How to install KDE's Plasma 5 in siduction

[Santa]

As you probably already know, the KDE community has been working for a while on a replacement for KDE SC 4. This replacement isn't called "KDE 5" nor "KDE SC 5"; it's KDE Frameworks (the libraries) and Plasma 5 (the desktop environment).

There is some packaging done for siduction, but:
* It's still too unmature so for now please install it only on a virtual machine or at least on a separate partition.
* Do NOT try to install it over a KDE SC 4 installation yet.
* It may not give you an accurate idea of how plasma 5 will actually look like. So don't be surprised if it looks very "ugly" yet. If you want to get a better idea of the visual status of plasma I would recommend you to check out the kubuntu's neon isos instead:
http://kshadeslayer.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/introducing-project-neon-5-isos/

1. Grab a "no X" siduction iso and install it on a virtual machine.

2. Once you have installed a siduction system without X, log into it and enable the automatic installation of "Recommends"; you need to edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/80siduction replace this line

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APT::Install-Recommends "0";
with this one

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APT::Install-Recommends "1";

3. Add the following line to your sources.list:

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deb http://packages.siduction.org/kdenext kde-frameworks main

4. You can install Plasma 5 with:

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apt-get install plasma-desktop xinit x-window-system

5. You can start a plasma 5 session just with "startx"

[GoinEasy9]

Thanks Santa.  Looking forward to testing it.

[slaughterer]

Tnx Santa! I will wait until it will be ready!

[dibl]

4. You can install Plasma 5 with:

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apt-get install plasma-desktop

5.

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apt-get install xinit


6.

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update-command-not-found


now, exit the root prompt and as a user

7. You can start a plasma 5 session just with "startx"



and you get a nice colorful KDE 5 splash, followed by an empty black desktop with a nice frugal panel at the bottom.  No wallpapers are present yet, so you'll have to add your own, and then it looks like it is ready for play time.


Thank you very much, Santa -- this looks great! 

[dartex]

tryed! 

I needed also "xserver-xorg"...

but nothing seems to work... I can't install neither konsole or systemsettings, so I can't really try it...

[dibl]

xinit recommends xserver-xorg, so if you have set APT::Install-Recommends "1" in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/80siduction, then xserver-xorg is pulled in when you install xinit.


It is in a very "developmental" state, for sure.  The command runner doesn't seem to work either from a right-click, nor Alt-F2, and the application "mc" appears to be calling for konsole, which is not installed nor installable at this time.  So it's rough -- fun to play with, but don't expect to do anything important with it.     

[dartex]

ah ok, I did --install-recommends only for plasma-desktop!

but there is nothing "to play with" 
you can just see the splash screen, I couldn't download neither new wallpapers...

btw I installed the cursor theme from the repo to my usual installation, it's beautiful!!!

[dibl]

I installed lighdm and it works to login.  I am only able to run it at 640x480 -- I think that is some issue with my vmware-tools, but it could be KDE5/kwin.  I can stretch the screen size and it will remain at the stretched size and lightdm comes up correctly, but after login there is nothing but a black screen with no reactive elements anywhere on it.  Back to 640x480, and it works again.


If you install gvfs, the device manager will mount a USB stick and offer to open it with the file manager, but that fails.  However, if you use one of the utility terminals and run "mc", then midnight commander works and you can find the stick mounted under your user name at /media.


You can't set a desktop wallpaper, as far as I can tell -- the desktop settings browser can be used to browse to an image location (you have to enter the path in the window), but the selection function doesn't grab a file -- it says it can't find one.

[der_bud]

Now I tried it myself, knowing that this is only an "it-is-installable-and-boots"-study. I used virtualbox (with guestadditions) and the siduction-xorg flavour. Therfore X was prepared, xinit already there and login with lightdm working after install. In lightdm, I used session kde-plasma-desktop, not session plasma.
In addition to dibls points I installed the packages kde-style-breeze and breeze, and have a wallpaper and screen resolution 1024x768 right from the beginning.
For systemsettings, I had to to explicitely

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apt-get install systemsettings=5.0.0-0r0
which adds an entry for systemsettings in the menu, but they do not start.

Edit: on logout, when the wallpaper disappears, I can see for a very short glimpse the systemsettings-window before the system shuts down. So probably some graphics glitches in virtualbox.

[dibl]

Good -- thanks!  I installed the breeze packages.

For systemsettings, I had to to explicitely

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apt-get install systemsettings=5.0.0-0r0
which adds an entry for systemsettings in the menu, but they do not start.

In what repo did you find it? -- here it says "E: Version 5.0.0-0r0 not found".

[Santa]

Good -- thanks!  I installed the breeze packages.

For systemsettings, I had to to explicitely

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apt-get install systemsettings=5.0.0-0r0
which adds an entry for systemsettings in the menu, but they do not start.

In what repo did you find it? -- here it says "E: Version 5.0.0-0r0 not found".

Putting the version explicitly is no longer needed, there was a missing epoch in the version; it's fixed now and the dist-upgrade should pull the systemsettings from plasma 5 automatically (as well as other programs which had the same issue, like khelpcenter).


Regarding other issues I have my own list of obvious issues here, including some which you already mentioned, like that one changing the wallpapers. I will be working on some of them in the next days is possible, today for instance I found that games can't be started from the menu and I found out how to fix it. I will keep you posted.

5.

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apt-get install xinit

Thank you for noticing, updating the instructions.

[dibl]

Great -- got the systemsettings installed, and it works here as expected, mostly.  Lots of things do work in there.  But if you click on "Multimedia", it crashes systemsettings.


Edit:  In Debian sid, we don't presently have an x-window-manager package in our repos.

[Santa]

Edit:  In Debian sid, we don't presently have an x-window-manager package in our repos.

Thank you again dibl, instrucions updated a few days ago. Once I have solved some important issues in packaging maybe we could invertigate your crash.


For everybody: I already know the answer, but for future refenrence could any of you who have time to install plasma 5 tell us what happens when...
a) ... you skip the enabling of recommends in the installation instructions I posted
and
b) ... you have kde sc 4 installed from kde-full and then you try to dist-upgrade to plasma 5 (please paste the output of aptitude and/or apt-get)

[dibl]

The issue with screen resolution is fixed -- it was a vmware config problem, not related to KDE Plasma 5 or siduction.


On a fully updated siduction 64-bit system, it runs reliably, with bugs as mentioned above.  Clicking on multimedia still crashes systemsettings.


Santa, if you don't get feedback from others on your installation and upgrade from KDE SC 4 questions, I am willing to re-install from scratch to check it.  Just say the word -- you can PM me.

[dartex]

just (re)installed:

- start it with "startx", but I think it's normal (for now)
- no wallpaper. in desktop settings, no preview of the 2 wallpapers, but selecting them, it works. "download new wallpapers" doesn't work.
- no more for now, there is nothing else to test...
- "shutdown" and "restart" don't work from menu (it return to textual login, but I think it's normal, for now).

- nice the new coloured bar in the task manager (but I still prefer smooth task)
- the menu is better than previous (but I still prefer lancelot...)

I installed systemsettings, but impossible to install konsole and dolphin:
- it's strange that "colours", "fonts", "icons", "style" are now seperated...

- 300Mb of RAM used (ok, there is pretty nothing... :p)


I installed GuestAdditions but I can't select "transparent window"...