KDE 2.1 Beta1 Released

The KDE Team today announced the release of KDE 2.1-beta1. KDE 2.1 constitutes the second major
release of the KDE 2 series.

The full announcement is available here.

KDE 2.1-beta1 offers a number of additions, enhancements and fixes over
KDE 2.0.1, the last stable KDE release which shipped on December 5, 2000.
The major additions are:

  • A new and much-anticipated theme manager has been added, and many icons
    have been improved. In addition, semi-transparency (alpha-blending) has
    been implemented on small images and icons.
  • Pixie, an image viewer/editor, has been added to the Graphics package.
  • KDevelop, a C/C++ integrated
    development environment, has been added to the core KDE distribution. The
    version being shipped, 1.4beta, is the first version of KDevelop to
    make use of the KDE 2 libraries and integrate completely with the KDE 2
    desktop.
  • Konqueror, the KDE 2 file
    manager, can now be
    configured
    to provide thumbnail previews for
    text and HTML files.
    In addition, the standards-compliant Konqueror now stores bookmarks
    using the standard XBEL
    bookmark format
    ; a new bookmark editor complements the new standard.
    Finally, auto-proxy configuration has been implemented.
  • KHTML,
    the HTML widget, now has a special 'transitional mode' which greatly improves
    its handling of malformed HTML pages. In additon, KHTML now has greatly
    improved Java support and has added support for Java security (JDK 1.2 or
    compatible is now required).
  • The panel (Kicker) has enjoyed significant improvements.
    An external taskbar has been included (familiar to
    KDE 1 users), support for sub-panels has been added (which can be separately
    sized and positioned), an improved external pager (Kasbar) has been added,
    and support for applets has been improved (including support for
    WindowMaker dock applets).
  • ARts, the KDE 2 multimedia
    architecture, now offers a control module to configure sampling rate and
    output devices, increased performance, improved user interfaces and a
    number of additional effects and filters.
  • For developers, a number of classes have been added to the core
    libraries, including a class for undo/redo support (KCommand) and
    a class for editing list boxes (KEditListBox).
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Comments

by David B. Harris (not verified)

Standard are okay, but keep something in mind, AT ALL TIMES.

When a standard is WRONG, change it.

Having the close button only a few pixels away from non-destructive buttons is a very bad thing. It violates so many user-interface guidelines it's funny. And those guidelines were written by people who spent years testing these sorts of things on people completely unfamiliar with computers.

Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it shouldn't be changed. Microsoft changes things to cause other people harm; so don't even try to bring them into this discussion.

Now, I know that there have been people saying that they're going back to the status quo for 2.1, and if they're right, I'm saddened.

Oh, and to correct another poster: generally, people who are developing Linux as an alternative to Windows arn't trying to make it *different* than Windows, they're trying to make it BETTER than Windows. Just to clear that up.

Dave

by Justin Hibbits (not verified)

Hey, you would make a fine addition to the bde crew, just pop over to http://www.blackholepro.org/ or, if that doesn't work(it is a free site) go to http://black-hole.iwarp.com/ I am the head of the bde project, a very new, innovative, customizable-to-the-point-of-insanity desktop interface that will give the true meaning to customizability. It uses an XML GUI interface to make GUI designing very customizable, and it dynamically creates the gui on startup, so that the user can redefine the gui just by editing the XML file. If you're interested, drop me a mail.

Justin

by Warning (not verified)

Don't feed the trolls people.. This one's pretty obvious.

by Brian Gallaway (not verified)

When I first installed Mandrake 7.2 with KDE 2.0, I found it difficult to get used to the close button on the left, so I changed my Decoration to KDE1. After a while, I decided that I liked the look of the KDE2 Decoration enough that I'd try to get used to the close button on the left. I had kind of assumed that logic dictated that the close SHOULD be on the left anyhow, and after getting used to it I found this to be correct.

