Last updated: 3rd November 2006
Updated info about kdmrc, step 9.
got it working now. here's how:
firstly, the weird looking boxes are actually normal. the pics above were because the new packages i had didn't have the plastik style i was using before, and it was using cde or some other style instead. these look cr*p. the fact no one else noticed this would imply they like the boxed look so much they had it as default before updating. which says quite alot to me...
anyways, here's how i updated to get it working:
1. Open Personal Settings (may be called Control Panel or something else, you can open it from the command prompt by typing kcontrol), withing Personal Settings, navigate to Appearance & Themes then to Style and change the widget style to CDE and hit apply. This will make everything look like the pics above. Don't worry, you'll be changing it back to something nice after this. Close Personal Settings.
2. Open Smart Package Manager (from the command line, su to root then type smart --gui). Make sure Smart bas been updated to the latest version. You can do this by hitting Find Packages, typing smart, selecting the latest smart and smart-gui packages and then clicking Apply Changes. If you upgrade, restart Smart. If it asks you to add the latest kde repos then just hit ok.
3. In Smart, navigate to Edit then Channels. Untick the suse-kde ("Latest KDE Packages") repo. This will stop smart from updating packages from the
http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:...SUSE_Linux_10.1 repository. If you've already added that url as a differently named repo, then untick that instead.
4. Now update all the channels (leftmost button in smart). Then hit the Upgrade All Packages button. If you've unticked the suse-kde repo then you should
NOT see a huge list of kde 3.5.3 rpms.
5. Upgrade everything. You may wish to upgrade the packages one-by-one in order to solve any problems any may cause (by searching, selecting, applying) or just upgrade everything at once (hit the OK button on the Upgrade All Packages window). Either way, depending on the last time you upgraded stuff, you may have the option to upgrade a few kde rpms (of you current 3.x.x version) and possibly qt3. If you upgrade qt3, it may mention something about creating qtrc.rpmnew. Ignore this as changing it will mess up the look of any gui's using qt3 (well it did to mine anyway).
So basically, just upgrade everything.
6. You might want to log out and back in to make sure everything's working ok. Now go into Smart again and re-tick that suse-kde repo (edit > channels > tick suse-kde). After doing this, hit the Update Channels button again to get the latest list of kde packages. You can check it's updated by hitting the Upgrade All Packages button again. If you see lots of kde packages, then you're all set. If not, check that the suse-kde repo has been added/ticked. Of course, there may be no newer upgrades available at this time. Regardless,
DO NOT hit OK, you don't wanna upgrade stuff just yet.
7. Close Smart and change to a command shell (by pressing ctrl-alt-f1).
8. Log in as root then go to init 3 by typing "init 3" without the quotes.
9. Upgrade everything through smart by typing "smart upgrade". This should now give you a big list of kde stuff including alsa and qt3 rpms. Type "Y" to confirm and wait for it to download everything (this may take a while). Once it's downloaded all the rpms, it'll start installing them. You may see a message about kdmrc.rpmnew or .rpmsave but probably none about qt3 this time. Ignore any qt3 messages again, but you should take note of the kdmrc one. If it says something about kdmrc.rpmnew or otherwise suggests that the kdmrc file has not overwritten the old one, complete step 12 after the following two steps. If not, ignore step 12.
10. Type "init 5" to go back to the kde/gnome screen. everything should look as before with the exception of possibly some links in the start menu being moved around a bit.
11. Go back to the Personal Settingsl screen, appearance & themes > style. All the old KDE styles should be there. You can now change back to what you were using previously, or just change to plastik as imho it's the prettiest.
12. ONLY DO THIS IF, DURING INSTALL. YOU GET A MESSAGE ABOUT kdmrc NOT BEING OVERWRITTEN. Like referencing kdmrc.rpmsave, saying the old version was not overwritten. If this happens, browse to /ort/kde3/share/config/kdm/ and find the new kdmrc file (probably named kdmrc.rpmnew, though check the file dates) and save it as kdmrc, replacing the old version, again check the file dates to make sure.
TROUBLE SHOOTING
Q: Oh noes, kde won't start.
A: Oh noes.
No really, you're fu**ed. If you get a kde load screen that either stays loading or goes to a blank, black screen when you start up.... well... I made sure I created a disk image before hand. The rest of you, errmmm.... hmm... Once you've re-installed suse (have fun), you wanna make sure that you update kde from the command shell and init 3 next time. Follow the above instructions.
UPDATE: I've heard from someone who couldn't get back into kde but somehow managed to get into gnome and re-update kde from there. I dunno how you'd do it but it's an option if you need it...
Q: What repos should I use?
A: Here's what I'm using. At time of writing, the packman repo was telling me to update w32codec-all, yet refusted to let me download it, and then smart refused to install anything else until it downloaded. To remedy this, either search for an deselect the w32codec-all rpm while updating in the smart gui, or uncheck the packman "Packman 3rd Party Package Repository" repo before you go into the command shell to update kde.
[rpm-sys]
type = rpm-sys
name = RPM System
[guru]
type = yast2
name = Guru 3rd party package repository
baseurl =
http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.1
[suse-mozilla]
type = rpm-md
name = Latest mozilla.org packages
baseurl =
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/mozilla/10.1
[suse-kde]
type = rpm-md
name = Latest KDE packages
baseurl =
http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:...SUSE_Linux_10.1
[suse-non-oss]
type = yast2
name = SUSE 10.1 Add-On Repository with non OpenSource Packages
baseurl =
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/...oss-inst-source
[packman]
type = yast2
name = Packman 3rd Party Package Repository
baseurl =
http://packman.inode.at/suse/10.1
[suse-update]
type = rpm-md
name = SUSE Linux Online Updates
baseurl =
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/update/10.1/
[suse-kde-backports]
type = rpm-md
name = Current KDE applications
baseurl =
http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:...SUSE_Linux_10.1
[suse]
type = yast2
name = SUSE 10.1 OpenSource Repository
baseurl =
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/...0.1/inst-source