[dot] Test Latest Builds with KDE4Daily

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1195829316/

From: SSJ <simon at etotheipiplusone.com>
Dept: delivered-straight-to-your-door
Date: Friday 23/Nov/2007, @06:48

Test Latest Builds with KDE4Daily
=================================

   We are now on the home stretch of the road to KDE 4.0, but KDE still
needs extensive user testing to make sure everything arrives in the best
possible shape for the release.  There is a pressing need for users to
be able to get hold of very up-to-date builds of KDE, especially if they
want to participate in Krush days
[http://techbase.kde.org/Contribute/Bugsquad/KrushDays] and pick up
last-minute regressions, confirm proposed fixes, and avoid re-reporting
recently fixed bugs, preferably without having to wait for their chosen
distro to provide packages.  KDE4Daily VM
[http://etotheipiplusone.com/kde4daily/docs/kde4daily.html] aims to
provide such a service.

     KDE4Daily is an experimental attempt at accomplishing the above
goals using the Qemu virtualisation technology.  End-users download the
initial KDE4Daily 0.0.1 image
[http://linuxtracker.org/torrents-details.php?id=4855&dllist=1#seeders]
(containing the now somewhat dated revision 734472), run it in Qemu and
use the built-in installer scripts to upgrade the KDE 4 install to the
latest revision provided, so that they can always test-out bleeding edge
revisions pulled straight from Subversion.  Upgrades are intended to use
up relatively little bandwidth (20-50MB for a day's worth of updates is
typical; bridge updates which condense a week's worth into one package
bring this down to an average of 10MB or so) and be quick to apply (5
minutes per update is common, although bridge updates can take 10-15
minutes).

     Because Qemu is distro-agnostic, you do not need to worry about
distros or libraries or dependencies or suchlike; in fact, you can even
test out KDE 4 while running Windows!  The downside is that eye-candy
such as KWin's new Composite-based effects will not be testable as Qemu
does not support hardware graphics acceleration, and everything will
generally feel a lot more sluggish than is the case with a native
install.

     An extensive FAQ is provided at the KDE4Daily homepage, above;
please feel free to ask any further questions in the Dot comments
section. Also, note that KDE4Daily has not yet had any real testers
apart from myself, so please be prepared for "teething trouble" such as
botched upgrades and bandwidth issues! Enjoy, and remember that the more
people test, the better KDE 4.0 will be.  As an added incentive for
trying it out, you can try out the rapidly-developing Plasma as it
progresses too!