KDE on FreeBSD
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Just what is says, those questions that come up time after time after time.
If you know a FAQ you'd like to have listed and answered here (or better yet, have already written an answer for), contact us.
Questions
- What must I have working and configured before I can run KDE on FreeBSD?
- Where can I get KDE for FreeBSD?
- What's the difference between ports and packages?
- Say I decide that I don't want to use the KDE meta port/package. What is the proper order to install the various KDE components?
- I am having difficulty getting KDE on FreeBSD working properly. Where can I get some help?
- I already have installed KDE, what's the easiest way to upgrade to the latest version?
- Why doesn't krandom-application work with FreeBSD, it works perfectly under Linux?
- How can I make arts play nicely with xmms (or any other sound application)?
- How can I view Flash Websites in Konqueror?
- How do I get KDM to work?
- A KDE application crashed and I want to file a bug report at http://bugs.kde.org, but the backtrace in the KDE Crash Manager is "useless". What can I do?
- How do I enable (passwordless) convenience logins in KDM? I checked the checkbox in the Login Manager Control, but KDM won't log me in?
- How do I get a sane font in Konsole?
- I installed a new iconset and as soon as I selected it, a lot of my applications immediately crashed and can't be restarted either!? I am using FreeBSD 5.x.
- I enabled KDM, but when I enter the password, the login window just disappears temporarily and then returns. What's wrong?
- I configured KDM to respond to XDMCP requests, but it doesn't react to queries from clients at all! What can I do?
- Hey, who's in charge here anyway?
- KDE on FreeBSD is pretty nice. How do I help?
Answers
What must I have working and configured before I can run KDE on FreeBSD?
FreeBSD 5.5-RELEASE (or greater) and xorg version 7.2 (or greater) or XFree86 version 4.5.0 (or greater).
Where can I get KDE for FreeBSD?
KDE has been ported to FreeBSD. Also, binary packages have been generated.
What's the difference between ports and packages?
Short answer: Ports are compiled locally from source code. Packages are pre-compiled binary files. There's also the Long answer.
Say I decide that I don't want to use the KDE meta port/package. What is the proper order to install the various KDE components?
qt, arts, kdelibs, kdebase. The installation order of the other KDE modules (kdeedu, kdegames, kdegraphics, etc.) does not really matter, except that (if you install it) kdeaddons must be installed after all other modules.
I am having difficulty getting KDE on FreeBSD working properly. Where can I get some help?
The Install Page is probably the best place to start.
If that doesn't solve the problem, try the general KDE and
FreeBSD FAQ's.
Mail Lists are another good source of information.
IRC is usually an good place to find answers to all sorts of questions, but be sure you have checked the first two resources beforehand.
I already have installed KDE, what's the easiest way to upgrade to the latest version?
Upgrading instructions can be found here.
Why doesn't krandom-application work with FreeBSD, it works perfectly under Linux?
Unfortunately, many programs have not been written with portability in mind, and as such may not work on FreeBSD. Some APIs (application programming interfaces) that may be used are not supported by FreeBSD, quite often for technical or political reasons.
How can I make arts play nicely with xmms (or any other sound application)?
Let's start with ls /dev/dsp*. If you get a list like this (and you probably will, most modern sound cards will be auto set up this way) you're already good to go:
If you only have dsp + dsp0, or possibly dsp0.0, you need to set some things up by hand. Put the following two lines into /etc/sysctl.conf:
hw.snd.maxautovchans=4
In the KDE Control Center, tell arts to use /dev/dsp0.1. If you use esd, tell it to use /dev/dsp0.2. Applications like XMMS and others will continue to use the defaults (/dev/dsp0 or /dev/dsp0.0) and you will still have /dev/dsp0.3 if you come up with anything else that still clashes.
If you notice that all sound is pitched down somewhat after enabling vchans, apply this patch to your kernel sources (get the patch and save it to /tmp, then, as root, do cd /usr/src && patch < /tmp/vchan-patch) and recompile and reinstall your kernel.
How can I view Flash Websites in Konqueror?
See the How To.
How do I get KDM to work?
Replace the ttyv8 line in /etc/ttys with:
A KDE application crashed and I want to file a bug report at http://bugs.kde.org, but the backtrace in the KDE Crash Manager is "useless". What can I do?
