KDE 4 support - please READ BEFORE POSTING

[reavertm]

This is the official guide for KDE 4 related threads.

KDE 4 for Gentoo is delivered in several ways:

• Portage repository
  The only officially supported and recommended way to get KDE4 (4.4.4 recently).
  If you haven't used any overlay nor compiled KDE 4 from source manually - this is probably what you're looking for.
  KDE 4 portage guide can be found here - read it please to avoid problems in a future, it's is advised that you checked FAQ below as well.
  You've found a bug? Visit this page - it may have been reported already.
  Support thread for KDE 4 in Portage can be found here:
  https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-707986.html
  
  
• Official Gentoo KDE team testing overlay [kde]
  This is overlay used by Gentoo KDE team, it's official but unsupported.
  It contains:
  
  
  • KDE releases that will later appear in the Portage repository (-4.4.x)
    
  • live KDE ebuilds tracking main development tree (-9999)
    
  • periodically updated main development tree snapshots, beta or pre-release (-4.4.xx)
    
  • live KDE ebuilds tracking 4.4.x development branch (-4.4.9999)
    
  • live KDE ebuilds tracking 4.5.x development branch (-4.5.9999)
    
  • 3rd party KDE packages that are not in Portage repository for various reasons
  
  If you have some suggestions or you would like to contribute, contact Gentoo KDE team on #gentoo-kde.
  Please DON'T report any bugs regarding live packages in this overlay. For bugs related KDE release candidates you should add [kde-testing] to description, but it's always better to ask on forum or IRC channel first.
  Support thread for official KDE4 testing overlay is here:
  https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-722264.html
  
  Qt4 live ebuilds can be found in Qt-exclusive experimental overlay now.
  To make use of them, choose the qting-edge overlay in layman.
  
  
• Official Gentoo user-maintained Qt3/KDE3 overlay [kde-sunset]
  This overlay contains Qt3 and KDE3 packages removed from main repository. It is maintaned by community. If you're interested in contributing, please let us know.
  Gentoo KDE team can be found on #gentoo-kde.
  

KDE in Portage - FAQ

Q: What's the deal with kdeprefix USE flag and why is it masked?

A: kdeprefix USE flag allows installing KDE4 in alternate location, thus making it possible to have multiple KDE4 releases side by side. Note that this is not needed to have KDE3 installed as well. Because having multiple KDE4 installations has known issues like bugs 258027 or 267793, it's not ready for public consumption hence it's been disabled by default.


Q: I want to run amarok, but all I get is "symbol lookup error: /usr/kde/live/lib64/kde4/plugins/styles/oxygen.so: undefined symbol". What should I do?

A: It's a Qt bug that appears when using kdeprefix USE flag. Qt plugin loader appends "qtplugins" path from currently running KDE4 session, causing oxygen.so from wrong KDE prefix to be dlopen'ed. Unfortunately it as well cashes plugin locations in ~/.config/Trolltech.conf, making it permanently broken unless the file is removed. It usually happens with amarok or any other KDE4 applications installed in no prefix (/usr), that are built against existing KDE4 in one prefix (for example /usr/kde/4.2), but run from the other (for example in Gnome, KDE3 or /usr/kde/live). For now there's no known solution.


Q: Why there are no sets for KDE4?

A: KDE4 so far is NOT making use of sets but sets are expected to arrive in near future - the reason is - the naming convention for sets is not yet established. Although KDE4 Gentoo team prepared some sets for you here (click 'raw' to download file and place in /etc/portage/sets/). An archive with all sets can be downloaded from here. Remember that you are using them at your own risk.


Q: When I start KDE 3, Plasma is being executed and my KDE 3 applications are either crashing or just not working. Konqueror refuses to start, complaining about default stylesheet version mismatch. What's going on?

A: This is the conflict related to mixed KDE3/KDE4 sessions. To fix this issue you need to upgrade your existing KDE 3.5.x installations to 3.5.10 or newer. Note that the 3.5.10 series has not been given stable keywords yet and that the monolithic packages have been discontinued.


Q: I installed KDE4, I can start my desktop using startx but KDM is not working. Please help.

A: First, ensure that kdm executable is in your PATH. To check that, run: