KDE 4.1.2 "Codename" Finally Out

Two days later than initially planned, "Codename" (or more traditionally KDE 4.1.2) was released just a few minutes ago. The delay was caused by binary incompatibility issues in the branch. Those have been resolved so we are now looking at a stable release. 4.1.2 is another one of those monthly bug fix and translation updates. No new features are allowed into the 4.x/ branches, so no new features went into KDE 4.1.2, but some nice bug fixes instead. David Faure has fixed a long-standing and annoying performance issue when deleting files using KIO, so you can now accidentally delete your home directory 32 times faster For the more faint-hearted, it will also work well with other files. You can read about all the changes that went into Codename in the changelog which offers links to the comprehensive SVN log files.
KDE 4.1.2 is a recommended upgrade for everybody running KDE 4. The next feature release of the KDE workspace and applications will be in January 2009 when 4.2.0 will be upon you.

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Comments

by abramov (not verified)

yup, quanta is one of the programs that made KDE that nice desktop env it was - suitable for developers but also fitting the needs of a nice home-use platform.
Because of quanta's excellent tree view, i use it for almost all kinds of development, even things that you would have done with Kate, Kdevelop or the like.
Here we are still at KDE3.5 - and for now, we don't want to switch to KDE4 - always afraid that we are forced to, because of one of our distros may switch entirely ...
It sounds sadly, and thats what it is.

by taurnil (not verified)

but I really, really wish they would tend to fixing flash in konqueror. As a non-developer, just how hard can that be? And since one of the talking points about KDE4 is how it will handle media better than KDE3, why is it taking so long to deal with this? I know there has been some contention in the past about flash, but gee whiz. Either flat out say you are not going to support it or fix it please.

by Anon (not verified)

"As a non-developer, just how hard can that be?"

Hard.

by Cheko (not verified)

Konqueror (KDE 4.1.2) with Flash Player (Version 10) works for me without any problems. Can you please describe your problem in detail?

by taurnil (not verified)

That's great for you, and it is the version I am running here. See attached png.

by Whatever Noticed (not verified)

flash10 with kde 4.1.2 works fine for me, but it didn't in kde 4.1.1.
Dunno who was to blame, as i updated flash10 to the most recent version a short while before upgrading to kde 4.1.2, so it could be that the flash10 beta was to blame..

I am now trying kde 4.1.2. I have two problems, which really annoy me (and had them with all other kde 4 versions I tried):

- The systray is totally messed up. It just isn't rendered correctly
- I can move the panel so far below that it wraps around to the top! Instead I would prefer making the panel really tiny like in kde 3 (same size in the screenshot but with smaller icons without wrapping around)

Is anybody else having these problems? Are there solutions out there?

In the attached screenshot you can see these problems. Have a look at the bottom right. There you can see a small part of the messed up systray.

by Whatever Noticed (not verified)

i had the same with kde 4.0, but not with later versions.
Try to start kde with a fresh configuration (e.g. as a test user or after you renamed ~/.kde4) to see if it is something that is left behind from a previous kde installation..

by Yogesh M (not verified)

Are your using openSUSE 11? I also got similar problem but that was gone after logging out-in...

Tried with a fresh user, but same problem. And at least the wrap around bug shouldn't be a driver bug (nvidia geforce 7600 with nvidia drivers here).

I am using gentoo packages.

File a bug report including screenshot. If you can get the corruption to persist across Plasma sessions, then include the plasma config files, too.

by Tad Mannes (not verified)

I have a pair of scripts I use to launch konsole windows, which allows me to
select an existing konsole window with the mouse pointer, and open a new tab
in that window and execute an arbitrary command.

I am glad to report that I have successfully modified my scripts to work with
konsole from KDE4 with D-BUS methods which are now available and working.

Thank you very much for supporting a happy power user of konsole!

Er ... do downloadable sandboxed (e.g QScript) Plasmoids have access to DBUS, does anyone know? If so, then they can immediately break their sandbox and execute arbitrary code if a konsole instance is running.

by Tad Mannes (not verified)

I think my original message may have been misleading in this regard. The D-BUS
interface does not provide a mechanism for executing arbitrary commands by
itself. I have have Konsole Profile, which executes one of the two scripts I
mentioned. This script is written to look for the command to execute on a
specific named pipe that I create. The other script puts the command I want
executed into the named pipe...