Now I'm getting ready to upgrade to KDE2.1 and am kind of ticked they moved the damn thing back. I find the new buttons too small and the new icons ugly compared to the 2.0 ones (I really like the 2.0 ones). If nothing else, I would have liked to see an option to get the KDE2.0 title bar as a Decoration, since it looked better anyhow in my opinion. I certainly don't expect them to keep the close on the left as default, especially since they are trying to bring over Windows user's without frustrating them.

If there is any way to get the KDE2.0 Decoration in KDE2.1, could somebody please post a reply and let me know. I'm going to back up a bunch of my old files from Mandrake 7.2, so if I just need to hack in something from KDE2.0 I can do that. If not, I guess I'll just bear it until KDE2.2, and hope a good option presents itself.

by Brian Gallaway (not verified)

Now I feel dumb. About 2 days after I posted this I installed Mandrake 8.0 and found the Laptop decoration to be the KDE 2.0 one. Sorry for the unnecessary flame.

Brian

by Houdini (not verified)

I must say that I'm impressed. I'm running the current CVS, and Kde2 developers did so many improvements in such a short time (just 6 weeks after release of KDE 2.0). That proves that they've chosen the right way to go. They created a base, and now C++ & QT show their superiority. Reusability of code accelerates development of new applications and addons to existing ones.
I feel that they can now do anything they want in no time.
Congratulations.

by jpmfan (not verified)

2.1 Beta 1 is cool! KDE just gets better and better. Unlike people who have been finding "issues" with it, I am very happy with it! Remember, it's open source software, so if you don't like the custom colors in konsole or whatever, change KDE so you can configure your own.

I am running 2.1 Beta 1 with the latest XFree86 4.0.2 from CVS and anti-aliased fonts work perfectly - well done Keith P. and all the QT developers. konsole works properly now and it all looks very professional...

Keep up the good work guys... (you never know, I might get round to helping you :-))

by heroo (not verified)

dito

by Paul C. Leopardi (not verified)

Thanks!
I've downloaded and installed KDE 2.1 from the SuSE 7.0 RPMs and have found some improvements and a few bugs.

Improvements (at least for me):
1. The new SuSEconfig.kdm2 now configures kdm properly for KDE2.
2. The new version of kdm has a shutdown that works properly.

Bugs (at least on my SuSE 7.0 system):
1. Out of the box, konqueror can't find Java 1.2. Java 1.2 does not install automatically in the SuSE 7.0 installation and it is not included in the SuSE 7.0 RPMs for KDE 2.1. After learning this, I then installed the IBM Java 2 JRE from the SuSE 7.0 CDs. Soon I will have another look at the KHTML doco to see if I can configure Java 1.2 properly.
2. Color blending in the title bar of windows seems to no longer work. Perhaps this is a side-effect of the new themes.

by Paul C. Leopardi (not verified)

Oh, and another bug:
3. kpackage still does not know about RPMs and as a result, can't find the installed RPMs. I had to use Kpackviewer and yast instead last night.

Yes, I know I need to report these via the normal channels. I will soon enough.

by Richard Moore (not verified)

Please us the bug reporting system to report bugs rather than just talking about them here (feel free to discuss them here too of course). If you don't send them through the bug reporter then there is a good chance they will be overlooked.

With regard to the actual bugs you're talking about:

  • KPackage supports RPM just fine. You have some sort of installation problem. It may be that this is related to the packaging of the SuSE RPMs, so I suggest you report it to SuSE (after checking their support database).
  • Not installing a JVM is not a bug, it's a feature. Not all users want Java, and the JVMs are only available for a subset of the platforms supported by KDE. Add to this the huge size of a complete Java 2 run time and various licensing issues, and you can see why we leave it to the distribution.
  • The titlebar stuff depends on which WM theme you are using. Without knowing this no one can help you.
by Paul C. Leopardi (not verified)

I will post details on kde-user and suse-linux-e soon.

by Franky (not verified)

Great work!
But I have one problem:
I am using SuSE 7.0 and KDE 2.0 found my mixer device. But KDE 2.01 and KDE 2.1 Beta1 doesn't find my mixer. Whats can I do?

by dazk (not verified)

Hiho,

Are other apps finding your mixer? Is the mixer device /dev/mixer ? Do you have permission to read and write to it?

