Installation & Upgrade

There are two different approaches for installing or upgrading KDE, depending on your current setup. The steps to take are different, depending on whether you do a

First time Installation of KDE
KDE via Ports
KDE via Packages
Update from KDE 2.x to 3.x
Update from KDE 3.x to 3.y
Using area51

First Time Installation of KDE

The easiest method to install KDE on FreeBSD is to do so when initially installing FreeBSD (see the FreeBSD Handbook, especially Section 2.10.12: Select Default X Desktop).

X Window System

To use KDE on FreeBSD, XFree86 (version 4.0.1 or greater) or xorg (version 6.7.0 or greater) is required. If you have already installed FreeBSD without either, one or the other should be installed and configured before installing KDE.

KDE 4 via Ports

To install KDE 4.x by compiling from source, simply go to the appropriate directory (the KDE metaport is currently /usr/ports/x11/kde4/), and run

make install clean

This will install the complete KDE 4.x system and required dependencies. A complete KDE system 4.x consists of the following modules:

qt4 (multiple ports), kde4, kdeadmin, kdeartwork, kdebase, kdebase-runtime, kdebase-workspace, kdeedu, kdegames, kdegraphics, kdelibs, kdemultimedia, kdenetwork, kdepim, kdepimlibs, kdeplasma-addons, kdesdk, kdetoys, kdeutils and kdewebdev

If you decide to compile from the ports collection, make sure that you have an up to date ports tree (see the Handbook sections on cvsup or anoncvs). There are frequent upgrades, improvements and bug fixes made to the ports tree, and having the most recent ports tree will help eliminate many already known and fixed problems.

Troubleshooting

Upgrading KDE4 in FreeBSD 7.2 stalls on kdebase4-workspace on a 'plasma_something_automoc' line.
This is a problem in 7.2-RELEASE. See this advisory for the fix.

KDE 3 via Ports

To install KDE by compiling from source, simply go to the appropriate directory (the KDE metaport is currently /usr/ports/x11/kde3/), and run

make install clean

This will install the complete KDE 3.x system and required dependencies. A complete KDE 3.x system consists of the following modules:

arts, artswrapper, kdeaddons, kdeaccessability, kdeadmin, kdeartwork, kdedevelop, kdeedu, kdegames, kdegraphics, kdemultimedia, kdenetwork, koffice, kdepim, kdesdk, kdetoys, kde utils, quanta and qt.

KDE 4.x via Packages

Packages are now starting to become available for KDE 4.x on the FreeBSD FTP Server

KDE 3.x via Packages

Installing KDE via portupgrade and packages is the most time-effective method (post-FreeBSD install, that is). Once you've ensured portupgrade is installed and your ports tree is up to date, run the following command:

portupgrade -NRP kde

This will install the complete KDE system and required dependencies (see above) from packages, if they exist, and will build/compile those modules and dependencies that don't have packages. If you don't want to install all the KDE modules, you can use the command:

portupgrade -NRP kdebase

This will install only the required KDE modules (and dependencies), which are qt, arts, artswrapper, kdelibs and kdebase. Now you can add single modules, for example:

portupgrade -NRP kdenetwork

Note: portinstall is equivalent to portupgrade -N, so you can substitute if you wish.

If you prefer not to use portupgrade, the you can always use the the FreeBSD package system. To do so, run

pkg_add -r kde

portupgrade and pkg_add will fetch the packages from the default FreeBSD package site, unless a different site has been defined. To do so, set your environment variable PACKAGESITE (for whichever shell you are using) as directed there (usually choosing the latest version of the KDE packages for your version of FreeBSD).

Upgrading KDE 3.x to 3.y on FreeBSD

Note: Before anything else, read /usr/ports/UPDATING. If an update requires special preparations or procedures, instructions will always be found there.

Make sure your ports collection is up-to-date. Then you need to check whether you have the portupgrade installed. If that is not the case, you should either install it now, or delete and then install KDE from either the packages or the ports by hand.

If you do have portupgrade installed, you need to find out whether your current KDE installation was done via the KDE metaport. If you are not sure if you have the KDE metaport installed, the following command (and sample output) should tell you:

$ pkg_info -Ia | grep kde

kde-3.3.0 The "meta-port" for KDE

$

If the pkg_info command shows a line similar to what's shown above, you have the metaport installed. In this case, simply use one of the following commands to upgrade your KDE installation. If it does not show a line similar to what's shown above, you will need to replace kde in the following commands with "kde\* \*-kde-i18n"!

portupgrade -rR kde will upgrade all of KDE, its dependencies (including X and qt) and those installed ports depending on KDE by fetching and compiling from source.
portupgrade -PR kde will upgrade from KDE packages if available, and will compile from source for those applications and dependencies that have no packages available.
portupgrade -PPR kde will install from KDE packages only, and will cease upgrading at the point it finds an application or dependency that has no package available, so use this command only if you are sure that the package site contains all packages required.
portupgrade -FR kde will only fetch the port(s) tarballs or packages (depending on the other flags chosen, see above) for a later upgrade.

Either portupgrade by package command (-P or -PP) will fetch the packages from the default FreeBSD package site, unless a different site has been defined (see above).

See the portupgrade(1) man page for more information.

Using area51

It is also possible to use bleeding-edge ports that have not been committed. This is at your own risk, we don't guarantee anything. For further details, see the area51 page.

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