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So this is going to be one of those "is this even possible?" questions.

I need to upgrade a piece of my KDE from 4.8.5 to 4.9. Specifically, I need to upgrade Gwenview from the 2.85 version in KDE 4.8.5 to 2.9 version in KDE 4.9.

It seems trivial but it's actually a fairly big deal for me. I recently upgraded my Ubuntu to 12.04, and that upgraded my Gwenview to 2.8x. The issue is that the Gwenview 2.8 releases accidentally broke a feature that I rely upon very heavily.

It's a known bug that was corrected in 2.9. Unfortunately, the only package available in Synaptic is 4.8.5, which contains Gwenview 2.85. To make matters worse I'm not sure that I can simply take my whole KDE to 4.9 as I am running an older Toshiba Satellite with the Intel 945GMA chipset that I was shocked managed to hold up under the weight of 12.04 as it is. Well, actually it didn't.

I had to install Cairo Dock as Unity 2D was hopeless with this chipset. But anyway, I desperately need to get to Gwenview 2.9 without the potential system-wide implosion of upgrading KDE to 4.9. Possible?

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I don't know why you "fear" the upgrade. Everything should go well. (P. S. I think the time has come that Kubuntu works better on old hardware then Ubuntu.) – BlaXpirit Nov 18 '12 at 0:01
As it turns out, I feared the upgrade for good reason. In going from 12.04 to 12.10 I rendered my system unusable. All I get is a notice that I have to start in low graphics mode, which means, well, a dialogue box which really isn't a dialogue at all since any choice I select results in a black screen. This is exactly what I had feared. I'm now facing a full wipe and clean install, after which I will still be stuck with Gwenview 2.85 rather than 2.9. I can't express how disappointing this is. – Blind Fish Nov 18 '12 at 6:32
I see that you're mixing GNOME stuff with KDE stuff and that's your problem. Ubuntu 12.10 completely drops support for weak GPUs, while Kubuntu doesn't, and maybe even gets better in that aspect. I have a separate /home partition so I just easily reinstall Kubuntu every half a month... – BlaXpirit Nov 18 '12 at 9:30
You know, this was actually a thought that I tinkered with. I installed Kubuntu with the ability to log in for plasma sessions. Oddly enough, it STILL has Gwenview 2.85! When I added the backports ppa and installed Gwenview again I wound up with a version of Gwenview that, well, I can't decipher. It's definitely NOT 2.9, which ships standard in Ubuntu 12.10. I would tell you which version it is, but I can't because clicking "About Gwenview" causes the app to crash. I do know that it's not 2.9 because it doesn't have the functionality that was removed in 2.8 and replaced in 2.9. – Blind Fish Nov 18 '12 at 14:56

1 Answer

up vote 0 down vote

The availability of the KDE Plasma, Applications and Platform 4.9.3 for the Kubuntu has been released on the http://www.kubuntu.org/.

By the http://www.kubuntu.org/news/kde-sc-4.9.3:

Packages for the release of KDE SC 4.9.3 are available for Kubuntu 12.04, 12.10 and Raring. You can get them from the Kubuntu Backports PPA for 12.04...

A simulation of the Gwenview upgrade (gwenview 4:4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1 -> 4:4.9.3-0ubuntu1~ubuntu12.04.1~ppa2) :

sudo apt-get install -s gwenview

The following extra packages will be installed:
  kdelibs-bin kdelibs5-data kdelibs5-dev kdelibs5-plugins kdoctools libattica0.4 libkcmutils4 libkde3support4
  libkdeclarative5 libkdecore5 libkdesu5 libkdeui5 libkdewebkit5 libkdnssd4 libkemoticons4 libkfile4 libkhtml5
  libkidletime4 libkimproxy4 libkio5 libkipi-data libkipi9 libkjsapi4 libkjsembed4 libkmediaplayer4 libknewstuff2-4
  libknewstuff3-4 libknotifyconfig4 libkntlm4 libkparts4 libkprintutils4 libkpty4 libkrosscore4 libkrossui4
  libktexteditor4 libkunitconversion4 libkutils4 libnepomuk4 libnepomukquery4a libnepomukutils4 libplasma3 libsolid4
  libsoprano-dev libsoprano4 libthreadweaver4 soprano-daemon
Suggested packages:
  svgpart hspell media-player-info libsoprano-doc
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  kdelibs5-experimental-dev
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libattica0.4 libkipi9
The following packages will be upgraded:
  gwenview kdelibs-bin kdelibs5-data kdelibs5-dev kdelibs5-plugins kdoctools libkcmutils4 libkde3support4
  libkdeclarative5 libkdecore5 libkdesu5 libkdeui5 libkdewebkit5 libkdnssd4 libkemoticons4 libkfile4 libkhtml5
  libkidletime4 libkimproxy4 libkio5 libkipi-data libkjsapi4 libkjsembed4 libkmediaplayer4 libknewstuff2-4
  libknewstuff3-4 libknotifyconfig4 libkntlm4 libkparts4 libkprintutils4 libkpty4 libkrosscore4 libkrossui4
  libktexteditor4 libkunitconversion4 libkutils4 libnepomuk4 libnepomukquery4a libnepomukutils4 libplasma3 libsolid4
  libsoprano-dev libsoprano4 libthreadweaver4 soprano-daemon
45 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 1 to remove and 289 not upgraded.

Apt-get manual

man apt-get

       install
           install is followed by one or more packages desired for installation or upgrading...


       -s, --simulate, --just-print, --dry-run, --recon, --no-act
           No action; perform a simulation of events that would occur but do not actually change the system...
share|improve this answer
The result of running sudo apt-get install -s gwenview was... nothing. It said that the installed version is the most current version, which it clearly is not. I made sure to enable the backdoor ppa, which was of no consequence to the outcome. – Blind Fish Nov 17 '12 at 23:22
@BlindFish Well, the result of a simulation (-s) is always nothing. I guess user26687 wanted to show the output without actually applying the upgrade to their system. Maybe you should try the same thing without -s. I would also suggest removing the PPA afterwards so you don't accidentally upgrade. – BlaXpirit Nov 17 '12 at 23:59
Yeah, that's a fair criticism. I worded that poorly. I was extremely frustrated when I typed it. I ran the -s originally to see if anything would upgrade, and it wouldn't for the reason I stated above. I then enabled the kubuntu-ppa/backports and ran it again, this time without the -s. It did install the supporting library for KDE SC 4.9 as well as Gwenview. It did not, however, install Gwenview 2.9 The installation finished cleanly as per the terminal. However, Gwenview still sits at version 2.85, hence my statement that enabling the ppa was of no consequence to the outcome. – Blind Fish Nov 18 '12 at 6:39
So, long story short. Ran it, with ppa enable, without "-s", nothing happened. Well, actually one thing happened. Ever time that I click "About Gwenview" under the "HELP" tab of the program, it forces the program itself to terminate. So yeah, that's kinda nifty, in a "Isn't it nifty that we've gone from a full functional program that is outdated to a partially functional program that is still outdated" kind of way. – Blind Fish Nov 18 '12 at 6:41

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