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Salkay

Member

Registered: 2014-05-22

Posts: 619

[SOLVED] Upgrading to Plasma 5 and removing meta packages

I originally installed KDE4 a year ago with

pacman -S kde-meta

I checked `/var/log/pacman.log`, and this pulled in such dependencies as kde-meta-kdebase and kde-meta-kdemultimedia (and quite a few other meta packages). These two were updated twice, before I upgraded to Plasma 5. I did this with the following commands:

$ sudo pacman -Rc kdebase-workspace
$ sudo pacman -S plasma-meta

Interestingly enough, neither of these two meta-packages were removed automatically (although kde-meta-kdeartwork was). When I inspected the two packages with `pacman -Qi`, they were now "Explicitly installed". In order to get sound working, I needed to install kmix. This conflicted with the already-installed kdemultimedia-kmix, so I had to remove kde-meta-kdemultimedia (since it depended on kdemultimedia-kmix).

Firstly, why did these meta packages change to "Explicitly installed"? I didn't make the change myself. Secondly, it seems that kde-meta-kdemultimedia should be removed when upgrading from KDE 4 to Plasma 5. However, it seems like kde-meta-kdebase should not be removed, since it depends on things like kdebase-dolphin and kate.

Last edited by Salkay (2015-05-05 07:11:24)

arojas

Developer

From: Spain

Registered: 2011-10-09

Posts: 2,098

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrading to Plasma 5 and removing meta packages

kde-meta is (was) a group, it doesn't have dependencies. When you install a group all packages in the group are explicitly installed.
You don't have to remove kde-meta-kdemultimedia when updating to Plasma 5. kdemultimedia-kmix works just fine.

Salkay

Member

Registered: 2014-05-22

Posts: 619

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrading to Plasma 5 and removing meta packages

Perhaps I misunderstood, but according to the wiki, kde-meta is (was) a meta-package, not a group. I thought that meant that rather than explicitly automatically installing all members of a group, it would install them as dependencies.

For me, having kdemultimedia-kmix instead of kmix meant that there was no volume icon in the system tray, and pressing the volume up/down keys did nothing. I actually didn't test if sound was coming through or being altered, but there was no visual feedback anyway.

arojas

Developer

From: Spain

Registered: 2011-10-09

Posts: 2,098

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrading to Plasma 5 and removing meta packages

Perhaps I misunderstood, but according to the wiki, kde-meta is (was) a meta-package, not a group. I thought that meant that rather than explicitly automatically installing all members of a group, it would install them as dependencies.

Yes, you misunderstood. Nowhere in that (outdated btw) page it says that kde-meta is a metapackage.

For me, having kdemultimedia-kmix instead of kmix meant that there was no volume icon in the system tray, and pressing the volume up/down keys did nothing. I actually didn't test if sound was coming through or being altered, but there was no visual feedback anyway.

You have to add it to autostart yourself, otherwise it won't run.

Salkay

Member

Registered: 2014-05-22

Posts: 619

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrading to Plasma 5 and removing meta packages

Ahhh… I see now. Apologies. I now understand that kde-meta is a group of meta-packages. Sorry for the confusion.

If I had a new system, and wanted to install Plasma 5 on it, I could just install plasma-meta. I guess this would just install Plasma itself, without associated applications like kate and dolphin.

If I understand correctly, if I wanted the full KDE software compilation, I would have to install kde-meta-kdebase, etc. Investigating further, these seem to be in the group kde-applications-meta now?

What is the difference between kdemultimedia-kmix and kmix? I finding all of the packaging quite confusing, but I guess it'll get simpler as more things move to kf5, etc.

arojas

Developer

From: Spain

Registered: 2011-10-09

Posts: 2,098

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrading to Plasma 5 and removing meta packages

What is the difference between kdemultimedia-kmix and kmix? I finding all of the packaging quite confusing, but I guess it'll get simpler as more things move to kf5, etc.

kmix is compiled against KF5, which is not officially supported upstream. If you want the full KDE Applications set as released by KDE, simply install the kde-applications group.

Salkay

Member

Registered: 2014-05-22

Posts: 619

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrading to Plasma 5 and removing meta packages

Are the packages in the kde-applications group identical to the packages in the meta packages in the kde-applications-meta group? If so, I'd probably prefer to install the latter, since it's easier for me to exclude things like kde-meta-kdegames and kde-meta-kdetoys.

arojas

Developer

From: Spain

Registered: 2011-10-09

Posts: 2,098

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrading to Plasma 5 and removing meta packages

Are the packages in the kde-applications group identical to the packages in the meta packages in the kde-applications-meta group?

Yes

Salkay

Member

Registered: 2014-05-22

Posts: 619

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrading to Plasma 5 and removing meta packages

Great! Thanks for all the help.