Scarlett Gately Moore

Tag: snapcraft

  • A Bittersweet Farewell: My Final KDE Snap Release and the End of an Era

    Today marks both a milestone and a turning point in my journey with open source software. I’m proud to announce the release of KDE Gear 25.08.0 as my final snap package release. You can find all the details about this exciting update at the official KDE announcement.

    After much reflection and with a heavy heart, I’ve made the difficult decision to retire from most of my open source software work, including snap packaging. This wasn’t a choice I made lightly – it comes after months of rejections and silence in an industry I’ve loved and called home for over 20 years.

    Passing the Torch

    While I’m stepping back, I’m thrilled to share that the future of KDE snaps is in excellent hands. Carlos from the Neon team has been working tirelessly to set up snaps on the new infrastructure that KDE has made available. This means building snaps in KDE CI is now possible – a significant leap forward for the ecosystem. I’ll be helping Carlos get the pipelines properly configured to ensure a smooth transition.

    Staying Connected (But Differently)

    Though I’m stepping away from most development work, I won’t be disappearing entirely from the communities that have meant so much to me:

    • Kubuntu: I’ll remain available as a backup, though Rik is doing an absolutely fabulous job getting the latest and greatest KDE packages uploaded. The distribution is in capable hands.
    • Ubuntu Community Council: I’m continuing my involvement here because I’ve found myself genuinely enjoying the community side of things. There’s something deeply fulfilling about focusing on the human connections that make these projects possible.
    • Debian: I’ll likely be submitting for emeritus status, as I haven’t had the time to contribute meaningfully and want to be honest about my current capacity.

    The Reality Behind the Decision

    This transition isn’t just about career fatigue – it’s about financial reality. I’ve spent too many years working for free while struggling to pay my bills. The recent changes in the industry, particularly with AI transforming the web development landscape, have made things even more challenging. Getting traffic to websites now requires extensive social media work and marketing – all expected to be done without compensation.

    My stint at webwork was good while it lasted, but the changing landscape has made it unsustainable. I’ve reached a point where I can’t continue doing free work when my family and I are struggling financially. It shouldn’t take breaking a limb to receive the donations needed to survive.

    A Career That Meant Everything

    These 20+ years in open source have been the defining chapter of my professional life. I’ve watched communities grow, technologies evolve, and witnessed firsthand the incredible things that happen when passionate people work together. The relationships I’ve built, the problems we’ve solved together, and the software we’ve created have been deeply meaningful.

    But I also have to be honest about where I stand today: I cannot compete in the current job market. The industry has changed, and despite my experience and passion, the opportunities just aren’t there for someone in my situation.

    Looking Forward

    Making a career change after two decades is terrifying, but it’s also necessary. I need to find a path that can provide financial stability for my family while still allowing me to contribute meaningfully to the world.

    If you’ve benefited from my work over the years and are in a position to help during this transition, I would be forever grateful for any support. Every contribution, no matter the size, helps ease this difficult period: https://gofund.me/a9c55d8f

    Thank You

    To everyone who has collaborated with me, tested my packages, filed bug reports, offered encouragement, or simply used the software I’ve helped maintain – thank you. You’ve made these 20+ years worthwhile, and you’ve been part of something bigger than any individual contribution.

    The open source world will continue to thrive because it’s built on the collective passion of thousands of people like Carlos, Rik, and countless others who are carrying the torch forward. While my active development days are ending, the impact of this community will continue long into the future.

    With sincere gratitude and fond farewells,

    Scarlett Moore

  • KDE Application snaps 25.04.2 released!

    KDE Mascot
    KDE Mascot

    Release notes: https://kde.org/announcements/gear/25.04.2/

    Now available in the snap store!

    Along with that, I have fixed some outstanding bugs:

    Ark: now can open/save files in removable media

    Kasts: Once again has sound

    WIP: Updating Qt6 to 6.9 and frameworks to 6.14

    Enjoy everyone!

    Unlike our software, life is not free. Please consider a donation, thanks!

