More on Smolt

Minutes after I posted The new shiny Smolt client I've received lots of feedback via email, IM and Novell Bugzilla. The most annoying bugs were:

• Bug 525324 - [home:cgoncalves:playground] the Privacy Policy window has not scrollbar

• Bug 525322 - [home:cgoncalves:playground] smolt does not display special chars

All known bugs were fixed and Smolt 1.3.2 tagged.

Q: So, what's really new?!
A:

1. Smolt KDE4 popup made by Thomas Goettlicher:
   
   

The notification will be shown automatically upon KDE startup (X-KDE-autostart-phase=2)


2. Qt.ToolButtonTextBesideIcon (the text appears beside the icon) is now default per Nuno Pinheiro's suggestion:
   
   


3. Window size auto-adjusting:
   
   
   As you can also see BNC #525322 is indeed fixed.
   

I'm preparing a Smolt RPM update to submit to openSUSE Factory to get included in time for openSUSE 11.2, though you can try it already by using my home:cgoncalves:playground repository:

openSUSE 11.1:
# zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/cgoncalves:/playground/openSUSE_11.1/ home:cgoncalves:playground
openSUSE Factory:
# zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/cgoncalves:/playground/openSUSE_Factory/ home:cgoncalves:playground

# zypper ref home:cgoncalves:playground
# zypper in smolt-snapshot smolt-popup

As always, please give us feedback!

openSUSE 11.1 KDE3 - torrents and final thanks

Torrents are now available:

• openSUSE 11.1 KDE3 Live CD: i686 (md5, sha1), x86_64 (md5, sha1)
• openSUSE 11.1 KDE3 Live USB: i686 (md5, sha1), x86_64 (md5, sha1) (instructions)

Thanks to...

• ... Benjamin Weber, Masim Sugianto, Andre Duffeck and Magnus Boman for have mirrored openSUSE 11.1 KDE3 Live CDs and USBs.
• ... Marcus Rueckert for have created torrents, and Andreas Jaeger (you know why ;-) )
• ... Stephan Kulow for the useful tips given on how to create the ISOs.
• ... Stephan Binner for patches, suggestions, and feedback.
• ... Joe Brockmeier for the release announcement.
• ... you (!) for the time spent reading this crap of blog :-P
  

Finalizing, even though I strongly encourage users to upgrade to KDE 4 not only for how awesome it is (KDE 4.1.3 on openSUSE 11.1 is solid as rock!), but also because KDE 3 will be officially unsupported and thus not included on openSUSE 11.2 and later versions, I would like to hear what's in users mind about a possibility of having KDE 3 and openSUSE 11.1+ KDE3 Live CDs maintained and released by the community - any volunteers?

(Yes, I use KDE 4 and hell not stepping back to KDE 3! heh)

openSUSE 11.1 KDE3 - urgent mirroring (updated)

Update: Situation is again under control. Benji Weber, Masim Sugianto and Andre Duffeck have setup mirrors (THANKS!) - see MIRRORS file. Temporarily the Live CDs (not the USBs) will be automatically redirected to Benji's.

---

Since the release announcement of the Unofficial KDE 3.5 Live CD for openSUSE 11.1 the server where the ISOs are hosted at has been running out of bandwidth due to the huge amount of requests for downloading those files, and since the server also host other important client accounts, the sysadmin offered me two choices:

1. disable the account
2. get mirrors around
   

In the meantime I was forced to move the files away and wait for some mirrors to fight back all the download requests. So, whoever can provide mirroring of these files please contact me (comment, email or IRC)! Torrents are also allowed and recommended!

My apologies for any inconvenience caused...

P.S.: I didn't expected all this traffic around the ISOs... the openSUSE 11.0 KDE3 Live CDs didn't get that many attention. Well, it's a good sign though ;-)

Unofficial KDE 3.5 Live CD for openSUSE 11.1

Quoting "Unofficial KDE 3.5 Live CD for openSUSE 11.1" story from openSUSE News:

Want classic KDE on openSUSE, without the full DVD download? Carlos Goncalves has you covered. openSUSE 11.1 Live CDs and USB images featuring KDE 3.5 are now available for download.

Created by openSUSE community member Carlos Goncalves, the KDE 3.5 Live CD and USB images contain openSUSE 11.1 plus several key updates.

In addition to KDE 3.5, the Live CD offers OpenOffice.org 3.0, Smolt, Amarok 1.4.10, KDEPIM3, Firefox 3.0.4, K3b, and many other useful applications. You can see the entire package list here: package-lists-openSUSE

And, of course, openSUSE has the current KDE releases covered as well. You can download the official openSUSE 11.1 KDE4 Live CDs based on KDE 4.1.3, or if you want to follow KDE development, Stephan Binner has created a KDE Four Live CD featuring KDE 4.2 Beta 2.

Note that the KDE 3.5 live CD is an "unofficial" release. Even though it's not a formal release, we're excited by the work Carlos has put into supporting KDE 3.5 and showing what can be done with the build service. Want to create your own Live CD featuring openSUSE? See Carlos Build Service Live CD project on creating a Live CD here: home:cgoncalves:LiveCD, and Masim's "How to Make openSUSE 11.1 KDE 3.5 LiveCD or LiveDVD" article.

Download

openSUSE 11.1 KDE3 Live CD and USB are available for i686 and x86_64 architectures:

• openSUSE 11.1 KDE3 Live CD: i686 (md5, sha1), x86_64 (md5, sha1)
• openSUSE 11.1 KDE3 Live USB: i686 (md5, sha1), x86_64 (md5, sha1) (instructions)

If you want to report any bug found use Novell's Bugzilla for better tracking. Feedback can be sent via email, IRC and comment in here.

