Getting Started

    From KDE TechBase
    Revision as of 02:51, 13 July 2010 by AaronPeterson (talk | contribs) (→‎Location: swap order, development user home first, the system wide last.)


    Getting_Started


    Determine Your Needs

    KDE versions are split into branches off of the Trunk. The steps to build most branches are very similar. However, Each branch has different prerequisites.

    Version

    For production use, we recommend using a stable version of KDE. You may be able to do just fine with your distribution packages.

    If you need to build it yourself You will probably want the latest stable version for which you have the ,prerequisites or build requirementsfor your distribtion.

    For developers, The TRUNK is the main branch where new features (and prerequisites) are added, however it can be difficult to keep up with.

    Location

    It is possible to install KDE in a variety of ways. Instructions should be listed with each build method, however much is common between methods and reading all may be requied.

    development user home

    This is a common way to do it so that it does not interefere with the rest of your system. A common user name is kde-devel. This is recommended for most testers and developers.

    your home directory

    Useful on development machines, or if you have no other access to the machine, however it can be confusing to set environment variables, however there are other advantages. and some scripts to help you use it.

    system-wide

    on development builds, do it to test KDM and other system level KDE functionality. Obviously desired for production use. If you are just testing KDM, you may want to use a virtual machine so you do not damage a production system.

    Method

    Regardless of method chosen, reading up on the manual steps below will be very helpful.

    and CMake may also be of interest.
    
    distribution specific

    If you use Kubuntu, consider Project Neon, where you may be able to download recent-enough Trunk Kubuntu packages and build enviornment.

    kdesrc-build

    This script will do most of the downloading and compiling for you. There are good instructions at http://kdesrc-build.kde.org

    You can configure kdesrc-build to build most versions.

    • You will likely want to choose a recent branch
    • If you choose a branch, you will have to tweak the kdeSupport module description in the .kdesrc-buildrc


    Manual Steps

    Getting the Source

    Troubleshooting the build

    Troubleshooting information is similar between branches as well.

    Compile and Linking errors are frequent sources of discouragement. make careful note of the first occurrence of an error in your build process. It could be as simple as a bad environment variable, an unexpected version of a library or missing prerequisite.

    Please review your logs and do searches for fixes. If you cannot find a solution, Build/KDE4/Errors and IRC channel, and mailing lists.

    Using your KDE

    After KDE has been built, you'll want a good way to launch apps and perform your regular development tasks:

    Environment Variables

    Contribution

    You may not need the latest bleeding-edge KDE to develop with, Much code will be similiar between versions and your patch might work, however Trunk is where major changes are introduced, and branches are mostly maintenance/bug fix.