To enable debugging support in a KDE port, build it with WITH_DEBUG defined. You can set it on the commandline (example: make -DWITH_DEBUG && make install or put it into /etc/make.conf (WITH_DEBUG=YES). A similar switch exists for enabling debugging symbols in QT: WITH_DEBUG. Note that those switches ONLY work in the ports of the main KDE module ports like kdebase, kdemultimedia, arts, etc. They will not work in ports of 3rd party KDE apps like for example kmldonkey or kbear.
How do I enable (passwordless) convenience logins in KDM? I checked the checkbox in the Login Manager Control, but KDM won't log me in?
Passwordless logins are handled by a different PAM service definition, "kde-np". You can quickly create this definition by copying /etc/pam.d/kde to /etc/pam.d/kde-np and removing/commenting out the line
auth required pam_unix.so no_warn try_first_pass
How do I get a sane font in Konsole?
It's a known problem that Konsole's default font looks quite ugly on many FreeBSD installations due to problems with Qt's font substitution routines. A viable workaround is installing an alternative and readable fixed-width font called "Neep":
- Install the jmk-x11-fonts port (i.e. by running cd /usr/ports/x11-fonts/jmk-x11-fonts; make && make install, or by using portupgrade or pkg_add).
- Make sure that /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/jmk is in your X server's font path. For a first test, simply run xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/jmk; xset fp rehash to add that font path to your current display. If everything turns out to be working nicely, you should add that font path permanently, either by adding a corresponding FontPath entry to your XF86Config file (usually found in /etc/X11/ or /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/), or by adding the above command to your ~/.xinitrc file.
- Now, start a new Konsole, and navigate to the font selection dialog by clicking Settings -> Font -> Custom. Note that for the font to appear in your dialog, you have to make sure your Konsole does not use any pre-loaded KDE libraries. You can achieve that by either starting a Konsole from another Konsole, or by re-running kdeinit just like that in a Konsole. If you didn't re-run kdeinit and attempt to start Konsole by clicking on some icon, or pressing Alt+F2 and entering konsole, the font will not appear in the list.
- Finally, after you confirmed that you like Neep, click on Settings -> Save as Default to make this your default font.
I installed a new iconset and as soon as I selected it, a lot of my applications immediately crashed and can't be restarted either!? I am using FreeBSD 5.x.
The system compiler shipped with FreeBSD 5.3 or later produces bad code for KDE's SVG icon support. FreeBSD 6.0 or later is not affected.
To get all iconsets working without crashes, you will need to recompile the x11/kdelibs port with a gcc34 from ports. You will need the sysutils/portupgrade port to be installed to follow the instructions below:
- portinstall -P gcc34
- portinstall -f -m'CC=gcc34 CXX=g++34' kdelibs
I enabled KDM, but when I enter the password, the login window just disappears temporarily and then returns. What's wrong?
If you want to use a display manager such as KDM, xdm or gdm, you need to make sure you have hostname set for your machine.
If you don't get one assigned via DHCP and if the IP address of your machine does not resolve to an actual DNS name either, you need to set one yourself:
- edit /etc/rc.conf
- Add a line hostname="mymachine". Mymachine can be anything that doesn't clash with an existing host on your network.
I configured KDM to respond to XDMCP requests, but it doesn't react to queries from clients at all! What can I do?
FreeBSD 5.x and later has its IPv6 networking support configured to not listen on IPv4 at the same time by default. This causes kdm to listen on IPv6 sockets only and not respond to any IPv4 requests as well.
To fix this, set the net.inet6.ip6.v6only sysctl value to 0. You can have FreeBSD automatically do this at boottime:
- edit /etc/sysctl.conf
- Add a line net.inet6.ip6.v6only=0.
Hey, who's in charge here anyway?
We wish we knew.
Here's the way the KDE on FreeBSD Team is currently organized.
KDE on FreeBSD is pretty nice. How do I help?
The How to Help Page has some ideas. Another good place is on KDE on FreeBSD's own IRC channel. Drop in, hang around, listen to what's going on for a while. You'll soon find all sorts of things that need doing.
[ Edit ]
