Notes on the KDE-1.1 RPM Packages for Red Hat Linux

The KDE Packaging Team, kde-packager@kde.org

The i386 versions of these RPM packages are available at ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/stable/1.1/contrib/distribution/rpm/ in the RedHat-4.2/i386, RedHat-5.0/egcs/i386, RedHat-5.1/i386, and RedHat-5.2/i386 subdirectories. RPM packages for other architectures may be available; substitute the architecture name (e.g, alpha) for i386 in these instructions,

1. Which version of the QT toolkit to use?

These rpms are built to use QT v1.42. The rpm packages should be available where you obtain the KDE rpms; if not look for them at ftp://ftp.troll.no/pub/contrib/qt-packages/linux

For RH4.2 (Red Hat 4.2), get the RPM package qt-1.42-1rh42.i386.rpm. This is compiled with gcc-2.7.2.3 and libc5.

For RH5.0, RH5.1, or RH5.2, get the RPM package qt-1.42-3rh51.i386.rpm. This is compiled with egcs-1.0.3a and glibc2. (For those who requested it, this package now includes the qimageio extension.)

(A special series of "rh5xegcs11" KDE rpms compiled with egcs-1.1 may be available for the Digital/Compaq (tm) alpha/AXP processor architecture. These will require special qt-1.42-3rh5xegcs11.alpha.rpm RPM packages compiled with egcs-1.1.)

If you plan to compile additional KDE applications, also obtain the corresponding qt-devel RPM package.

If QT-2.0 maintains backwards compatibilty, appropriate qt-2.0-*rh*.i386.rpm RPM packages may work with KDE-1.1.

2. Why are there various different sets of KDE RPM packages?

The evolution of the Red Hat distribution means that there are binary incompatibilities between different releases (except between RH5.1 and RH5.2, which use the same RPM package).

• The "rh42" packages are for Red Hat 4.2, compiled with gcc-2.7.2.3 and libc5,
• The "rh50egcs" packages are for Red Hat 5.0, and are compiled with egcs-1.0.3a glibc2, and libncurses-3.0
• The "rh5x" packages are for Red Hat 5.1 and 5.2, and are compiled with egcs-1.0.3a, glibc2, and libncurses-4.0.
• The "rh5xegcs11" packages are for Red Hat 5.1 and 5.2 (probably available only for the Digital/Compaq (tm) alpha (AXP) processor architecture) are compiled with the latest egcs-1.1 compiler, as some alpha users have requested this. These will also require that libstdc++-2.0.9 is installed.

Since the "rh50egcs" RPM packages are not compiled with the gcc-2.7.2.3 compiler supplied with RH5.0, they require that the C++ library libstdc++-2.8.0 taken from the Red Hat 5.1 or 5.2 distribution is added to your RH5.0 installation. (KDE RPM packages for RH5.0 compiled with the gcc-2.7.2.3 compiler and glibc2 currently have broken PAM support, and will not be released unless this is fixed).

3. Things to do before installing the RPM packages.

(For more information, see the Installation Guide for the KDE RPM packages for Red Hat Linux; this will be available in /usr/doc/KDE-1.1/ after the kdesupport RPM package is installed).

ONLY INSTALL KDE IF YOU CURRENTLY HAVE A WORKING X WINDOW SYSTEM ON YOUR RED HAT SYSTEM. FIX ANY PROBLEMS WITH "X" BEFORE INSTALLING KDE.

Then login as the superuser (root).

The standard KDE installation is in $KDEDIR = /opt/kde, but the RPM packages are relocatable: you can install them to another location such as /usr/kde with the rpm ... --prefix=/usr/kde option. If you use this option, you will have to make sure that any KDE applications you later install that are not part of this distribution install to the correct location.

You will need 30-40Mb disk space for a full KDE installation. Type "df" to see available space (in Kb) on your disk partitions.

Ideally, /opt is the mount point of a separate partition, but this is not part of the current Linux File System Standard followed by Red Hat. (It is however part of the new File Heirarchy Standard (FHS) v2.0, which has been announced to be part of the forthcoming Linux Standard Base (LSB) standard). If you do not have (or do not wish to create) an /opt partition, (and do not wish to relocate the RPM packages), you can either:

1. Do nothing: in this case, KDE will install to a directory /opt/kde on the root partition /. (If not enough space is available, this may cause problems by filling your root partition!)
2. Create a directory /opt, and make /opt/kde a symbolic link to a directory on a partition with free space, e.g.:

   mkdir /opt
   mkdir /usr/local/kde 
   ln -s ../usr/local/kde /opt/kde
   

   This provides the greatest flexibility, as other packages that install to /opt can be then be placed on different partitions using symbolic links. (Do this BEFORE installing KDE ! ):

If you have an older version of KDE installed you should:

