KDE has announced Frameworks 6.29, the latest monthly update to a collection of more than 70 add-on libraries for Qt that provide much of the underlying functionality used by KDE Plasma and KDE applications.
Notable changes include expanded archive support in KArchive. The KZip implementation can now write ZIP64 archives, allowing KDE software to create ZIP files that exceed traditional ZIP format limits. The release also fixes problems opening ZIP64 archives and changes the writer to process data in chunks.
Image handling also gets considerable attention. KImageFormats adds support for saving AVCI images and reading JPEG images inside HEIF containers, while now recognizing HIF files as readable HEIF images.
The framework now supports Windows Explorer EXIF tags and improves handling of HEIF files with invalid metadata. Additionally, the KRA and ORA image handlers have been merged into a single plugin with metadata support, and testing has been expanded for animated AVIF and JPEG XL images.
In KIO, KDE’s framework for accessing and manipulating files and network resources, the thumbnail handling has been improved so cached thumbnails that are too small can be regenerated. Generated previews now retain information about the device pixel ratio, helping produce more appropriate thumbnails on HiDPI displays.
File operations have also been optimized as well. KIO’s CopyJob now caches the destination filesystem type instead of probing it for every copied file, and ACL writing support in the file worker’s chmod implementation has been restored.
KConfig brings several changes. The kreadconfig utility can now dump default configuration values and output entries sorted by group and key. KDE has fixed handling of deleted default entries and immutable configuration entries, along with generated setters for enum-based options.
Moreover, KHolidays adds support for holidays based on the Hebrew calendar and changes lunar-phase calculations to use the system timezone instead of UTC. Bluez Qt fixes a race condition during Bluetooth object manager initialization, while KFileMetaData addresses an overflow in audio property extraction.
KGuiAddons introduces a new KSystemClipboard::ownsClipboard API and fixes cleanup of clipboard devices and managers under Wayland. It also corrects sizing and placement of overlay emblems on non-square icons.
Kirigami, KDE’s UI framework for convergent applications, receives numerous visual and behavioral fixes. These include corrected sizing for the GlobalDrawer, better form alignment, fixes for portrait image aspect ratios, and scrolling and keyboard shortcuts for switching tabs in NavigationTabBar.
KTextEditor fixes block selection and block insertion with tabs, improves cursor positioning after paste operations, adds Ctrl+A support in insert mode, and addresses several issues when switching between visual modes. Cursor rendering has also been fixed for the available cursor styles.
Finally, Breeze Icons adds icons for Matrix instant messaging, Android App Bundles, and KWin Options tabs, while KNotifications adds an API that lets applications open the platform’s notification configuration interface.
For more details, see the release announcement. KDE Frameworks 6.29 should start reaching rolling-release distributions first, followed by regular updates in other distros according to their own packaging schedules.
For those who prefer to build from source, the entire codebase for Frameworks 6.29 (requires Qt 6.9) is available for download from KDE’s official website.
