Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 2012-01-16

Chapter 28. Introduction

KDE4 Pre-installation Configuration

Dependencies

KDE4 is a huge software collection providing a desktop, tools for system and development tasks, and fun and educational programs. It makes use of a tremendous amount of non-KDE packages. While nearly all of those packages are optional, some others are are highly recommended.

The following list of packages should give you an overview about those packages and you may want to consider installing them first. Installing these packages will enable some useful features in the resulting KDE4 suite. Nevertheless the dependencies are shown on each of the following pages.

  • QJSON (http://qjson.sourceforge.net) - Qt library for handling JavaScript objects. Unfortunatly, the release version 0.7.1 is to old to compile. Alternativly use the current SVN sources or apply a patch to bring the release to a usable status.

    Compile it using cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr && make && make install in its own build directory.

  • libgps (http://gpsd.berlios.de/) - interface to GPS devices (kdeedu)

    Compile it the usual way configure && make && make install.

  • eigen2 (http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/) - a C++ template library for linear algebra

    Compile it using cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr && make && make install.

  • desktop-file-utils-0.18 - a few command line utilities for working with desktop entries

  • pySIP (http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/sip/intro) - Python Service Integration Platform

    Compile it python ./configure && make && make install.

  • pyQT4 (http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/) - Python interface to Qt4 (kdebindings)

    Compile it python ./configure && make && make install.

  • Ruby-1.9.2-p290 - Ruby language (kdebindings)

  • Poppler-0.14.4 - Utility and library to show PDF files (kdegraphics)

    make sure the --enable-xpdf-headers switch is set

  • libical-0.48 - library handling calendar entries (kdepimlibs)

  • pyCUPS (http://cyberelk.net/tim/data/pycups/) - Python interface to CUPS (kdeadmin)

    Compile it with make && make install.

  • system-config-printer (http://cyberelk.net/tim/data/system-config-printer/) - Printer config (kdeadmin)

    Compile it the usual way configure && make && make install.

  • libidn-1.22 - en-/decode internationalized domain names (kdenetwork)

  • polkit-0.102 - Policy handling (nearly all of KDE)

  • ConsoleKit-0.4.1 - Runtime dependency of polkit

  • U-tools - udisks and upower instead of HAL

    and all of its dependencies: libatasmart-0.17, sg3_utils-1.29, libffi-3.0.10, acl-2.2.51, gobject-introspection-1.30.0, udev-Installed LFS Version, device-mapper-1.02.67, Parted-3.0 and than udisks-1.0.1 and UPower-0.9.1

  • libiodbc-3.52.7 - iODBC library

  • virtuoso-6.1.2 - a Universal Database

  • exiv2-0.21 - Image data processing library

  • RDF tools - Handling of RDF data

    Including: raptor-1.4.21, rasqal-0.9.20 and redland-1.0.12

  • clucene-0.9.21b - Text search engine

  • boost-1.45.0 - collection of free C++ libraries

  • qca-2.0.3 - Cryptographic library for Qt platform

  • libdbusmenu-qt-0.7.0 - Qt interface to D-Bus menue

  • soprano-2.5.63 - object-oriented C++/Qt4 framework for RDF data

  • strigi-0.6.4 - Desktop indexing engine

  • Grantlee (http://www.grantlee.org) - a template system for Qt

    Compile it using cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr && make && make install in its own build directory.

Installing in /usr

One option is to put KDE4 into the /usr hierarchy. This creates a simpler setup but is more difficult to try multiple versions of KDE4. 

export KDE4_PREFIX=/usr

Installing in /opt

A method of building multiple versions installs KDE4 in the /opt hierarchy: 

export KDE4_PREFIX=/opt/kde4

If you are not installing KDE4 in /usr, you will need to make some additional configuration changes. Best practice is to add those to your system or personal profile: 

cat > /etc/profile.d/kde4.sh <<"EOF"
# Begin /etc/profile.d/kde4.sh

KDE4_PREFIX=/opt/kde4
KDE4DIR=$KDE4_PREFIX
KDEDIR=$KDE4_PREFIX

pathappend $KDE4_PREFIX/bin             PATH
pathappend $KDE4_PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig   PKG_CONFIG_PATH
pathappend $KDE4_PREFIX/share/pkgconfig PKG_CONFIG_PATH
pathappend $KDE4_PREFIX/share           XDG_DATA_DIRS
pathappend /etc/kde4/xdg                XDG_CONFIG_DIRS

export KDE4_PREFIX KDE4DIR KDEDIR

# End /etc/profile.d/kde4.sh
EOF

Add to your /etc/ld.so.conf: 

cat >> /etc/ld.so.conf << "EOF"
# Begin kde4 addition to /etc/ld.so.conf

/opt/kde4/lib

# End kde4 addition
EOF

Add to your /etc/man_db.conf: 

cat >> /etc/man_db.conf << "EOF"
# Begin kde4 addition to man_db.conf

MANDATORY_MANPATH /opt/kde4/man

# End kde4 addition to man_db.conf
EOF
[Tip]

Tip

Sometimes, the installation paths are coded into installed files. This is the reason why /opt/kde4 is used as installation prefix instead of /opt/kde-4.6.0. After installing KDE4, you may rename the directory and create a symlink: 

mv /opt/kde{4,-4.6.0} &&
ln -vsf kde-4.6.0 /opt/kde4

Later on, you may want to install other versions of KDE4. To do that, just remove the symlink and use /opt/kde4 as ithe prefix again (KDE4 must not be started). Which version of KDE4 you use depends only on where the symlink points to. No other reconfiguration will be needed.

The QT4DIR variable

Some additional packages which are based on Qt4 will be installed. One of them is Phonon, a direct replacement of the implementation which comes with Qt4. It's recommended placing such libraries in the same hierarchy where Qt4 itself resides. Later on, it is refered to as QT4DIR. If you have placed Qt4 in /usr, set QT4DIR: 

export QT4DIR=/usr

Alternativly, Qt4 is often placed in the /opt hierarchy: 

export QT4DIR=/opt/qt-4.8.0
export PATH=$QT4DIR/bin:$PATH

Last updated on 2012-01-10 21:25:24 +0000