KDE SC 4 to Plasma 5 Tutorial

First make sure your system is up-to-date and current, if this is to be done on a fresh install follow my guide here first:
http://forums.netrunner.com/showthread.php?tid=17358

  1. Move the blueshell repository to the bottom of your pacman.conf file right before custom.
    I strongly recommend using octopi version 0.6.0 or higher repository editor for this.

  2. Update your system:

sudo pacman -Syyu
  1. Remove the Netrunner specific and depreciated packages:
sudo pacman -R  netrunnerarch-artwork netrunnerarch-systemsettings-settings netrunnerarch-default-settings netrunner-desktop kcm-sddm-git kcm-about-distro

Note: if you already moved or removed the blueshell repository from your pacman,conf file then change kcm-about-distro to kcm-about-distro-kde4 in the above command.

  1. Remove everything that depends on kdebase-workspace:
sudo pacman -Rdd $(LANG=C pacman -Qi kdebase-workspace | grep "Req" | sed -e 's/Required By    : //g')

5: Remove kdebase-workspace:

sudo pacman -R kdebase-workspace
  1. Install the Plasma 5 desktop:
sudo pacman -S  plasma-meta kimageformats breeze-kde4 oxygen-kde4 kmix print-manager sddm-kcm
  1. Install system tray icon and notification support for gtk+ and qt4 applications:
sudo pacman -S sni-qt libindicator-gtk2 libindicator-gtk3 libappindicator-gtk2 libappindicator-gtk3 libappindicator-sharp lib32-sni-qt lib32-libindicator lib32-libappindicator
  1. Re-install needed Netrunner Rolling specific packages:
sudo pacman -Sdd netrunnerarch-systemsettings-settings netrunnerarch-default-settings netrunner-desktop
 sudo pacman -Sdd netrunnerarch-artwork --force
  1. Fix for QT4 / kdelibs4 based apps to use the proper theme:
qtconfig-qt4

select the same theme here as selected for plasma 5
(the system default setting here will not work properly and default to Oxygen)

  1. Fix for QT4 / kdelibs4 based apps to use the proper icon set:
kcmshell4 icons

select the same icon set here as selected for plasma 5.

  1. Add in the extra Octopi tools (System Tray Notifier, Pacman Helper, Repository Editor and Cache Cleaner):
sudo pacman -S octopi-notifier-frameworks octopi-pacmanhelper octopi-repoeditor octopi-cachecleaner

Note: Some theme and artwork adjustments will need to be made after the upgrade to Plasma 5. Also the veromix package installed originally is not compatible with Framework 5, you’ll should remove this as well.

If you run into any issues using this tutorial, please post them in this thread.

Got stuck at step 6…
Edit: Deleted conflicting folder and files and installation went without issues.
Don’t know how to get ktp systray indicator?

Oops, I apologize for that, I missed a package to be removed and then later installed back, the netrunnerarch-artwork package also contains the breeze theme and wallpapers, I’ll edit my first post with the corrections.

For now type:

sudo pacman -Rdd netrunnerarch-artwork

and continue with step 6 again.

I am loving Plasma 5. The only problem I have is I just can’t get the theme to look like Netrunner. I have tried loads of different things and it looks terrible. I have it looking ok enough to use at the moment but still get the occasional problem where I can’t read text or something similar. My question really is, is Plasma 5 going to be officially used by Netrunner anytime soon? I think it is much better, smoother and seems to be lighter.

Many thanks

Netrunner uses gnome 3 for window decorations and enlightenment for the desktop theme, these are installed on your system and will still work under Plasma 5, however they are located in the KDE SC 4 locations and not Plasma 5 locations. All you need to do is copy or move them from the old locations to the new ones, or put them in your home directories equivalent locations for Plasma 5.

