Can I have openSUSE Leap 42.1 with plasma 4 instead of plasma 5

[thunderel05]

Week ago I tried leap 42.1 with KDE. In my opinion the plasma 4 is still better than plasma 5. Is it possible to have leap 42.1 with plasma 4 ? And if it is, can anyone give me a step by step way to do it ?

[I_A]

Week ago I tried leap 42.1 with KDE. In my opinion the plasma 4 is still better than plasma 5. Is it possible to have leap 42.1 with plasma 4 ? And if it is, can anyone give me a step by step way to do it ?

more or less yes, but imo the best thing to do is use wolfi's repo for plasma5 and get kde4 from the oss repo, how to do it
#1 add wolfi's repo

zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/wolfi323:/branches:/KDE:/Frameworks5/openSUSE_Leap_42.1/home:wolfi323:branches:KDE:Frameworks5.repo

#2 then do a vendor change with wolfi's repo

zypper dup --from http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/wolfi323:/branches:/KDE:/Frameworks5/openSUSE_Leap_42.1/

or use one of that repo's aliases.
#3 then install the base kde4 packages from oss

zypper in kdebase4-session kdebase4-workspace kdebase4-workspace-addons kdebase4-workspace-ksysguardd kdebase4-workspace-liboxygenstyle dolphin4 kdm

do not do this from plasma 5, login to icewm or use text mode (init 3), some of the kde4 applications are gone and won't come back but you can use the plasma 5 equivalents

edit you can install some more kde4 packages from yast

[thunderel05]

Does this mean that the KDE Application will be following KDE 4 (i.e. dolphin, kate) ? or can I choose to install KDE Application 5 (i.e. dolphin5, kate5)

[wolfi323]

Does this mean that the KDE Application will be following KDE 4 (i.e. dolphin, kate) ? or can I choose to install KDE Application 5 (i.e. dolphin5, kate5)

If you use my repo, the KDE Applications will follow KDE4, yes. (although most of them won't get updates any more)
So if you do that "zypper dup" to my repo, all your installed KDE applications will be KDE4 based again.

To get the KF5 versions, you need to install the packages with '5' in the name like dolphin5, kate5, and so on. You can install both the KDE4 and KF5 version of an application at the same time though. KF5 applications from my repo will show up in KDE4's (or any other desktop) application menu with an "/KF5" appended to the name.
If you prefer to only use the latest version of an application, you can switch it to the package from the standard repos. YaST/zypper or the updater won't switch repos automatically.

Btw, there is no "KDE Applications 5".
The current version of "KDE Applications" is 15.12(.1), and (still) contains a mix of KDE4 and KF5 based applications.

If you want to use Plasma5 as well, there's one thing missing in I_A's "guide" though:
In that case you'd also need the KDE:Frameworks5 repo, to get the latest versions of KDE Frameworks5, Plasma5 and related software.

If you only want to use KDE4 anyway, that shouldn't be necessary though.

Some other notes, in addition to what I_A wrote already:
- You need to install kscreen or krandr as well, otherwise KDE4 won't start.
- If you use NetworkManager, it's a good idea to install plasma-nm (KDE's networkmanager applet) as well.
- There's no point in installing dolphin4, and you shouldn't do it. My dolphin package does contain the KDE4 dolphin and conflicts with dolphin4 on a file level.
- You don't necessarily need kdm either, you can use any DM (login screen) you like, even Plasma5's sddm (strictly speaking it isn't related/doesn't belong to Plasma5, it's just the one that the KDE developers recommend/support).
- If you want an update notifier, you should install apper as well. Plasma5's plasma5-pk-updates won't work in KDE4.

[thunderel05]

Thank you for your thorough explanations. My conviction is final now.

[wolfi323]

Thank you for your thorough explanations.

You're welcome.
Feel free to ask further questions if things are not completely clear or you have problems.

[thunderel05]

more or less yes, but imo the best thing to do is use wolfi's repo for plasma5 and get kde4 from the oss repo, how to do it
#1 add wolfi's repo

zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/wolfi323:/branches:/KDE:/Frameworks5/openSUSE_Leap_42.1/home:wolfi323:branches:KDE:Frameworks5.repo

