How to Update to Ktorrent 4.3.1 in Linux Mint Nadia KDE

Ktorrent's download page gives good though incomplete instructions for installing the latest version of Ktorrent, which has not and I think never will hit Linux Mint 14's or Ubuntu's 12.10 repository. I believe the Ubuntu folks may be reserving Ktorrent 4.3.1 for Ubuntu Raring, for whatever reason, but I didn't let that keep me from trying out the latest version of Ktorrent, which seems to have some worthwhile new features and bug fixes. I sometimes observe unusual delays with my torrents, so I thought it might be helpful to update to the latest version just to reduce the possibility of a bug.

First, I visited Ubuntu's documentation for compiling software here and performed only the first step, which is

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Then I loaded Synaptic Package Manager and installed all of the following packages and their dependencies:

cmake

libqt4-dev

kdelibs5-dev

libgmp-dev

libqca2-dev

libgcrypt4-dev

libboost-dev

doxygen

libtag1-dev

kdepimlibs5-dev

kde-workspace-dev

The above is quite a long list. Installing consumes about a gigabyte or so in free space, if memory serves me correctly. I let one of the larger downloads run overnight while I was asleep. I discovered these prerequisites through trial-and-error. Whenever the compile failed, or in some cases even if it succeeded, I noted the compiler's complaints and tried to satisfy them through Synaptic Package Manager. It is okay to recompile as many times as one desires until the not-found errors are eliminated.

Next, I followed the instructions on Ktorrent's download page. Note that the above satisfies all prerequisites (qt, kde, libgmp, qca2 and others left unmentioned) for compiling.

I am now using Ktorrent 4.3.1 with KDE 4.9.5 on Linux Mint Nadia. My configuration file was preserved intact during the upgrade. So far, Ktorrent 4.3.1 works well, although I had to get used to the new tab design, which I think may be better, as it may save a few clicks on occasion.

Update

Ktorrent 4.3.1 is, if anything, faster than the earlier version, and I like the new tab feature. I think I improved performance by disabling DHT and reducing the number of network connections to about 45 or so. In the case of network connections, more is not necessarily better. I also use the uBitTorrent protocol exclusively, not allowing TCP connections, because uBitTorrent protocol plays better with other users on the network. I have not noticed any detrimental impact from excluding TCP connections. I don't know for sure whether my ISP frowns upon torrenting, but I don't want to find out. All my connections require encryption, and I often use KDE's proxy, though not always, because I'm not 100% confident in the proxy being up all the time.

Why did Canonical not release this new version of Ktorrent to users of earlier and current versions of Ubuntu? By neglecting to backport new versions of software, Canonical provides incentives for users to upgrade to their latest version, 13.04 Raring, which is fast approaching its release date.