independent parties gather around working on projects as we do in KDE or Linux should keep an eye on recent developments.

The VMWare case has a Linux developer suing VMWare for using Linux as part of their proprietary product.  Harald ‘LaForge’ Welte has a nice write up on his blog.  It will define how much modification can be done and then whether linking to a modified Linux build will be a derived work of the original.

The other one is Canonical who have announced it plans to ship zfs with Ubuntu.  An employee wrote in a confusing blog post “As we have already reached the conclusion, we are not interested in debating license compatibility, but of course welcome the opportunity to discuss the technology.” but in linking to differing opinions feels the need to highlight “please bear in mind that these are opinions.”  The Software Freedom Conservancy wrote an post discussing why it was a derived work and why that’s illegal to distribute.  And the SFLC’s Eben Moglen wrote another one which based on a link from Dustin’s blog is the opinion they are replying upon for thinking everything is ok.  Eben’s blog post is fascinating and makes for page turning bed-time reading by going into exactly why it’s a derived work.  It all depends on “literal interpretation of GPLv2’s system library exception” and that based on that

If there exists a consensus among the licensing copyright holders to prefer the literal meaning to the equity of the license, the copyright holders can, at their discretion, object to the distribution of such combinations. They would be asserting not that the binary so compiled infringes their copyright, which it does not, but that their exclusive right to the copying and redistribution of their source code, on which their copyright is maximally strong, is infringed by the publication of a source tree which includes their code under GPLv2 and ZFS filesystem files under CDDL, when that source tree is offered to downstream users as the complete and corresponding source code for the GPL’d binary.

Which nicely explains why an unlinked nvidia driver is ok but a linked zfs driver is not.

Canonical are already distributing Linux illegally because their previous Intellectual Property Policy claimed additional restrictions which do not exist so they have lost the right to copy it under the GPL 2 licence.  My guess would be that they realised nobody much cared about that and reasoned they had nothing more to lose.

I can’t find zfs in the Ubuntu archive or queue, as an archive admin I would of course reject it as it’s not compatible with Ubuntu’s policy.

 

Wayland Image Updated

My image for testing Wayland has had an update.

This includes the latest sources from Git master with KWin providing the Wayland compositor and built from a mix of Neon/Ubuntu/Kubuntu packages.

It’s full of obvious bugs for you to hunt down and help fix.  It’s not at all ready for every day use.

The KDE Plasma team is distribution agnostic which is described in this quote from the KDE neon FAQ,

“KDE believes it is important to work with many distributions, as each brings unique value and expertise for their respective users”.

 

KDE neon Comes Alive!

We’ve been working hard at KDE neon HQ to get the project going and today I’m pleased to say the Developer Unstable package archive is up and running. This gives daily packages of KDE Frameworks and Plasma desktop built direct from Git master branches. Expect some breakage, it’s called unstable for a reason. Ideal for testers and contributors to these two projects. To install it you’ll need an install of *buntu 15.10 (wily) and follow the Package Upgrade instructions.

In fact we already had some breakage where some packages sneaked in with larger version numbers than they should have, if you installed packages last week you’ll need to remove them and reinstall. Harald added some cleverness to stop this happening in future.

apt remove plasma-framework libkf5plasma5 libkf5plasmaquick5 libkf5solid5 libkf5solid5-data libkf5sonnet5-data libkf5sonnetcore5 libkf5sonnetui5 libkf5threadweaver5 qml-module-org-kde-solid qtdeclarative-kf5solid sonnet-plugins
apt install neon-desktop

(This will also remove applications has neon has no KDE applications yet, just apt install dolphin konsole and anything else you want.)

Coming soon in no particular order… Developer Stable packages built from Git stable branches, User Stable packages built from released apps, KDE Applications packages and installable images.

FOSDEM Photos

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KDE people getting to know our Gnome friends. The Gnome chap gave me a bit hug just after so it must have gone well whatever they were talking about.

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Ruphy on WikiToLearn one of the more stylish speakers of the day

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Rasterman gave a talk on Enlightenment and how it’s being ported to Wayland for use in Tizen projects and more. Turns out Rasterman is a real person called Carsten, good speaker too.

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Hallway track

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Paul holds court to discuss in Project Kobra. No I’ve no idea.

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Stephen Kelly on his CMake addon CMakeDaemon which lets IDEs understand CMake files for code completion and highlighting goodness.

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It’s the KDE neon launch party, what a happy bunch.

KDE neon Website Now Live

KDE  neon website is now live.

Serving the freshest packages of KDE software.  Developers’ archive with packages built from KDE Git available now, stable archive with packages built from released tars coming soon.

Launch party tonight in La Paon, Grand Place, Brussels

neonsticker3

(Under a .uk domain name until we finish the KDE incubation process.)

KDE neon Launches at FOSDEM this Weekend

KDE neon launches this weekend at FOSDEM.

The launch party is on Saturday in La Paon, Grand Place, still time to sign up if you want to come.

My talk is on Sunday in the desktop devroom at 12:45CET.

And I’ll be on the KDE stall in building K demoing it and talking about it to anyone who’s interested.

Holding website at http://neon.kde.org.uk/

And follow for news and updates on

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kdeneon/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KdeNeon

Google+: https://plus.google.com/113043070111945110583

 

In the Mansion House

Here is deepest Padania a 4 story mansion provides winter cover to KDE developers working to free your computers.

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I woke up this morning and decided I liked it

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The mansion keeps a close lock on the important stuff

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The pool room has a table with no pockets, it must be posh

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Front door

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The not so important stuff

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Jens will not open the borgen to the Danish

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David prefers Flappy Birds to 1000€ renaissance painting

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Engineers fail to implement continuous integration

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Bring on the 7 course meal!

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In the basement Smaug admires the view

Guest Blog: Dolphin Survey

Guest Blog for Arnav Dhamija, first year computer science undergraduate at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus.

6tag_070915-205106

Hey everyone, I am a first year undergraduate student at the university and I have an idea I want to use for the GSoC with KDE to make Dolphin an even better file manager. My project idea revolves around making file selections from multiple directory trees as easy as possible.

A full description of my project can be found here: https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/126622/

And the user survey link for features and usability improvements can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/L9LDW2P

TIA for the feedback : )

Happy Christmas with Plasma Wayland Live Image

I just published a live Plasma image with Wayland. A great milestone in a multi-year project of the Plasma team led by the awesome Martin G.  Nowhere near end-user ready yet but the road forward is now visible to humble mortals who don’t know how to write their own Wayland protocol.  It’ll give a smoother and more secure graphics system when it’s done and ensures KDE’s software and Linux on the desktop stays relevant for another 30 years.