path: root/README

In this file:

* About kdebase
* Thank you
* Common Mistakes
* Configuring
* Debugging
* Upgrading
* Removal/Uninstallation
* More Info


About kdebase
-------------
kdebase is the second mandatory package (besides kdelibs) for the Trinity Desktop
Environment. Here we have various applications and infrastructure files and
libraries. Here is an overview of the directories:

* applnk
    Files to create the icons for the K menu button

* debian
    Needed to create a Debian package.

* doc
    XML formatted documentation files for the apps

* drkonqi
    If ever an app crashes (heaven forbid!) then Dr.Konqi will be so kind
    and make a stack trace. This is a great help for the developers to fix
    the bug.

* kappfinder
    Searches for non-KDE applications, e.g. Acrobat Reader (tm) and installs
    those apps under the K start button.

* kate
    A fast and advanced text editor, extensible with nice plugins.

* kcheckpass
    Small program to enter and check passwords, to be used by other
    programs.

* kcontrol
    The KDE Control Center allows you to tweak the KDE settings.

* kdcop
    GUI app to browse for DCOP interfaces, can also execute them.

* kdebugdialog
    Allows you to specify which debug messages you want to see.

* tdeprint
    The KDE printing system.

* kdesktop
    You guessed it: the desktop above the panel.

* tdesu
    A graphical front end to "su".

* kdialog
    Allows to display menu boxes from shell scripts.

* kdm
    Replacement for XDM, for those people that like graphical logins.

* kfind
    File find utility (standalone and in Konqueror's file manager).

* khelpcenter
    Used to to read all great documentation about KDE, unix man pages,
    info pages etc.

* khotkeys
    Intercepts keys and can call applications.

* kicker
    The panel at the botton with the K start button and the taskbar etc.

* kioslave
    Infrastructure that helps make every application internet enabled
    e.g. to directly save a file to ftp://place.org/dir/file.txt

* klipper
    Taskbar applet that enhances and extenses the X clipboard.

* kmenuedit
    Edit for the menu below the K start button.

* konqueror
    The file manager and web browser you get easily used to.

* konsole
    A shell program similar to xterm.

* kpager
    Applet to show the contents of the virtual desktops.

* kpersonalizer
    The customization wizard you get when you first start KDE.

* kreadconfig
    A tool for shell scripts to get info from KDE's config files.

* krichtexteditor
    A embeddable rich text editor and a wrapper application for it.

* kscreensaver
    The KDE screensaver environment and some basic screensavers. More
    of them are in the kdeartwork package.

* ksmserver
    The KDE session manager (saves program status on login, restarts
    those program at the next login).

* kdepasswd
    A KDE frontend for passwd. Also contains the "Password & User Information" KCM.

* ksplashml
    The screen displayed while KDE starts.

* kstart
    Launches applications with special window properties such as iconified,
    etc.

* ksysguard
    Task manager and system monitor, can work with remote systems.

* ksystraycmd
    Allows to run any application in the system tray.

* ktip
    Gives you tips how to use KDE.

* kwin
    The KDE window manager (moves, resizes and decorates windows).

* kxkb
    A keyboard map tool.

* l10n
    l-10letters-n: localization. Mostly country flags.

* libkonq
    Some libraries needed by Konqueror.

* nsplugins
    Together with OSF/Motif or Lesstif allows you to use Netscape (tm)
    plugins in Konqueror.

* pics
    Various icons and wallpapers.


Thanks!
-------
Thank you Steven M. Scotten and Kuno Raffi (weave) for creating artwork
specifically for the K Desktop Environment.  Your efforts are much
appreciated.

Mr. Scotten has created: blue_angle_swirl, bluecheck, bluegreencrisscross,
bluegreensilver, candystripe_chainlink, charcoal_sunset, fadedpaint,
garden_lattice, ghost_lightning, glassywarpcheck, gold_crinkle, greenish,
heavens_hex, latte, lime_vibration, liquid_canvas, northbeach,
orange_stacks, purple_swirl, string_theory, sunday_brunch,
toothofthehoundthatbitcha, vegetative_fog, wavetron, woodcheck


Common Mistakes
---------------
IMPORTANT: most applications need KDEDIR as the directory where KDE is
installed.  Please set this in your login file.

