Installing KDE. Best KDE programs Useful KDE keyboard shortcuts

Like any other notable project, KDE has both irreconcilable opponents and ardent supporters. And while the former criticize the system for its complexity and too many configuration options, high resource consumption and insufficient stability, the latter counter such attacks with the fact that it is the abundance of settings that makes it possible to adapt KDE for any needs and for any hardware configurations.

Announced more than twenty years ago, the project with the ambitious name Kool Desktop Environment from the very beginning set as its goal the creation of a fully functional, highly customizable, pleasant-looking work environment. Reading the then manifesto of the project founder Matthias Ettrich about creating a self-sufficient working environment and holding the running Plasma 5 in front of you, you give credit to the developers - over the past two decades the project has managed not to lose sight of its goal.

KDE is a very flexible environment, divided into many almost independent components that can be changed and reshuffled. The Plasma desktop consists entirely of widgets (applets, plasmoids) that can adapt to the situation. The same widget can be placed on the panel, desktop or application board, or removed altogether and replaced with another. This and other features of KDE open up enormous scope for customization.

Organizing the panel

In Plasma, the panel on the edge of the screen is the same widget. At the same time, the panel itself serves as an organizing tool that can be used to keep other widgets you use in sight so that they are at hand when needed.

The “Taskbar” widget and its laconic brother “Taskbar (icons only)” display the running this moment applications. But the latter at the same time saves quite a decent amount of space on the panel itself, and pinning icons of frequently used applications on it will provide them quick start at the right moment.

It is convenient to launch other applications using the full-scale “Application Board” (a reincarnation of Homerun for Qt 5). With the release of Plasma 5.10, widgets began to be placed in it, which can be installed by simply dragging them to the desired location. There are also shutdown, logout and reboot buttons.

Global menu a la macOS

The feature that allows you to place the application menu in the panel was already in KDE 4, but was absent for a long time in Plasma 5. In Plasma 5.9 it finally appeared as part of the new plasmoid. However best choice there will be a much more powerful Active Window Control widget.

Using a widget makes more sense if the desktop panel is placed at the top of the screen. Its functionality allows you to place control buttons for the window of a running program, its icon and title, as well as a menu on the panel. The abundance of different settings makes it possible to determine which elements will be displayed on the panel, in what case and in what order.

For myself, I set the settings so that when all windows are minimized, the panel displays the default Plasma Desktop label. You can change it to any other one to suit your taste or eliminate it altogether by placing a space in the corresponding settings window. When the active application window is minimized, the window title is displayed in the panel.

Widget settings allow you to use an internal script to change the order of the program name and title open document. When you hover your mouse over the window title in the widget, the application menu appears instead of the title. When the active application window is open, control buttons for the current window are added to the window title, and the title bar and buttons of the window itself are hidden.

Doc

In addition to the global menu, KDE has a reincarnation of another integral attribute of macOS - the dock with icons. is a glamorous replacement for the standard Panel widget. It has many settings appearance and behavior. Translated into many languages.

If you are not afraid of running into additional resource consumption, you can install the widget using a package manager in any popular distribution. But since the project is actively being developed, it is advisable to collect the necessary packages from sources taken from the project’s GitHub.

Useful KDE Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl + Esc - launch system monitor;
• Ctrl + Alt + Esc - forcefully quit the application;
• Alt + space - launch KRunner;
• Ctrl + F12 - minimize all windows;
• Alt + Tab - scroll through open windows;
• Meta + Tab / Meta + Shift + Tab - switch rooms in forward and reverse order;
• Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Page Up - reboot the system without confirmation;
• Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Page Down - turn off the computer without confirmation.

Monitoring widgets

It is always useful to be aware of how your machine's power is being used. Therefore, it seems quite logical to place the “System Boot” widget and Thermal Monitor on the panel. The latter displays information read from the temperature sensors of the computer equipment. To use them all, you need to install the lm_sensors package on the system.

To monitor network activity there is a simple Netspeed Widget from HessiJames. It monitors everyone's speed network adapters and displays the maximum.

If information about the speed of each of the established connections(Ethernet, Wi-Fi), the standard Network Monitor widget will do. In it, in addition to setting up each network interface separately, you can install monitoring of the WAN port of a router with DD-WRT firmware.

