Dear fans of music & open source music players,
in preparation of the upcoming Amarok 3.3 release, a beta release (3.2.81) has been prepared.

As shown in the ChangeLog, the changes are mostly technical: Qt5 support is removed, and Amarok 3.3 beta is compatible with Qt6/KF6 only. Additionally, a database scheme update (first such since 2012) fixes encoding and date related bugs.

Please note that due to the database update, downgrading from 3.3 beta is not directly possible, and returning to pre-3.3 versions requires the database (at ~/.local/share/amarok/mysqle/) to be manually backed up beforehand.

Aligning with current major KDE Frameworks version should simplify various direct and indirect software dependencies. However, phonon-vlc is the only supported backend on Qt6 Phonon, which Amarok 3.3 beta is still using for audio playback. This imposes some constraints e.g. on equalizer and analyzer functionalities. A more comprehensive overview of audio backend status is available on an invent.kde.org issue and a related work-in-progress merge request.

Additionally, there isn't official releases with Qt6 support of liblastfm available yet (needed for last.fm support). To enable the functionality, one needs to use library version built from e.g. sources at https://github.com/Mazhoon/liblastfm/tree/81e8f9dc16a0a18fe9a066d51c2071086326670b .

The Amarok 3.3 beta source tarball is available on download.kde.org and it has been signed with Tuomas Nurmi's GPG key. In addition to the source code, it is likely that some distributions will provide beta packages. The various nightly git builds provided by various splendid packagers should also provide a way of using the beta changes and participating in the testing.

Happy listening!

Final update

So this is my final blog regarding the Season of KDE 2025, I’m feeling happy for what I accomplished. Over the past few weeks, I’ve implemented PvP system for mancala game, this project has been a deep dive into game development, networking and user experience.

Summary of work done so far

1. Move tracking Mechanics

At the heart of this project lies the MankalaEngine, an engine designed to handle rules and gameplay of various mancala variants. I’ve added some more feature in the engine:

• Move tracking: The lastMoveMethod() method allows to retrieve the last move played by the player and computer.

2. PvP Mode

It allows the real-time multiplayer gameplay using XMPP. Following is a brief summary:

• XMPP Integration: Players connect to each other using their jabber IDs and exchange move using the established chat room in real-time.
• Turn Management: The Player 1 always start, and turns alternate between the two players.
• Board Syncing: Players manually update their boards based on the opponent’s move, ensuring both the players have accurate view of the game state.

3. Man Page Documentation

To make the game accesible, I’ve created a man page for bohnenspieltui. This man page provides the information abou the game, including:

• Synopsis and Description: A brief overview and explanation of the game variant.
• Usage: Instructions for running the PvP mode.
• Added a minor improvement of card view in Mancala GUI.

Future Work

While the task for this term is completed, their are several areas for improvement:

• Automated board syncing by replacing the current manual one.
• Integrating the engine to the mancala GUI.
• Extending the PvP to other variants.

Final Words

Thanks to KDE community, XMPP community and Benson Muite and João Gouveia and Blue from Macaw.me for the guidance and support. And I encourage the aspiring contributors to take part in Season of KDE to learn and grow as a developer.

Work done so far

Implemented the PvP mode by leveraging XMPP for communication, enabling the played to exchange moves. The code for this are implementd in connection.h, connection.cpp and bohnenspieltui.cpp.

Setting up the PvP mode

The player select the game mode they desires to play, for PvP the choice would be option P.

Connecting to XMPP server

To establish the chat room and enable the communication the player must provide their jabber id and password and the opponent’s JID (This should be done from both players side).

The program then establishes a connection to the XMPP server using the entered credentials. The game proceeds only when the credentials are verified.

Host and Turn Order

The program determines who will play first in a simple manner i.e., by comparing the lexicographical order of their jabber IDs.

Sending a move

When it’s player turn, they are prompted to enter their move. The move is validated and sent to opponent via the established chat room.

The board is updated locally and then the turn is passed to the opponent.

Receiving a move

When the move is received from the opponent, the program prompts the player to sync the board manually.

This is to ensure that both the players have their board in sync. Then the program prompts the user to enter their move and it game will be continued.

What’s next

• Automatic move sync
• The man page to explain the working to players.

Some time ago we reached out to Wesley Gardner because, a bit belatedly, we saw he has published a great book on Krita, titled Draw and Paint Better with Krita.

For krita.org, Wesley wrote an introduction to his book!