  • KDE Snaps and life. Spirits are up, but I need a little help please

    I was just released from the hospital after a 3 day stay for my ( hopefully ) last surgery. There was concern with massive blood loss and low heart rate. I have stabilized and have come home. Unfortunately, they had to prescribe many medications this round and they are extremely expensive and used up all my funds. I need gas money to get to my post-op doctors appointments, and food would be cool. I would appreciate any help, even just a dollar!

    I am already back to work, and continued work on the crashy KDE snaps in a non KDE env. ( Also affects anyone using kde-neon extensions such as FreeCAD) I hope to have a fix in the next day or so.

    Fixed kate bug https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=503285

    Thanks for stopping by.

  • KDE Snaps are broken, sorry lights out for now

    All core22 KDE snaps are broken. There is not an easy fix. We have used kde-neon repos since inception and haven’t had issues until now.

    libEGL fatal: DRI driver not from this Mesa build (‘23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.3’ vs ‘23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2’)

    Apparently Jammy had a mesa update?

    Option 1: Rebuild our entire stack without neon repos ( fails due to dependencies not in Jammy, would require tracking down all of these and build from source )

    Option 2: Finish the transition to core24 ( This is an enormous task and will take some time still )

    Either option will take more time and effort than I have. I need to be job hunting as I have run out of resources to pay my bills. My internet/phone will be cut off in days. I am beyond stressed out and getting snippy with folks, for that I apologize. If someone wants to sponsor the above work then please donate to https://gofund.me/fe30793b otherwise I am stepping away to rethink life and my defunct career.

    I am truly sorry everyone.

    New core24 Snaps:

    Arianna – Epub viewer

    k3b – Disc burner

    Snapcraft:

    Fixes for the qt5 kde-neon extension

    https://github.com/canonical/snapcraft/pull/5261

  • Kubuntu 24.10 Released, KDE Snaps at 24.08.2, and I lived to tell you about it!

    Happy 28th birthday KDE!
    Happy 28th Birthday KDE!

    Sorry my blog updates have been MIA. Let me tell you a story…

    As some of you know, 3 months ago I was in a no fault car accident. Thankfully, the only injury was I ended up with a broken arm. ER sends me home in a sling and tells me it was a clean break and it will mend itself in no time. After a week of excruciating pain I went to my follow up doctor appointment, and with my x-rays in hand, the doc tells me it was far from a clean break and needs surgery. So after a week of my shattered bone scraping my nerves and causing pain I have never felt before, I finally go in for surgery! They put in a metal plate with screws to hold the bone in place so it can properly heal. The nerve pain was gone, so I thought I was on the mend. Some time goes by and the swelling still has not subsided, the doctors are not as concerned about this as I am, so I carry on until it becomes really inflamed and developed fever blisters. After no success in reaching the doctors office my husband borrows the neighbors car and rushes me to the ER. Good thing too, I had an infection. So after a 5 day stay in the hospital, they sent us home loaded with antibiotics and trained my husband in wound packing. We did everything right, kept the place immaculate, followed orders with the wound care, took my antibiotics, yet when they ran out there was still no sign of relief, or healing. Went to doctors and they gave me another month supply of antibiotics. Two days after my final dose my arm becomes inflamed again and with extra spectacular levels of pain to go with it. I call the doctor office… They said to come in on my appointment day ( 4 days away ). I asked, “You aren’t concerned with this inflammation?”, to which they replied, “No.”. Ok, maybe I am over reacting and it’s all in my head, I can power through 4 more days. The following morning my husband observed fever blisters and the wound site was clearly not right, so once again off we go to the ER. Well… thankfully we did. I was in Sepsis and could have died… After deliberating with the doctor on the course of action for treatment, the doctor accepted our plea to remove the plate, rather than tighten screws and have me drive 100 miles to hospital everyday for iv antibiotics (Umm I don’t have a car!?) So after another 4 day stay I am released into the world, alive and well. I am happy to report, the swelling is almost gone, the pain is minimal, and I am finally healing nicely. I am still in a sling and I have to be super careful and my arm was not fully knitted. So with that I am bummed to say, no traveling for me, no Ubuntu Summit 🙁

    I still need help with that car, if it weren’t for our neighbor, this story would have ended much differently.

    https://gofund.me/00942f47

    Despite my tragic few months for my right arm, my left arm has been quite busy. Thankfully I am a lefty! On to my work progress report.

