The current version of openSUSE (13.2) still defaults to KDE 4, but since 13.3 is going to include Framework 5 I need to start preparing for the transition. I have KDE 5 on another machine for testing, and apart from some visual glitches and crashes it's looking pretty good. There is however a problem: Many of the Plasma widgets I currently use are not yet ported! I'm worried that after the switch, I won't have several features for this reason. So I thought to start a thread discussing the plasmoids included in the Plasma Addons package which haven't been ported to Framework 5 yet.

In my case I use the following: Picture Frame in sideshow mode, RSSNOW for RSS feeds and news, System Monitor for a panel listing system resources (CPU, RAM, Disks, Network, Temperatures), Software Updater which lets me manage updates from the system tray, Weather Widget which shows the meteorological conditions in my area. There are of course other KDE4 plasmoids which I don't use myself (such as Comic Strip or News) or which I use but are less important (like Luna for showing the moon phase), but overall a lot are still missing as Framework 5 nears completion.

Is the progress on each plasmoid port mentioned anywhere, or a list of how close each one is to completion maintained? Is it known with certainty whether some won't make it in Framework 5 at all, and for which this will be the case?

Marco Martin wrote - Getting things back: System Monitor: http://notmart.org/blog/2015/02/getting ... m-monitor/

In Plasma 5.3 some of the things that were lost along the way of the port to Plasma 5 due to the massive architecture change will be back.
Today just got back the system monitor widgets, that helps keeping an eye on the CPU load, disk usage, network traffic and so on...

Rog131 wrote:Marco Martin wrote - Getting things back: System Monitor: http://notmart.org/blog/2015/02/getting ... m-monitor/

In Plasma 5.3 some of the things that were lost along the way of the port to Plasma 5 due to the massive architecture change will be back.
Today just got back the system monitor widgets, that helps keeping an eye on the CPU load, disk usage, network traffic and so on...

Nice... that is a great start, and they're looking really neat in the screenshots! I believe the test machine has 5.2, so I look forward to testing it in 5.3. For now, I remain curious about the schedule for the other ones... especially the photo frame and RSS widget.

MirceaKitsune wrote:The current version of openSUSE (13.2) still defaults to KDE 4, but since 13.3 is going to include Framework 5

A bit off topic but keep in mind that no decision has been made yet on whether keep 4.x or use Plasma 5 as default.

einar wrote:A bit off topic but keep in mind that no decision has been made yet on whether keep 4.x or use Plasma 5 as default.

Ah... that is relevant, and I will keep in mind. It sounds pretty weird to consider however, and I'm actually surprised if it would even work. So far you can't even install most parts of Framework 5 without the new plasmashell, whereas many users might want to dump qt4 altogether after the upgrade. Personally I would vote for a delayed upgrade, rather than an earlier one which is partial and causes a mess of mixed components... either I have KDE4 or I have KDE5

MirceaKitsune wrote:It sounds pretty weird to consider however, and I'm actually surprised if it would even work.

What would not work?
Keeping KDE4 as default?
It does work fine in 13.2 (which already does include KF5 and Plasma5 btw, it's just not installed by default) and Tumbleweed. Why should it not work in 13.3?
You cannot install KDE4's desktop (kdebase4-workspace) and Plasma5 at the same time though.

So far you can't even install most parts of Framework 5 without the new plasmashell.

Of course you can. No part of Frameworks 5 has any dependency on Plasma 5/plasmashell.
So it is indeed perfectly possible to use Frameworks 5 applications in KDE4 in openSUSE (not that there are many released yet though). KF5 applications do conflict with their KDE4 counterpart though, and will replace it.

I suppose you actually mean "Plasma 5" (the desktop) when you say "Framework 5"?
(it doesn't really make sense to install "Frameworks 5" only, unless you want to develop applications using Frameworks 5 yourself, I'd say)
Of course "Plasma 5" requires the new plasmashell, as the new plasmashell is Plasma 5.

