The beautiful KDE Plasma 5.27 has been released, and here’s how to upgrade to Plasma 5.27 from 5.26.
The last of the Plasma 5 series – KDE Plasma 5.27 is finally out. This release brings a tiling window, fractional scaling, Wayland updates and many more features. You can check out the detailed feature guide on this page, which I published a while back.
If you are running an earlier version of KDE Plasma via the KDE Neon desktop, here’s how you can upgrade to the latest version.
Table of Contents
How to Upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.27
Firstly, the upgrade size is around 20% less than Plasma 5.26. The KDE Plasma 5.27 upgrade size in KDE Neon is close to 700 MB on my test machine.
Secondly, close all the running applications before proceeding.
The upgrade process of KDE Neon via Discover or pkcon is stable and never failed me. If you want to be extra cautious, you may take a backup of your data. However, it’s unnecessary, in my opinion.
1. Steps for the upgrade process
Via GUI – Discover App
Open Discover from the application menu. Click on “Fetch Updates”.
Wait for a few minutes until the updated package lists are available.
You can also verify whether Plasma 5.27 is available via the upgrade package list.
Once you have verified, click on the ‘Update All’ button in the Discover window at the top-right.
Via command line
Alternatively, you can run the below commands from the terminal and start the upgrade process in KDE Neon.
sudo apt update
sudo pkcon update
The pkcon might freeze for a minute or two during the upgrade installation. Don’t close it; instead, wait for it to complete the installation.
Restart the system after the upgrade process is complete.
And after reboot, you should see the brand new KDE Plasma 5.27 welcomes you.
Upgrading KDE Plasma in Kubuntu and Fedora
Ubuntu & Kubuntu
For Kubuntu 22.04 users, you will not get 5.27 for its lifetime. However, the next Kubuntu LTS version due in 2024 (24.04) would have this version.
Kubuntu 23.04 Lunar Lobster should have this version in April.
Also, I would recommend you keep an eye on the backports PPA. Once available for respective Ubuntu releases, you can easily upgrade to this latest version using the command below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
sudo apt-get full-upgrade
Fedora
Fedora 38 users should receive KDE Plasma 5.27 during the release or within its first point release later this year.
Arch Linux
Finally, Arch Linux users (running Plasma desktop) can update via the following command from the terminal. Try not to use Discover in Arch Linux for this core plasma update.
sudo pacman -Syu
As of publishing this, it’s currently in testing on Arch.
Post Upgrade Feedback
I ran the upgrade process on a Virtual Box VM with a fresh KDE Neon with KDE Plasma 5.26 installed. The upgrade process is smooth, with no surprises or errors. Well, it never failed for me to date.
The upgrade time entirely depends on your internet connection and KDE servers. In general, it should be completed within 30 minutes. For me, it took around 20 minutes.
The first restart after the upgrade went fine and did not take much time.
So, overall, you can safely upgrade if you are in KDE Neon. And wait for the packages for Ubuntu and Fedora stable releases.
Enjoy the brand-new KDE Plasma!
