How to update to KDE Plasma 5.9?

I am new to the Ubuntu world. I have downloaded Kubuntu 16.04 LTS and it installed really nicely. Now, I see that it just comes with KDE 5.5.5.

I have added the stable repo and am now having the 5.8.5 version. Having just read about the KDE 5.9 release I am wondering - how to get it?


If you want to use the latest from KDE you could use KDE Neon instead of Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu LTS with the latest KDE.

You can get KDE Neon at: https://neon.kde.org/

There are two different versions to choose from.

  • A User Edition, featuring the latest officially released KDE software on a stable base. Ideal for everyday users.
  • A Developer Edition, featuring pre-release KDE software.

To install the latest official version of Plasma, we have to use Kubuntu (Backports) repositories. To do this you simply I execute the following in the terminal

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade -y

This PPA can be added to your system manually by copying the lines below and adding them to your system's software sources.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE main 

to see the changes it is to reboot.