Hi everyone!

You’ve probably noticed that the current ISO for Kader⁴² isn’t quite right and that there are issues with the installation. I’m working on it right now, but the problem is a bit bigger than I first thought. But how did this even happen?

I think every software developer knows that moment: You want to “just quickly” tidy up the project a bit and maybe restructure it, and suddenly the whole project is turned upside down.

Chaos in My Head

Anyone who’s been following Kader⁴² for a while knows that I pour my heart and soul into this project and that Kader⁴² is simply my baby. So I really enjoy working on this project, even if it sometimes takes a lot out of me. Unfortunately, I also have to deal with very different challenges in my everyday life. I suffer from depression and am currently going through a severe episode. On top of that, I also have ADHD. I was in a psychiatric day clinic and have been working on myself. But this process is far from over, and I still have a long way to go.

During a phase like this, the brain often protects itself: There’s usually only enough energy for the bare essentials, and things like a clean Git commit or keeping track of files without any gaps simply slip through the cracks in the mental fog. This is exactly what happened with Kader⁴², which personally annoys me a lot and, unfortunately, puts pressure on me. This was also a topic in therapy, and I’m working on it. However, I don’t want to make any excuses here. I just want to give you a quick update and be transparent. I hope to be able to present a clean ISO again very soon.

Refactoring in the Valley of Tears

Until now, Kader⁴² was like a well-organized workshop where, nevertheless, all the tools were crammed into a single box. If you wanted to change something about the wallpaper or the color scheme, you had to create a new ISO afterward. This wasn’t update-friendly and was also difficult to maintain. I therefore decided to break up the monolith. The architecture was migrated to a clean, modular Arch Linux standard. This resulted in the following packages:

kader42-core	contains the core system defaults, services, and the “Kader⁴² Hello” welcome screen.
kader42-icons	contains the Kader⁴²-specific icons.
kader42-plasma-theme	This is the KDE Plasma theme for Kader⁴².
kader42-convertible-tools	This package includes the programs and scripts needed to work effectively with a convertible. Among other things, it includes the functionality that automatically switches the launcher when switching to tablet mode and back (tablet mode = Dash menu, laptop mode = classic Start menu).
kader42-software-center	It includes its own Software Center, which has replaced pamac.

These packages are stored in a separate Kader⁴² repository.

Unfortunately, as they say, a few things fell by the wayside during the breakdown into these modules. For example, the welcome screen—which could also be used to start the installation—was completely missing. Due to my illness, I had simply forgotten that I had already built something there. On top of that, I had even failed to check the program into Git. (Very bad!) Fortunately, as a computer scientist, I’m still paranoid enough to have kept a backup on my NAS, which is why I was able to restore a lot of it. Unfortunately, I had even forgotten that I’d started this refactoring and hadn’t even tested the build, which I usually do. So I can only apologize for the quality, and I hope that those of you out there who use or want to use this system will be a little understanding.

Everything should definitely be back on track in the next ISO build. Unfortunately, I can’t give a timeframe here. As I suspected, things have turned into a mess that needs to be sorted out. After that, though, the quality should at least be back to normal.

Yours, Thomas

(and Mello!)