    Kubuntu:

    Kubuntu 24.10 Oracular Oriole Released
    With Plasma 6! A big thank you to the Debian KDE/QT team and Rik Mills, could not have done it without you!

    KDE Snaps:

    All release service snaps are done! Save a few problematic ones still WIP.. I have released 24.08.2 which you can find here:

    https://snapcraft.io/publisher/kde

    I completed the qt6 and KDE frameworks 6 content packs for core24

    Snapcraft:

    I have a PR in for kde-neon-6 extension core24 support.

    That’s all for now. Thanks for stopping by!

  • KDE, Kubuntu, Debian: Weekly progress report Qt6 updates.

    KDE, Kubuntu, Debian: Weekly progress report Qt6 updates.

    Thankfully no tragedies to report this week! I thank each and everyone of you that has donated to my car fund. I still have a ways to go and could use some more help so that we can go to the funeral. https://gofund.me/033eb25d I am between contracts and work packages, so all of my work is currently for free. Thanks for your consideration.

    Another very busy week getting qt6 updates in Debian, Kubuntu, and KDE snaps.

    Kubuntu:

    • Merkuro and Neochat SRUs have made progress.
    • See Debian for the qt6 Plasma / applications work.

    Debian:

    • qtmpv – in NEW
    • arianna – in NEW
    • kamera – experimental
    • libkdegames – experimental
    • kdenetwork-filesharing – experimental
    • xwaylandvideobridge – NEW
    • futuresql – NEW
    • kpat WIP
    • Tokodon – Done, but needs qtmpv to pass NEW
    • Gwenview – WIP needs kamera, kio-extras
    • kio-extras – Blocked on kdsoap in which the maintainer is not responding to bug reports or emails. Will likely fork in Kubuntu as our freeze quickly approaches.

    KDE Snaps:

    Updated QT to 6.7.2 which required a rebuild of all our snaps. Also found an issue with mismatched ffmpeg libraries, we have to bundle them for now until versioning issues are resolved.

    Made new theme snaps for KDE breeze: gtk-theme-breeze, icon-theme-breeze so if you use the plasma theme breeze please install these and run

    for PLUG in $(snap connections | grep gtk-common-themes:icon-themes | awk '{print $2}'); do sudo snap connect ${PLUG} icon-theme-breeze:icon-themes; done
for PLUG in $(snap connections | grep gtk-common-themes:gtk-3-themes | awk '{print $2}'); do sudo snap connect ${PLUG} gtk-theme-breeze:gtk-3-themes; done
for PLUG in $(snap connections | grep gtk-common-themes:gtk-2-themes | awk '{print $2}'); do sudo snap connect ${PLUG} gtk-theme-breeze:gtk-2-themes; done

    This should resolve most theming issues. We are still waiting for kdeglobals to be merged in snapd to fix colorscheme issues, it is set for next release. I am still working on qt6 themes and working out how to implement them in snaps as they are more complex than gtk themes with shared libraries and file structures.

    Please note: Please help test the –edge snaps so I can promote them to stable.

    WIP Snaps or MR’s made

    • Juk (WIP)
    • Kajongg (WIP problem with pyqt)
    • Kalgebra (in store review)
    • Kdevelop (WIP)
    • Kdenlive (MR)
    • KHangman (WIP)
    • Ruqola (WIP)
    • Picmi (building)
    • Kubrick (WIP)
    • lskat (building)
    • Palapeli (MR)
    • Kanagram (WIP)
    • Labplot (WIP)
    • Ktuberling (building)
    • Ksudoku (building)
    • Ksquares (MR)

  • KDE Snaps, Kubuntu, Debian updates and “Oh no, not again..”

    This week our family suffered another loss with my brother in-law. We will miss him dearly. On our way down to Phoenix to console our nephew that just lost his dad our car blew up. Last week we were in a roll over accident that totaled our truck and left me with a broken arm. We are now in great need of a new vehicle. Please consider donating to this fund: https://gofund.me/033eb25d . Kubuntu is out of money and I am between work packages with the ‘project’. We are 50 miles away from the closest town for supplies, essentials such as water requires a vehicle.

