Akademy is KDE's yearly community event, this year it happens between October 1st and October 7th in my citycomarca [one of the reasons of why it's happening is that our Mr. President tricked me into helping organize it [*]]
You don't need to be a "KDE expert" to join, if you're remotely involved or interested in KDE you should really attend if you can (in person if possible, for me online really doesn't work for conferences), and not only the weekend of talks, but the whole week!
I still remember 2007 when our back-then-newbie Mr. President asked me "should I really go to Akademy? All the week? is it really worth it?" and i said "as many days as you can", and I guess we made a good enough impression to convince him to stay around and even want to do all the paper work that involves being in the KDE eV board :D
Anyhow, what i said, come to Akademy 2022! It's free, you'll learn a lot, meet nice people, will be both fun and productive.
[*] I should really work on my "no" skills, I'm still working on Okular because decades ago i said "how hard can it be" when someone asked to update KPDF to use a newer version of a dependency.
For whatever reason Steam Deck pretty much has two default browsers: Google Chrome in Game Mode and Firefox in Plasma aka. Desktop Mode. Firefox is absolutely unusable in Game Mode. Chrome (probably most other Chromium variants as well, I’ve only tried a handful) work okay-ish – at least they don’t go ballistic on touch events but they are not a truly nice experience either.
Readers of Planet KDE probably already know that some KDE applications have convergent GUIs thanks to Plasma Mobile, including the Angelfish web browser. It took some fiddling but after a while I managed to get it into a shape that’s very usable in Game Mode. Without any tweaks Angelfish defaults to use its desktop GUI and thereby runs just fine in Plasma Desktop, perhaps docked to a monitor.
First step is to enter Desktop Mode and install Angelfish from Flathub via Discover and then add it to Steam.
Then within Steam under Properties of Angelfish add this in the Target line to the beginning of the command to force mobile user interface, loading icons, and enlarging the interface elements:
The resulting command line looks something like this
Next step is to enter Game Mode and select the Web Browser controller layout:
Web Browser controller layout
Here’s a few screenshots of Angelfish running:
Main menuPage menuTab overviewMain view
In all fairness, Angelfish is a bit barebones. The Chromium-derived rendering engine is fine but there is no way to sync bookmarks and passwords with other browsers or at least import them. An ad blocker is built in but there’s also no support for WebExtensions or User Scripts, as far as I can tell. Keyboard does not automatically pop up on text inputs, you’ll need to press X every time. Despite all the downsides, it’s miles ahead of using a desktop-focused browser in Game Mode. You can also just launch Angelfish from Plasma Desktop without the above tweaks and just continue to use the same tabs, sessions, etc.
I can’t speak for the Plasma Mobile team but I hope they’ll embrace platforms like Steam Deck to lure in a few new contributors. Many of the other Plasma Mobile apps look potentially useful on handheld PC platforms as well.
Other Plasma Mobile apps may work using the same method but I’ve not tested any of them, yet.
PS: Angelfish also has a tablet UI that you can enable by replacing QT_QUICK_CONTROLS_MOBILE with KDE_KIRIGAMI_TABLET_MODE but I did not find it particularly working well with Game Mode.
KDE today announces the release of KDE Frameworks 5.97.0.
KDE Frameworks are 83 addon libraries to Qt which provide a wide variety of commonly needed functionality in mature, peer reviewed and well tested libraries with friendly licensing terms. For an introduction see the KDE Frameworks release announcement.
This release is part of a series of planned monthly releases making improvements available to developers in a quick and predictable manner.
