So under KDE SC 4, openSUSE had this wonderful update widget that would autocheck for updates and let you install them. Under Plasma 5, it would obviously need updating to KF5 to be usable. Has anyone seen plans to do that work?
Also, I had thought it was an openSUSE project, and not a KDE project, so I assume openSUSE would have to be the ones porting it. I tried setting up the “on line updates” in YaST, but it always complains that there is no update server setup. I have the update repo, but that is for critical security updates, not really package updates.
I personally like using “zypper dup”, but I have some installations that I would prefer GUI access for.
But at the moment, it’s basically unuseable, and in particular the applet and the background service that checks for updates have not been ported at all yet.
Apper, the application, should still work in Plasma5, although it is KDE4 based.
There’s also Muon, the updater Kubuntu uses for quite some time, which is ported to KF5/Plasma5. But it didn’t work at all on openSUSE when I last tried it, although it does have a PackageKit backend…
Also, I had thought it was an openSUSE project, and not a KDE project, so I assume openSUSE would have to be the ones porting it.
No, it isn’t and never was.
I tried setting up the “on line updates” in YaST, but it always complains that there is no update server setup. I have the update repo, but that is for critical security updates, not really package updates.
Right. The “update” repo is empty, you cannot use YaST->Online Update to update your Tumbleweed system.
But you can use (the KDE4 based) Apper.
And you should be able to setup automatic installation of updates with YaST->Online Update Configuration I think. This basically sets up a cron job that runs “zypper up” periodically.
It’s also possible to setup PackageKit to periodically install updates in the background. Have a look at /etc/sysconfig/packagekit-background for this.
I personally like using “zypper dup”, but I have some installations that I would prefer GUI access for.
Again, you can use Apper, the application. And you can use YaST->Software Management to update your system.
You just don’t get automatic notifications.
You could also try the old “kupdateapplet”, which was an openSUSE project, later replaced by Apper. This is a normal KDE4 application that displays an icon in the system tray, and thus should work fine in Plasma5. Although I have no idea whether it still works with current zypper… http://software.opensuse.org/package/kupdateapplet
I hope the OP is not that desparate. IIRC years ago it broke with new openSUSE release(s), was deprecated and dropped from the distro through lack of maintenance well before Apper appeared, even before PackageKit.
Not quite.
It was still in the distribution when PackageKit was introduced, it even had/has a PackageKit backend (kupdateapplet-packagekit)…
It was replaced with KPackageKit (which later turned into Apper) though because it was unmaintained.
But it never was broken AFAICT (while it was still included, I haven’t tried it since it got dropped).
As I wrote, I haven’t tried it, but at least it still builds fine in the YaST:HEAD repo. And the zypp backend just runs zypper for the actual work anyway.
I don’t think the command line options have changed that much.
KPackageKit was a failure on openSUSE. Then Apper was buggy on 12.1, and came good on 12.2 after much work by Will Stephenson. However in late 2012 when openSUSE KDE team were discussing to replace Apper with kupdateapplet, I recalled in discussion with Carlos on this forum and wrt kupdateapplet previously, “it was broken - at least with unreliable notifications”, and it “fell into disrepair/disrepute and was dropped”. It was a more recent memory then.
I too look forward to see Apper’s notifier/updater back on Tumbleweed with a Plasma 5 version. I particularly miss the notification part on the desktop.
Well, but that was after it originally had been replaced then, no?
As I said, I haven’t tried it since it got replaced, before it worked perfectly fine here.
But again, it only uses zypper to do the work. zypper’s output might have changed meanwhile causing it to break though.
I might have a look at it in the next days…
Fixing it would probably be easier/quicker than fully porting Apper to KF5/Plasma5.
If you only are interested in being notified about updates, you could also create a cron job that runs something like this periodically:
zypper -q list-updates | wall
Plasma5 should display wall messages as notifications on your desktop…
Unfortunately this will also give a (empty) notification when there are no updates though.
So maybe a script like this (run by cron) would be the better option:
updates=`zypper -q list-updates`
if -n "$updates" ]; then wall "$updates"; fi
Yes, the devs brief ML discussion (sidetrack really) for kupdateapplet to replace Apper, as expected nothing happened without a maintainer.
As I said, I haven’t tried it since it got replaced, before it worked perfectly fine here.
But again, it only uses zypper to do the work. zypper’s output might have changed meanwhile causing it to break though.
kupdateapplet’s problems could well have been those of the backends - we are going back to 11.x days and PackageKit was in the stack then. There is still a handful of bug reports on bugzilla for kdeupdateapplet from that period.
the packagekit backend is non-functional, and only gives an error message. I kind of expected this, there were a LOT of changes in PackageKit in the last years…
the zypp backend seems to work fine. It showed me updates, and I was able to install them successfully.
Only “problem”: It will give an error message even after successful installation of updates (the updates are installed though).
Probably it interprets zypper’s return code or output wrongly. I will have a look at it, but that’s rather cosmetical.
kupdateapplet’s problems could well have been those of the backends - we are going back to 11.x days and PackageKit was in the stack then. There is still a handful of bug reports on bugzilla for kdeupdateapplet from that period.
But kupdateapplet also came with a zypp backend which had no problems (for me at least). As mentioned that just calls zypper itself to do the actual work.
The packagekit backend was only added later and wasn’t originally installed by default IIRC.