KDE SC 4 Location >> Plasma 5 Location >> Plasma 5’s home directory Location
/usr/share/apps/desktoptheme/ >> /usr/share/plasma/desktoptheme/ or ~./local/share/plasma/desktoptheme

/usr/share/apps/aurorae/themes/ >>> /usr/share/aurorae/themes/ or ~./local/hare/aurorae/themes/

The rest can be set the same and do not need copied or moved.
These settings would be Widget Style = Oxygen >> Color = Oxygen >> Cursors = Breeze >> Icons = Oxygen >> Font = DejaVu Sans.
Then you would net to run qtconfig-qt4 and set GUI Style >> Oxygen and fonts >> DejaVu Sans, then save
And finally you would right click on kicker and in application Menu settings choose, Use Custom Image and put in that field file:///usr/share/pixmaps/homerun.svgz.

It should then look like this:
[attachment=660]

Personally, I prefer the Breeze and Breeze Dark themes with the default Oxygen font’s, I had only tried this myself to see if it could be done as a proof of concept. Here is my default desktop style:
[attachment=661]

The thing I dislike in Plasma 5 is the way notifications are handled. They are not being stored in systray anymore (notifications history).

That one is easy, the notification system works the same as it did in KDE SC 4, the default is only changed to the KDE way instead of Netrunners.

There are four options for Notifications:.

Option 1 (KDE Default): In the System Tray Settings general tab select Notifications and under Entries select your desired behavior Auto, Show or Hidden (default is Auto)

Option 2 (Netrunner Default): Disable Notifications in the System Tray Settings General tab and add the Notifications Widget to the panel separately.

Option 3: Disable Notifications in the System Tray Settings General tab and add the Notifications Widget to the Desktop

Option 4: Remove all of these and have NO Notification system except for the standard OSD pop-ups.

And you could also use any or all of these options at the same time

NOTE: Personally, I think you may have somehow managed to end up with option 4. However if it is in the system tray but set to auto (under the arrow in the system tray), then right click on it there and select Notification Setting to see if either of it’s options are turned off.

Yes I know that, but you misunderstood me. What I was trying to say is that for example you open clementine and play some songs, they will show as popups but they will not be stored in systray like they did in KDE SC even if you set it to show as you said. Ether way I don’t want to go offtopic here, found your tutorial works very well, Plasma 5 is working nice on Netrunner, but found it kinda inconvenient for new users coz there are over 1GB of updates.

Yes, I agree that there should have been a new Netrunner Rolling ISO released by now.

Like it is stated in the Netrunner Release schedule page: http://www.netrunner.com/release-schedules/
Ideally, there should be a new ISO snapshot released every 3 to 4 months if not sooner, otherwise there are bound to be some update issues crop up as time goes by that will need to be dealt with on fresh installations.

I do know that Manjaro will have a Plasma 5 based ISO with it’s 0.9.0 release as well as a KDE SC 4.14.x based ISO. Hopefully, Netrunner will have a new Rolling ISO based on one of these DE around that time as well.

How much manual intervention will be needed once manjaro 0.9 is released. Is the above procedure needed when the manjaro 0.9 is released as well or will it be more like a “usual” update when they switch over to plasma 5?..

This procedure will be necessary as far as I know. I do believe the Manjaro developers are planing on supporting KDE SC 4 in their repositories until it reaches end of life upstream by the KDE Community.

OK, thanks. I think I will wait though till the release of 0.9 and then dive into this, any idea of the time frame they plan to release it?

I have installed the pre 0.9 on a USB and run it from there and have to say that so far it has worked OK…

Netrunner Rolling like it’s parent distribution is a rolling release based on the Manjaro stable branch, many packages and the base system has a tendency to change over time, I can’t guarantee that the procedures outlined here is going to still work without modification in the future. If you do decide to wait please keep this in mind. If modification are necessary, I will of course post those changes at that time.