New in this version
Attica
Pass the HTTP status code as the MetaData status code
Properly detect failed jobs
Breeze Icons
Add mimetypes/{16,22,32,64}/application-x-msdownload, which is used for DLLs
Remove monochrome versions of help-related app icons (bug 456737)
Bash: add globany in Option ; add comment in [[ … ]] and other fixes for [[ … ]]
Zsh: add comment in [[ … ]] and other fixes for [[ … ]]
add CommonJS module and ECMAScript module extension for JS and TS
Add tool for matching lexers
Fix code regex and bump files version
Another bunch of languages hand mapped between minted and KDE
Fix some issues with code colouring when syntax was broken
Fix embedded lua code highlighting
Fix for lstlisting bug which prevented proper recognition of language
Fix regression for lstlisting
Add support for multiple minted and lstlistings languages
add rockspec file to Lua
Markdown: use zsh syntax for zsh code
Zsh: fix variable and string in a glob qualifier
Scheme: fix combined prefix number
add basic support of aspx and ashx (bug 437220)
Batch: fix many issues and add tests
R: add := operator (bug 450484)
Lua: new styles (Special Variable and Self Variable), remove hard color and fix special keywords in BlockComment
Disable spellcheck in systemd unit Files for non text Data
Disable spellcheck in SGML Files for non text Data
Disable spellcheck in Perl Files for non text Data
Disable spellcheck in git-rebase-todo Files for Comment Data
Disable spellcheck in fstab Files, except Comment Data
Disable spellcheck in .desktop Files, except Comment Data
Disable spellcheck in XML (Debug) Files, except Comment Data
Enable spellcheck for Comment Data in XML Files
Disable spellcheck in Bash Files for non text Data
Disable spellcheck in INI Files, except Comment Data
Simplify code by leveraging QMetaEnum::fromType
Use QMetaEnum to find number of available text styles
Introduce ThemeData::textStyle to share code
cleanup: share code to read Format colors from style or theme
Update atom-one-light.theme revision number
Fix atom-one-light.theme diff file colors
Fix atom-one-dark.theme diff colors
Security information
The released code has been GPG-signed using the following key:
pub rsa2048/58D0EE648A48B3BB 2016-09-05 David Faure faure@kde.org
Primary key fingerprint: 53E6 B47B 45CE A3E0 D5B7 4577 58D0 EE64 8A48 B3BB
It’s been three months since my last post
about the ongoing transition to KDE Frameworks 6, so another update is long overdue
given how much has happened since.
QML Porting
While the main attention had been on porting build system and C++ code so far, meanwhile QML code
has also moved into focus. QML code is generally harder to port, due to the lack of compile-time
checking and the lack of conditional code based on the Qt version.
Only seeing mistakes at runtime means for every single change we need to ensure to manually exercise
the affected code paths. That is much easier to do if everything else is fully working, ie. in the
current Qt 5 codebase.
That however is only an option for changes that result in code that works with both Qt 5 and Qt 6. Changes that
only work with Qt 6 can’t be done at all yet due to the lack of version-based conditional code (such
as the C++ prepocessor gives us).
Qt 5 changes
Fortunately the biggest chunk of required QML changes can be done with Qt 5 as well:
Porting away from deprecated modules such as Qt Quick Controls 1 (QQC1) and Plasma Components 2 (PC2).
In many cases this can be replaced by usage of Qt Quick Controls 2 (QQC2) and Plasma Components 3 (PC3) in
Qt 5 already (there are a few components that only become available with Qt 6 though).
Porting away from deprecated QML elements or properties such as RegExpValidator and ApplicationWindow.overlay
that have newer replacements in Qt 5 already.
There is a tracker task for the ongoing work on this.
Qt 6 changes
Looking at what remains then, the biggest part of that seems to be a relatively small set of recurring changes, such as:
Kirigami’s BasicListItem has now the standard grouped icon property.
QtGraphicalEffects has been moved to the Qt 5 compatibility module and thus needs different imports.
Several dialog elements need different imports.
To ease the transition eventually and to support testing in the current state, some of those have been implemented
as code transformation scripts in kde-dev-script. More things can and
should likely be added there as we go.
With those two types of changes applied, the remaining necessary changes are very small,
and are mostly limited to lower-level frameworks like Kirigami, chances are that simple applications start out
of the box with this already.
Status
The above assessment is not necessarily complete though, that’s just the result from the modules looked at so far.
But there has been some nice progress nevertheless, we can meanwhile load our QQC2 style, have most of
Kirigami Gallery as well as some simple Kirigami apps function properly,
and some first bits of Plasma applets and System Settings come up.
Kirigami Gallery, properly styled but still missing some shader effects.
To avoid wrong expectations though, you’ll get little of the above out of the box at this point, this still
requires various local modifications to be applied (pending MRs, the above mentioned conversion script, temporary hacks
to take out still dysfunctional parts, etc).
KDE Frameworks
There has been a few more noteworthy activities beyond QML regarding KDE Frameworks:
Friedrich wrote a blog post
about the deprecation macro system used to support the transition to KF6.