I think that none of the Linux adherents will deny the great contribution that Ubuntu has made to the development of the ecosystem. Yes, there are not enough resources for many things, projects are often abandoned halfway through. But it seems to me that they managed to achieve a great balance between stability and freshness of the package base. Some very correct line between maintaining the noble mold of Debian and the continuous search for what broke during the update in Arch Linux. Do you just want to work? We are using LTS versions of the distribution with default repositories. Do you need any specific software? We connect a PPA from the developer. We installed fresh hardware, we need support in the kernel, but we don’t want to leave LTS - we use LTS Enablement Stacks (HWE).

Not everyone likes the default Unity shell, but here the entire Ubuntu Flavors family is available to the user. In my choice, I settled on KDE and Kubuntu, respectively. Everything was fine, but sitting on LTS releases inevitably causes a craving for adventure and breaking the system. And then I went in search of something new.

KDE Neon

The key feature of the project is the main package base stable version Ubuntu LTS and all KDE environments, which receive updates immediately upon release. For example, KDE Plasma 5.9.3 will only be available in the upcoming Kubuntu 17.04 release. With Neon, the bulk of the packages are absolutely stable and you have all the benefits of long-term support for the distribution. That is, not a full-fledged distribution kit, but a convenient constructor, despite the presence of its own assemblies.

Distribution structure

Installation options

Developer Edition Git-Unstable- pre-release version from an unstable branch. Daily assembly.
Developer Edition Git-Stable- pre-release version from bugfix branches. Daily assembly.

You can also connect their repositories to regular Kubuntu. However, the official manual warns that in this case everything will probably break down. They are not compatible with the Kubuntu base and are not tested. I went exactly this way. Indeed, several packages broke off, but we managed to resolve the dependencies manually without any problems. If you try this option, don't forget to do something like
sudo rsync -axv / /mnt/backup/root_backup

General feelings

New in Plasma 5.9

Outdated translations are marked like this.

Contents

Installing KDE Software

For installation software We recommend using your KDE distribution. .

From the GUI

Discover

Discover is the KDE Software Center and work with all the distribution supporting appstream (Ubuntu, Debian, Arch-Linux, OpenSUSE, Red Hat, Fedora, ...). If you want more info about discover, visit the discover page.

Searching for KDE in Discover.

openSUSE - YaST

In openSUSE, you have the choice between using discover and YaST software management tool.

You will find the openSUSE package management tool in the Computer tab of the start menu. Open it and click on the Software management icon to launch the package manager.

Searching for KDE in the YaST software management.

Use the search field to find the package you want to install; you can search for a package by name or description, you only need to enter part of its name. You will be presented with a list of packages that match your request. Select the packages to install and click Apply. Visit this page to get additional information about how to work with packages and about the openSUSE distribution.

Windows Store

Some KDE applications are also available in the Windows Store. For example, you can buy Krita a digital painting software or KStars .

Using the Command Line

If you find using the manager ineffective, you may want to install from command line. It's much faster, however the downside is that you need to know accurate name package you want to install. Each system has useful commands to search for example, try using the first word of the install command below, appending --help . As an example, yum --help will list the commands you can use for Fedora, but there are a lot of them which can be confusing at first.

openSUSE

With openSUSE you install software using zipper for example to install KWrite you will open a console and enter zypper in kwrite .

Ubuntu

With Ubuntu Linux you install software using apt. For example to install KWrite you will open a console and enter sudo apt install kwrite

Fedora

Fedora uses yum and to install KWrite you have to open the console and type yum install kwrite If you are not sure about the package name, you can use yum list with templates to see all packages with the word as part of the package name - - For example, the yum list *network* will list all available packages with "network" as part of the name. To go even further, yum search mpeg will list all packages, or mpeg in the package name or description.

Gentoo

With Gentoo you install software using emerge, e.g. for KWrite you would open a console and type emerge --ask kwrite (using --ask to get an overview of necessary dependencies and USE flag options before confirming). If you are unsure of the name of a package, you can use emerge --search to see all the packages with a word as part of the package name - e.g. emerge --search network will list all available packages with "network" as part of the name.

