KDE neon / Plasma 6 on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Help
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1

Hi

I have a special problem.

First of all I love KDE neon and have used the distro for several years now but we
have a change in the company which nails me to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

I know that KDE neon is 24.04 LTS based but that right now does not help me because
the laptop needs to show itself as Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
(fleeddm and mdatp)

So I installed Ubuntu 24.04 LTS as base and aktivated kde-desktop which only leads me
to KDE 5.

I would really love to caome as close to actual stable KDE neon as possible.

So I have configured a apt-source:

→ archive neon kde org user noble main

which gives me a preview of over 200 packages to be updated.

I just want to be sure that the disto does not show itself as KDE neon afterwards.

Can anyone confirm on that?

2

The base-files package is responsible for that.

zeus@9600k:~$ apt-file list base-files
base-files: /bin                          
base-files: /etc/debian_version
base-files: /etc/dpkg/origins/debian
base-files: /etc/host.conf
base-files: /etc/issue
base-files: /etc/issue.net
base-files: /etc/os-release
base-files: /etc/update-motd.d/10-uname
base-files: /lib
base-files: /lib64
base-files: /sbin
base-files: /usr/lib/os-release

If keeping the Ubuntu of it then it should do the display you want, the os-release and debian_version files mainly. But the apt pinning they do in the neon to keep the system stable will not be done by the method you chose here. Better off doing test install with the neon then putting the Ubuntu base-files there to get the naming display you want to confirm it works.

Edit: and now it pops into my head the lsb-release package gets involved in the naming as well.

zeus@9600k:~$ apt-file list lsb-release
lsb-release: /usr/bin/lsb_release         
lsb-release: /usr/share/doc/lsb-release/changelog.Debian.gz
lsb-release: /usr/share/doc/lsb-release/copyright
lsb-release: /usr/share/man/man1/lsb_release.1.gz

Edit2: Only the three text files should be needed really, lsb-release, os-release and debian_version replacing the neon versions. Should do it without the Ubuntu/Kubuntu version packages installed. Unless I forget something now I remember I still have them on my machine some of the files from when I did similar with the Jammy to get the updated kde.

root@9600k:~# cat neon_files/apt_contents/apt.conf
Debug::pkgProblemResolver "true";
Acquire::Languages "none";
root@9600k:~# cat neon_files/apt_contents/apt.conf.d/
01autoremove               50neon-essentials-desktop
01-vendor-ubuntu           60icons
20packagekit               60icons-hidpi
20snapd.conf               60icons-large
50appstream                60icons-large-hidpi
50command-not-found        70debconf
root@9600k:~# cat neon_files/apt_contents/preferences.d/
50-neon-ubuntu-release-upgrader
99-jammy-overrides
99-neon-base-files
org-kde-neon-net-launchpad-ppa-mozillateam-pin

As you can see there are numerous files they use to tell the system to use their packages instead of the Ubuntu. Then there was the naming changes that caused numerous conflicts when I did it. In short the other way round is the easiest way to do it, neon install changing the text files as needed.

1 Like
3

You don’t need to install a whole OS and then add Plasma to it for this at all. I took a peek at the install script, and it looks at the standard /etc/os-release file to get the distro information. This is the most common place used to find this sort of information.

You can edit /etc/os-release temporarily.
Change ID=neon to ID=ubuntu, the try re-running the installation script.

Editing this temporarily is is a common thing to do for software install scripts that look for specific distro names when using something based on ubuntu like KDE neon, Linux Mint and many others.

I think this will also work for fleetdm, though you probably can ask them to add it to their OS support list, just like it was done for Tuxedo OS (which is a variant of KDE neon)

1 Like
4

The problem is, that it must be not temporarily. Status is reported several times a day when you are online.

So at least I have to keep an eye on the basis-files and lsb-release after updating.

5

Ok, then don’t change it back? It isn’t terribly important overall in this situation since the actual OS is still Ubuntu, and won’t break anything. I only say to change it temporarily because it IS a system file, and it is good practice to put things back they way they were, in general.

But a tool that needs to check the OS/version multiple times a day would be a valid case for keeping the edit. Are you sure it needs to read this constantly, or it is just that the install scripting is the bit looking at the OS so that it can set up the appropriate repos for each distro and release? This would be easy enough to check

The only time I can think of that Neon would want to identify as neon instead of Ubuntu is at upgrade time every two years. You’d then switch it back----temporarily :slight_smile:.

6

apt-mark hold base-files lsb-release should keep them at the version installed that you changed the files from. You would need to do an apt install base-files lsb-release to have them update again then of course could mark them held once more after making the changes needed.

7

Ok. I raped the Ubuntu a little bit by now.

I did the apt-mark hold and a dist-upgrade afterwards.
followed by some forced-overwrites and a full forced overwrite of
all neon packages in /var/cache/apt/archives :slight_smile:

At least I’m on KDE 6 and the system is still in company-compliance :stuck_out_tongue:

I will take it as a temporary system and do a different clean KDE neon installation on a different m.2

Btw. is there any step-by-step-guidance to install a KDE neon as

Raid 1 + LUKS + LVM which is also Secure-Boot-compliance?
Google did not lead me to something successfull.

Right now it’s “just” LUKS+LVM on one M.2