If you answered all these questions with yes, I've no idea. If you can't access /dev/mixer try setting permissions correctly. I think you need both.

Hope that helped,

Richard

by KernelPanic (not verified)

Just so you'll know, I have the same problem with my alsa-card (a sb pci 128). Well, I can wait for 2.2, hehe...

by dazk (not verified)

Hi there,

I just installed the new Beta from source on RH7 with all available updates installed and QT-2.2.3 installed from source. KDE sits in it's own directory with a symlink pointing to it from /usr/local/kde. ld.so.conf contains /usr/local/kde/lib and PATH contains /usr/local/kde/bin. The new system was compiled with the Symlink in place and QTDIR and KDEDIR set to the correct directories.

All other versions worked perfectly (2.0, 2.0.1) that way but with the new version I have a problem. Before I started the new version, i created a new user for test purposes only (to have a clean user without existing .kde), started KDE2.1b1 via kdm and after successfull login the splashscreen stops after "starting system services" it disappears and after a while I get a message wich asks if dcopserver is started.

Any suggestions?

Thanx,

Richard

by Erik Hill (not verified)

Okay, I'm a Linux Mandrake 7.2 user (but I've replaced the standard X-Windows 4.01 install with a 3.3.6 because my video card does not support the 4.01 drivers). You know, I write software for a living, but it is still very difficult for me to get the KDE 2.0 installed and running. Is there a fast way to do this, or at least sample it before I tear my system apart to get it installed? The RPM's I've looked at seem to require that even very deep, highly inter-dependant libraries be replaced, those I've seen, even if they are in a directory lablelled "Mandrake 7.2" seem to require packages and updates that I can't find! I really just want to use the latest build for a bit before I commit to the work involved in learning how to update so much of my system.

What would be nice would be a step by step instructions for installing the RPM's. I've seen this for compiling from the source but if installing the RPM's is so involved, certainly compiling from source is going to be worse.

Like I've said, I've got a Mandrake 7.2 system with the current (2.???) KDE installed off of the CD. It seems by the screenshots and error reports that a WHOLE LOT has happened since then.

Maybe I should switch to debian -- the thinking is -- it seems to be easier to update (though perhaps harder to install the first time).

Any ideas?

Erik Hill

by Erik Hill (not verified)

I just wanted to add that, at this point, I also wonder if someone will allow me to log into their system (using an X-Server) so that I can sample the look-and-feel of KDE 2.1beta.

Perhaps Mandrake Cooker is the way to go? I hear it has a very late version of KDE on it and therefore has all the libraries it might need installed already.

Erik Hill

by Daniel (not verified)

Well, I'm still a relatively newbie, and I installed Debian in the old days in a bit of an effort, but the new version is much easier. It is starting to autodetect lots of hardware as Mandrake.
I recomend it *very* much...It is the only distribution that made me stick to linux because I installed kde-2 very easily.

Daniel

by Shift (not verified)

Debian didn't detect my ATI card and my Haupauge TV card but Mandrake 7.2 do it ... and moreover it autoconfigure them.

Debian is cool (I also have it on my PC) but Mandrake is cool too : I recomend it *very* much ;-)

by bbqPorkChop (not verified)

I also use Mandrake 7.2 and had problems installing KDE2.1 beta using rpm -Uvh *.rpm. So the fix that worked for me was to uninstall all of the equivalent KDE2.0 packages with using the --nodeps. I then installed all of the new KDE2.1 beta packages with rpm -i *.rpm. Rebooted just for the hell of it and was using KDE2.1 beta without doing anything else. I must say it is more stable in my opinion then the 2.01 release!!

by Erik Hill (not verified)

Thank you for your help, I will try this (and also, eventually, (I keep promising myself), Debian). Now I am installing a clean Mandrake 7.2 installation and then I will do the process you've outlined. I guess the answer is, the packages THINK they need the very latest versions of everything, but in fact, it runs on whatever Mandrake 7.2 happens to install by default.

