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KDE 4.4.3 in unstable

Following Qt 4.6.2, uploaded a couple of weeks ago, KDE 4.4.3, has finally found its way to unstable in the last 48 hours.
Given KDE 4.5.0 is not expected until August, it is likely the next point release, 4.4.4, will be the KDE version included in next Debian stable, Squeeze. What this means: go and update to 4.4.3, test, and when you find a bug, please, follow this instructions. If you are lazy to read it: report upstream bugs at the KDE Bugzilla and report the packaging/integration bugs in the Debian BTS. When in doubt, you have the Debian KDE mailing list, that is being successful so far in maintaining a good signal-noise ratio.

I would like highlight the drop in the open bugs in the BTS experimented in the last 2-3 months, I published this graph in February:

Number of bugs reported against KDE in Debian in the last 3 years - February 2010

And look at the situation now:

Number of bugs reported against KDE in Debian in the last 3 years -May 2010

This is mainly due to the great work of Eckhart Wörner. Also there is other people who contributed to it more modestly, a big thank you to all of you!

As you can see in the second graph, there are less than 1000 bugs open now in the BTS, they are still too much and time has taught us it is very easy going over 1000 again, so we still welcome more volunteers looking at bugs.

If you are not the bugsquasher type, you can write HTML and you do some IRC, we also need somebody to help us reorganize a bit the pkg-kde website. I will help you personally on this task, but it is good if you can lurk by IRC and you are not scared to share your doubts with the rest of the team there.

Finally, I promise I will publish something about the status of KOffice pre-2.2 in Debian, but I still can not say whether it will be in Squeeze.

Posted by Ana

Tags: planet-debian, English, KDE

Comments

  • Quique said, on 2010-05-05 19:15:18+02:00:

    Thanks once again for your fantastic work!

    I'll install it tomorrow :-)

    And don't forget writing at some point about the KOffice status...

  • John said, on 2010-05-05 19:52:51+02:00:

    If koffice2.2 won't be in squeeze then is it possible that it will be uploaded to sid? Or it can be only uploaded to experimental until squeeze will be released?

  • val-gaav said, on 2010-05-05 21:31:47+02:00:

    Are there any plans for debian installer to not default to Gnome and instead give a choice of DE for squeeze?

    Debian is supposed to be an universal OS and imho not having an default DE is important part of it ...

    Just as debian runs on so many archs and you can now choose between linux and bsd kernel it would be nice if desktop environment choice was also highlighted.

    As it is now the default is Gnome unless you parse an extra parameter to installer or use special KDE SC/Xfce iso... IMHO that's not good and Debian should not default to any DE. It's important to be universal also here, and since not just one DE that is predominant the best way here is to give the choice to user ...

  • George said, on 2010-05-06 03:12:35+02:00:

    @val-gaav: You've always been able to specify the DE you wanted (at least since Etch anyway) with the desktop={kde,xfce,gnome} switch. However with Squeeze there's a very simple menu system which allows the user to choose which Desktop he/she would like to install. Just have a look at the menu you're prompted with when the Debian-Installer disc first boots.

    There's also alternate CD1s that don't have GNOME. Or you can just install the base system and use aptitude to install a desktop on first login.

  • Pawel said, on 2010-05-06 08:07:54+02:00:

    Hi. I wonder what program did you use to generate such graphs?

  • Drewlong said, on 2010-05-06 08:28:31+02:00:

    Hi

    I was looking for a little guidance on installing KDE 4.4.3 alongside squeeze gnome. I wanted to continue to run gnome from the squeeze repository as my main DE and run KDE alongside it until I was happy with it's stability. If I understand the installation instructions I need to enable the unstable repositories which I think means that I would then expose my gnome DE to unstable upgrades which having switch to Debian from an Ubuntu base I wanted to avoid. I appreciate squeeze gnome is testing but compared to ubuntu it's stable ... trust me. So I was looking for a way to participate and trial 4.4.3 without risk to my main DE. Any guidance appreciated .... thanks

  • val-gaav said, on 2010-05-06 14:56:56+02:00:

    @George ... My point wasn't that you could not specify the DE you want. My point was it was/is quite hidden and that in the first place there should be no default DE in debian. The user should choose what he wants and nothing should be pre selected.

  • ana said, on 2010-05-06 18:38:43+02:00:

    @pawel: they are made with gnuplot, we have been collecting data for long time now, see:

    http://users.alioth.debian.org/~pusling-guest/pkg-kde-buggraphs/

    @val-gaav: the default in DE in the debian-installer is another discussion and it is totally off-topic in this blog post.

  • John said, on 2010-05-06 18:53:29+02:00:

    About koffice2.2:

    If koffice2.2 won't be part of squeeze then does that mean it won't be uploaded to sid until squeeze will be released?

  • ana said, on 2010-05-06 19:00:34+02:00:

    @John: It could be uploaded and then not being allowed to migrate to testing. However, I prefer keeping it at experimental since I do not want to give false hopes, and because I do not fully think all koffice is ready for the masses.

  • Pawel said, on 2010-05-07 10:27:23+02:00:

    @Ana

    Thank you. It seems a lot of data you have :)

  • val-gaav said, on 2010-05-07 23:58:30+02:00:

    @Ana ... yeah I know and I'm sorry for bumping about it here. However I do not know where such discussion should take place. I'm just a user that stays away from mailing list (aside for reading archives at times of boredom) ...

    I've posted that in the best interest as I remember a bug report about that in debian installer for lenny and was wondering on status on that, and if the KDE Debian team is pushing for it... Squeeze installer is not much better really, the option is still hidden and KDE is called an "Alternate DE" which for me means second class citizen...

  • ana said, on 2010-05-09 20:53:09+02:00:

    @val-gaav: You can send a very good argumentation email to debian-project, but I think it is a lost battle. People will just point you to the alternate KDE CDs...

  • Rodrigo said, on 2010-05-15 22:31:02+02:00:

    I've got some troubles with kde4.4.3 at my debian sid. All that I have is a black screen. When I disable the effects I got a wallpaper. Alt+f2 works and I can start the apps... but I have no widgets, no plasmoids working... what happening here??? I try to del the ~/.kde/share/config/plasma-appletrc, but it does not work at all.

  • ana said, on 2010-05-16 13:13:37+02:00:

    @Rodrigo: make sure you have kde-standard installed. And, please, do not post users question here, use the users mailing list that is linked in this very same post...

  • Marvin said, on 2010-05-18 15:09:03+02:00:

    Looks like 4.4.3 is now in squeeze. Thank you :)

  • Brief Updates: Chromium browser, KDE and GNOME updates, DebConf sponsoring and Ben NanoNote | Debian News said, on 2010-11-06 17:51:25+01:00:

    [...] KDE 4.4.3 and Qt 4.6.2 are now available in unstable. More information. [...]

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