If XPM support wasn't configured, it may be that configure has no idea where
your XPM libraries are.  If so, set XPM_INCLUDE and XPM_LDFLAGS to the paths
where configure should look for XPM.  But if you haven't installed XPM or it
didn't come with your system, that's no problem.  You will only miss a few
screensavers.  The same thing applies with OPENGL support.  Here you have to
set GL_INCLUDE and GL_LDFLAGS.

If configure claims Qt cannot be found, have a look at
ftp://ftp.trolltech.com and download the latest Qt 3.3.x release.

Be advised, if you're using FreeBSD, then please do not use the Qt port that
comes along with it.

Configuring
-----------
kdebase's configure script supports all the standard GNU autoconf options
(you can have the various options listed for you by specifying the --help
switch), plus the following options are also supported.  Note: the *non*
default variation is listed, so if you see --enable-debug, the default is
--disable debug.

`--x-includes=DIR'
     use X include files in DIR

`--x-libraries=DIR'
     use X library files in DIR

`--enable-debug'
     creates debugging code [default=no]

`--enable-strict'
     Add strict[er] compiler options (may not work!) to the CFLAGS and
     CXXFLAGS.  This is GNU CC specific for the time being.

`--with-gnu-ld'
     assume the C compiler uses GNU ld [default=no]

`--disable-libtool-lock'
     force libtool not to do file locking

`--disable-nls'
     do not use Native Language Support (i18n)

`--with-qt-dir'
     where the root of qt is installed 

`--with-qt-includes=DIR'
     look for the Qt header files in DIR

`--with-qt-libraries=DIR'
     look for the Qt library in DIR

`--with-extra-includes=DIR'
     look for include files in DIR in addition to any other
     `standard' paths

`--with-extra-libs=DIR'
     look for [extra] libraries in DIR too

`--disable-path-check'
     don't try to make sure that kdebase is installed into the same
     base KDE directory as the rest of KDE
 
`--with-install-root=DIR'
     the root to install to [default=/] (i.e. make / == DIR, so /usr
     becomes DIR/usr)

`--disable-rpath'
     do not use the rpath feature of ld

`--with-xdmdir=DIR'
     use xdm (and config files) from DIR if the xdm config dir can't be
     found automaticly

`--with-pam[=ARG]'
     enable support for PAM: ARG=[yes|no|service name]

`--with-shadow'
     if you want to check for and use shadow password support if it's present

`--without-gl'
     disable any software which depends on OpenGL

`--without-xpm'
     disable color pixmap XPM tests

`--with-xinerama'
     enable Xinerama support

Please check ./configure --help for a more current list of options and what
they do. 


Debugging
---------
You can use --enable-debug with the configure script, if you want to have
debug code in your KDE apps and libs. If you experience problems and want to
report problems to the KDE Bugs database, it is recommended to recompile
with this switch enabled to make the backtraces more verbose (and thus
giving the developer more information about the cause of the bug).


Removal/Uninstallation
----------------------
You can use 'make uninstall' if you want to remove the kde from the dirs.
This feature has not been tested completely, and is depreciated. On a system
where KDEDIR is specific to KDE (i.e. not /usr), rm -rf $KDEDIR does it as
well.


More Info
---------
If your system does not have XPM installed, and you cannot locate a package
of it, you may obtain it from ftp://avahi.inria.fr/pub/xpm, or you may find
it in ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/distfiles

If you are running a FreeBSD system, you will need to make sure that LIBS is
set to "-Wl,-export-dynamic".  The easiest way to do this is to prefix
configure with it, i.e.: LIBS="-Wl,-export-dynamic" ./configure.  Thanks to
Will Andrews <[email protected]> and Arun Sharma <[email protected]>
for identifying what needed to be done, and how to do it, and such.

If your system supports PAM (Plugable Authentication Modules), please see
the README.pam file in this directory for more information about using KDE
with PAM.

Have a look at the individual subdirectories, if you would like to find out
more about a specific application included in kdebase.

More FAQs on http://www.kde.org/info/faq.html

If you have problems compiling and installing this package, please check the
[email protected] mailing list archive (see http://lists.kde.org) to see if
somebody had a similiar problem already. If not, try posting a message to
the list with detailed information about the compile problem.

General KDE discussions should go to the KDE mailing list ([email protected]).