[Pre-Install] To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade?

[emk69]

Hi all,
This thread is about how to migrate from my old computer (running Kubuntu 24.04/X11) to a new one. The big question is: is it worth upgrading now to 25.04 (Plasma 6/Wayland).

My main system uses 2 monitors: A 27" 4k monitor and a 25" 2k monitor. My old Ryzen 5700G APU cannot handle the total resolution required by these monitors and I've limped along for many months using a startup script that forces the 4k monitor to 2k mode as the primary monitor (similar to the old Xorg.conf). I recently bought a new Asrock Industrial 4x4 box with Ryzen AI350 that handles far more monitors and pixels than I need.

My question: is hi-res dual monitor operation significantly improved on 25.04 with Wayland/Plasma6? If it's not much better yet, I can remain on 24.04/X11 until 26.04. Issues I'd like to be better include:

1. Leave the 4k monitor at 4k and set a scale factor at 200% just for this monitor.
2. Have open windows appear on the same monitor when coming out of sleep. 24.04 does not do this, but there's a complication: the 4k monitor is much slower to wake from sleep than the 2k monitor. So, upon wake-up, most windows appear on the 2k monitor (first to come up).
3. After wake-up or boot, many windows that get moved to the 2k monitor are off the screen on the top; i.e. the Plasma title bar is above the top of the visible screen and the rest of the window is visible. I've done nothing to set screen geometry either in X11 script files or in the System Settings -> Display Configuration settings, except as noted above.

My main applications are Thunderbird, Firefox, Vivaldi (browser), LibreOffice, Eclipse, Visual Studio Code, various development tools, Krusader File Manager. Mozilla apps (and Chrome) are installed from their PPAs. My last clean install was 23.04, when I configured a new boot SSD for btrfs. 23.10 and 24.04 were installed via upgrades. All important data files are backed up to a Synology NAS (as well as protected with snapshots). The system already uses kernel 6.14, the minimum suggested for AI350 support.

Thanks for any advice you can provide,
Eric

[claydoh]

Plasma 6 (wayland) should be better with multi-monitor in general, though the real benefit is it is MUCH better at multiple resolution/refresh rate support. I don't have experience with anything over 1080p, but others do.
The easiest thing is to try out 25.04 as a test, or better a KDE neon setup as 25.10 comes in October, so Plasma 6.4/5 instead of 6.3. 25.04 will reach EOL in January, as well

And note that you can't upgrade directly to 25.04.
You may still be able to upgrade to 24.10, then to 25.04, but since 24.10 is past End of Life (this past July) the repos for it either are already mothballed, or soon will be. So for pure upgrading, 26.04 is the only path. I don't generally recommend back-to-back upgrading anyway.

[claydoh]

The system already uses kernel 6.14, the minimum suggested for AI350 support.

You might also consider upgrading Mesa as well if you stay on LTS, if you have any issues. This can help with new/newer AMD graphics chips on LTS releases, though the 6.14 kernel also brought a small bump in that.

https://launchpad.net/~kisak/+archive/ubuntu/kisak-mesa

[emk69]

Thank you, claydoh.

It looks like 24.10 repos still exist. I could copy my current boot SSD (dd) and just try the upgrade (24.04 to 24.10 to 25.04) in the new computer. If it blows up, then the decision is made. I was not aware that 24.04 could not be directly upgraded to 25.04.

So Mesa software updates are not in any Ubuntu managed backport PPA, just kisak? Yes, I want to try newer Mesa if I stick with 24.04.

Finally, can you point me to any source for good information about Plasma6 configuration in Wayland? Particularly regarding graphics display configuration?
Thanks, again,
Eric

[claydoh]

So Mesa software updates are not in any Ubuntu managed backport PPA, just kisak?

Well, the HWE stack that brings in the upgrade to the 6.14 also brings in a newer mesa than what came originally, so it isn't super far behind. However, there won't be any more HWE upgrades. You may well be fine with that HWE version without needing to upgrade, but it is an option if research suggests it.

The only source for more current is a third party PPA. There are a few around.
The Kisak one has been around for ages and ages, and is from a current or former Valve employee, if that helps.

For Plasma 6 configuration, it's all the same places as in Plasma 5. Just some different (fewer) options if you use X11, and your monitor's capabilities. Here are my mis-matched pair of dirt cheap 24 and 27" monitors in Plasma 6.4.4:





Switching between x11 and wayland can cause some settings to change between them, such as window placements at login, but overall there shouldn't be any dramas. Are there any specific things you need to look at?

If you test out Wayland in Plasma 5, you might see things even weirder when swapping between them -- such as completely different configurations and even labels, as if you had two different sets of monitors. I *think* that was remedied well before Plasma 5.27, but I can't recall for sure now lol, but if it looks like you lost all your monitor/panel settings when switching, this will be why.