Teaching art has been a passion of mine for a long time, and seeing students find their “inner voice” and push through barriers they thought insurmountable is one of the coolest things in the world. In 2021, I was approached to write a “how to digital paint” book, geared towards beginners to digital art, but with the goal of also having enough weight to give intermediate and advanced digital artists some fun exercises as well. Without second thought, I agreed, and knew that Krita would be the focal point of the book. Thus, in 2022, ‘Draw and Paint Better with Krita’ was published worldwide, and has become a sort of “guardian angel” guide for artists around the world, which I’m super humbled by and grateful for.

:

Krita’s everything that I believe digital art is about: Open access, customizable to fit your needs, easy to get started, and impossible to master. There’s always something new to learn in art, and likewise, there’s always something fun to learn in Krita. Whether it’s the various effects you can get with the ever-expanding layer management and adjustments, or the near-infinite pool of incredible custom brushes made by the community, there’s ALWAYS a new way to push yourself to that next level in your journey.

I’ve been a Krita user since Krita 3, and seeing how much it has evolved and expanded in the past few years has been unbelievable! It’s always installed on EVERY machine that I make art on, and is one of my “must-download” softwares the moment I get a new machine. It’s one of those programs that grows with you, and can handle absolutely anything you can throw at it. I’ve produced personal work and art prints, as well as professional client work for the likes of Star Wars, Warhammer 40k, and Riot Games, and the program never breaks a sweat. When I’m stumped on what type of video to make for my YouTube channel, I can always fall back on playing around in Krita, as it’s always a treat to poke around and learn new workflows.

Writing the book on Krita was a no-brainer, as I think learning Krita can help you learn ANY digital painting software, as the workflows are so similar. It’s the perfect entry-point for every artist that wants to work digitally, and it’s the perfect ending point for tenured veterans that need a little bit of “extra spice” to finish off their work and build their brand. If there’s one digital art program every single person needs on their machine, it’s Krita.

For real, what CAN’T Krita do? Go join the forums, be part of the community, and (if you’re financially able to, of course) donate somewhat regularly to the Krita Foundation. They do incredible work, and the fact that Krita’s available on Windows, Mac, AND Linux, for FREE, is still some sort of wizardry I can’t wrap my head around. For the Krita Team: Keep knocking it out of the park, it’s an honor to be a part of the Krita legacy, and for the team, and all artists out there:

Go make cool art.

Life:

Last week we were enjoying springtime, this week winter has made a comeback! Good news on the broken arm front, the infection is gone, so they can finally deal with the broken issue again. I will have a less invasive surgery April 25th to pull the bones back together so they can properly knit back together! If you can spare any change please consider a donation to my continued healing and recovery, or just support my work

• GoFundMe
• Patreon
• Github
• Donorbox

Kubuntu:

While testing Beta I came across some crashy apps ( Namely PIM ) due to apparmor. I have uploaded fixed profiles for kmail, akregator, akonadiconsole, konqueror, tellico

KDE Snaps:

Added sctp support in Qt https://invent.kde.org/neon/snap-packaging/kde-qt6-core-sdk/-/commit/bbcb1dc39044b930ab718c8ffabfa20ccd2b0f75

This will allow me to finish a pyside6 snap and fix FreeCAD build.

Changed build type to Release in the kf6-core24-sdk which will reduce the size of kf6-core24 significantly.

Fixed a few startup errors in kf5-core24 and kf6-core24 snapcraft-desktop-integration.

Soumyadeep fixed wayland icons in https://invent.kde.org/neon/snap-packaging/kf6-core-sdk/-/merge_requests/3

KDE Applications 25.03.90 RC released to –candidate ( I know it says 24.12.3, version won’t be updated until 25.04.0 release )

Kasts core24 fixed in –candidate

Kate now core24 with Breeze theme! –candidate

Neochat: Fixed missing QML and 25.04 dependencies in –candidate

Kdenlive now with Galxnimate animations! –candidate

Digikam 8.6.0 now with scanner support in –stable

Kstars 3.7.6 released to –stable for realz, removed store rejected plugs.

Thanks for stopping by!

Work done so far

Move tracker for PvC game

Implemented the code for tracking the move played by player and computer in bohnenspiel TUI game.

It is achieved using getLastMove method initialized and defined in mankalaengine.h and mankalaengine.cpp. This method returns a pair containing the last moved as int played and the player as Player who made it.

During each iteration of the game loop, the above method is called for both player and computer to retrieve their respective last moves.