Plasma
39 of the 51 repositories relevant for Plasma 6 have meanwhile Qt 6 CI coverage. Particularly important are the inclusion
of libkscreen and kscreenlocker, which are required dependencies for the more central modules like KWin and
Plasma Workspace. Plasma Workspace itself builds as well even, but depends on KWin. And that still has a few remaining issues:
One remaining use of the notorious QDesktopWidget.
Use of QQuickRenderControl in OpenGL code, which clashes with the rendering system abstraction now in place in Qt.
Some QEvent-derived classes that need adaption to the changes in Qt’s event classes.
Two uses of `moc´-related macros that fail with stricter type requirements in Qt 6.
A Wayland protocol code generation change that breaks the build.
Still, combined with the QML work, this allowed to bring up simple Plasma applets in the plasmoidviewer tool.
Fully functional Plasma color picker applet shown in plasmoidviewer.
Applications
There has also plenty of movement around our applications, you might have spotted a few success stories
and progress reports on Planet KDE, such as:
Attention has also been put on the other end of the dependency chain, external libraries based on Qt we depend on.
Some of those have been adapted to Qt 6 already, in some cases packaging and/or co-installability still needed polish,
for others the entire port had yet to be done.
libaccounts-qt and
signond needed by KAccounts, which in turn is
a dependency for things in Purpose, Plasma and PIM.
See the corresponding tracker task for an
overview of the current status.
Akademy
KDE Akademy 2022 is just a few weeks away, and of course the transition to Qt 6 and KF6 is
going to be an important topic there. There’s two related talks in the conference program:
And there will also be a number of related BoFs/meetings of course, to be scheduled closer to the event. This might possibly
be our last “pre 6” Akademy, so if you have things you’d like to see happening for KF6, this is your chance to bring it up!
How you can help
Obviously all of the above is the result of a big team effort, and you can be part of that! As noted above, a full
Qt 6 based development environment isn’t even needed for that, especially some of the QML porting tasks are actually
easier to do in a Qt 5 environment for now.
To participate, here are the most important coordination and communication channels:
Though KDE’s goal-setting process is still ongoing, contributors have started working on Plasma accessibility in a major way! As of Plasma 5.26, all Plasma widgets will be fully compatible and usable with a screen reader, thanks to Fushan Wen with assistance from Harald Sitter! And there’s more to come too, plus lots of other great work:
New Features
It’s now possible to manage Samba shares’ permissions remotely! (Harald Sitter, kdenetwork-filesharing 22.12. Link)
The Plasma Network manager’s OpenConnect VPN plugin now supports the “F5,” “Fortinet,” and “Array” protocols (Enrique Melendez, Plasma 5.26. Link)
Kickoff now has a new non-default “Compact” mode that lets you see more items at the time. When using Touch Mode, compact mode is automatically disabled to ensure that Kickoff remains touch-friendly (me: Nate Graham, Plasma 5.26. Link)
Normal mode
Compact mode
Global Themes can now change the order and arrangements of titlebar buttons and turn on or off the “Borderless Maximized Windows” setting which disables the titlebar for maximized windows. And you can also turn these on or off while applying a theme so configured on System Settings’ Global Themes page (Dominic Hayes, Plasma 5.26. Link)
By default, Picture of the Day wallpaper plugins don’t refresh while the system is using a metered network connection–but this can be turned back on if you want (Fushan Wen, Plasma 5.26. Link):
It’s now possible to clear the Command Bar’s history (Eugene Popov, Frameworks 5.98. Link)
User Interface Improvements
Elisa can now open files from relative paths, not just absolute paths (Bharadwaj Raju, Elisa 22.08.1. Link)
When searching with KRunner, results from the “Software Center” category (which finds non-installed apps) are always lower than results from categories that show already-installed apps and settings pages (Alexander Lohnau, Plasma 5.24.7. Link)
You can now use the Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut in the Clipboard applet’s Edit Mode page to save and return to the main page (Fushan Wen, Plasma 5.24.7. Link)
System Settings’ Night Color page now lets you use a map to choose a manual location, and shows a loading placeholder when using automatic location mode and the geolocation service is still working on geolocating you (Bharadwaj Raju, Plasma 5.26. Link 1 and Link 2):
The opening and closing animations for the Overview, Present Windows, and Desktop Grid effects now last longer and have a nicer easing curve, making them feel much smoother (Blake Sperling, Plasma 5.26. Link)
Significant Bugfixes
(This is a curated list of e.g. HI and VHI priority bugs, Wayland showstoppers, major regressions, etc.)
