Getting Started/Build/Fedora17

Some basic instructions for getting a KDE plasma desktop session built from git when running Fedora 17. This is intentionally leaving out some of the more advanced options / configurations so that you can quickly get up and running without losing your sanity.

Dependencies

To build KDE from source on Fedora 17 first install the necessary packages:

sudo yum groupinstall "KDE Software Compilation" "Development Libraries" "Development Tools" "KDE Software Development" "X Software Development"
sudo yum install dbusmenu-qt-devel docbook-dtds docbook-utils libxslt-devel aspell-devel avahi-devel grantlee-devel jasper jasper-devel media-player-info OpenEXR OpenEXR-devel pcre-devel qca2-devel raptor2-devel redland-devel libudev-devel akonadi-devel libical-devel libxslt-devel prison-devel libtidy-devel libcanberra-devel exiv2 exiv2-libs exiv2-devel rpc2 rpc2-devel xz-devel libssh-devel libssh2-devel NetworkManager-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel openslp-devel gpgme-devel strigi dblatex taglib-devel polkit-devel libmusicbrainz-devel libv4l-devel sane-backends-devel lcms2-devel libgphoto2-devel eigen2-devel libmusicbrainz3-devel cdparanoia-devel bzr redland-bindings-common libiodbc-devel
sudo yum-builddep qt

kdesrc-build instructions / configuration

This guide uses kdesrc-build for building KDE. Here is a sample configuration for building the latest version of the KDE 4.9 branch. For more detailed information aobut kdesrc-build check out the documentation.

Nepomuk / Desktop search

For 32 bit systems issue the following commands:

cp /usr/lib/virtodbc.so ~/kde/lib/
cp /usr/lib/virtodbc_r.so ~/kde/lib/
cp /usr/bin/virtuoso-t ~/kde/bin/

For 64 bit systems issue the following commands:

cp /usr/lib64/virtodbc.so ~/kde/lib/
cp /usr/lib64/virtodbc_r.so ~/kde/lib/
cp /usr/bin/virtuoso-t ~/kde/bin/

Running the new KDE session

Create a file in your home directory called startkde-wrapper:

#!/bin/sh
export KDEDIR="~/"

AddToPath() {
	eval "export $1=$2\${$1+:\$$1}" # prepend to existing path, if there is one
}

AddToPath PATH "$KDEDIR/bin"
AddToPath LD_LIBRARY_PATH "$KDEDIR/lib"
AddToPath QT_PLUGIN_PATH "$KDEDIR/lib/kde4/plugins:$KDEDIR/lib/qt4/plugins"
AddToPath PKG_CONFIG_PATH "$KDEDIR/lib/pkgconfig"
AddToPath CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH "$KDEDIR"
export XDG_DATA_DIRS="$KDEDIR/share:/usr/share"
export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS="$KDEDIR/etc/xdg:/etc/xdg"
export KDEDIRS="$KDEDIR"
exec startkde "$@"

Make the file executable:

chmod a+x ~/startkde-wrapper

You must disable selinux before the login screen will show you the entry for the KDE git session. To permanently disable selinux edit /etc/selinux/config and set:

SELINUX=disabled

Then use the command to disable selinux immediately without needing to reboot:

sudo setenforce 0

Copy the normal plasma desktop session:

cp /usr/share/xsession/kde-plasma.desktop /usrshare/xsession/kde-git.desktop

Edit the new copy and set the following values(replace username with your user's name):

Exec=/home/<username>/startkde-wrapper
TryExec=/home/<username>/startkde-wrapper
Name=KDE Git

Logout then select the new KDE Git session when logging in.