Mageia and OpenMandriva Lx

you can use urpmi to install KDE software from the command line. Other useful commands can be found on the Urpmi Wikipedia page

Arch Linux and Manjaro

With Arch linux and arch linux based distribution like Manjaro, you can install software using the pacman utility. For example to install KWrite you will open a console and enter sudo pacman -S kwrite

I'll tell you how to install KDE 5 and start using them. KDE 5 Plasma is a GUI for various Unix/Linux distributions. In my opinion, some versions are not very good. But it is version 5 that inspires confidence. Very cool implementation.

There are many new features in KDE Plasma 5, here is a list of the most important new features:

• KDE 5 has been rewritten using Qt 5; The next generation of the famous Qt library for developing graphical interfaces - this means that KDE 5 applications will be faster than KDE 4.
• The new theme for plugins in KDE 5 Plasma is much more beautiful than KDE 4.x.
• The KDE 5 Plasma Start menu and notification area have been redesigned. There will now be fewer pop-ups, providing a better user experience for accessing notifications.
• The modified lockscreen has been improved.
• Smoother performance. KDE 5 renders on top of OpenGL - this means that KDE 5 programs take precedence when rendered next to another process.
• Rendering in Plasma 5 will be faster due to full GPU utilization.
• A nice set of new wallpapers will go well with the default theme.
• Lots of other features that you can check out for yourself.

Installing KDE 5 (Plasma) on Unix/Linux

I have already described various graphical interfaces for various Unix/Linux OS, if necessary, you can refer to them:

Installing KDE 5 (Plasma) on Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Linux Mint

First, add the Kubuntu Backports PPA repository:

# add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

After adding the repository, run the following commands to update the existing package database:

# sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

We install plasma:

$ sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

Please note that during installation you will be asked to configure the default login manager, select the login manager - “lightdm”.

Installing KDE 5 (Plasma) on Debian

# tasksel install kde-desktop

Installing KDE 5 (Plasma) on CentOS/RHEL

Now I will tell you how to install KDE Plasma on CentOS 7, which will provide a graphical interface for working with the Linux system.

Installation is very simple:

# yum groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces" -y

Please note that installation may take some time.

Launching the GUI

After installation, run:

# echo "exec startkde" >> ~/.xinitrc

And restart the OS:

# reboot

Let's see what is being used now:

In my example, everything works as expected. If you get "multi-user.target" instead, you will need to fix it manually. In this case, multi-user.target is equivalent to load level 3, meaning that after a reboot the GUI will not be loaded here. We can set the default value for graphical.target, and raise it to level 5:

# systemctl set-default graphical.target Removed symlink /etc/systemd/system/default.target. Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/default.target to /usr/lib/systemd/system/graphical.target.

And we check:

# systemctl get-default graphical.target

Although this has changed the default target (which is accessed when the system boots), it is still multi-user.target. We can switch to the GUI by running:

# systemctl isolate graphical.target

Uninstalling KDE Plasma

If you installed the GUI on the server and realized it was a mistake, don't worry! Do the following:

# yum groupremove "KDE Plasma Workspaces"

Installing KDE 5 (Plasma) on Fedora

KDE Plasma packages are available in the default repositories starting with Fedora 23. To install Plasma on Fedora 23 and 24, run the following command:

# dnf install @kde-desktop

Installing KDE 5 (Plasma) on openSUSE

KDE plasma is available in the openSUSE 13.1 and 13.2 repositories. To install Plasma, simply run:

# zipper in -t pattern kde kde_plasma

Very easy installation.

Installing KDE 5 (Plasma) on Arch Linux

On Arch Linux and its derivatives, Plasma packages are available in the repository. Just enable the repository and install it using the command:

# pacman -Syu

PS: If the system has Plasma 4, then it should be removed before installation:

# pacman -Rc kdebase-workspace

Let's see what video card is in the system:

#lspci -v | grep -A 3 VGA

For me it is wmvare. And install X.org with the following command:

# pacman -S xorg xorg-xinit

During installation, you will be asked to select a driver for your video card. Since I don’t have NVIDIA on my system, I choose libglvnd.

We install the required lib for plasma:

# pacman -S kf5 kf5-aids

Install KDE Plasma 5:

# pacman -S plasma kdebase gwenview

The graphical manager comes with packages - KDM (KDE Desktop Manager). But I don't like it, so I install SDDM (Simple Desktop Display Manager):

# pacman -S sddm sddm-kcm

After installation, you need to register it in the system startup:

# systemctl enable sddm

We perform a reboot:

# reboot

Reboot your computer and enjoy the Plasma 5 desktop environment!

Let's tone down the environment a little. Opening:

# vim /etc/sddm.conf

And let's bring it to mind:

Theme] Current=breeze CursorTheme=breeze_cursors FacesDir=/usr/share/sddm/faces ThemeDir=/usr/share/sddm/themes

After which, you need to reboot the OS again.

Installing KDE 5 (Plasma) on Mac OS X

KDE Plasma 5, also available for Mac OS X. I will prepare detailed guide on installation and removal and will test it on my Mac.

To add KDE Frameworks run:

$ brew tap haraldf/kf5

To build them, you first need an updated Qt 5 with additional support for QtWebkit (kdewebkit, kdevplatform depends on QtWebkit):

$ brew install dbus

And we also install QT5 itself:

# brew install qt5

$ brew install qt5 --with-qtwebkit

PS: To build Qt you need to install Xcode. Also, read the D-Bus notes below if this is your first D-Bus installation. You need to install Qt5 with QtWebkit if you want to install kdevelop or kdewebkit.

Now the fun begins. You can install individual frameworks via:

$ brew install haraldf/kf5/kf5-karchive

Or you can install using the install.sh script, which is located in the tools directory:

$ cd `brew --prefix`/Homebrew/Library/Taps/haraldf/homebrew-kf5 ./tools/install.sh

You can also pass different parameters, for example - “-verbose”.

Uninstalling KDE Plasma on Mac OS X

To remove all KDE Frameworks 5 packages, run:

$ brew uninstall `brew list -1 | grep "^kf5-"`

And you need to delete the directory:

$ rm -rf /Applications/KDE5

Setting HEAD

Currently, installing the formula installs the latest released version from the tarballs. However, not all frameworks and applications have been released as tarballs. If you receive a "head-only formula" error message, this formula can only be set from latest version git, not from released packages. This can be done by passing --HEAD as a parameter to brew.

Note that installing from the latest git usually also means that all dependent packages are expected to come from the latest git, so to avoid possible errors you need to remove all installed kf5 formulas (see section on uninstallation above) and install everything from git, for example using the install.sh utility:

$ `brew --prefix`/Library/Taps/haraldf/homebrew-kf5/tools/install.sh --HEAD

First use of D-Bus

Follow the description in the D-Bus formula to configure the LaunchAgent. You may have to log out and log in again for it to work.

To check the operation of D-Bus with Qt:

$ echo $DBUS_LAUNCHD_SESSION_BUS_SOCKET $ `brew --prefix`/opt/qt5/bin/qdbus

The first command should repeat whether the path is valid, for example: /tmp/launch-NHyucl/unix_domain_listener. The second command should display the available services, at least - org.freedesktop.DBus.

Running KDE Plasma on Mac OS X

You may need to complete the following steps after installation (just once):

# chown -R $USER ~/Library/Preferences/KDE # launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freedesktop.dbus-system.plist

Sometimes Installer.app fails to perform post-installation. If everything goes wrong, try running these two commands in the terminal:

# launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist /opt/local/bin/kbuildsycoca4

Something like this. But I want to note the following: I did not take it upon myself to check this installation on my work Mac due to the fact that I do not have backups. I'll try to decide this problem, — BACK EVERYTHING and install this miracle)))).

That’s all for me, the article “Installing KDE 5 (Plasma) on Unix/Linux” has come to an end.

This note and several related ones are dedicated to KDE 3.X, and they were written when there were quite old versions. Nevertheless, they could have been of some interest at the time of placement, since during the entire existence of the “troika” no radical changes took place in it. Now the place for this note is in the dustbin of history.

It is easy to guess that the KDE project is based on the website http://www.kde.org, from where it can be downloaded absolutely free of charge in the form of source texts (and binary packages for some Linux distributions). KDE binaries are included in almost any Linux distribution that claims to be fully functional (and in many it is also the default desktop. It is available in collections of binary packages and port systems of all BSD systems. However, for FreeBSD it is better to take KDE binaries not from the standard distribution this OS, and from the site http://freebsd.kde.org/ - there will most likely be a more recent version.