So, to summarize: It is possible to install/use KF5 applications together with KDE4 (the desktop). Installing Plasma 5 (the desktop) will remove KDE4 (the desktop), but you can also still install/use KDE4 applications with Plasma 5 as well.

Regarding the original question about the porting status of the addon plasmoids:
yes, there is a todo page, where developers even can pick the plasmoids they want to work on:
https://todo.kde.org/?controller=board& ... ject_id=11
But I think you'd need a developer account to access it. (although the "normal" KDE account might work as well, no idea...)

Oh... I thought you meant KDE as a whole switching to qt5 components but only leaving the qt4 plasma-desktop as a default. If you meant openSUSE, I only heard rumors that it will switch to KDE5 in the next release, although this might not be the case obligatorily.

MirceaKitsune wrote:Oh... I thought you meant KDE as a whole switching to qt5 components but only leaving the qt4 plasma-desktop as a default.

Yes. You can keep using the KDE4 desktop and run KF5 applications in it.
Just like you can run them in GNOME or any other DE.
And you can install KDE Frameworks 5 and KF5 based applications alongside KDE4's desktop in openSUSE. But you cannot install KDE4's _desktop_ and Plasma 5 (the desktop) at the same time.

And this will be the same in openSUSE 13.3 I suppose, unless KDE4 is dropped completely from the distribution of course (which I hope will not yet be the case).

But most KDE applications have not released a KF5 based version yet, so they are not available in the standard repos either.

That makes sense. In either case, I do plan to use the new plasmashell once it is ready... which for me is not the case exclusively due to the missing plasmoids, since everything else is looking fine. But yes, it's only been said that openSUSE 13.3 will default to KF5 (as in new installations), and certainly the ability to keep KDE4 installed will remain for several versions to come.

I tested the system monitors in the Plasma 5.3 update that was recently made available for openSUSE, on the test machine where I run Framework 5. They seem to be working nicely and look pretty good! However I have some critique, if their developer could please take a look at these problems:

1 - There is now the CPU monitor, memory monitor, disk activity monitor, disk usage monitor, network monitor. But the temperature monitor was not also added.

2 - When all 5 are placed, they seem to use more CPU than the KDE4 Plasma Desktop variants. On the test machine's older processor (a single-core Intel) the plasmashell process constantly uses over 20% CPU, whereas on my modern KDE4 machine (i7 processor) plasma-desktop only uses 1% on occasion. Can their performance be improved?

3 - The widget settings don't allow me to specify how quickly to update the widgets. The refresh rate appears to be hardcoded to 2 seconds, but I want to set mine to 1 second. Please re-add this option in the next update?

Other than that, I'm still waiting on the photo frame and RSS widgets. Once these are back, I can consider transitioning to the Framework 5 components. Please let me know when there is news on them... I'd like to hope they might make it in the 5.4 update.

When all 5 are placed, they seem to use more CPU than the KDE4 Plasma Desktop variants.

This is bug 346134. It can be workarounded by reverting a specific commit, however that would break plotters for non Plasma applications.

einar wrote:This is bug 346134. It can be workarounded by reverting a specific commit, however that would break plotters for non Plasma applications.

Thank you, I have subscribed to that bug.

Plasma 5.4 is apparently being released soon. The only new KDE4 widget of interest seems to be the software updater, which lets users update system packages from the system tray again. The absence of this widget was one of the biggest issues at least for me.

Still waiting for Picture Frame, RSS Now, Weather, and others that might be left. Any hope of seeing those in Plasma 5.5? openSUSE 42.1 is being released in about two months, and will of course use KF5 by default, so I'm even more interested if I'll have all functionality I use currently.

The KDE has a todo list: https://todo.kde.org/ - Same password as the KDE Forums.

Plasma Addons status: https://todo.kde.org/?controller=board& ... ject_id=11

Picture Frame, RSS Now

Yeah quite likely:
RSS was waiting on a library that PIM uses. When that's done should be easy.

I might do picture frame this weekend. Will make a nice change from just tidying up bugs.



Weather is a more complex job. Needs a volunteer.