KDE

KDE is a powerful graphical desktop environment for Unix workstations.

KDE SC 4
KDE SC 4 is the previous major version of KDE. There is no more feature development, but it is still supported by upstream with bugfix releases. It is considered stable, and is recommended for most users.

Choose which KDE SC version is most appropriate:

KDE Frameworks, Plasma, and Applications
The next generation of KDE splits the SC into three components, each with their own individual release cycles: KDE Frameworks 5, KDE Plasma 5, and KDE Applications.

Profile
Choosing a KDE desktop profile, although not required, is recommended as it sets a number of global and package-specific USE flags to ease installation and ensure a smooth KDE experience.

In order to choose the most suitable profile, run the following command to list the available profiles:

Then, select the right profile with the following command, substituting  with the appropriate number of the profile:

For a full KDE desktop environment it is recommended to use the desktop/kde profile, which is specially tailored for KDE with OpenRC. If KDE with systemd is to be used, it is recommended to use the desktop/kde/systemd profile, which is specially tailored for KDE with systemd.

Services
Before installing KDE SC it is recommended that several other services are set up first. Part of that is done automatically if a desktop/kde or desktop profile is used. These services are:
 * D-Bus: Enables use of the D-Bus message bus system.
 * polkit: Enables the polkit framework for controlling privileges for system-wide services.
 * udev: Enables support for udev Linux dynamic and persistent device naming.
 * udisks: Enables support for some storage related services.

Follow the links for information how to set up these services. Note that other USE flag combinations than set in this profile may technically be possible (especially if selected applications re ran instead of a full KDE desktop environment), but may be unsupported, untested, or lead to unexpected loss of functionality.

X server
Read and follow the instructions in the X server article to setup the X environment.

Packages
In Gentoo there are various packages that will install a KDE environment:
 * , the full KDE suite
 * , a basic KDE environment
 * , a very minimal, effectively unsupported KDE environment (no KDE applications or artwork)

It is usually a good idea to start with the package and install the additional software when needed:

There are other meta packages that can be installed to pull in parts of the KDE suite:
 * : Accessibility applications and utilities.
 * : Administrative utilities, which helps in managing the system.
 * : Extra themes, screensavers, etc.
 * : Bindings for various languages.
 * : Educational applications and games.
 * : Standard desktop games.
 * : Graphics applications such as image viewers, color pickers, etc.
 * : Audio and video playback applications and services.
 * : Network applications and VNC services.
 * : PIM applications such as emailer, addressbook, organizer, etc.
 * : Various development tools.
 * : Toy like applications.
 * : Standard desktop utilities such as a archiver, a calculator, etc.
 * : Web development tools.

Localization
To localize the KDE installation, install the package. If only a selected few languages needs to set, define the  variable beforehand in

E.g. to use the German language, set:

To localize the packages included in install the  package.

has its own localization package too:.

Boot service
KDM (KDE Display Manager) is the recommended login manager for KDE.

OpenRC
Set KDM as the default display manager:

To start KDM on boot, add xdm to the default runlevel:

To start KDM now:

Systemd
Enable KDM at boot time through systemctl:

Now run the following command to start the service:

Widgets
Many useful widget are in the package:

More KDE software
The most important KDE applications are in the portage tree and many are located in the kde-base and kde-misc categories.

External resources

 * Official KDE user wiki
 * Official KDE forum
 * KDE-Apps.org
 * KDE-Look.org
 * KDE-Files.org