#2 then do a vendor change with wolfi's repo

zypper dup --from http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/wolfi323:/branches:/KDE:/Frameworks5/openSUSE_Leap_42.1/

or use one of that repo's aliases.
#3 then install the base kde4 packages from oss

zypper in kdebase4-session kdebase4-workspace kdebase4-workspace-addons kdebase4-workspace-ksysguardd kdebase4-workspace-liboxygenstyle dolphin4 kdm

do not do this from plasma 5, login to icewm or use text mode (init 3), some of the kde4 applications are gone and won't come back but you can use the plasma 5 equivalents

edit you can install some more kde4 packages from yast

I am sorry to bother again, when I did the second step, the terminal showed this

Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Computing distribution upgrade...
14 Problems:
Problem: nothing provides libkscreen2-plugin >= 5.5.4 needed by kscreen5-5.5.4-78.1.x86_64
Problem: kscreen5-lang-5.5.4-78.1.noarch requires kscreen5 = 5.5.4, but this requirement cannot be provided
Problem: nothing provides plasma-framework-components >= 5.18.0 needed by plasma5-desktop-5.5.4-301.1.x86_64
Problem: nothing provides plasma-framework-components >= 5.18.0 needed by plasma5-desktop-5.5.4-301.1.x86_64
Problem: plasma5-desktop-lang-5.5.4-301.1.noarch requires plasma5-desktop = 5.5.4, but this requirement cannot be provided
Problem: nothing provides libkscreen2-plugin >= 5.5.4 needed by plasma5-session-5.5.4-147.1.noarch
Problem: nothing provides libKScreenLocker.so.5()(64bit) needed by plasma5-workspace-5.5.4-327.1.x86_64
Problem: nothing provides libKScreenLocker.so.5()(64bit) needed by plasma5-workspace-5.5.4-327.1.x86_64
Problem: plasma5-workspace-lang-5.5.4-327.1.noarch requires plasma5-workspace = 5.5.4, but this requirement cannot be provided
Problem: nothing provides kio >= 5.18.0 needed by plasma5-workspace-libs-5.5.4-327.1.x86_64
Problem: nothing provides kio >= 5.18.0 needed by plasma5-workspace-libs-5.5.4-327.1.x86_64
Problem: nothing provides libKScreenLocker.so.5()(64bit) needed by plasma5-workspace-5.5.4-327.1.x86_64
Problem: powerdevil5-lang-5.5.4-127.1.noarch requires powerdevil5 = 5.5.4, but this requirement cannot be provided
Problem: marble-kde-15.08.1-1.2.x86_64 requires marble = 15.08.1, but this requirement cannot be provided

Problem: nothing provides libkscreen2-plugin >= 5.5.4 needed by kscreen5-5.5.4-78.1.x86_64
 Solution 1: Following actions will be done:
  deinstallation of kscreen5-5.4.2-2.1.x86_64
  deinstallation of patterns-openSUSE-kde_plasma-20150918-10.1.x86_64
  deinstallation of patterns-openSUSE-kde_imaging-20150918-10.1.x86_64
  deinstallation of patterns-openSUSE-kde-20150918-10.1.x86_64
 Solution 2: install kscreen5-5.4.3-4.2.x86_64 from excluded repository
 Solution 3: break kscreen5-5.5.4-78.1.x86_64 by ignoring some of its dependencies

Which one shoud I choose ? Thanks before

[wolfi323]

Which one shoud I choose ? Thanks before

Apparently you didn't add the KDE:Frameworks5 repo, this is required to be able to install my Plasma5 packages.

sudo zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Frameworks5/openSUSE_Leap_42.1 KF5

I did mention this in my first reply...

[thunderel05]

Apparently you didn't add the KDE:Frameworks5 repo, this is required to be able to install my Plasma5 packages.

sudo zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Frameworks5/openSUSE_Leap_42.1 KF5

I did mention this in my first reply...

I don't want to install plasma5, that is why I didn't add the KF5 repo that you told me in previous post. I just didn't expect any problem, when I followed the step-by-step instruction.

But then, the terminal showed problem and asked me to choose. That is why I post the terminal output in here, with hope that you can tell me which to choose.

Anyway, without any reference to anything, for all the problem I chose "deinstallation....", then after that I follow the 3rd instruction, with an addition from your comment, which are : kscreen, plasma-nm, and apper.

I restart, and then after a brief screen of opensuse Leap logo ( green ), the screen went black.

I did All of these from the text mode

Any suggestion is appriciated

[wolfi323]

I don't want to install plasma5, that is why I didn't add the KF5 repo that you told me in previous post. I just didn't expect any problem, when I followed the step-by-step instruction.

That's why I mentioned this as addition to the step-by-step instruction.

If you do a full switch to my repo, your installed Plasma5 packages are replaced by mine, which *require* KDE:Frameworks5.

Anyway, without any reference to anything, for all the problem I chose "deinstallation....", then after that I follow the 3rd instruction, with an addition from your comment, which are : kscreen, plasma-nm, and apper.

I restart, and then after a brief screen of opensuse Leap logo ( green ), the screen went black.

Well, I notice now that those "instructions" only install kdm, but don't switch to it.
So either try to switch to a different sddm theme in /etc/sddm.conf (e.g. "maui"), or set DISPLAYMANAGER="kdm" in /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager.

As plasma5-workspace contains the default "breeze" theme, sddm will not work without after you uninstalled that (if you didn't change the theme settings).