The PCLinuxOS development team has been trying to make the KDE upgrade to the 4.8.3 version as near to a normal Synaptic upgrade as we have all become used to. Unfortunately the KDE developers have changed a lot of the package names which causes insurmountable problems with some packages when a dynamic/rolling upgrade method is used. A clear upgrade path simply can't be established.
The KDE packages are designed for a static release method of upgrading, where each upgrade means a complete re-installation of the entire system, so our dynamic release system must sometimes accept slight deviations in our normal procedure to accommodate situations like this.
Note:Your personal desktop settings may be changed to the default desktop settings during this process. If this occurs, a new desktop icon,
RestoreMyKDEdesktop will appear, to do just what it says. A backup of your personal desktop settings will have been made, and running the
RestoreMyKDEdesktop script will restore your personal settings from that backup. As an extra precaution, you may wish to make your own backup of your
/home/<you>/.kde4 directory, or even your entire $HOME directory, before running the upgrade procedure.
There will be
two methods available to do the upgrade from KDE 4.6.5 to KDE 4.8.3, only one of which is currently available. It will require a change in the Synaptic
Settings --> Repositories window's
Section(s): box, changing the section
kde4 to simply
kde.
If you have
apt-sources-list version
1.0.2 currently installed, or can still install it from your chosen mirror, it has already made, or will make, the necessary change for you on all current mirror entries.
If you do
not have
apt-sources-list version
1.0.2 currently installed, and Synaptic will
not now install it, for any reason, the following will allow you to make the change
manually, allowing the KDE upgrade to commence.
In the Synaptic
Settings --> Repositories window, click on the currently used active mirror to fill the lower data entry fields. In the bottom
Section(s): field, if there is currently a
kde4 section, place the mouse cursor directly behind the
4, click, then press the keyboard
Backspace key
once, then click the
OK button below.
Click the
Reload button, and wait for the package lists to be updated. At this point one can continue to perform the actual upgrade.
Normal upgrade with manual cleanup:Do the normal
Reload --> Mark All Upgrades --> Apply --> Apply upgrade. If no packages are listed as broken, proceed as usual. Some packages will be shown as being removed, without being replaced.
Take note of these package names, for use later. Which packages these will be will vary, depending on what is actually installed on any given individual's system.
When the upgrade has finished, leave Synaptic
open, open a
terminal and enter the command;
[<you>@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa |grep 4.6.5 <Enter>
A list of remaining KDE 4.6.5 packages that were not upgraded will be presented. Leave the
terminal window open for reference.
In Synaptic,
Search for each individual package in the
terminal list and
mark it for Removal. When all are marked, click
Apply --> Apply.
When finished, again in
Search, enter
kde and click the
Search button.
Scroll down the results in the upper right pane to find the package name that most closely resembles the name of the removed 4.6.5 package and
Mark for Installation. If any package with a similar name cannot be found, it has been obsoleted and is no longer needed. When all that can be found have been properly marked, and the
removed but
not replaced packages from the
initial upgrade are also marked, again click
Apply --> Apply to complete the package upgrades, then close Synaptic and reboot.
For most users the above method works quite well, even though a bit clumsy in execution.
If you experience difficulties such as broken packages being reported, or packages missing dependencies, those packages should be unmarked/removed from the upgrade list, so the rest of the upgrade can proceed. If that still doesn't work, stop where you are and report the exact problem in the appropriate forum section, giving as much detail as you can, then wait for a reply to receive help.
The
second upgrade method referred to, at the beginning of this announcement would be installing, or re-installing, from the finalized, reluctantly delayed, Quarterly release .iso image.
