Projects/KDE on Mac OS X

Introduction

KDE on Mac OS X has a long history, but is seeing new life in KDE4 and Qt4/Mac by bringing native KDE4 applications to the Mac OS X desktop.

About KDE on Mac OS X

KDE 3

If you are interested in installing KDE 3.x on Mac OS X, check out the KDE 3 page.

KDE 4

KDE 4.x on Mac OS X is quickly reaching a stable stage, and currently could be considered a "technology preview". Official support for Mac OS X is targeted for KDE 4.1.0.

Goals for KDE on Mac OS X

Mac OS X is already a "desktop environment" in the sense that it provides window management, application launching, etc. The goal of KDE on Mac OS X is to provide the rich frameworks and applications in KDE to a wider audience.

In KDE 4, we intend to have:

• Solid hardware integration
• Phonon support (already finished, thanks to Trolltech)
• Strigi integration with Spotlight

Perhaps not all of these things will be available by 4.1, but the goal is to do as much as possible for release.

Installation

You must install at least Qt, kdesupport, and kdelibs for any of these packages to work. Also, kdepimlibs, kdebase and strigi are recommended since a number of things will want them. (...and it has Konqueror)

Download Torrent Files

Please note: since most people tend to download the complete package, downloading everything is usually faster (if you have broadband, obviously). And don't forget to seed!

everything	10.4/10.5
amarok	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdesupport, qt, strigi (temporarily not building)
blitz	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdesupport, qt, strigi
decibel	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdesupport, qt
kdeadmin	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdepimlibs, qt, strigi
kdeartwork	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, qt
kdebase	10.4/10.5	requires blitz, kdelibs, kdepimlibs, kdesupport, qt, soprano, strigi
kdeedu	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdesupport, qt, strigi
kdegames	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdesupport, qt, strigi
kdegraphics	10.4/10.5	requires blitz, kdelibs, kdesupport, qt, strigi
kdelibs	10.4/10.5	requires kdesupport, qt, soprano, strigi
kdemultimedia	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdesupport, qt, strigi
kdenetwork	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdepimlibs, kdesupport, qt, strigi
kdepim	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdepimlibs, kdesupport, qt, strigi (not included in KDE 4.0)
kdepimlibs	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, qt, strigi
kdesdk	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdepimlibs, kdesupport, qt, strigi
kdesupport	10.4/10.5	requires qt
kdetoys	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, qt, strigi
kdeutils	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdepimlibs, qt, strigi
kdevelop	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdevplatform, qt, strigi (not included in KDE 4.0)
kdevplatform	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, qt, strigi
kdewebdev	10.4/10.5	requires kdelibs, kdesupport, qt, strigi
koffice	10.4/10.5	requires blitz, kdelibs, kdepimlibs, kdesupport, qt, strigi
qt-doc	10.4/10.5
qt-extras	10.4/10.5	requires kdesupport, qt
qt	10.4/10.5	requires kdesupport
soprano	10.4/10.5	requires kdesupport, qt
strigi	10.4/10.5	requires kdesupport, qt

Download CMake (Developers)

If you want to compile against these snapshots, you also need cmake. You can get the latest release from their download page.

Running Apps

Running apps should usually work from Finder. But if for some reason they don't, you can try these two steps:

Environment

From the command line, update PATH and launch dbus, like so:

 export PATH="/opt/kde4/bin:/opt/kde4-deps/bin:/opt/qt4/bin:$PATH"
 eval `dbus-launch --auto-syntax`

update DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH, like so:

 export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/kde4/lib

NOTE: failure to do that will result in the libraries in the build directory (rather than those in the install path being used, which leads to various unpredictable side effects, such as control center modules crashing or plugin loading failing.

Launching

Then, to start an app, you call it from the same terminal, like this:

 open /opt/kde4/bin/konqueror.app

NOTE: Don't try to start the 'real' binary directly, like so:

/opt/kde4/bin/konqueror.app/Contents/MacOS/konqueror

since this will result in various interactions with the OS (drag and drop, for example) not working.

Troubleshooting

Sometimes, Installer.app fails to run the post-install. Try running:

 /opt/kde4-deps/bin/update-kde-mac.sh

...and see if your application starts.

Development (Helping Out)

Building

If you'd like to try building KDE yourself, it should (mostly) work out of the box. You can get tips on building here (including a link to the tools I use to generate these packages).

TODO

There's still a lot to do. I'm going to try to keep a running list of what needs to be done on the TODO page.

Communicating (Real Time)

You can find the KDE4/Mac developers in the #kde-mac IRC channel on FreeNode and folks working on KDE4 in general in the #kde-devel channel. This should be the first place you look. If you have a question, be patient, sometimes we're logged in but not looking at IRC all the time. If you stick around, we'll answer.

Communicating (E-Mail)

The official list for KDE/Mac development is [email protected].

There are lots of great mailing lists for more general KDE discussion. For a complete list, see the KDE mailing list page. The KDE/Mac developers have been known to hang out on kde-buildsystem, kde-devel, and kde-nonlinux.

Bugs (Finding, and Reporting)

First of all, before doing anything else, check the KDE bug page to see if your problem has already been reported. If so, add as much as you can to the existing bug report to make it easier for developers to figure out what's gone wrong.

You might also want to try the IRC channel(s) before filing a bug, you're more likely to get a quick response there. Also be aware, we know there's still stuff broken on Mac OS X, so be gentle. :)