After a recent update on Calculate Linux (Gentoo-based), KMail stopped launching and running it from the terminal showed the following error as the root cause of failure:

Postgres db cluster upgrade failed, Akonadi will fail to start. Sorry.

The update process had bumped up PostgreSQL from version 16 to 17, and that’s where the problem lied. Fixing this with all the KMail data intact turned out to be a relatively simpler task.

ALT Linux uses PulseAudio as its default sound server but, switching to PipeWire is not that difficult. ALT Linux English wiki doesn’t have any documentation on this subject as of writing this article, so I decided to post this little how-to with the hope that someone will find it useful.

A short while back, I upgraded the minimal installation of Xubuntu Jammy Jellyfish to Noble Numbat, and then I installed Qt5 Configuration Utility (qt5ct) and upon launching, it presented me with the following error,

the QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME environment variable is not set correctly (current value:gtk2, required value:qt5ct)

So, I added the following line into the /etc/environment file,

export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct

Next I performed the logout/login routine and again launched the qt5ct and again the same error persisted to my frustration.

Initially, I didn’t want to write this post, but then a thought from some deep recesses of my mind came afloat,

Big online marketplaces and big franchises spend a ton of money on promoting themselves while small local businesses can’t, so why not spread the word around when you discover something good locally?

I was wondering around a backstreet in a small south Gujarat town called Navsari when my eyes spotted a lovely looking shoe store.

I’m an avid Firefox user and it has been the browser for me for the ages but due to a recent Firefox bug in openSUSE Tumbleweed, I was in need for a temporary browser alternative. I shortlisted Brave and Vivaldi as decent Firefox placeholders. Sadly, Brave and Vivaldi are not available in the official repositories of openSUSE but installing them is a relatively straightforward and easy process.