Getting Started/Build/KDE4
This article shows how to download, build, install and start KDE 4 from subversion. It consolidates howtos from various sites, e.g. the old KDE developer pages. This topic shows one way that works. It does not intend to explain the obvious background behind it.
You may be interested in: http://kdesvn-build.kde.org/
To reduce complexity, we use the bash-shell (standard) throughout the tutorial.
Become the user kde-devel
useradd kde-devel mkdir /home/kde-devel passwd kde-devel chown kde-devel:kde-devel /home/kde-devel 2>/dev/null || \ chown kde-devel:users /home/kde-devel
Switch to the user kde-devel: (the dash also changes to the new home directory)
su - kde-devel
Set Environment Variables
You have to add some environment variables - add these lines to your shell's configuration file, e.g. ~/.bashrc.
export YACC='byacc -d'
export QTDIR=$HOME/qt-unstable
export KDEDIR=$HOME/kde
export KDEDIRS=$KDEDIR
export DBUSDIR=$KDEDIR
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$DBUSDIR/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH
export PATH=$QTDIR/bin:$KDEDIR/bin:$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$QTDIR/lib:$KDEDIR/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
## Uncomment if dbus doesn't work
#alias dbusstart="eval `PATH=$DBUSDIR/bin \
#$DBUSDIR/bin/dbus-launch --auto-syntax`"
function cmakekde { cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$KDEDIR \
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=debugfull $@ && make VERBOSE=1 && make install; }
Check out the software
svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/qt-copy svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/KDE/kdelibs wget http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.4/cmake-2.4.3.tar.gz wget http://dbus.freedesktop.org/releases/dbus/dbus-0.94.tar.gz
Build D-Bus
tar xvfz dbus-0.94.tar.gz cd dbus-0.94/ ./configure --disable-qt --disable-qt3 --prefix=$DBUSDIR \ --localstatedir=/var && make && make install dbus-uuidgen --ensure
Build Qt
cd ~/qt-copy && ./apply_patches && \ ./configure -qt-gif -no-exceptions -debug -fast \ -prefix $QTDIR -qdbus && make && make install
Install CMake
CMake is the build system tool used in KDE4. It replaced the autotools and libtool based system used in previous versions of KDE due to cross platform and performance issues.
Your operating system may provide CMake as an optional package. Check to see if there is a package of cmake 2.4.3 or better available and if so install that. If not, then you can download CMake from the CMake download page and build from source following the instructions below.
The default prefix is /usr/local, make sure /usr/local/bin is in your $PATH.
cd tar zxf cmake-2.4.3.tar.gz mkdir cmake-build cd cmake-build ../cmake-2.4.3/bootstrap make sudo make install
Build kdelibs
cd mkdir kdelibs-build cd kdelibs-build cmakekde ../kdelibs
Install Additional CMake Modules
There are additional CMake modules in kdelibs that are necessary for building KDE applications. To install them:
cd cd kdelibs/cmake/modules cmake . make install
You may need to do the last step as root (e.g. using su or sudo), depending on your system setup.
Troubleshooting
If you have problems compiling this, first make sure the following commands can be executed: aclocal, autoconf, autoheader, gcc, g++, pkg-config.
If the problems persist, try the make-option --keep-going
Build kdepimlibs
Before kdebase you need to install kdepimlibs
cd svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/KDE/kdepimlibs mkdir kdepimlibs-build cd kdepimlibs-build cmakekde ../kdepimlibs
Build kdebase
You may need kdebase for some kioslaves.
cd svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/KDE/kdebase mkdir kdebase-build cd kdebase-build cmakekde ../kdebase
Troubleshooting
If you have troubles compiling this:
- Make sure you have the libxss headers installed. (Usually you got undefined references on xscreensaver objects if you haven't those headers)
- which meinproc has to deliver /home/kde-devel/kde/bin/meinproc
- if cmakekde cannot find the path of kdepimlibs, edit the file /home/kde-devel/kdebase-build/CMakeCache.txt and manually set KDEPIMLIBS_INCLUDE_DIR:PATH=/home/kde-devel/kdepimlibs-build
- if you get an error saying "Please set the following variables: X11_XTest_LIB (ADVANCED)", install the devel package of Xtst. On some systems, this is packaged separately from xext and called x11proto-xext-dev or libxtst-dev. You may also need to remove the CMakeCache.txt file in the build dir after installing the package.
Start KDE 4 Programs
To start the desktop environment itself, do:
X :1 & export DISPLAY=:1 startkde
Maybe you are logged in as your normal user (not kde-devel), want to stay in your current environment (KDE 3.5, gnome, whatever) and start a KDE 4 program. To start only kwrite from KDE 4, do:
ssh -X kde-devel@localhost kwrite
Using Xephyr for developing inside KDE 3
Instead of using a full-blown new virtual X for developing software you can use Xephyr to embed your KDE 4 session into your working KDE 3 environment.
Sure you can do this with xnest too, but it cannot handle extensions like Xrender so some people prefer Xephyr over it.
If you want to get a minimal KDE session up and running, just launch Xephyr (available in Kubuntu as xserver-xephyr):
# Xephyr :1&
You can now launch KDE:
export DISPLAY=:1 /path/to/kde4/bin/startkde-modified &
startkde-modified is a copy of the startkde-script which includes the following lines on the top:
export KDEDIRS=`kde4-config --prefix` export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$KDEDIR/lib export PATH=$KDEDIR/bin/:$PATH export KDEHOME=~/.kde4
You can also use Xephyr with KDM via the Xdmcp protocol and simply a new KDE 4 session to KDM.
On Kubuntu, you can enable it by changing
[Xdmcp] # Whether KDM should listen to incoming XDMCP requests. # Default is true Enable=false
in /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc to
[Xdmcp] # Whether KDM should listen to incoming XDMCP requests. # Default is true Enable=true
and adjust your /etc/kde3/kdm/Xaccess to allow your local machine access. Additionally you should make sure to set up a port blocking policy on all external interfaces for the Xdmcp port if you are doing this on a laptop or a PC in an untrusted environment.
If you are done, simply launch Xephyr:
Xephyr -query localhost :1 -host-cursor -screen 1024x768&
where -host-cursor tries to reuse the host's cursor and -screen sets the screen dimensions.