A huge thanks to Stephan 'Beineri' Binner, Stephan 'coolo' Kulow, and Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier for their assistance and effort!

We hope that the openSUSE community will find it useful and have a lot of fun with KDE 3.5!

Mirrors administrators around the world, I think I will need your help! Please mirror these files and let me know the URL so I can point people out to your mirrors instead ;-)

openSUSE KDE Bug Squashing Days (20-21 September)

The openSUSE KDE team wants to dedicate some time on KDE bugs before openSUSE 11.1 gets released, focusing on reported KDE bugs on bugzilla.novell.com inviting the community to take part of it.

Let's stamp out bugs in KDE for openSUSE 11.1! The openSUSE KDE team is holding a Bug Squashing event to work the KDE bugs reported in bugzilla.novell.com. You can be a part of a bug-free KDE!

The openSUSE KDE Bug Squashing event is scheduled September 20 through September 21 (right after openSUSE 11.1 Beta1 release), and the main goal is to have zero bugs!

In order of priority, we have the following list:

• Find duplicated bugs, and obviously close then as DUPLICATE;


• Non openSUSE KDE bugs (KDE upstream bugs) should be:
• Reported on bugs.kde.org (if not yet);
• Added the upstream bug URL to the URL field on bugzilla.novell.com;
• Closed as UPSTREAM (resolution field).


• Filter KDE 4.0 bug reports and try to reproduce them on KDE 4.1:
• If you can't reproduce close them as WORKSFORME and leave a comment as it was most probably fixed on KDE 4.1;
• If you still can reproduce them, try to investigate why/how that happens (eg: step-by-step on how to reproduce) and state it's still reproducible;


• Same as above but for KDE 4.1 - taking in consideration the quicklydevelopment of KDE4 it's really easy that those bugs reported have beenfixed meanwhile.


• Help providing info for bugs marked as NEEDINFO


• Set priority for bugs with Priority = P5(None).


• Explore KDE3 and KDE 4.1 looking for bugs. See if KDE3 ones are fixed for KDE4. Bug report them.

Note: Bug squashers should start from higher severity/priority bug reports to lower ones.

To successfully achieve all these tasks, the openSUSE KDE team needs as many people as possible. All you need to help is one (or more) of the following to help us with debugging:

• An updated openSUSE 11.0 or openSUSE 11.1 system
• KDE 3.5.10 installed from KDE:KDE3 OBS repository
• KDE 4.1 installed from KDE:KDE4:Factory:Desktop OBS repository

During the event the community will be in the #opensuse-kde channel on irc.freenode.org to help you out in whatever you might need. The openSUSE KDE mailing list is also a great way to communicate with the KDE community.

See the openSUSE KDE Bug Squashing Days page for more and updated information at http://en.opensuse.org/KDE/Bug_Slashing/20080920


Have a lot of... openSUSE KDE Bug Squashing Days! ;-)

openSUSE 11.0 KDE3 Live CDst

I have been reading since openSUSE 11.0 GM release a lot of comments posted in many forums and blogs about the "lake" of KDE3 CDs. This big noise around got my attention specially because I was one of the KDE users that shared people's preferences of using a very stable KDE version - KDE 3.5 - for daily use instead of the bleeding edge KDE 4.0.

The process of installing KDE3 on openSUSE no matter what desktop environment users were using was quite simple to follow:

# zypper install -t pattern kde3

or if you just want a clean KDE 3 base:

# zypper install --no-recommends -t pattern kde3

or even by selecting "KDE3 Base System" pattern on YaST. Easy, isn't it?

Well, for those lazy people who don't want to install openSUSE with KDE4, GNOME, XFCE or any other and then install KDE3 I have a gorgeous news: openSUSE 11.0 KDE3 Live CDs are now available!

• openSUSE 11.0 KDE3 LiveCD (i686)


• openSUSE 11.0 KDE3 LiveCD (x86_64)


• MD5SUM and SHA1UM


• Kiwi config (32bit) and Kiwi config (64bit)

These Live CDs are also installable CDs and were creating using the openSUSE KIWI Image System. They contain the latest official updates as also the latest packages from KDE:KDE3, KDE:Backports, KDE:KDE4:Factory:Desktop, and KDE:KDE4:Factory:Extra-Apps repositories as of this time of writing.

Big thanks to the KDE Team and Kiwi Team that supported me since the beginning encouraging and helping me in this adventure ;-)


Note: these ISOs are not officially supported by openSUSE nor Novell. If you want to report any bug found use Novell's Bugzilla for better tracking. Feedback or for any other purpose please contact me via email (cgoncalves [at] opensuse [dot] org).

Now that's what I'm talking about!

Reading the latest Aaron Seigo's blog post I completely froze, for good!
To quote him:

(...)
i've got OpenSuse 10.3 on the new machine and i have to say that i'm more than pleased with it. i was afraid i'd miss apt-get ... but zypper rocks.
(...)
the rpm search through community contributions is yet another really great thing that has happened during my hiatus from suseland; really nice to see and something i'm sure to use again in the future...
(...)
after seeing 10.3 i was impressed enough to try it out again; i'm a little tired of the *buntu world these days and unhappy with some of their decisions. didn't help that on my last upgrade of my laptop, it rendered my system unusable due to a screw up in their evms packaging; this was doubly "humorous" as the system wasn't using evms at all. it was just installed and that was enough. this isn't the first time such a catastrophic update has come down those apt-get pipes so it's just in time for me that OpenSuse starts to look like its back on the rails again. there were even kde4 packages available as an option in the installer =)
(...)

I must say: welcome back aseigo!