Sorry to cause alarm unnecessarily.

Phew - that sounds much better! Thanks for taking the time to reply and set things straight :)

could you post some example code, please?

by Tad Mannes (not verified)

I have attached the two scripts you were interested in. I create a
new Profile and specify the path to the attached "konsole4-execution"
script for the "Command:". I use the attached "launch-konsole4" script
to launch a konsole window (the name should make that obvious :-).

by Tad Mannes (not verified)

Ah, apparently I could only attach one file on the first go. Here is the
other script...

by Max (not verified)

Really exited to see this.

Hopefully when KDE 4.2 comes out it will have a launch event and a release video like KDE 4.0 will.

Will Google host it again?
Will Aaron Seigo do the keynote?

by Jerome (not verified)

Are you aware of a community effort to create a KDE Lite that would run well on old hardware [5-7 years old computer]? I am thiniking something in the spirit of XFCE for GTK.
Sample desktop manager with a simplified Dolphin. The target would be home users. So focus is on main essential tasks performed by average Joe. No need for all complex, networked, management features that apply only to server administrators.

Any suggestion?
Thanks

by student (not verified)

http://www.linux.com/feature/146323 . Got some good points..

by Chiron613 (not verified)

I upgraded from KDE 3.5.something to 4.1.2, and found that many features I relied on in the previous version were missing in the newer version.

I think that whenever developers come up with a new version of their software, they should consider the needs of those who use features that may not be so popular, and leave them in (or make them available somehow). What happened in my case was that my system became unusable. There were too many missing features, too many things that just got in my way as I tried to do my work.

For example, I have an extra-wide screen on my laptop, so it makes sense to use side panels instead of adding one at the top. I couldn't figure out a way of putting a panel on the side. This side panel is where I like to store many shortcuts to programs, so that my windows don't hide them as they would if these shortcuts were on a desktop.

Offering a 'rollback' feature would have been nice, too - something that allows users to revert to the previous version, if they decide they don't like the newer one. Of course, that's asking a lot, so I don't fault you for not doing that bit.

I like to give each desktop a unique background, so I can easily know where I am.

Many of my settings were destroyed when I upgraded, requiring me to change them all again by hand to something I liked better.

The new version made my system run noticeably more slowly, almost like That Other OS does.

Beyond that, I didn't see any improvements that would justify the inconvenience and sluggishness. It seemed like it was mostly eye candy, not improved functionality.

Ultimately, I had to reinstall the previous version of KDE, because that at least allows me to do my work.

I'm not trying to diss you guys here. You do a great job, and I know it's not easy. All I'm suggesting is that you don't take away functionality, as you're making improvements. If you don't think they're good, then hide them but make them available to those who really want or need them.

by christoph (not verified)

A good way to find out if KDE 4.x is "ready for you" is to try it using a live CD. If you are satisfied with the available features, upgrade. If not, retry six months later, when a new KDE update is released. The next update (4.2) should be available end of january, which is supposed to fix many panel issues. Placing a panel on the side of the screen is possible with 4.1, though, it is described somewhere on userbase.kde.org.

by Chiron613 (not verified)

It doesn't surprise me that there is a way to put a panel on the side of the screen. What surprises me is that I need to go dig this information out of the Internet somewhere, and can't just do it from a control panel or config file.

I had some major problems with KDE 4, including it forgetting my settings between sessions, crashes using Konqueror and other programs, even the system forgetting my video settings between sessions. Ultimately, I couldn't log in at all, so I just reinstalled 3.5 and will keep it there.

I'm not sure the Live CD would have shown me the problems with forgetting settings, since it's *supposed* to forget them. It doesn't save them to disk, to my understanding.

Probably the smartest thing to do is to wait a few months after a release, then look to see who's complaining about what. I have no great need to be on the bleeding edge anyway. I'll let other do the beta testing.

Unfortunately, while this version was considered a release, in my opinion it was still beta.

by Leonardo Aidos (not verified)

"It doesn't surprise me that there is a way to put a panel on the side of the screen. What surprises me is that I need to go dig this information out of the Internet somewhere, and can't just do it from a control panel or config file."

I'm not sure what is so difficult about:

right-click the panel -> Panel Settings -> click and drag the button that says "screen edge"

It even has the mouse-over turn into the "moving" cursor.