    I have had bad years before ( covid ) in which I lost my beloved job at Blue Systems. I made a vow to myself to never let my personal life affect my work again. I have so far kept that promise to myself and without further ado I present to you my work.

    Kubuntu:

    • Many SRUs awaiting verification stage including the massive apparmor policy bug.
    • sddm fix for the black screen on second boot has passed verification and should make .1 release.
    • See Debian for the qt6 Plasma / applications work.

    Debian:

    • qtmpv – in NEW
    • arianna – in NEW
    • kamera – uploading today
    • kcharselect – Experimental
    • Tokodon – Done, but needs qtmpv to pass NEW
    • Gwenview – WIP needs kamera, kio-extras
    • kio-extras – WIP

    KDE Snaps:

    Please note: for the most part the Qt6 snaps are in –edge except the few in the ‘project’ that are heavily tested. Please help test the –edge snaps so I can promote them.

    • Elisa
    • Okular
    • Konsole ( please note this is a confined terminal for the ‘project’ and not very useful except to ssh to the host system )
    • Kwrite
    • Gwenview
    • Kate ( –classic )
    • Gcompris
    • Alligator
    • Ark
    • Blinken
    • Bomber
    • Bovo
    • Calindori
    • Digikam
    • Dragon
    • Falkon
    • Filelight

    WIP Snaps or MR’s made

    • KSpacedual
    • Ksquares
    • KSudoku
    • KTuberling
    • Kubrick
    • lskat
    • Palapeli
    • Kajongg
    • Kalzium
    • Kanagram
    • Kapman
    • Katomic
    • KBlackBox
    • KBlocks
    • KBounce
    • KBreakOut
    • KBruch

    Please note that 95% of the snaps are free-time work. The project covers 5. I am going as fast as I can between Kubuntu/Debian and the project commitments. Not to mention I have only one arm! My GSOC student is also helping which you can read all about here: https://soumyadghosh.github.io/website/interns/gsoc-2024/gsoc-week-3-week-7/

    There is still much work to do in Kubuntu to be Plasma 6 ready for Oracular and they are out of funds. I will still continue my work regardless, but please consider donating until we can procure a consistent flow of funding : https://kubuntu.org/donate/

    Thank you for reading and have a blessed day!

  • Kubuntu, KDE Report. In Loving Memory of my Son.

    Kubuntu, KDE Report. In Loving Memory of my Son.

    Personal:

    As many of you know, I lost my beloved son March 9th. This has hit me really hard, but I am staying strong and holding on to all the wonderful memories I have. He grew up to be an amazing man, devoted christian and wonderful father. He was loved by everyone who knew him and will be truly missed by us all. I have had folks ask me how they can help. He left behind his 7 year old son Mason. Mason was Billy’s world and I would like to make sure Mason is taken care of. I have set up a gofundme for Mason and all proceeds will go to the future care of him.

    https://gofund.me/25dbff0c

    Work report

    Kubuntu:

    Bug bashing! I am triaging allthebugs for Plasma which can be seen here:

    https://bugs.launchpad.net/plasma-5.27/+bug/2053125

    I am happy to report many of the remaining bugs have been fixed in the latest bug fix release 5.27.11.

    I prepared https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/5/5.27.11/ and Rik uploaded to archive, thank you. Unfortunately, this and several other key fixes are stuck in transition do to the time_t64 transition, which you can read about here: https://wiki.debian.org/ReleaseGoals/64bit-time . It is the biggest transition in Debian/Ubuntu history and it couldn’t come at a worst time. We are aware our ISO installer is currently broken, calamares is one of those things stuck in this transition. There is a workaround in the comments of the bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/calamares/+bug/2054795

    Fixed an issue with plasma-welcome.

    Found the fix for emojis and Aaron has kindly moved this forward with the fontconfig maintainer. Thanks!

    I have received an https://kfocus.org/spec/spec-ir14.html laptop and it is truly a great machine and is now my daily driver. A big thank you to the Kfocus team! I can’t wait to show it off at https://linuxfestnorthwest.org/.

