MAR
28
2006

KDE 3.5.2 Released

Submitted by Sebastian Kügler

Today, the KDE Project announces the release of the K Desktop Environment 3.5.2. This second update release in the KDE 3.5 series brings an improved user experience and stability by focusing exclusively on translations and bug fixes. See the Changelog for the major changes while the info page lists the ways to download with packages currently available for Arch Linux, Kubuntu, Pardus, Red Hat and SuSE. Kubuntu have made a live CD featuring KDE 3.5.2.

Some highlights of the fixes and improvements:

  • Numerous updates to the KHTML engine used by KDE and Konqueror. Javascript handling is improved and now works with phpBB and certain wikis. Konqueror no longer shows scrollbars in the Acid2 test, making it the second browser to pass.
  • Improvements in clipboard handling through the use of the XFixes extension
  • Lots of changes to the website editor Quanta Plus

The translation teams have managed to make this release the best translated KDE release ever. KDE 3.5.2 is available in more than 60 languages and dialects, outperforming all other desktops, including several commercial offerings.

For ongoing work on future versions of KDE 3.5, the feature freeze has recently been weakened, allowing minor and well-tested new features to go into the 3.5 branch and thus be released with the next KDE 3.5 update.

The next major release will be KDE 4. A tech-preview for KDE 4 is preliminarily scheduled for the 10th anniversary of KDE in October this year.

Comments

waiting for it...

By Asif Ali Rizwaan at Tue, 2006/03/28 - 6:00am

Great stuff!

I wonder how many more versions before 4?

By reihal at Tue, 2006/03/28 - 6:00am

none, tough they relaxed the feature freeze criteria for 3.5.x a little, so you'll see a little new functionality and a few refinements. but for the real goodies you'll have to wait for the 4.0 release.

By superstoned at Tue, 2006/03/28 - 6:00am

Linux op platt sounds good. But do distributions support low saxon out of the box?

By gerd at Tue, 2006/03/28 - 6:00am

most of them supply all kde languages, including low saxon.
And those that don't: the translation packages are platform independent, so you can install them yourself..

By AC at Fri, 2006/03/31 - 6:00am

Slackware packages are uploading. I made some extra packages.

By JC at Tue, 2006/03/28 - 6:00am

what is meant by " Javascript handling is improved and now works with phpBB and certain wikis"?
does this mean that we can now use WYSIWYG editors in gmail, bloggers and the like, I'm not familiar with phpbb editor?

By patcito at Tue, 2006/03/28 - 6:00am

well, they might work better, but of course they won't have fixed all sites - after all, the only way you can be sure about compatibility with konqi is if the site keeps to standards (but they can't, as it then won't work in IE. and of course konqi might still have bugs left...) or has been tested on konqi.

By superstoned at Tue, 2006/03/28 - 6:00am

No. This is about editor buttons that insert markup into a textarea (e.g. you click bold, and it marks the selected text with [b] or * or whatever).
Supporting so-called "JavaScript" editors is considerably more involved, and basically requires implementation of an entire editor in the browser core.

By SadEagle at Tue, 2006/03/28 - 6:00am

There's hope, but not for 3.5.x: http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=48302

By cm at Tue, 2006/03/28 - 6:00am

thanx for the info. I hope we'll get designmode for KDE4, it will be yet another reason to switch to KDE4 :) I'm aware though that it must be a lot of complicated and not so fun work to do even if if it comes from webcore.
keep up the good work! we really appreciate it.

By patcito at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

All those "all SVN changes" links on http://kde.org/announcements/changelogs/changelog3_5_1to3_5_2.php are broken.

By Carsten Pfeiffer at Tue, 2006/03/28 - 6:00am

Should be fixed now. Thanks for hinting at it.

Eckhart

By Eckhart Wörner at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

Don't forget to support your favourite project(s) with a donation. Mine went to the web editor of the year :-)

By Tom at Tue, 2006/03/28 - 6:00am

I still am unable to get my netbanking java applet load successfully in Konqueror. It works perfectly in Firefox. In konqueror, it *almost* loads and then report 'IOException something in a separate window'.

Anyone have any idea about this or has faced similar error? I am running kubuntu, btw.

