How-To: Install KDE 4.3 in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

KDE 4.3 was released just yesterday, and it comes with a lot of great new features and improvements, like the the new Plasma theme called Air, new Plasma widgets, several improvements to Dolphin, the default KDE4 file manager, improvements to the KDE games, and these are just a tiny part of all the improvements KDE4 introduced. The full announcement including reader's changelog can be found on the official KDE4 website, here.

Kubuntu comes with an older release of KDE4, but there is a PPA (Personal Package Archives) available which includes the newest packages for Jaunty, so in order to install it just follow the steps below.

First, open up a terminal like Konsole or GNOME Terminal and edit the sources.list file using your favourite text editor, e.g.:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Or, for Kate:

sudo kdesu /etc/apt/sources.list

If you are installing KDE from Ubuntu, you can use Gedit:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Enter your user password and add the following repository line:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu jaunty main

Next, make sure to save the file (Ctrl+O followed by Ctrl+X in Nano) and update the package lists:

sudo apt-get update

All you have to do now is to install the new KDE 4.3 environment by issuing:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Should take a while. This will fetch and install all the newer packages from the freshly added repository. To see the new KDE 4.3 installation log out and log back in KDE, or open up Konsole and type:

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm restart

source from tuxarena.blogspot.com

KUbuntu 9.04 Jaunty

What's New?

Kubuntu 9.04 includes an upgraded desktop containing many bug fixes, new configuration options, as well as many new and updated applications. Below are some highlights.

KDE 4.2

9.04 includes KDE 4.2.2, the latest version of their amazing desktop environment. On top of the many bug fixes included, this version also contains many improvements and new features, including:

• Significant refinements of Plasma and KWin, the KDE workspace
• Many new and updated plasma widgetsNew and improved desktop effects (enabled by default)
• The return of the optional "Classic Desktop" motif as an option
• More desktop configuration optionsImproved System TrayNew, improved notifications
• and more...

For complete details see the KDE 4.2 announcement and the KDE 4.2 Visual Guide.

System Settings

New in System Settings are tools for managing software and printer configuration.

Software management can now be performed from within System Settings with the new Package Kit application.

Printer configuration is also now found in System Settings as well, in the Advanced tab.

Quassel for IRC

Quassel is a new IRC client that is now the default for Kubuntu 9.04. A new setup wizard makes getting started a breeze.

Amarok 2.0.2

Kubuntu 9.04 now comes with the recently-released Amarok 2.0.2, the second bugfix/enhancement release in the Amarok 2 series, which includes integration of online services such as Last.fm, LibriVox, Jamendo, Magnatune and more. Amarok gives you a new way to listen to your music, and we highly recommend that you check it out.

KDE 4 Network-Manager Plasma Widget

The new plasma-widget-network-manager replaces the old KNetworkManager applet.

'''''NOTE''''' : ''Upgraders may have to add the Network Management plasma widget to their taskbar or desktop manually''

Click the Plama icon in the bottom right.	Click Add Widget.	Double click on Network Management.

KTorrent 3.2

KTorrent has been updated to version 3.2. This version brings new features, a heaping of bugfixes and fixes for memory leaks. It also brings a new KTorrent plasmoid to grace your desktop installable as the plasma-widget-ktorrent package.

Digikam 0.10.0

Digikam has been updated to its first KDE 4 release. This version is not a complete port to KDE 4 technologies (Solid, Phonon...), but it includes major functionality improvements:

• Support on multiple root album paths (including basic support for albums on network)
• Geolocation with Marble widget
• XMP support
• New Camera UI with capture support
• Major improvements of Search interface
• Improved image editor with integrated tools

Together with new Digikam, there is also the first KDE 4 release of KIPI Plugins 0.2.0. It provides new import/export plugins for SmugMug, Facebook and 23 web photo services. Digikam is not installed by default, but can be installed later on at your choice.

Qt 4.5

Kubuntu 9.04 ships with latest Qt, version 4.5, which brings a faster desktop experience as well as new features. More information can be found in the Qt what's new page.

GTK application integration

Kubuntu 9.04 offers improved visual integration of GTK applications into its KDE environment. Using QtCurve 0.62.8, your favourite GTK applications such as Firefox and Pidgin (to name a few) will take on a theme similar to the rest of your KDE applications.

Source from Kubuntu.org