Switching your Global Theme to one that has its own color scheme now immediately changes the color in all running GTK apps that are being themed with the Breeze GTK theme (David Redondo, Plasma 5.24.7. Link)
Fixed a major regression in multi-monitor support for the Plasma Wayland session that could cause screens to display no output (Xaver Hugl, Plasma 5.25.5. Link)
In the Plasma Wayland session, certain apps like GIMP no longer sometimes fail to appear in the Task Manager while running (Vlad Zahorodnii, Plasma 5.25.5. Link)
This blog only covers the tip of the iceberg! If you’re hungry for more, check out https://planet.kde.org, where you can find more news from other KDE contributors.
How You Can Help
If you’re a developer, check out our 15-Minute Bug Initiative. Working on these issues makes a big difference quickly! Otherwise, have a look at https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved to discover ways to be part of a project that really matters. Each contributor makes a huge difference in KDE; you are not a number or a cog in a machine! You don’t have to already be a programmer, either. I wasn’t when I got started. Try it, you’ll like it! We don’t bite!
The first point release update to Kubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) is out now. This contains all the bug-fixes added to 22.04 since its first release in April 2022. Users of 22.04 can run the normal update procedure to get these bug-fixes.
The first point release is also significant because it is the default upgrade version for users of Kubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa).
Amazon to acquire maker of Roomba vacuums for roughly $1.7 billion
Tags: tech, amazon, robotic, surveillance
With some of the late moves from iRobot to hoard data from their robots as they are mapping homes during their work, this acquisition is a tad worrying.
Lots of good advices about processes and organizations. It’s nicely points out that friction is not necessarily wrong… if you get something out of it.
Also neat reminder in there that code review are here to complete work which is already socialized somehow. If you can’t find reviewers it’s a sign of an organizational problem when the work started.
The first two applications, kmetronome and kmidimon, are now over fifteen years old and are only available for Linux. These two new versions are simply bug fixes, with no new features. But it is interesting to note that in FlatHub they are already based on Qt6 and supporting both Wayland and X11, although the packages in AppImage format still use Qt5. The chances of finding these applications in the official repositories of Linux distributions are slim. In fact, kmidimon was removed from the official Debian repositories with some lame excuse, and it is unlikely to be included again. I can't do anything about it, so please: direct complaints where they belong. Or use the new available distribution formats or the unofficial repositories, like Debian Multimedia, which includes the three mentioned applications and many others.
The other app, dmidiplayer, is much newer and cross-platform. It is the successor to Kmid2, the KDE karaoke application that I rewrote many years ago. In this new version the most remarkable new feature is the persistent configuration of the songs. This is a feature that was already present in the old Kmid2 and that allows you to store the tempo, general volume, pitch transposition, and MIDI channel settings for each song, which will be applied when it is played again in the future. The other novelty is the individual volume adjustment for each MIDI channel, something that was not possible in Kmid2.
After all these years, it is curious that it is still possible to find Kmid2 in one distribution: Fedora, despite being a Qt4/KDE4 application. So a functional comparison of both applications is not only possible, but easy to do. In my opinion, with this version dmidiplayer has reached parity in terms of functionality with Kmid2. On the other hand, the new architecture has allowed the application to be available on other Unixes (such as FreeBSD) in addition to Linux, macOS, and Windows.
I guess the next app to get updates will be VMPK. There is no forecast yet of the changes it will bring, but there is a recurring request that I will not do: MIDI Jack support. This is not to say that it is not possible to use Jack MIDI with VMPK, because in fact there is an utility called 'a2jmidid' that serves as a translation layer between applications using the ALSA Sequencer and Jack MIDI. On the other hand, for VMPK to use new native backends it is only necessary to implement Drumstick::RT plugins. And this can be done by any interested developer, and then independently distribute the out-of-tree plugins. I've opened a discussion on GitHub about this. Anyone interested, please read and ask your questions there.
TSDgeos
@flyingcakes:kde.org
GSoC