Although it seems the zypp backend was removed 5 years ago, leaving the packagekit backend as the only option.
Btw, PackageKit is still in the stack. Apper is only a frontend to PK, and kpackagekit obviously was too.
In 11.x it was quite new and buggy though, in particular its zypp backend…
I had a look, and kupdateapplet-backend-zypp was dropped in 11.3, leaving packagekit as the only kupdateapplet backend. kpackagekit was first shipped with 11.1, but I think it didn’t become the default until 11.4 (or maybe 11.3 already?). At least kupdateapplet was dropped completely in 11.4.
Kpackagekit was replaced with Apper in 12.1 (Apper is also the direct successor upstream, as indicated already, it’s basically a rewrite of kpackagekit by the same developer under a new name).
Oh, and there is no kdeupdateapplet.
There’s only kde3-kupdateapplet, which is still available in Tumbleweed and works fine too AFAICT in a quick test. But as it’s KDE3 based, the system tray icon won’t show up in Plasma5.
Yes more than 2 years ago. I saw that request number searching bugzilla and or Factory ML, don’t recall which. There was a subsequent meeting, after that it didn’t happen. PK was more strategic to both KDE and Gnome desktops, although at the time openSUSE was behind the curve on PK whose developer was working on the next release and neglecting maintenance. They just wanted to concentrate on the PK <-> zypp backend.
I will have a go with it over weekend if poss. Thanks for your effort there.
Although it seems the zypp backend was removed 5 years ago, leaving the packagekit backend as the only option.
And that’s probably when it stalled without timely upstream maintenance, as you late allude to.
Btw, PackageKit is still in the stack. Apper is only a frontend to PK, and kpackagekit obviously was too.
Yes I did know that, and of course it’s better maintained these days.
I had a look, and kupdateapplet-backend-zypp was dropped in 11.3, leaving packagekit as the only kupdateapplet backend. kpackagekit was first shipped with 11.1, but I think it didn’t become the default until 11.4 (or maybe 11.3 already?). At least kupdateapplet was dropped completely in 11.4.
Kpackagekit was replaced with Apper in 12.1 (Apper is also the direct successor upstream, as indicated already, it’s basically a rewrite of kpackagekit by the same developer under a new name).
That’s all interesting, and explains the gaps in my trip down memory lane.
Oh, and there is no kdeupdateapplet.
That was definitely my typo, having caught the other ones, a bad habit as I realized on a bugzilla search giving no result.
I tried the first example command exactly in normal user Konsole and as superuser. In both cases, output message listing updates displayed in terminal(s) but nothing on plasma5 desktop.
Ran the second example in a script from command line, with similar results to previous command. Not yet attempted the cron job.
In Configure KDE 4 Apps, … > Manage Notification > Local system message service > new message received (sent with wall or write) is enabled.
In Configure Desktop (plasma5 settings) > Notification, I didn’t find any event source setting for that.
So, no notification from wall is received on my desktop so far, any thoughts?
One could also use kdialog or notify-send to display the message, but that would be tricky to do in a cron job because it doesn’t run in the user’s session.
In Configure KDE 4 Apps, … > Manage Notification > Local system message service > new message received (sent with wall or write) is enabled.
That’s irrelevant for Plasma5.
In Configure Desktop (plasma5 settings) > Notification, I didn’t find any event source setting for that.
I do have it here.
But the event source probably only gets created when there actually is such an event the first time.
Anyway, the default should be fine.
So, no notification from wall is received on my desktop so far, any thoughts?
Check that the “Write-Service” is enabled in “Configure Desktop”->“Startup and Shutdown”->“Background Services”.
PS: That service is part of the package “kwrited5”. So check also that that is installed. It doesn’t seem to be required by anything, so you might not necessarily have it…
Well spotted! There was no “Write-Service” to be seen there. Glad you made the PS, “kwrited5” was not installed.
Installed that package, then found Event source “Local system message service”, and “New message received” (sent with wall or write) enabled in plasma5 settings.
After logout/re-login, both examples working as before plus a proper notification on desktop. Thank you.
I just noticed that there’s also a new (PackageKit-based) Plasma5 update applet: http://software.opensuse.org/package/plasma5-pk-updates
It’s not yet part of the distribution, but as it is part of KDE:Frameworks5 (the KF5 devel repo for Factory/Tumbleweed) it probably will be submitted at some point if it works.
I haven’t tried it myself yet, but I’m installing it right now…
Just checked with “zypper -v dup” on Tumbleweed, found 70 updates and 1 new kernel version to install (no vendor change so a good batch for testing).
I used your link and 1-Click installed plasma5-pk-updates. Added plasmoid to desktop normally, and it notified 71 updates available. Clicked the install button and it did its download and install perfectly.
About to reboot to confirm snapshot 20150612 installed properly…
No new problems since last night’s update, when plasma5-pk-updates-0.2-1.2.x86_64 was added as a plasmoid to the desktop. This morning I see it can also be added to the panel, or even better to the system tray via “System Tray Options”.
It raises a question over the need to convert Apper to Plasma 5, does it not?
Yes. That’s how I added it in the first place…
I didn’t see any problem here either yet (on 13.2 though). Well, it’s just another frontend to PackageKit anyway…
It raises a question of the need to convert Apper to Plasma 5, does it not?
