[KDE/Mac] Warning: Partial upgrade to KDE 4.13.0 is UNSAFE atm

Mario Fux kde-ml at unormal.org
Tue May 13 09:23:51 UTC 2014


Am Dienstag, 13. Mai 2014, 04.55:19 schrieb Ian Wadham:
> Hi guys,

Morning Ian and Co

> As you know I have successfully compiled and built some
> core KDE 4.13.0 modules and libraries, using the Portfiles
> and patches Nicolas sent me.
> 
> At first it seemed as if the KDE 4.12.4 apps were working
> fine with the KDE 4.13.0 libraries and Qt 4.8.6, but now
> serious problem has emerged.
> 
> It appears that I have somehow broken KIO, so now
> things like file-open dialogs and file-opens using KIO
> are simply not working.  They lead to exit 255 after
> dozens of console log messages involving KIO.
> 
> For example, I cannot load or save KSudoku games and,
> worse still, KMyMoney exits soon after starting (i.e. when
> it goes to open my accounts file).
> 
> Luckily I have just completed our annual accounts and our
> tax refund is on its way … :-)
> 
> I have reactivated KDE 4.12.4 modules and libraries,
> but KMyMoney and KSudoku are still failing somewhere
> in KIO.
> 
> So my advice is NOT to install a partial KDE 4.13.0 UNLESS
> you can isolate it completely from your regular KDE work.
> 
> I presume KMyMoney with KDE 4.12.4 does run OK under
> normal circumstances.  I think I must have used that version
> a month ago.  It has been about two months since I saved or
> re-loaded a KSudoku file and I am sure that was before I
> upgraded to KDE 4.12.4.
> 
> ATM I cannot tell what is causing the problems:
>     1. Incompatibilities between apps and libraries/processes,
>     2. Outdated cache or config files,
>     3. A non-portability in KIO,
>     4. A bug in KIO/Qt.
> Perhaps a mix of the above.
> 
> Re points 3 and 4, there has been a lot of commit activity
> on KIO in the last few months and there are moves in progress
> to deprecate some KDE dialog and I/O functionality and switch
> to similar functionality in Qt 4.8 or Qt 5, e.g. use QUrl not KUrl.
> See http://community.kde.org/Frameworks/Porting_Notes
> 
> Confused, Ian W.

Don't be or let me clear this a bit. The KIO restructuring and moving has 
nothing to do with the KDE Platform (kdelibs) 4 and Qt4 stuff. It's all about 
KDE Frameworks 5 and Qt5 so don't be confused or worry as long as you don't 
use Qt5 and KF5 based software.

And here I'd like to bring up another topic. Not _that_ important but as I 
think KDE software on Mac might become more popular in the future (due to your 
great work) and the above email shows it quite cleary as well we should start 
to think about it in here as well. It's about "what is KDE?". You might 
probably know that we did a rebranding years ago and "KDE" is now just the 
community, not the software.

And the above email of Ian shows it quite good. There you talk (but not just 
you!) about "KDE 4.12" and "KDE 4.13" and "apps" and co. Ironically most 
people who still use the term "KDE" for our software think about it as the 
"desktop environment" or just "desktop" which is Plasma (by KDE) and doesn't 
make much sense on Mac.

So what do we have:
- There is the KDE Platform (monolithic kdelibs) based on Qt4 which is 
features frozen since around 4.9 (but still, the version number goes up 
together with the KDE Apps and we're now at 4.13.1 although the Platform 
doesn't get new features). The future of the Platform are the KDE Frameworks 5 
based on Qt5 and modularized so that developer can just take e.g. Karchive or 
KConfig and don't need to use all of kdelibs if they want to use our great 
libraries.
- Then we have the workspaces which are known as Plasma. The feature 
development of Plasma based on KDE Platform 4 and Qt4 was stopped at 4.11 and 
is since then in LTS.
- And then we have the KDE Applications (or better "some KDE apps") that are 
or were released together with the Platform and workspaces. They still get new 
features and there will probably be another 4.14 or even 4.15 release which is 
not yet decided.
- And beneath this we (KDE) has even more software like e.g. Kdenlive, 
KMyMoney, Digikam, Amarok, Rkward, Konversation, etc. which is releases 
completely independent.

So of the above for the Mac everyhing is interesting expect of the workspace 
aka Plasma.

Hope this makes is a bit more clear and probably gives some hints why we 
decided to change the meaning of "KDE". And take a look at the dot.kde.org to 
see the releases of the last years. There was never a "KDE 4.x.y" ;-). But 
people need to understand that they can use parts of the great KDE Frameworks 
and that most of the KDE Applications work great even in the Gnome shell, xfce 
and Co and even on Windows, Android and Mac but who am I telling this ;-).

Best regards
Mario


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