This android and KDE Desktop integration project was created by Albert Vaka and I thought this is very interesting project. It was a Google Summer of Code project 2013 and aiming to be seamless and integrated solution between android phone and KDE desktop. Here is the look on how it works :

This project is pre beta software, so the features will be added overtime. At present, the available plugins are :

  • Battery Report
  • Clipboard Sync
  • Multimedia Remote Controls
  • Notification Sync (The android notification plugins needs at least android 4.3 to run)
  • Ping
  • Telephony notifier

Pretty cool isn’t it ?

HOW TO INSTALL :

On the Android :

Download this KDE Connect APK and install it like usual :

Download : KDE-Connect-apk –> (this is old version apk, don’t use this, use the updated playstore version)

At the time I try this, my nexus 7 is already at 4.3 (self-build-cm10.2+some-cherrypicks) on the left, and not having any problem at all, but my S4 still use 4.2.2 (damn exynos5410), so the notification sync plugin is failed to load. It means, my nexus 7 can send any notification from the system to my desktop but not with my S4. However, both are running stable and usable.

This project is currently under development, for the latest apk from Albert Vaka, of course use the playstore version always.

On the ubuntu :

There are still no ppa for this KDE Connect at this time, so if you want to install on your ubuntu, you have to compile from source, but no worry, it’s easy, Emil Österlund already create some short walkthrough. Follow this and you should be ok :

To compile the source you need cmake and some devel package, do this :

sudo apt-get install cmake kdebase-workspace-dev libqjson-dev git libqca2-dev

and all needed dependencies will be resolved itself. If done, we need to pull the source from the repository :

mkdir ~/project/kde-connect cd ~/project/kde-connect git clone git://anongit.kde.org/kdeconnect-kde cd kdeconnect-kde

It’s time to compile, do this :

cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr ./ make sudo make install

If everything is ok, then load the daemon so the KDE dbus could take advantage of it :

qdbus org.kde.kded /kded loadModule kdeconnect

That command should return true like below, otherwise there something error during compiling.

(jfdesign@jfklixs-ubuntu64:kdeconnect-kded)$ qdbus org.kde.kded /kded loadModule kdeconnect true 
(jfdesign@jfklixs-ubuntu64:kdeconnect-kded)$

Now, everything is set up, then invoke this command at last :

kbuildsycoca4 -noincremental

If you’re upgrading this kde-connect daemon protocol from previous version, then you need to logout and log back in for the service to reload, but if this is your first time, then it’s done.

Open the KDE system settings, and under Devices on Hardware Tab you could found your devices :

And here is the notification looks :

Have fun and see ya !