    KDE Snaps:

    You will see the activity in this ramp back up as the KDEneon Core project is finally a go! I will participate in the project with part time status and get everyone in the Enokia team up to speed with my snap knowledge, help prepare the qt6/kf6 transition, package plasma, and most importantly I will focus on documentation for future contributors.

    I have created the ( now split ) qt6 with KDE patchset support and KDE frameworks 6 SDK and runtime snaps. I have made the kde-neon-6 extension and the PR is in: https://github.com/canonical/snapcraft/pull/4698 . Future work on the extension will include multiple versions track support and core24 support.

    I have successfully created our first qt6/kf6 snap ark. They will show showing up in the store once all the required bits have been merged and published.

    Thank you for stopping by.

    ~Scarlett

  • KDE: Snaps, KDEneon, Debian and my future.

    First I want to thank KDE for this wonderful write up on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kde_akademy-2023-over-a-million-reasons-why-activity-7139965489153208320-PNem?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop It made my heart explode with happiness as I prepped for my interview on Monday. I didn’t get the job ( Just the usual “we were very impressed with your experience, but we went with another candidate” ). I think the cosmos is determined for me to hold out for the ‘project’ even though it is only part time work, it is work and if I have learned nothing else this year, I have learned how to live on a very tight budget! It turns out many of the things we think we need, we don’t. So with hard work of Kevin Ottens ( Thank you!!!! ), this should be finalized after the first of the year. This plan also allows me time for KDEneon and Debian work. I am happy with it and look forward to the coming year and the exciting things to come.

    My holiday plans are to help the Debian KDE team with the KF6 packaging, On-going KDEneon efforts, and continue to make sure the snaps Qt6 transition is a painless as possible. I will also be working on the qt6 kde-neon extension.

    In closing, despite my terrible luck with job-hunting, I am in an amazing community and I am truly grateful to each and every one of you. It has been a great year and I have added many new things to my skillset and I look forward to many more next year.

    As usual, it is that time of month where I have not raised enough to pay my internet bill ( phone company taking an extra 200.00 didn’t help ) If you can spare any change ( any amount helps! ) please consider a donation https://gofund.me/b74e4c6f Thank you!

    I hope everyone has a wonderful <insert your holiday here> !!!!!

    ~ Scarlett

  • KDE: KDE Snaps 23.08.4, PIM! KDE neon, Debian

    KDE: KDE Snaps 23.08.4, PIM! KDE neon, Debian

    KDE PIM Kaddressbook snap
    KDE PIM Kaddressbook snap

    KDE Snaps:

    This weeks big accomplishment is KDE PIM snaps! I have successfully added akonadi as a service via an akonadi content snap and running it as a service. Kaddressbook is our first PIM snap with this setup and it works flawlessly! It is available in the snap store. I have a pile of MRs awaiting approvals, so keep your eye out for the rest of PIM in the next day.

    KDE Applications 23.08.4 has been released and available in the snap store.

    Krita 5.2.2 has been released.

    I have created a new kde-qt6 snap as the qt-framework snap has not been updated and the maintainer is unreachable. It is in edge and I will be rebuilding our kf6 snap with this one.

    I am debugging an issue with the latest Labplot release.

    KDE neon:

    This week I helped with frameworks release 5.113 and KDE applications 23.08.4.

    I also worked on the ongoing Unstable turning red into green builds as the porting to qt6 continues.

    Debian:

    With my on going learning packaging for all the programming languages, Rust packaging: I started on Rustic https://github.com/rustic-rs/rustic unfortunately, it was a bit of wasted time as it depends on a feature of tracing-subcriber that depends on matchers which has a grave bug, so it remains disabled.

    Personal:

    I do have an interview tomorrow! And it looks like the ‘project’ may go through after the new year. So things are looking up, unfortunately I must still ask, if you have any spare change please consider a donation. The phone company decided to take an extra $200.00 I didn’t have to spare and while I resolved it, they refused a refund, but gave me a credit to next months bill, which doesn’t help me now. Thank you for your consideration.

    https://gofund.me/b74e4c6f