Jump to content

Getting Started/Build/Historic/KDE4 Windows

From KDE TechBase
< Getting Started | Build | Historic
Revision as of 05:16, 5 November 2007 by Skierpage (talk | contribs) (→Download needed packages: link to 3rd-party libraries list)

KDE Installer for Windows

You can use this installer to download and install the various binary packages that you need to run KDE on Windows. KDE is free and open source so you can build all the applications "from scratch" from their source code; but as a convenience for others, volunteers create these precompiled packages and make them available on the Internet.

You can also use the KDE Installer for Windows to install source code and the packages you need to build KDE4 on Windows (although if you are building KDE4 on Windows you may prefer to use the emerge system to build KDE sources and requirements); see Getting Started/Build/KDE4/Windows.

Summary of Steps

  • Visit http://download.cegit.de/kde-windows/installer
  • Download and save the latest version to a directory, e.g. C:\KDE4
  • Run the installer, download what you need (see #Download needed packages below).
  • Add your lib directory, e.g. C:\KDE4\lib to your Windows %PATH%.
  • Try running a Qt application in the bin directory, such as linguist.exe
  • If that works, try running a KDE application such as kruler.exe.

Download needed packages

A single program in the The K Desktop Environment depends on many other libraries and packages; that is why each .exe is comparatively small. The KDE Installer for Windows has some awareness of dependencies, but not complete. So, the first few times you try to run an application you may see alerts about missing DLLs.

If you do not intend to build from source, do not click "all" and do not click "src", as you do not need to download the source for each package. Unclear whether you need lib for each.

There are two development systems for KDE on Windows, Microsoft's Visual C and [1]. Even if you are only running binaries and do not intend to build KDE4 yourself, you need to choose between these. As of October 2007, the former is more stable, so when you have a choice of packages in the KDE Installer for Windows, prefer the -msvc version.

The KDE programs themselves are organized into several groups: kdeedu, kdegames, and kdegraphics.

Here are some of the minimal packages you need to run a KDE application:

dbus-msvc, kdewin32-msvc, qt-msvc, vcredist, ??

The Dependencies tab for a particular package lists some of the additional packages it needs. Getting_Started/Build/KDE4/Windows/3rd-party_libraries is a more complete list.

Testing your installation

Navigate to the bin directory.

See if you can run the Qt program assistant.exe. Qt programs have fewer dependencies than a full-blown KDE application.

If that works, try running a simple KDE application, such as kruler.exe from the kdegraphics package.

The first KDE application you run will start a console window in order to run the D-Bus daemon.

Status

Using the kdewin-installer-gui-0.8.1-2.exe to install packages, many games run.

Perhaps actual developers should summarize status of KDE4 on Windows here, while we encourage users to describe their experiences on the Talk page?

Retrieved from "https://techbase.kde.org/index.php?title=Getting_Started/Build/Historic/KDE4_Windows&oldid=15510"