Thanks, yep, will be sure to check once the 0.9 is released what the current migration steps will be then. Cheers…

Converting (will continue updating this post)

step 3: netrunnerarch-default-settings and kcm-sddm-git ,not found, will ignore those packages

step 6: kcm-touchpad-frameworks not found, I guess it’s now just kcm-touchpad?

╭ ➜ filip@laptop:~  
╰ ➤ LC_ALL=C sudo pacman -S  plasma-meta kimageformats sddm breeze-kde4 oxygen-kde4 kmix octopi-notifier-frameworks print-manager  sddm-kcm drkonqi
warning: sddm-0.11.0-1 is up to date -- reinstalling
warning: print-manager-15.04.1-1 is up to date -- reinstalling
warning: drkonqi-5.3.0-3 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...
error: unresolvable package conflicts detected
error: failed to prepare transaction (conflicting dependencies)
:: kdeplasma-addons and kdebase-workspace are in conflict

ignored kcm-touchpad-frameworks can’t find it

step 8: where are those netrunnerarch- packages?

ok, now on plasma, so after reboot, I had some issues with sddm getting stuck, cause: I had autologin enabled before, it’s best to set it first time back to normal.
First thing I noticed, dolphin issue fixed.

The netrunnerarch-default-settings and kcm-sddm-git packages are both from the blueshell repositories.

Moving the blueshell repository to the bottom of the list didn’t fix the netrunnerarch-default-settings issue?
Or did you completely disable or remove it as I suggested in another thread?

Kcm-sddm was for use with SDDM versions prior to the 1.0 release, it was depreciated by upstream.
The new package is sddm-kcm.

kcm-touchpad-frameworks is in the community repository unless your no longer using the stable branch?
In plasma 5.3 it was merged into the plasma-desktop package.

I’m on testing, good it’s included in plasma-desktop package You might want to mention that on the tutorial page.

So first impressions of plasma 5: it’s really ugly by default :), but it’s fast!
Hope it will come with some nice skins/colors/themes in the near future. Atm using Arquetype-Breeze color scheme on desktop, with the colorscheme of Breeze Dark.

My conkies sometimes hide when I open close windows/startmenu; maybe they’ll need a special plasma 5 window setting?

I also want to know which folders in the home and/or directory could be deleted.
Saw this posting http://forums.netrunner-os.com/showthread.php?tid=17392&pid=26499#pid26499

Still searching where the original netrunner menu icon is located.

KDM is part of the kdebase-workspace package which should have been removed during this process automatically.
Did you mean that systemd was trying to load kdm-plymouth.service at startup and failing since kdm isn’t installed?

The tutorial is intended for use on the stable branch so I’ll change that part once the next update comes through.

My post #5 was only intended for anyone that wanted their original Netrunner Rolling looks back, there is no need to delete anything in your home and/or directory folders unless your really concerned about drive space.
[hr]
As far as conky disappearing, this could be due to Plasma 5’s new rendering engine and/or compositor.

It was when I was on kde4, I think one of the kdm symlinks (kdm.plymouth or kdm) was still enabled in combination with sddm. Beneath kernel 4, then sometimes my desktop scripts didn’t load… With kernel 4 it wouldn’t boot anymore and got stuck at start, no tty possible from there. After further unvestigation, it was a problem with an enabled symlink from a login manager that wasn’t installed anymore, if I’m right.

Ok, understand :shy:

Will wait for the next updates to get that fixed.

edit:

[quote=flipper]
Still searching where the original netrunner menu icon is located. [/quote]
Normally it should be located at /usr/share/pixmaps/homerun.svgz ,but probably after removing netrunners packages it also disappeared, I went into a vbox to copy it to the proper location.

I’m updating now to plasma 5.3… Looks like it’s going to take some time :stuck_out_tongue:

kcm-touchpad-frameworks wasn’t found for me too… I’ll cross my fingers.

Is there a way to make my rolling release to look like the main edition v16? :slight_smile: I installed it yesterday to take a look and I love how it feels… (Except for the fact that it isn’t arch - but I do love debian)