To install KDE, you must also take care of obtaining the Qt library, a freely distributed (for non-commercial use) version of which is taken in source form from the developer’s website http://www.trolltech.com/. However, it also exists in Linux distributions and BSD systems - you just need to ensure that the versions match - they usually correlate quite clearly with the KDE versions.

KDE requires the X system, as well as many additional components, including the main graphics and multimedia libraries, some of which inevitably drag along the Glib and Gtk libraries as dependencies. However, all this equipment is available in distribution kits and, most likely, is installed from them by default. And many of the additional components are associated with KDE “soft” (optional) dependencies - in KDE the division of “hard” and “soft” dependencies is very consistent.

Of course, the process of building KDE yourself is not the easiest, both due to the complexity of the dependencies of additional components, and in terms of time investment. However, this is one of the few cases where custom assembly can provide a significant performance increase. in addition, it allows you to exclude dependencies that are clearly unnecessary for the user from among the “soft” ones - in most packaged Linux distributions, all of them are included in precompiled assemblies by default. An alternative to completely manual assembly is to use ports of BSD systems and ported Source Based systems of Linux distributions - all of which allow significant variations in personal settings, including cutting off unnecessary dependencies.

The KDE environment itself, in source form, includes about one and a half dozen packages, the list and composition of which varies somewhat from version to version. In the current version at the time of writing (3.3.1) it looks like this:

Kdeaccessibility-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdeaddons-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdeadmin-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdeartwork-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdebase-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdebindings-3.3.1 .tar.bz2 kdeedu-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdegames-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdegraphics-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdelibs-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdemultimedia-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdenetwork -3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdepim-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdesdk-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdetoys-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdeutils-3.3.1.tar.bz2 kdewebdev-3.3.1. tar.bz2

In addition, KDE includes the arts and kdevelop packages, which have their own version numbering, as well as the kde-i18n package, which provides internationalization of the environment, as well as localization packages for individual languages, including almost every conceivable language (although localization for them is done with great care). different completeness and quality).

All this equipment, including the Qt library, in the source code is almost three hundred megabytes. Which cannot but evoke memories of the monstrous nature of KDE. However, not everything listed is required for installation and, accordingly, downloading. True, in many packaged distributions On Linux, all KDE components have cross-package dependencies (including all the optional ones) and you have to install them all. But in FreeBSD, SB Linux, and even more so with manual assembly, you can only get by with those that are actually necessary.

The first, and indisputable, candidate for removal from the list is the kde-i18n package (and this is already more than 100 MB of source code): obviously, no one needs support for a good fifty languages ​​​​at the same time. A separate package for your own is enough (in our conditions this is kde-i18n-ru), in extreme cases - a couple of more friendly ones.

Further, it is clear that only these same developers need the kdevelop package, while most users can easily do without it. Well, the user must make the decision to install other packages independently. For this purpose I will briefly describe the purpose of each.

First, let’s talk about the packages that are required to be installed in any case. As you might guess, there are two of them - kdelibs and kdebase. The first is a set of KDE-specific library functions that complement the core Qt library. The second includes the main components of KDE - the KWM window manager itself and its accessories, a minimum set of themes and basic applications - file manager, aka browser, konqueror, set text editors(kwrite, kedit, kate), konsole terminal emulator.

Oddly enough, the arts package is also required - KDE's own sound system, used to play system sounds even if KDE multimedia components are not installed.

All other components are purely optional, so I will describe those that I use myself, in order of importance for me personally:

• kdenetwork - network components, including the excellent kppp dialer and kget - an ftp client, which in itself is not outstanding, but when integrated with the file manager/browser konqueror, it greatly helps make life easier;
• kdepim is a package of personal assistants, which, in my opinion, is not entirely logical, includes mail client kmail and its complementary address book;
• kdewebdev - a web development package based on the excellent Quanta Plus HTML code editor, harmoniously complemented by auxiliary tools such as a link integrity checker (klinkstatus) and a link map creation tool (kimagemapeditor);
• kdegraphics - the package includes a couple of graphics file viewers, very convenient program taking screenshots, a simple but good graphics editor kolourpaint (plus two more, averagely lousy);
• kdemultimedia - the package includes a very decent media player noatun (albeit worse than mplayer, especially in the KDE form - but it is not included in the standard package), mixer, recorder, etc.;
• kdeutils - in addition to all the jewelry, it includes a calculator, a necessary thing;
• kdeadmin - a package of system administration utilities that, with rare exceptions, require superuser privileges; I don’t use it, although for some reason I usually install it.

