Binary package hint: gtk-qt-engine
I know this may be regarded as a duplicate.. but please read it carefully.
Kubuntu Jaunty Alpha 4
It's known that gtk-qt-engine doesn't work unless libbonoboui2.0 is installed. But gtk-qt-engine doesn't have that as a dependency because nobody wants to include loads of gtk libraries on the CD. This is understandable.
There are a bunch of bugs logged against this problem. They have all been rejected with the reasoning that any gtk app will pull in libbonobo as a dependency, so it'll be OK. But I have to report that this is not the case. No gtk app I've installed today (eg Firefox as the highest-profile example) pulls in libbonobo and therefore the gtk-qt engine doesn't work.
(Firefox only pulls in libbonobo if you also install the ubuntu firefox extras - and that pulls in a heap of other stuff like synaptic which really isn't needed so most people don't do it).
It was only after an hour of Googling that I found out why it wasn't working.
I really think that the dependency of gtk-qt-engine on libbonoboui should be reinstated, and the gtk-qt-engine should not be installed by default. This is the approach taken by other distros. At the moment you have something installed that doesn't work and that will never work without installing some random library. Neither approach is ideal but it's better to not install it than it is to install it and have it not work.
Hello world !
Why not to rename the current package into gtk-qt-engine-base and to provide a package gtk-qt-engine which would be empty and depend on both gtk-qt-engine-base and libbonoboui ? This way people who installs libbonoboui would get the right behavior and people who explicitly ask for gtk-qt-engines too.
I would also like to suggest a hack... I do not know if it is feasible with regards to Ubuntu's packaging standards.
The iso version of kubuntu-desktop would suggest gtk-qt-engine and recommend gtk-qt-engine-base. A few days after the release, an update would recommend gtk-qt-engine and do no other changes.
It's ugly but it might works.
Maybe the answer shouldn't be those hacks and maybe we should think about a way to provide some trimed-down package on the CD. If people are interested we could try to find way of doing this, but since I'm far from being a apt guru and I know nothing of Ubuntu's policies, it's very very unlikely that I could find suitable solution.