» Logout - on holidays

I'm on holidays until June 21st in the sunny and wonderful Dalmatia (Croatia), near Trogir. No internet, no computers, and hence no package updates until I'm back ;) For really urgent things, contact the Packman team.

» Experimental smart packages repository

I've built new smart packages, but I would dub them as experimental, because I've added a patch for improved package candidate selection for x86_64 Because of that, I've put those smart RPMs in a different repository, to avoid forcing it down on everyone who's using my main repository ;) If you'd like to give it a try (and I'd certainly be thankful for testing it), especially if you're on x86_64, do as follows (where xx.x corresponds to your SUSE version, one of 10.1, 10.0, 9.3, 9.2 or 9.1):

smart channel --add http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/smart/smart-experimental-suse-xx.x.channel
smart update smart-experimental
smart upgrade 'smart*'

Please let me know whether it works fine for you or not, feedback is highly appreciated :) For more information about that experimental patch, have a look at issue 177 in the smart tracker. Note: post-edited the entry, changed the repository layout and added .channel files; if you can't find the .channel files just yet, please wait a few more hours for the server to sync

» AFK until thursday

I'll be away from my computer until Thursday evening so... don't panic, I'm not dead (well, I hope I won't ;)) and I'll catch up new package releases when I'm back.

» Supplementary KDE repository moved to the Build Service

The "supplementary KDE" repository has been moved to the openSUSE Build Service (read the announcement here), which has a number of consequences if you have been using it to get the latest KDE release on your desktop:

• if using SUSE Linux 10.1 or 10.0, you must change the repository URL to:
  • for 10.1: http://software.opensuse.org/download/repositories/KDE:/KDE3/SUSE_Linux_10.1/
  • for 10.0: http://software.opensuse.org/download/repositories/KDE:/KDE3/SUSE_Linux_10.0/
• if using SUSE Linux 9.3, you must change the repository URL as well, but as it only holds a RPM-MD repository, you will also have to use e.g. smart instead of YaST2, because the latter only supports RPM-MD repositories since SUSE Linux 10.0:
  • for 9.3: http://software.opensuse.org/download/repositories/KDE:/KDE3/SUSE_Linux_9.3/
  • get smart packages for SUSE Linux here
• if you're using 9.2, tough luck, the Build Service doesn't have a SUSE Linux 9.2 build target (at least as of now, but it's unlikely to be provided at some point)
• if you're using 9.1, you'd better upgrade anyway, as 9.1 is out of support now ;)

From a technical point-of-view, moving it to the Build Service has a lot of advantages, and it will also make it easier for the KDE packagers at Novell to maintain and provide that service, albeit unsupported and low priority. Mirrors are currently actively been looked for. Most notably, there is also a new repository on the Build Service for the latest version of popular KDE applications, called KDE:Backports. Those were previously also available through the "supplementary KDE" repository, but now they're also being built against the stock KDE version that is shipped with every SUSE Linux distribution (i.e. KDE 3.4.2 for 10.0 and KDE 3.5.1 for 10.1), which means that you can also use those if you don't consider upgrading KDE itself (kdelibs3, kdebase3, ...). Note that even if built against an older KDE release (as it is particularely the case for 10.0), the packages will work fine on the latest KDE 3 version from the Build Service as well. I have been providing KDE application packages in my repository like that for years, and it always worked well (except for KDE styles). If you're already using smart to manage your packages, you should upgrade to at least 0.41-26, where the preconfigured channels reflect these changes (it will prompt you for adding KDE:Backports):

smart update guru smart upgrade 'smart*' smart update suse-kde suse-kde-backports