By Kanwar at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

Your question is only relevant here if it's a regression in 3.5.2. Did it work in previous versions? I think you should ask in mailing lists, not here.

By Anonymous at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

Better file a bug report w/ output of console log. Btw. have you tried the 'Use KIO' option (needs a restart of the java server)

By koos at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

For a couple of months now I've experienced two really annoying bugs that I've tried to debug without success.

1) I cannot configure all of kicker in kcontrol. I error that several kicker kcm modules wasn't found

2) I cannot start konqueror browser from panel. When I try to exec the kfmclient command from shell it says that it couldn't find service konqueror.desktop

This is on a FC 4 & 5 machine. I've rebuild kde several times and did a clean reinstall of FC 4 and then rebuilt kde again.

By Sam the man at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

Change distribution.

By anoninuss at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

its not really a nice thing to say, but you're right. this are bugs in Fedora Core, not KDE.

By superstoned at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

How are you so sure it is a bug in FC?

By Sam the man at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

because other distributions don't have these bugs

By cl at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

I'm sorry, but that doesn't automatically make it a Fedora bug. Maybe Fedora is using it in a way that other distributions aren't and that invokes a bug. Unfortunately this attitude is all too prevalent on the KDE team. "It must be a distribution bug..."

I'm disappointed in the stability of Konqueror. After years of using it, it still doesn't handle a large number of websites properly. Firefox is generally much better in this regard.

I do love KDE and it is my one and only desktop environment. But I think there is some work to be done before the Konqueror part of things is up to par, as far as I am concerned. I eagerly await 3.52.

By me at Thu, 2006/03/30 - 6:00am

> I'm sorry, but that doesn't automatically make it a Fedora bug. Maybe Fedora
> is using it in a way that other distributions aren't and that invokes a bug.

You cannot expect every developer to have all distros out there around to be able to reproduce a bug in his application.

IMNSHO the proper flow of a bug report if there is even the *slightest* suspicion that it may be distro-related is from the bug reporter to the distro. The packagers know best what they did to the original source packages (some apply their own set of patches!) and if they come to the conclusion that it is a bug in the original source then they can report it upstream with valuable additional information that helps squash the bug.

By cm at Thu, 2006/03/30 - 6:00am

> Unfortunately this attitude is all too prevalent on the KDE team

Who said that I'm part of the KDE team?

By cl at Thu, 2006/03/30 - 6:00am

"Maybe Fedora is using it in a way that other distributions aren't and that invokes a bug".

OK, let's check them:

1) I cannot configure all of kicker in kcontrol. I error that several kicker kcm modules wasn't found

-> probably meaning that the .desktop files of the kcm modules of kicker are screwed up in FC.
There is only one way to invoke those modules: the way that is defined by freedesktop.org specs. So, if a module does not start on fedora, but does start on other distributions, it's a bug in fedora, not KDE.

2) I cannot start konqueror browser from panel. When I try to exec the kfmclient command from shell it says that it couldn't find service konqueror.desktop

-> more evidence that the .desktop files of FC are screwed up: apperently the file konqueror.desktop is not where it should be.
If this problem is not present on other distributions, then KDE did not forget to put it there, but FC did.
So again: bug in FC.

By AC at Fri, 2006/03/31 - 6:00am

I've built everything myself from source. I've done this a couple of years. "make install" is suppose to put stuff in the right folders, right? :=)

By Sam the man at Fri, 2006/03/31 - 6:00am

Actually, he can just change his KDE RPMs.

http://kde-redhat.sourceforge.net/

By James Richard Tyrer at Fri, 2006/03/31 - 6:00am

I built everything myself from source as I've done the last years...

By Sam the man at Fri, 2006/03/31 - 6:00am

if you want to do clean uninstallation and install the latest KDE 3.5.2, try the Tomahawk Desktop (www.tomahawkcomputers.com).

By Anonymous at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

Stop spamming

By ac at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

These are not bugs in KDE since I don't have these problems.

I have Linux (mostly) From Scratch with some of the most basic files FC-3 RPMs which I never get around to updating to FC-4. I find it best to stay one release behind FC (i.e. they release 5 and I upgrade to 4 :-)). So, this might simply be an installation issue or it might be something which is FC 4 or 5 specific.

