KDE Pre-installation Configuration

Installing in /usr

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

export KDE4_PREFIX=/usr

Installing in /opt

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

export KDE4_PREFIX=/opt/kde4

If you are not installing KDE 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

/opt/kde4/lib

# End kde4 addition
EOF

Add to your /etc/man_db.conf:

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

MANDATORY_MANPATH /opt/kde4/man

# End kde4 addition
EOF

Several KDE packages install files into D-Bus and polkit directories. When installing KDE in a location other than /usr, D-Bus and polkit need to find these files. The easiest way to achieve this is to create the following symlinks (as the root user):

install -d /opt/kde4/share &&
ln -svf /usr/share/dbus-1 /opt/kde4/share &&
ln -svf /usr/share/polkit-1 /opt/kde4/share

D-Bus also needs to find the configuration files for the system-wide bus, which, if you follow the books instructions, are installed in /etc/kde4/dbus-1/system.d. Fix this by issuing the following (as root):

cat > /etc/dbus-1/system-local.conf << "EOF"
<!DOCTYPE busconfig PUBLIC
 "-//freedesktop//DTD D-BUS Bus Configuration 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd">
<busconfig>

  <includedir>/etc/kde4/dbus-1/system.d</includedir>

</busconfig>
EOF