Neon project website recommends to do a clean install. While I understand that this makes some sense, especially for inexperienced users, many of us are already running Kubuntu + backports PPA and reinstalling everything from scratch needs significant effort to copy all your settings/data properly.

So I have decided to install Neon on top of my Kubuntu-16.04 (+ backports PPA + libreoffice PPA). I am a professional software engineer dealing with Linux daily, so I was not afraid of possible problems. The update went quite well, so I decided to share my experience in case if somebody else would like to do the same.

# apt-add-repository http://archive.neon.kde.org/user
# apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E6D4736255751E5D
# apt update
# apt dist-upgrade

after that you will see some minor errors - conflicting files in old and new packages, e.g.

dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/kdeconnect_0.9g-1+16.04+build14_amd64.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libkdeconnectinterfaces.so.0.9.0', which is also in package kdeconnect-plasma 0.9+p16.04+git20160702.0005-0
Unpacking libkf5screen7 (4:5.7.3-0neon+16.04+build13) over (4:5.6.5-0ubuntu1~ubuntu16.04~ppa1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/libkf5screen7_4%3a5.7.3-0neon+16.04+build13_amd64.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libexec/kf5/kscreen_backend_launcher', which is also in package libkf5screen-bin 4:5.6.5-0ubuntu1~ubuntu16.04~ppa1
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/kpmcore_2.2.0-0+16.04+build2_amd64.deb

(--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/plugins/libpmdummybackendplugin.so', which is also in package partitionmanager 1.2.1-0ubuntu1

Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/kdeconnect_0.9g-1+16.04+build14_amd64.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/libkf5screen7_4%3a5.7.3-0neon+16.04+build13_amd64.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/kpmcore_2.2.0-0+16.04+build2_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

At this moment you can either use 'dpkg -i --force-all' on new packages or remove the conflicting old package (and later reinstall it). For example:

# apt remove kdeconnect-plasma libkf5screen-bin partitionmanager

and after that

# apt install partitionmanagers packages


and just in case to pick up any unprocessed packages

# apt update; apt upgrade; apt clean

Then rebooting - and everything works fine!

I would like to thank Neon team for their outstanding effort - Kubuntu-backports PPA was getting very old and I was tired of waiting forever.

A minor issue: I wanted to installl Libreoffice-5.2 but it seems that there is a problem

# apt-add-repository ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-5-2
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/apt-add-repository", line 95, in <module>
sp = SoftwareProperties(options=options)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 109, in __init__
self.reload_sourceslist()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 599, in reload_sourceslist
self.distro.get_sources(self.sourceslist)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptsources/distro.py", line 89, in get_sources
(self.id, self.codename))
aptsources.distro.NoDistroTemplateException: Error: could not find a distribution template for neon/xenial

This is not a big deal - I have added the needed file to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ manually, but as Libreoffice PPA is quite popular, this needs to be fixed.

Alex

alexsid wrote:A minor issue: I wanted to installl Libreoffice-5.2 but it seems that there is a problem

# apt-add-repository ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-5-2
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/apt-add-repository", line 95, in <module>
sp = SoftwareProperties(options=options)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 109, in __init__
self.reload_sourceslist()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 599, in reload_sourceslist
self.distro.get_sources(self.sourceslist)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptsources/distro.py", line 89, in get_sources
(self.id, self.codename))
aptsources.distro.NoDistroTemplateException: Error: could not find a distribution template for neon/xenial

This is not a big deal - I have added the needed file to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ manually, but as Libreoffice PPA is quite popular, this needs to be fixed.

I suspect that this problem could be solved by editing file '/etc/lsb-release'. Just replace in it 'DISTRIB_ID=neon' to 'DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu'. At least, the problem with non-working 'software-properties-kde' was solved in such way.

nah, what you need to do is make sure neon-desktop is installed, otherwise the system is just not properly aligned to the name

The 'neon-desktop' is big metapackage which has in its dependencies a bunch of *-dev packages, and some strange unnecessary things like Plasma theme for GRUB. It seems that all important config files are located in 'neon-settings' package, which is one of its dependencies.

Right now I made 'apt-get install neon-settings' and after that the 'software-properties-kde' began to work with correct 'etc/lsb-release' version. Anyway, a lot of thanks to apachelogger for this important information!

Thank you for the report Alex.
I am considering switching to Neon myself due to Plasma 5.7 updates which might take a while to get to Kubuntu.

Did you have kubuntu-backports repo enabled before you added Neon repo and did you disable it or apt-purged it, before starting the upgrade?

sasha wrote:Thank you for the report Alex.
I am considering switching to Neon myself due to Plasma 5.7 updates which might take a while to get to Kubuntu.

Did you have kubuntu-backports repo enabled before you added Neon repo and did you disable it or apt-purged it, before starting the upgrade?