The above code in TUI file of bohnenspiel game variant is used to display the move played in the terminal.

The player move is tracked using user.getLastMove() and the computer move is tracked using opponent.getLastMove(). The game loop alternates between the player and the computer, updating the board and tracking moves after each turn. The last moves are printed after each turn. The computer’s move are adjusted by adding 6 to align it’s side of board(move 6-11).

How it works?

1. Player’s Turn:
   • The player select the hole to play.
   • The move is played, and the board is updated.
   • The move is tracked using user.getLastMove().
2. Computer’s Turn:
   • The computer select the hole to play.
   • The move is played, and the board is updated.
   • The move is tracked using opponent.getLastMove().

After each turn the last moves played are displayed.

What’s next

The next goal moving forward is to create a PvP game mode for two different users.

Model/View Drag and Drop in Qt - Part 3

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

class EmailsModel : public QAbstractTableModel
{
    ~~~
    Qt::ItemFlags flags(const QModelIndex &index) const override
    {
        if (!index.isValid())
            return {};
        return Qt::ItemIsEnabled | Qt::ItemIsSelectable | Qt::ItemIsDragEnabled;
    }

    // the default is "copy only", change it
    Qt::DropActions supportedDragActions() const override { return Qt::MoveAction | Qt::CopyAction; }

    QMimeData *mimeData(const QModelIndexList &indexes) const override;

    bool removeRows(int position, int rows, const QModelIndex &parent) override;

bool EmailsModel::removeRows(int position, int rows, const QModelIndex &parent)
{
    beginRemoveRows(parent, position, position + rows - 1);
    for (int row = 0; row < rows; ++row) {
        m_emailFolder->emails.removeAt(position);
    }
    endRemoveRows();
    return true;
}

class FoldersModel : public QAbstractTableModel
{
    ~~~    
    Qt::ItemFlags flags(const QModelIndex &index) const override
    {
        CHECK_flags(index);
        if (!index.isValid())
            return {}; // do not allow dropping between items
        if (index.column() > 0)
            return Qt::ItemIsEnabled | Qt::ItemIsSelectable; // don't drop on other columns
        return Qt::ItemIsEnabled | Qt::ItemIsSelectable | Qt::ItemIsDropEnabled;
    }

    // the default is "copy only", change it
    Qt::DropActions supportedDropActions() const override { return Qt::MoveAction | Qt::CopyAction; }
  
    QStringList mimeTypes() const override { return {QString::fromLatin1(s_emailsMimeType)}; }
  
    bool dropMimeData(const QMimeData *mimeData, Qt::DropAction action, int row, int column, const QModelIndex &parent) override;
};

bool FoldersModel::dropMimeData(const QMimeData *mimeData, Qt::DropAction action, int row, int column, const QModelIndex &parent)
{
    ~~~  // safety checks, see full example code

    EmailFolder *destFolder = folderForIndex(parent);

    const QByteArray encodedData = mimeData->data(s_emailsMimeType);
    QDataStream stream(encodedData);
    ~~~ // code to detect and reject dropping onto the folder currently holding those emails

    while (!stream.atEnd()) {
        QString email;
        stream >> email;
        destFolder->emails.append(email);
    }
    emit dataChanged(parent, parent); // update count

    return true; // let the view handle deletion on the source side by calling removeRows there
}

The post Model/View Drag and Drop in Qt - Part 3 appeared first on KDAB.

In Konsole Layout Automation (part 1), I wrote about how to automate opening Konsole with different tabs that ran different commands. In this post, I'll talk about doing this for layouts.

Inspiration

In the past, I needed to open two connections to the same host over ssh , and change to two different directories. I opened Konsole with a layout that had two panes. Then, Quick Commands allowed me to run a command in each pane to ssh and change to the right directory. This post will outline how to achieve that and more!

Goal: Launch a Konsole window with one tab that has multiple panes which run commands

💡 Note For more detailed instructions on using Konsole, please see the output of konsole --help and take a look at the Command-line Options section of the Konsole Handbook

A layout can save and load a set of panes. Unfortuately, it can't do anything else. We can, however, use profiles and the Quick Commands plugin to make the panes more useful.

Use case: See the output of different commands in the same window. For instance, you could be running htop in one pane and open your favorite editor in another.

Here's an overview of the steps:

• Set up a layout
• Use QuickCommands to run things in the panes

Set up a layout

Unfortunately, the online documentation for Konsole command line options doesn't say much about how to create a layout, or the format of its JSON file. It only mentions the command line flag --layout. Also make a note of -e which allows you to execute a command.