• uninstall if it is older than KDE-1.1 (or move it out of the way so the installation to /opt/kde will be clean). In particular, you may have problems on Red Hat 5.1/5.2 if you upgrade from kdesupport-1.0-*rh51, as the kdesupport-1.1-*rh5x rpms no longer supply libgdbm. (Sorry: rpm should provide graceful upgrades without uninstalling the KDE-1.1 rpms, but our decision (starting with KDE-1.1) to rely on Red Hat's RPM packages for libgdbm, libjpeg, and libungif has made that difficult this time.) RedHat 5.1/5.2 users must either first uninstall kde*-1.0, or use rpm --nodeps ... when upgrading. Also make sure the Red Hat rpm packages gdbm, libjpeg-6b, and libungif are installed. (For Red Hat 5.1, the last two packages must be the updated RPM packages found at Red Hat's ftp site ftp://updates.redhat.com/ in the jpeg subdirectory of the Red Hat 5.1 updates). (This only applies to the "rh5x" rpms).
• remove any special KDE customizations in system files like /etc/profile to set KDEDIR, put KDE executables in the system path, etc. This will be handled automatically by this installation (by scripts in /etc/profile.d), and your older customizations may interfere with this.

4. Install libstdc++ if needed (Red Hat 5.0, or if using egcs-1.1)

Red Hat 5.0 users need to obtain the libstdc++-2.8.0 RPM package from the Red Hat 5.2 (or 5.1) distribution, and install it on your Red Hat 5.0 system.

Get it from ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/redhat-5.2/i386/RedHat/RPMS/libstdc++-2.8.0-14.i386.rpm and install it:

rpm -Uvh libstdc++-2.8.0-*.i386.rpm                 

If you intend to compile KDE applications for your Red Hat 5.0 system, you will also need to install the egcs-1.0.3a compiler from the Red Hat 5.2 distribution (or the egcs-1.0.2 compiler from Red Hat 5.1) on your Red Hat 5.0 system. See the document gcc_to_egcs-HOWTO for details (kdesupport installs it in /usr/doc/KDE-1.0).

If you are still using Red Hat 5.0 (Red Hat's first glibc release) you should seriously consider upgrading to Red Hat 5.2.

Similarly, if you are using the "rh5xegcs11" RPM packages compiled with egcs-1.1 for the alpha/AXP processor, you should at this time install the libstdc++-2.0.9 RPM package that accompanies them.

5. Installing the RPM packages.

From the directory that contains the RPM packages: First install QT:

rpm -Uvh qt-1.41-*rh*.i386.rpm

where *rh* is 1rh42 for RH4.2, and 1rh51 for RH5.0, RH5.1 and RH5.2. Also install the corresponding qt-devel RPM package if you plan to compile any KDE applications.

Now install the KDE base system:

rpm -Uvh kdesupport-1.1-*rh*.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh kdelibs-1.1-*rh*.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh kdebase-1.1-*rh*.i386.rpm

where *rh* is *rh42 for RH4.2, *rh50egcs for RH5.0, and *rh5x for RH5.1, RH5.2.

Now install the optional KDE RPM packages

rpm -Uvh k*-1.1-*rh*.i386.rpm

where k* is any of: kdeadmin, kdegames, kdegraphics, kdemultimedia, kdenetwork, kdetoys, kdeutils, or korganizer.

6. Things to do after installing the RPM packages.

To use the KDE X Display Manager kdm as a substitute for xdm, type

/opt/kde/bin/kdm_on      

kdm_on makes small changes to two Red Hat configuration files (/etc/inittab, /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_0). (These changes can be reversed by typing "/opt/kde/bin/kdm_off"). If the system is already running xdm in runlevel 5, (and no X Window sessions are active) type

telinit 3 ; telinit 5

to shut down xdm and start kdm.

For each user who wants to use KDE as their desktop, type

/opt/kde/bin/usekde <username>                

(Users may also do this for themselves by just typing "usekde" after they next log in.) A hidden file .Xclients installed in the user's home directory starts the KDE desktop in their next X Window session; they can simply delete this file in the (unlikely) event that they no longer wish to use KDE.

It is also simple to configure the system so all users get a KDE desktop by default, and to customize the initial KDE desktop that they see. For details, see Installation Guide, which also includes troubleshooting hints, and is installed by the kdesupport RPM package into /usr/doc/KDE-1.0, along with other Red Hat-specific documentation.

The KDE configuration initially installed by these RPM packages places icons for printing, and for mounting/unmounting floppy-disk and cdrom drives on the desktop. The System Manager must ensure these are correctly configured for the system before they will work (or delete them if they are not wanted). The System Manager may wish to customize the default KDE Desktop (that is installed by the "usekde" script) for your system; see the Installation Guide for more details.

Now enjoy KDE on your Red Hat system next time you open an X Window session!

The KDE Packaging Team

Send comments or corrections to: redhat-rpms@kde.org