HowTo: Install and setup KDE 3.5.x on Gentoo

KDE is a powerful Open Source graphical desktop environment for Unix and Unix-like workstations. It combines ease of use and unparalel functionality.

Having married I can't "afford" running cool window managers such as dwm and Xmonad, so I began moving into desktop environments such as Gnome and KDE. KDE was there on my first contact with Linux and truth be said I prefer it over Gnome.

Bellow you'll find the steps I took to install and setup KDE 3.5.9 on Gentoo. Why 3.5.9? Because in my opinion KDE 4 is lacking taking into account the mature 3.5.x versions.

Let's begin by becoming the superuser:

• $ su

Edit your /etc/make.conf file and make sure that the qt3, kde, hal, dbus and arts flags are enabled. If you access Samba shares consider adding the samba flag also.

• # vim /etc/make.conf

Now we update the portage tree:

• # eix-sync

List and select a desktop profile:

• # eselect profile list
  [1] default-linux/x86/2006.1
  [2] default-linux/x86/2006.1/desktop
  [3] default-linux/x86/2007.0
  [4] default-linux/x86/2007.0/desktop
  [5] hardened/x86/2.6
  [6] selinux/2007.0/x86
  [7] selinux/2007.0/x86/hardened
  [8] default/linux/x86/2008.0
  [9] default/linux/x86/2008.0/desktop *
  [10] default/linux/x86/2008.0/developer
  [11] default/linux/x86/2008.0/server
  [12] hardened/linux/x86
  
• # eselect profile set 9
  

Now let's update our system along with all package dependencies, removing unneeded dependencies in the process:

• # emerge --ask --verbose --tree --update --newuse --deep world && emerge --depclean && revdep-rebuild
  

The fun stuff begins: the installation of kdebase-startkde. I choose this over kde-meta because I really don't need the full KDE environment. This takes around 2 hours on my desktop, a 2.2Ghz Athon XP-M.

• # emerge --ask kdebase-startkde

Having installed the base environment I proceeded by installing the individual KDE applications that I like:

• # emerge --ask --tree konsole kdm kpdf ktorrent ksnapshot amarok k3b kaffeine kmix kate kopete kcalc kolourpaint ark media-gfx/gwenview kget knetattach kchmviewer yakuake
  

From the previous package list special attention should be given to knetattach as this package allows Konqueror access to Samba shares.

Also, if you are planning on customizing KDE's look consider installing the following packages:

• # emerge --ask --tree kdmtheme nuvox polymer qtcurve gtk-engines-qt gtk-engines-qtcurve x11-themes/crystal
  

After emerging the KDM graphical login manager let's activate it by editing the /etc/conf.d/xdm file and add it to the boot scripts:

• # vim /etc/conf.d/xdm

DISPLAYMANAGER="kdm"

• # rc-update add xdm default

To have KDE automatically mount CDROMs and USB sticks, we need to add hal and dbus to the default runlevel and add yourself to the plugdev group.

• # rc-update add dbus default
• # rc-update add hald default
• # gpasswd -a plugdev

As I also want to access Samba shares I've also added samba to the default runlevel:

• # rc-update add samba default
  

And that's it. Reboot your system and gaze upon the wonderful desktop environment that KDE is.

Resources:
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/kde/kde-config.xml
http://www.kde.org/