Fortunately, creating the layout is pretty easy. Note that a layout is limited to one tab. It will only save the window splits, nothing else. No profiles, directories, etc.

1. Set up a tab in Konsole with the splits you want it to have
2. Use View -> Save Tab Layout to save it to a .json file. (I personally recommend keeping these in a specific directory so they're easy to find later, and for scripting. I use ~/konsole-layouts).
3. You can then use konsole --layout ~/layout-name.json to load konsole with a tab that has the splits you saved.

Use Quick Commands to do useful things in your layout

As mentioned above, you can only save splits. you can't associate a profile, or run a command directly like you can with the tilix or kitty terminals. This has been requested. In the meantime, an easy thing you can do is load a layout and then load a profile manually in each pane. This is where Quick Commands come in. These are under Plugins - Quick Commands. (If you don't see this, contact your distro / the place you installed Konsole from).

You can use Quick Commands to run a command in each pane. You can also launch a profile (with different colors etc) that runs a command (part 1 showed how these might be used). Note, however, that running konsole itself from here will launch a new Konsole window.

End each command with || return so that you get to a prompt if the command fails.

Examples

htop || return

So, after you've launched Konsole with your layout as described above, you can do this: Go to Plugins -> Show Quick Commands Add commands you'd like to run in this session. Now, focus the pane and run a command.

Using these steps, I can run htop in one pane and nvtop in the other.

After you've gotten familiar with tabs and layouts, you can make a decently powerful Konsole session. Combine these with a shell function, and you can invoke that session very easily.

This is still too manual!

You're right. This post is about automating Konsole and having to click on things is not exactly that. You can use dbus commands in a script to load your tab layout and then run commands in each pane without using Quick Commands.

As we saw in the last post, you can use profiles to customize color schemes and launch commands. We can call those from a script in a layout. The demo scripts used below use dbus, take a look at the docs on scripting Konsole for details.

I'm using the layout file ~/konsole_layouts/monitoring.json for this example. This layout file represents two panes with one vertical split (horizontal orientation describes the panes being horizontally placed):

{
 "Orientation": "Horizontal",
 "Widgets": [
 {
 "SessionRestoreId": 0
 },
 {
 "SessionRestoreId": 0
 }
 ]
}

Here's an example of a simple script using that layout, which will launch fastfetch in one pane and btm in the other:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Define the commands to run
cmd1="fastfetch"
cmd2="btm"

# Opens a konsole tab with a saved layout
# Change the path to point to the layout file on your system
# KPID is used for renaming tabs

konsole --hold --layout $HOME/konsole_layouts/monitoring.json & KPID=$!

# Short sleep to let the tab creation complete
sleep 0.5

# Runs commands in Konsole panes
service="$(qdbus | grep -B1 konsole | grep -v -- -- | sort -t"." -k2 -n | tail -n 1)"

qdbus $service /Sessions/1 org.kde.konsole.Session.runCommand "${cmd1}"
qdbus $service /Sessions/2 org.kde.konsole.Session.runCommand "${cmd2}"

# Renames the tabs - optional
qdbus org.kde.konsole-$KPID /Sessions/1 setTitle 1 'System Info'
qdbus org.kde.konsole-$KPID /Sessions/2 setTitle 1 'System Monitor'

What it does:

• Loads a layout with 2 panes, horizontally arranged
• Runs clear and then fastfetch in the left pane; runs btm in the right pane

Wrap-up

That's how you can accomplish opening a number of panes in konsole which run different commands. Using this kind of shortcut at the start of every work / programming session saved a little time every day which adds up over time. The marketing peeps would call it "maximizing efficiencies" or something. I hope some folks find this useful, and come up with many creative ways of making konsole work harder for them.

Known issues and tips

• Running konsole from a Quick Command will open a new window, even if you want to just open a new tab.
• You may see this warning when using runCommand in your scripts. You can ignore it. I wasn't able to find documentation on what the concern is, exactly.

The D-Bus methods sendText/runCommand were just used. There are security concerns about allowing these methods to be public. If desired, these methods can be changed to internal use only by re-compiling Konsole. This warning will only show once for this Konsole instance.

Credits to inspirational sources

• Thanks to the Cool-Konsole-setup repo, where I found an example script for using commands in a layout via qdbus. Note: The scripts in that repo did not work as-is.
• This answer on Ask Ubuntu for improvements on the example scripts.