I see this as a bug in the packages, it should not require (in the package) any later version of anything than it actually requires. Where are these packages? KDE 2.1 intended for installation on Mandrake 7.2?

Erik

by bbqPorkChop (not verified)

just to clarify ... I didn't skip on any requirements. The problems I had were related to the fact that I was intalling over the old KDE2.01 packages. The reason why said to use the --nodeps option is because when I tried to remove the old KDE2.01 it said there was some gnome applet, kdesdk and some other (not at my computer right now) packages that relied on the KDE2.01 packages. But since I was going to install the equivalent KDE2.1 beta packages I didn't want to remove those other packages. This worked for me so I hoped it works for you.

by Erik Hill (not verified)

Ok, but how did you get KDE 2.0.1 to work? Do you know offhand which KDE (and how would I find out?) is installed by default on Mandrake 7.2? My "About KDE" (remember that I've installed only the default Mandrake 7.2 installation) calls itself "K Desktop Environment. Release 2.0 Release Candidate 1 >= 20001002mdk"

Is this the same as 2.0.1?

by bbqPorkChop (not verified)

I got KDE2.0.1 to work the same way. Depending on which version of Mandrake 7.2 to have it will depend on which version of KDE you received. The early retail version did not come with an official release of KDE2.0 it came with KDE1.99. The download version of Mandrake 7.2 and the second retail version was released with the official KDE2.0 version. But you should be able to upgrade to the latest version by using the method above. If you need any help e-mail me at [email protected].

by Erik Hill (not verified)

Great -- multiple versions of Mandrake 7.2 .... I thought the "7.2" WAS the version number! :) Anyway, thank you, and I will in fact try that. I'm transmitting the KDE 2.1 package to my laptop now (through, of all things, a null-modem cable) so I'll give that a shot.

Erik

by Prana (not verified)

Automatic install (like Debian's apt-get) in Mandrake:
urpmi packagename.i586.rpm

Uninstall automatically (including dependencies):
urpme packagename.i586.rpm

That'll make your life so much easier compared to Redhat's RPM management

by Asif Ali Rizwaan (not verified)

Hi,

I really love KDE, and am impressed with KDE 2.0. I strongly believe that KDE 2.1 will supersede all other desktop environments. KDE does have many Good applicatons, utilities, games, web browser, file manager. But still KDE lacks many simplifying utilities, applications, wizards, etc. for Administrators. The Administrator has to struggle with all these, and delve into the man pages and howtos to do the job. It is really hard work for them. The KDE team is very efficient in creating good Apps, wizards etc., I request you to kindly make some Wizards and Applications BOTH Client and Server for Configuring and using these:

a. Network (kdenetwork)

1. DNS
2. DHCP
3. NFS
4. Sendmail
5. FTP
6. Telnet
7. Sendmail
8. Apache
9. Database server/client
10. File and print

b. Security (SeKurity)

11. Firewall (FireWalK)
12. Proxy Server (ProKsy)
13. SSH (KSSH)
14. PGP (EnKryptor)

c. Hardware (KHardware)

15. X Configuration (Xkonfig)(like in Corel Linux)
16. Printer (KUPS)
17. Scanner (SKanner)
18. Hardware AutoDetection (DeteKtor)

When I saw Corel Linux, I was impressed with what they have done to KDE 1.1.x. Why is it that KDE team haven't took notice of the pain and suffering of System and Network Administrators? Why use Command Line Interface when we have such a great Desktop environment? Why do you think that administrators are not humans :)?

I know that work is going on, but this part (the administration) did not got much attention by the great KDE Team. I trust KDE developers and the KDE team and believe that you will create such Administration Wizards, Utilities, and Apps for Administrators just like you have done for the user community! I request you humbly to kindly think about it and make some really cool Administration stuff! Thanks a lot, you are doing the right thing!

