Comments on: Linux Mint 18.1 “Serena” KDE – BETA Release

By: Øystein

Øystein — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 16:32:17 +0000

So I decided to install this beta to my harddrive, and here are some bugs/issues I found (after system updates and a reboot):

– Kate cannot write to its config file. Opening Kate displays the following message “Configuration file “/home/*myusernamehere*/.config/katerc” not writable.
Please contact your system administrator.” But after OK-ing this message Kate starts fine. Message appears each time I launch Kate from the menu, terminal or dolphin. Does not appear when Kate is launched with sudo privilegies.

– Setting new global keyboard shortcuts only takes effect after a reboot. To reproduce: Open menu, search for “global” and select Global keyboard shortcuts, then attempt to create a new keyboard shortcut for any program, save the settings and try the shortcut. Test whether it works after a reboot. Note: this is also an issue in Manjaro KDE Plasma 5.8.5.

– Unable to read internal files on a Samsung Galaxy S3 connected in MTP mode. To reproduce: connect an S3, choose MTP mode on the device, and attempt to open its contents through the device tooltip on the systemtray. If you experience my problem, you will be able to view files on the SD card but the internal storage will appear empty.

Bugs that I notice have been fixed:
– Connecting to a Wifi network for the first time no longer asks for password twice.

By: Dugan

Dugan — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 01:59:15 +0000

My issues with sound does not appear to be due to KDE, but to issues with the XPS 13 and perhaps Windows 10 maintenance. I had recently applied maintenance to Windows which apparently broke audio. I reinstalled Windows 10 which did recover sound for Windows. Next, I tried running the 18.1 beta off the USB and sound was fine. Not sure what is going on here, but I think I will simply reinstall KDE standalone on the XPS 13.

By: Jose

Jose — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 22:47:32 +0000

Update on sync problem between Kontact calendar and Gmail calendar. It seems to be a ongoing problem (or at least it has been reported). I found the solution in https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthread.php?67152-Kontact-Calendar-Google-sync-help-needed

Cheers
Jose

By: Zacad

Zacad — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 19:01:24 +0000

Dunno if it only happended to me, but recently after update steam icon in tray got broke. No interaction with any mouse button.

By: Dugan

Dugan — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 18:08:57 +0000

After installing today’s maintenance I have no sound. Similar to my experience after initial installation, I only have a dummy output device. I went to the terminal and entered:
sudo apt-get remove –purge alsa-base pulseaudio
sudo apt-get install alsa-base pulseaudio
sudo alsa force-reload
which is what I did after installation to get sound to work. Unfortunately, that now does not work and returns:
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: (none loaded).
Loading ALSA sound driver modules: (none to reload)

Any suggestions?

By: mortalcatlayst

mortalcatlayst — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 13:51:11 +0000

Will this version feature a nice way to manage KDE wallet to not ask for passwords for a period or to easily disable?

Its reason I don’t use KDE, ever tried to let a KDE desktop be a family computer and shared with kids?

Same question wifi doesn’t work whats this password? I otherwise really like kde well except amarok can’t win em all 🙂

By: Jose

Jose — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 12:41:48 +0000

Hi All,

After some days of using this beta, I haven’t have major problems. But there is a few of things that may be worth mention.

1) Kmail, does not show the headers of the messages, this is a big problem for new users if they have not work for years with kmail. I solve it by installing kdepim-addons, so @Clem et al, I think that it may be a good idea to include it.

2) Kontact Calendar will not sync well gmail calendar, it does sync the first time but will not update after that, I could not find a solution yet.

3) As someone mentioned before if you are working with a high def screen (laptop) everything will look very small. KDE can fix this by adjusting the DPI in System Settings>Fonts and changing DPI to 144 or any other number that makes everything look goood. Using System Setting>Display and Monitor>Scaling is not a good idea.
So, I was thinking that may be this can be done automatically if during installation a HD screen is detected or at least put this a hint in the welcome screen?

4) The sound by default is directed to HDMI rather than the laptop speakers, this can be changed but it initially I thought that the sound was not working. I think that by default the sound should be directed to the speakers.

Everything else working well so far, great comeback for KDE. I have been waiting for such a release of KDE for almost 10 years.
@Clem, you should really reconsider going back to KDE for the main Linux Mint edition, 😉

Jose

By: mark

mark — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 11:20:13 +0000

Sometimes I have slow reboot/shutdown with black screen. System wait about 90sec especially when I edit files via sudo.

By: benit

benit — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 21:56:32 +0000

And please re-check bluetooth. I could successfully connect devices with Mint 18 KDE, but could not get any sound. With Maui 2.1 for example : no problem! So hardware is not the problem.

By: benit

benit — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 21:55:44 +0000

One more thing: Please re-check, if the spell-checking in Kmail can now be successfully disabled. That single bug prevented me from using Kmail – it leads to an infinite loop. I cannot disable it even after reboot it is still active.