Debian and KDE4: Good Things Come to Those Who Wait
Debian developer Ana Guerrero, as spokesperson for the KDE team, has announced that KDE4 will appear during the first week of April 2009.
Guerrero's announcement on the Debian-KDE mailing list indicated that KDE4 is moving from the experimental to the unstable repository, although the exact date is not quite certain.
A special tool in KDE 4.2 called kaboom will aid in a flawless update from KDE 3.5 as well as from existing KDE4 installations. The issue is adopting user settings in the hidden .kde and .kde4 directories. Up to now it had been unclear which directory would be used in the final analysis. The kaboom tool does not support KDE4 installations from the Debian backport.
Debian had left itself quite a bit longer development time with KDE4 than other distros. For about a year adventuresome users could install from the experimental repository, with often problematic results. Some consideration was even made for a short while about releasing KDE4 together with Debian 5 (Lenny), although that idea was quickly scrapped. Now, after Lenny's release and a lot of preliminary work, KDE 4.2 is finally ready for exposure to a wider circle of Debian users.
Comments
comments powered by DisqusSubscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Asahi Linux Runs into Issues with M4 Support
Due to Apple Silicon changes, the Asahi Linux project is at odds with adding support for the M4 chips.
-
Plasma 6.3.4 Now Available
Although not a major release, Plasma 6.3.4 does fix some bugs and offer a subtle change for the Plasma sidebar.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 First Release Candidate Now Available
Linux Torvalds has announced that the release candidate for the final release of the Linux 6.15 series is now available.
-
Akamai Will Host kernel.org
The organization dedicated to cloud-based solutions has agreed to host kernel.org to deliver long-term stability for the development team.
-
Linux Kernel 6.14 Released
The latest Linux kernel has arrived with extra Rust support and more.
-
EndeavorOS Mercury Neo Available
A new release from the EndeavorOS team ships with Plasma 6.3 and other goodies.
-
Fedora 42 Beta Has Arrived
The Fedora Project has announced the availability of the first beta release for version 42 of the open-source distribution.
-
Dash to Panel Maintainer Quits
Charles Gagnon has stepped away as maintainer of the popular Dash to Panel Gnome extension.
-
CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux
If you're looking for an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is hardened for business use, there's a new version of Rocky Linux that's sure to make you and your company happy.
-
Gnome’s Dash to Panel Extension Gets a Massive Update
If you're a fan of the Gnome Dash to Panel extension, you'll be thrilled to hear that a new version has been released with a dock mode.
kde4 backports and kaboom
answers to my question on debian-kde list can be followed at:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-kde/2009/04/msg00019.html
and
http://lists.debian.org/debian-kde/2009/04/msg00020.html
greetz
devil
kaboom and backports
"The kaboom tool does not support KDE4 installations from the Debian backport."
I'm afraid this is a misunderstanding. You should look at [0] KDE4 backports for Lenny and [1] the information about kaboom. Once you read that you will notice..
KDE4 backports aren't officially supported by Debian, you can read in [0]: "Please, do not file bugs in the Debian BTS, these packages are not official packages". Besides, there's no restriction from kaboom in any way to have this unsupported.
Regards,
[0] http://kde4.debian.net/
[1] http://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/kaboom.html
A good approach