%general-entities; ]> $LastChangedBy$ $Date$ Based on your preference, set KDE_PREFIX. If KDE is your desktop of choice: export KDE_PREFIX=/usr If you want to try-out KDE: export KDE_PREFIX=/opt/kde-&kde-version; Remember to execute ldconfig after installation of libraries to update the library cache. If you are not installing KDE in /usr, you will need to make some configuration changes: You should consider installing the package. Though not required, this package will allow you to easily use existing .desktop files in /usr/share/applications (and any other locations identified by XDG_DATA_DIRS), and automatically add these applications to the KDE menu system. Add to your system or personal profile: export PATH=$PATH:/opt/kde-&kde-version;/bin export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:/opt/kde-&kde-version;/lib/pkgconfig Add to your /etc/ld.so.conf: cat >> /etc/ld.so.conf << "EOF" # Begin kde addition to /etc/ld.so.conf /opt/kde-&kde-version;/lib # End kde addition EOF /etc/ld.so.conf Add to your /etc/man.conf: cat >> /etc/man.conf << "EOF" # Begin kde addition to man.conf MANPATH /opt/kde-&kde-version;/man # End kde addition to man.conf EOF /etc/man.conf If you prefer installing KDE in /opt, one trick to avoid the above configuration changes every time you install a new version is to replace /opt/kde-&kde-version; with /opt/kde and to create a symlink from /opt/kde-&kde-version; to /opt/kde. ln -sf kde-&kde-version; /opt/kde