I also always install two more packages - kdeaddons (IMHO absolutely necessary, as it includes, among other things, plug-ins for the editor kate, konqueror and others) and kdeartwork, which includes additional desktop decorations (wallpapers, icons and etc.), life without which would be boring. And also kdegames, where you can find several solitaire games and a couple of variations on the immortal Tetris theme - but I don’t play any other games.

It remains to mention packages that I never install and therefore have a vague idea of ​​the contents of: kdeedu (as you might guess, something related to education (I don’t know what or who), kdetoys - some bells and whistles, kdeaccessibility - so-called special features , and kdesdk is a set of scripts and utilities for developers.

In most cases, the user does not have to worry about installing KDE in any special way - either the installer of its distribution or the standard package management system handles this task. A certain problem arises only if the proposed installation scheme is for some reason not satisfactory, for example, due to deliberate redundancy: I have already noted that a number of packages from the KDE set have no practical meaning for most users. And here it may be advisable to resort to manual assembly of the required components.

The process of building KDE itself is also not particularly difficult - you just need to follow the sequence of building packages: first the Qt library is built, therefore the arts sound system, then the kdelibs library, and then kdebase. Other packages, if necessary, are assembled after these others - and in more or less any order.

To build the Qt library, the tarball of its sources is unpacked into the directory in which we want to see it in the future - by default it is /usr/local, recently Qt is often placed in the /opt directory, in any case, the result is a subdirectory like qt- vesion. It should be renamed:

$ mv qt-version qt

and in the profile file - system-wide or user, that is, root - adjustments are made to the values ​​of the path description variables (this is described in detail in the accompanying documentation). For an sh-compatible family it looks something like this:

QTDIR=/usr/local/qt PATH=$QTDIR/bin:$PATH MANPATH=$QTDIR/man:$MANPATH LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$QTDIR/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH export QTDIR PATH MANPATH LD_LIBRARY_PATH

These variables will be required already at the configuration/compilation stage, so you need to either log in again or re-read the profile file in the prescribed manner. Then a couple of commands are given

$ ./configure && make

Of the configuration options, at least one seems useful - -qt-gif , which includes support for GIF graphics (by default, oddly enough, this is not implied).

It’s interesting that when building Qt, it seems that any gcc flags are ignored, except for some that were initially specified in it - so you don’t have to get carried away with optimizing this library. By default, Qt is built with optimization level -O2.

The assembly of each of the KDE packages itself is performed through three traditional sacred actions -

$ ./configure && make && make install

of which the first deserves special attention. The thing about configuration scripts for KDE packages is that they usually run to completion - even if dependencies are broken. A full report is issued regarding the testing of the script. At the same time, there is a clear distinction between “hard” dependencies, without which the assembly and operation of the package is impossible, and “soft” dependencies, which add optional (but often enabled by default) functions to it.

If everything is clear with “hard” dependencies - they must be satisfied without fail - then with regard to “soft” dependencies the user is given a choice. For example, KDE's soft dependencies include the cups printing system and the sane scanning system. However, it is quite possible that the user does not need these functions (for example, due to the lack of appropriate units). And therefore, it may well be possible to turn them off by specifying the appropriate configuration script options - and a complete list of them, as usual, is obtained by the command

./configure --help

By default, Qt and KDE packages are installed in their own branches of the /usr/local directory - /usr/local/qt and /usr/local/kde. However, in Lately There is a tendency in many Linux distributions to move such large software packages to the /opt directory (and this is encouraged by the File Hierarchy Standard Linux systems). To follow this trend, when executing the configuration script, you must set the appropriate options:

./configure --prefix=/opt --with-qt-dir=/opt/qt

After building Qt and kdelibs (and before building the rest of the KDE packages), you need to make the corresponding libraries publicly available to all applications. To do this, you need to enter the lines in the /etc/ld.so.conf file

/opt/qt/lib /opt/kde/lib

and run the command

$ldconfig

Now about optimization. KDE (like Qt) is written in C++, and, accordingly, optimization requires not the CFLAGS flag, but the CXXFLAGS flag. However, they can be equated to each other -

Export CXXFLAGS="$CFLAGS"

Well, we’ll talk about possible values ​​of CFLAGS some other time.