So, I suggest that you please post the problems to the "kde-linux" list and we will try to figure out what is causing the problems.

By James Richard Tyrer at Sat, 2006/04/01 - 6:00am

sorry for my poor english

i my self have kde 3.5.2 - build with konstruct - on fc3 running - and
it works fine. <-> but in fc4 and also in fc5 with the same way of compalation
(by konstruct) is not useable -> kfmclient openProfile webbrowsing makes mistakes the start menu looks uncomplete .. icons missing and so on.

I hope there will be a solution.

By timwetter at Fri, 2006/04/07 - 5:00am

Uninstall the "redhat-menus". For Fedora Core5 just execute

rpm -e --nodeps redhat-menus-6.7.5-1

Your K-Menu should be OK and of course you can start the great konqueror again!

By Attila Erdelyi at Mon, 2006/04/10 - 5:00am

O.K. I see - all problems are gone
and it works fine.

Thanks for the solving tipp.

I hope rest of system is gonna working fine to - yah.

You are welcomme aerdeliy

By timwetter at Sun, 2006/05/28 - 5:00am

Thank you so much KDE crew! I love KDE. One bug I've noticed and has also been noticed in unbuntuforums is that the display panel in 'Configure - KDesktop' no longer shows. If possible please provide a quick fix to this.

Here is the thread on unbuntu forums where people have mentioned this as well:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=150849&page=4

Also post #13 on that same thread (page 2) someone else noticed it, too.

Happy to let you know about this. Thanks again.
JJ

By Jessup at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

This is probably a bug in (k)ubuntu (well, or a feature because they think removing it makes sense, who knows). If it is specific to (k)ubuntu you have to report it as a bug in launchpad. KDE can't do much about it.

By Carsten Niehaus at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

I'm not sure if we are talking about the same problem...

But in Kubuntu 5.10 I also noticed this KDesktop being missing. They have there own Control Center, with half of the options I'm used to missing. Hopefully it will get better...

At least it isn't a 3.5.2 specific problem, it's a kubuntu problem...

By boemer at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

they have a simplified control panel. if you want the full control panel, start kcontrol from the commandline/alt-f2/katapult or add the kcontrol menu to kicker.

By superstoned at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

"if you want the full control panel, start kcontrol from the commandline/alt-f2/katapult or add the kcontrol menu to kicker."

Why can´t I do that in the Control Panel? Gnomethinking, huh? (shudder)

By reihal at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

> Why can´t I do that in the Control Panel? Gnomethinking, huh? (shudder)

The KDE developers cannot answer this question.

By Andras Mantia at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

"Why can´t I do that in the Control Panel? Gnomethinking, huh? (shudder)"

well, i don't really know. tough i use kubuntu, i have my own panel setup (2 panels) and i have the kcontrol menu in there. i don't use the kubuntu system settings that much.

By superstoned at Sat, 2006/04/01 - 6:00am

Hey everybody, it's not really on-topic, but this is really, REALLY interesting:

http://chabada.sk/better-desktop/

By Anonymous at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

How far off topic can you get? A list of problems with the design of the Gnome desktop. sheesh. Or is it an ironic post?

By Anonymous at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

There are still some interesting issues witch have to be solved in any DE Environment.
It’s about Gnome OK, but the problems are equal in many cases.
I am glad to find Sites like this.

By Hermann at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

What? KDE doesn't have properties dialog boxes? Progress bars? Media players? Just because there's 'Gnome' in the title doesn't mean it might not be an interesting read.

By Anonymous at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

Interesting read, yes, Interesting for kde, no.
Interesting reads for kde show flaws in kde, and not in gnome :)

By AC at Fri, 2006/03/31 - 6:00am

There are suggestions too, not only flaws

By Anonymous at Fri, 2006/03/31 - 6:00am

most of the things they mention are no problem in KDE. some are, some just don't apply. and some are just simple stupid (imho) or have nothing to do with desktop environments.

By superstoned at Sat, 2006/04/01 - 6:00am

Due to the relaxed feature-freeze, will there be support for the fancy stuff
e.g. gnome achieves through the use of compiz, gnome-window-decorator ?
Before KDE4 I mean :-)

By ac at Wed, 2006/03/29 - 6:00am

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