Hi Sasha,

1. yes, I had kubuntu-backports repo enabled, then added Neon repo and proceeded with upgrade
2. After upgrade to Neon has been completed, I have disabled kubuntu-backports

Hope this helps,
Alex

Thank you this worked for me. I am now proudly running KDE Plasma 5.8 on Kubuntu 16.04.

The only problem I had was with multiple monitors (post installation the monitors were mirrored instead of extended and the 'Displays' option was missing from System Settings > Display and Monitor). If anyone else runs into this problem, I solved it by installing 'kscreen'.

sudo apt install kscreen

Any updates about this regarding Yakkety? Will the Xenial archive work with Yakkety?

Just wanted to say thanks to Alex for documenting the magic. It worked although there were some iterations of apt-get -f install to get it clean.

Just to say Thank You guys !! I've added neon repo on Kubuntu 16.04 following your comments and works like a charm. More even, Plasma 5.8 runs far much better than previous versions. I have a new machine after the upgrade

Guys, I currently use ubuntu gnome 16.04 but wanted to give it a try to KDE neon. Unfortunately, I can't reinstall everything as it would take a time that I don't have to reconfigure everything (I'm a software dev).
I tried kubuntu desktop already on top of my distro and it went fine, except for some small bugs with KDE itself, but it is usable. I wanted something newer and better like kde neon.

Do you think it could work to install kde neon desktop via ppa as kubuntu users did?

Thanks SOOO MUCH Alex

I have been using Ubuntu-Gnome for a couple of years and love it, but no session manager is a bit stupid though Suspend accomplishes the same end - MOSTLY. (Using Linux for 10 years)

I tried Neon 10 months ago but it was wrought with problems. Back to Gnome. A new 4K screen and Arc Receiver had me tinkering again and tried Neon again and liked it though 4K does not seem to work well across the board in ANY Distro. or Windows. But it had great sound control as does Gnome. Tried Kubuntu 16.04 (for Live Kernel Patching) for the first time and no sound management - STUPID! and 3 days of searching - nada.

So here I am, switching back to neon with your tips

presently at removing "libpam-kwallet-common" to correct some errors, and now upgraded through Synaptic and WHAM!!! AWESOME! Hundreds of Upgrades (400+) including Phonon, so I bet things will work a LOT better now.


Thanks

Ok, it is an old topic, but I found it very useful and currently have a laptop with 16.04 + Neon.

I was toying with the idea of updating to 17.04 now that it is released and find that do-release-upgrade reports no new upgrades, even after /etc/update-manager/release-upgrade has been modified so that "Prompt=normal"

This probably has to with different sources added, but I think it mostly has to do with the meta-release file which now looks like this:

Code: Select all

# default location for the meta-release file                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                                               
[METARELEASE]                                                                                                                                                   
URI = http://releases.neon.kde.org/meta-release/8b09b53946621d84405922fa00000010                                                                               
URI_LTS = http://releases.neon.kde.org/meta-release-lts/8b09b53946621d84405922fa00000010                                                                       
URI_UNSTABLE_POSTFIX = -development                                                                                                                             
URI_PROPOSED_POSTFIX = -proposed       

 

The default meta-release looks like this:

Code: Select all

# default location for the meta-release file                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                                               
[METARELEASE]                                                                                                                                                   
URI = http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/meta-release                                                                                                                 
URI_LTS = http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/meta-release-lts                                                                                                         
URI_UNSTABLE_POSTFIX = -development                                                                                                                             
URI_PROPOSED_POSTFIX = -proposed           


sources.list has:

deb http://archive.neon.kde.org/user xenial main

There is also a 99-neon-software-properties that appears to set a priority.

It is interesting that the owner of meta-release is ubuntu-release-upgrader-core and that appears to be the latest version. 'Something' in the Neon install tinkered with it.

Is there any way I can go forward from here, now that I have Neon installed on 16.04, or do I have to blow away my OS to install 17.04?

Is it enough to restore the meta-release (reinstall ubuntu-release-upgrade-core) and remove sources?

Thanks,

Rick

Why don't You test the change of repositories
in a virtual machine, first?

Could be less risky.

What's the risk? /home is on another partition and I could have a clean install of 17.04 if it failed..

...but it didn't.

I restored the meta-release file from ubuntu-release-upgrader, removed the neon-properties file, and removed neon as a source. I then iteratively removed all packages containing 'neon' in the name, using apt-get remove --purge. When that was all done, and there was no trace of neon or kde, I then ran do-release-upgrade successfully, first to 16.10 and then to 17.04. Only after I got to 17.04 did I reinstall KDE by installing meta-packages kubuntu-desktop, plasma-desktop and sddm (i also have gnome and other desktops on here). After that, I re-added my ppa for sipe-collab and enabled virtualbox installation. All seems to be well.

The only bug I have found, which I saw with Neon and now see with KDE from Kubuntu, is with Discover (plasma-discover). It hangs sometimes both at startup and during package searches. I have similar behavior on another system with Kubuntu natively installed. I keep a 'virgin' user around to test if old settings are an issue and I see it there as well.