Getting Started/Build/FAQ

KDE developers and users that like to stay on the "bleeding edge" often hit a compilation problem for which there is a known solution (for instance getting a new Qt snapshot). To reduce traffic on the lists, this page tries to answer the most common problems one can find when trying to compile the current development version of KDE. This doesn't apply to trying to compile previous releases or snapshots, nor does it list bugs.

General Questions

How to get the latest sources?

The recommended method is to use anonsvn to get both KDE and Qt (from the module qt-copy). Alternatively, use snapshots : get Qt from ftp.trolltech.com and KDE from ftp.kde.org and mirrors.

What else do I need to compile KDE ?

It depends on the version of KDE you want to compile.

For KDE 4

• CMake 2.4.1 or later. The CMake-project already released CMake 2.4.3 which adds some features, so it might be that KDE will require a newer CMake in the future.
• A C++ compiler with support for exceptions. GCC Version 3.3 or greater is preferred. GCC 2.95.x is not supported.
• Qt 4. KDE 4 is current tied to the next version of Qt to be released. You may use the qt-copy module to get a supported version of Qt 4.
• If you want SSL support (for instance, to support secure web sites in Konqueror), make sure you install OpenSSL, version 0.9.6 or later.
• Some free space on your hard disk and some time... :)

For KDE 3

• Automake 1.5.0 and Autoconf 2.53 or later
• a C++ compiler which supports exceptions (preferably GCC 3.3. GCC 2.95.x will also work.)
• Qt 3.3.2 or later in the Qt 3 series.
• If you want SSL support (for instance, to support secure web sites in Konqueror), make sure you install OpenSSL, version 0.9.6 or later.
• Some free space on your hard disk and some time... :)

Configure Errors

What is configure?

configure is a shell script residing in each KDE package. Upon invocation it will gather some information about your system and prepare a Makefile in each directory. It is no longer used starting with KDE 4.

can not guess host type; you must specify one

configure uses the config.guess script in the admin directory to determine your host type. config.guess expects the C compiler to be called cc, though. If your compiler is named differently you can either specify your compiler via the environment variable CC or create a symbolic link (e.g. ln -s /usr/local/bin/egcs /usr/local/bin/cc). Of course, in the latter example you should make sure that /usr/local/bin is in your PATH in the first place.

Can't find X includes

X headers like X.h are missing. They usually reside in /usr/include/X11/ or similar. Your distribution may contain them in a seperate package like X-devel. If the files are simply installed in a non-standard directory see configure --help.

cannot find -lXext

When using SuSE, install xdevel from SuSE's "X" Series in YaST. On Caldera, Mandrake and Redhat the package is named XFree86-devel.

configure in kdesupport gives: Header string not found

Install libstdc++-devel.

Qt [....] not found.

Do you have the currently required Qt library installed ? See "How to get the latest sources". Make sure that QTDIR is pointing to the correct location.