Yours truly,
Rizwaan.

by bbqPorkChop (not verified)

KDE may not have all of the above mentioned features but you should check out Mandrake's DrakConf utility ... you may be suprised by what you find. www.mandrake.com

by Evandro (not verified)

kde is a desktop that works on many UNIX systems, and to get those things done you should use the tools provided with your distribution or the software you want to configure.

for linux systems you can use linuxconf, drakconf, rh control-panel, rh setup and many others.

by Dirk Manske (not verified)

>1. DNS
>2. DHCP
>3. NFS
>4. Sendmail
>5. FTP
>6. Telnet
>7. Sendmail
>8. Apache
>9. Database server/client
>10. File and print
Most of these tasks/configuration files are much too complex for a GUI.

I think a GUI for administration/configuration of server tasks would be the wrong way (the M$-Way). Administators must be able to maintain a server over a slow dialup line, all you need is ssh and vi. I do not want to install X and K on a server.

by Another KDE user (not verified)

What if you have a small (low load) server? Having X installed and running by default wouldn't be that bad.
If your system boot in runlevel 3 you can run the program with a remote XWindow server ;-)
If you can't do that, here is another solution:

$ X :0
$ export DISPLAY=:0
$ yourAdmProgram &

and when you are done kill the X server.

Greetings

by richie123 (not verified)

My prefered solution for remote admin is web based configureation , since you can have a ssl enable connection, and the convience of giu configuration that works with any operating system. Check out webmin and be prepared to be amazed.

by Dirk Manske (not verified)

I know webmin. I do not like it much, always there is a cause to use ssh. You cannot write webmin modules for every purpose.

by dazk (not verified)

Hi there,

KHardware is somewhat there, at least for information purposes. Try kcminfo. For the other tools, well, go and get yourself a copy of the open source book on how to develop KDE2 Apps and go ahead ;). Once you create an app that is good enough I'm sure the maintainers will think about including it in the standard distribution. For now, try to find what you are looking for on freshmeat.

Greetings and have a nice holiday,

Richard

by Michael Goffioul (not verified)

For what concerns the CUPS system, a quite complete and powerful administration tool already exists, which is called KUPS. Maybe you already know, but have a look at http://cups.sourceforge.net/kups/index.html.

by Joakim Ganse (not verified)

I agree.
There is to few good administrator utilitys for KDE.
And I don't mean utilitys for adminitrating the box you're sitting on but a server someware else.
Right now I'm using Webmin with SSL but it would be nice to do it straight from KDE.

by fernando (not verified)

sorry that i disturb your discussion for something other. i try to bring sendmail running over webmin, but it dont works, and i dont know what i do wrong. i try to get mails from an account with..sorry "outlook express". but its didnt work, can you give me some tipps to configure sendmail?
thanks alot

by Brendan (not verified)

The former problem I was having with KDE 2.0 and 2.0.1 libmimelib on Redhat 7, (see KDE 2.0.1 Problem ) has magically disappeared when I installed KDE 2.1 beta. I'm using it now, in fact.

Thanks,
Brendan

by Kaufman (not verified)

I just compiled the Dec 17th CVS snapshot with --disable-debug and --enable-final, it's lightyears faster than 2.0.1, stable and the new features are greatly appreciated. The Dec 20th snapshot is out, I'll compile it later.

by Billy (not verified)

Isn't there a tarball for kdesupport?
What gives?
And why kdesupport is ho huge in the CVS (9MB)?

Billy

by Evandro (not verified)

you can use kdesupport-2.01 or 20001217/20.

by Newbie (not verified)

Hi,
tried to compile the whole thing for the first time (was using the rpm's for SuSe 6.4 before), but i'm getting some messages about missing lib's.
The Comp. FAQ tells about:
Compile qt first (is working), then kdesupport then kdelibs and the rest in any order. But?? where the heck do i find the kdesupport package??
i'd appreciate some help

by Evandro (not verified)

you can use kdesupport 2.01 or the current snapshot.