KDE

KDE is a powerful graphical desktop environment for Unix workstations.

Available versions
KDE SC 4 is the current KDE version supported by upstream. In Portage there is a stable version, and there might be one (or more) non-stable versions. Under normal conditions new versions get in stabilized after a month. In addition, KDE upstream provides live git source repositories. The Gentoo KDE team provides latest branch live ebuilds through the kde overlay.

Choose what KDE SC version is most appropriate:

Profile
The Desktop profile has been split to KDE and GNOME subprofiles. This means that KDE and GNOME specific USE flags have been stripped from the basic desktop profile and have been migrated to the subprofiles. Choosing a subprofile does not restrict the system to using only the equivalent desktop environment. 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:

See the page on profiles for more details.

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