How To Install KDE Plasma 5.16 On Kubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo)

This article explains how to install the latest KDE Plasma 5.16, released today, in Kubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo). Instructions for completely undoing the changes are also included, useful in case something goes wrong with the upgrade, or you simply want too use the default Plasma version from Kubuntu 19.04.

KDE Plasma 5.16 changes include:

• A completely rewritten notification system that comes with a Do Not Disturb mode, notifications are grouped together, and critical notifications are shown in fullscreen applications. The Notifications Settings page was also updated, and is now more clean and easier to use
• Initial support for using Wayland with proprietary Nvidia drivers. When using Qt 5.13 with this driver, graphics are also no longer distorted after waking the computer from sleep.
• The themes system was improved. There's more control over customizing widgets, and themes are correctly applied to panels
• Improved look and feel of the login, lock and logout screens
• Modernized all widget configuration settings, and improved the panels to make them clearer and easier too use
• Revamped Appearence Settings section
• When any app is recording audio, a microphone icon will appear in the System Tray warning you of this
• More!

Even though KDE Plasma 5.16 has been released today, the Kubuntu Backports PPA has already been updated with this new release, for Kubuntu 19.04.

It's very important to note that the Kubuntu Backports PPA offers new major versions of Plasma desktop, which are not fully tested! At this time the PPA has Plasma 5.16 for Kubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo), and if you add the repository, you'll also get future Plasma updates. There are no KDE applications (Dolphin, Kate, Konsole, and so on) in this PPA for Kubuntu 19.04, at least at this time.

The latest Plasma 5.16 is not available for Kubuntu 18.04 LTS in this PPA. If you want to use the latest KDE Plasma & applications with a stable base, you may want to check out KDE Neon.

To upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.16 on Kubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo), use:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
sudo apt full-upgrade

And reboot.

Something went wrong, or you don't like something in Plasma 5.16? You can downgrade back to Plasma 5.15 (5.15.4), which is the default version that's available in Kubuntu 19.04 using:

sudo apt install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

Reboot after the packages are downgraded.