How to upgrade to KDE 4.3.1

This is a very short and very narrowed guide, but I am sure some of you may still find it very interesting.

Today we are going to upgrade KDE to the new version 4.3.1 on Kubuntu.

KDE 4.3.1 has been released yesterday and it is a Service Release of the 4.3 series that brings many bug fixes, performance improvements and translation updates.

For stability reasons the Kubuntu standard repositories do not offer the update, so you have to add a third party repository.

First thing, open KPackageKit.

From KPackageKit

Then go to “Settings” and click on “Edit Software Sources”.

From KPackageKit

Go to “Third-Party Software” tab and click “Add” At the bottom of the screen.

From KPackageKit

On the dialog windows you will get insert the following line, but wait before clicking “Ok”:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu jaunty main

From KPackageKit

Before clicking “Ok”, open Konsole and execute the following 2 commands:
gpg –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv 2836CB0A8AC93F7A
gpg –export –armor 2836CB0A8AC93F7A | sudo apt-key add -
(in the following screenshot, Konsole tells that “key 8AC93F7A: “Launchpad Kubuntu Updates” not changed”; that is because I already had the key, but in your case it should tell you that the key has correctly been imported).

From KPackageKit

When you done it, go back to KPackageKit and finally click “Ok”; when you do it, KPackageKit will tell you that it has to regenerate the master list of the software available.

From KPackageKit

From KPackageKit

When you have done it, close it and click on the small wheel with the green arrow that you will see near the clock on the task bar and confirm all the available updates.

When the installation has completed, log off from your KDE session and log back in. YOU ARE DONE!

If you want to verify that you actually installed the update, open any KDE own software (like Konsole), go to “Help” and select “About KDE”; you should get a windows like this.

From KPackageKit

I hope you will enjoy your new and update version of KDE.

Stay tuned for more guides.