Compiling KDE SC 4.7 packages for Debian sid i386

Source

On November 26, the Qt/KDE Debian team (qkd from now on) released an experimental packaging of KDE SC 4.7. This means a substantial and very much awaited upgrade from the actual version available in sid, 4.6.5 . From what I've been told, it has taken so long because there have been a lot of changes in source code structure (KDE has recently restructured its source modularization) and in packaging itself, and even with recent aditions to the group, the resources in terms of developers is still low. In any case, thanks to them for getting this version out, I really appreciate your hard work.

But because of this lack of resources, they only got out packages for the amd64 architecture, and I'm running i386 at home, so I decided to try and compile it by myself. This is the log of the attempt.

First, I added deb-src http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian experimental-snapshots main to my sources.list and got the code for kde4libs, the package I think is the root of the whole repo12:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ apt-get source kde4libs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
NOTICE: 'kde4libs' packaging is maintained in the 'Git' version control system at:
git://git.debian.org/pkg-kde/kde-sc/kde4libs.git
Need to get 12.4 MB of source archives.
Get:1 http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian/ experimental-snapshots/main kde4libs 4:4.7.2-0r3 (dsc) [4,883 B]
Get:2 http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian/ experimental-snapshots/main kde4libs 4:4.7.2-0r3 (tar) [12.1 MB]
Get:3 http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian/ experimental-snapshots/main kde4libs 4:4.7.2-0r3 (diff) [334 kB]
Fetched 12.4 MB in 1min 54s (109 kB/s)
gpgv: Signature made Sat 22 Oct 2011 02:29:45 AM CEST using RSA key ID 73A85F31
gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found
dpkg-source: warning: failed to verify signature on ./kde4libs_4.7.2-0r3.dsc
dpkg-source: info: extracting kde4libs in kde4libs-4.7.2
dpkg-source: info: unpacking kde4libs_4.7.2.orig.tar.bz2
dpkg-source: info: unpacking kde4libs_4.7.2-0r3.debian.tar.gz
dpkg-source: info: applying kconf_update_migrate_from_kde3_icon_theme.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying add_debian_build_type.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying disable_usr_lib_install_rpath.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying make_libkdeinit4_private.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying default_kde4_xdg_menu_prefix.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying qt4_designer_plugins_path.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying hardcode_ptm_device.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying kfreebsd_support.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying debian_menu.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying findservicebydesktoppath_try_realfilepath.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying findqt4_optional_x11_pthread.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying use_dejavu_as_default_font.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying hack_in_etc_kde4_in_kstandarddirs.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying ld_exclude_libs_qtuitools.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying konsole_kfreebsd_fix.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying hurd_support.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying kfileshare_kdesu_fileshareset.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying relax_plugin_kde_version_check.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying add_dlrestrictions_support.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying findpythonlibrary_layout_deb_on_debian.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying ktar_header_checksum_fix.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying ktar_longlink_length_in_bytes.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying nepomuk_unicode.diff

Nice, now get the build-deps:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo apt-get build-dep kde4libs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Build-Depends dependency for kde4libs cannot be satisfied because candidate version of package shared-desktop-ontologies can't satisfy version requirements

Dang, I have an old shared-desktop-ontologies (v. 0.6.x in sid), and peeking in qkd's repo I find no new version of it. The answer must be in experimental, so I add deb http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/ experimental main to my sources.list and run apt-get update. Now it must be just a matter of:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo apt-get install -t experimental shared-desktop-ontologies
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  shared-desktop-ontologies
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 103 not upgraded.
Need to get 129 kB of archives.
After this operation, 4,096 B of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/ experimental/main shared-desktop-ontologies all 0.8.0-1 [129 kB]
Fetched 129 kB in 1s (92.7 kB/s)
Retrieving bug reports... Done
Parsing Found/Fixed information... Done
Reading changelogs... Done
apt-listchanges: Mailing root: apt-listchanges: changelogs for mustang
(Reading database ... 218251 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace shared-desktop-ontologies 0.6.0-1 (using .../shared-desktop-ontologies_0.8.0-1_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement shared-desktop-ontologies ...
Setting up shared-desktop-ontologies (0.8.0-1) ...

And I try again:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo apt-get build-dep kde4libs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  hspell libacl1-dev libattica-dev libattr1-dev libdbusmenu-qt-dev libdlrestrictions-dev libpolkit-qt-1-dev libqca2-dev libstreamanalyzer-dev libstreams-dev
  libutempter-dev pkg-kde-tools
0 upgraded, 12 newly installed, 0 to remove and 8 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,170 kB of archives.
After this operation, 3,551 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
[...]

We're set! now to fire the compilation itself. The method I use must not be the best one, but I remember it by heart and works for me :)

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ cd kde4libs-4.7.2/
mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian/kde4libs-4.7.2$ nice -n 19 fakeroot debian/rules binary

Notice I use nice to not hog too much my computer and fakeroot. I don't remember why I must use it :| , but I remember I must. Later, asking in #debian-devel I was pointed to dpkg-buildpackage, to which you can give the -j# option, which makes the package to be compiled with # processes in parallel (actually it only works if the compilation is make based, as is in this case), so from now on I'll use that.

The resulting packages are these:

kdelibs5-data_4.7.2-0r3_all.deb
kdelibs5-dbg_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
kdelibs5-dev_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
kdelibs5-plugins_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
kdelibs-bin_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
kdoctools_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkcmutils4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkde3support4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkdeclarative5_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkdecore5_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkdesu5_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkdeui5_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkdewebkit5_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkdnssd4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkemoticons4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkfile4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkhtml5_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkidletime4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkimproxy4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkio5_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkjsapi4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkjsembed4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkmediaplayer4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libknewstuff2-4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libknewstuff3-4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libknotifyconfig4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkntlm4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkparts4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkprintutils4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkpty4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkrosscore4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkrossui4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libktexteditor4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkunitconversion4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libkutils4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libnepomuk4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libnepomukquery4a_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libnepomukutils4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libplasma3_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libsolid4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb
libthreadweaver4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb

Next package is kadebase. Again, we find the missing deps with:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo apt-get build-dep kdebase
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Build-Depends dependency for kdebase cannot be satisfied because candidate version of package kde-sc-dev-latest can't satisfy version requirements

The message is simlar to the one about shared-desktop-ontologies, but I have not even the slightest idea which one of the packages above is the one responsible for it, so I'll just install everything, as most probably they're build-deps for most of the remaining packages (it's kde5libs, after all):

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb
(Reading database ... 218481 files and directories currently installed.)
[...]

After that I try again, but still the same thing. Poking around I find that a package with that name exists (it's the first time I met him, enchanté), so I get the source in the usual way:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ apt-get source meta-kde
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Need to get 14.0 kB of source archives.
Get:1 http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian/ experimental-snapshots/main meta-kde 5:71~pre15 (dsc) [2,098 B]
Get:2 http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian/ experimental-snapshots/main meta-kde 5:71~pre15 (tar) [11.9 kB]
Fetched 14.0 kB in 0s (49.3 kB/s)
gpgv: Signature made Mon 21 Nov 2011 09:38:12 PM CET using RSA key ID 73A85F31
gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found
dpkg-source: warning: failed to verify signature on ./meta-kde_71~pre15.dsc
dpkg-source: info: extracting meta-kde in meta-kde-71~pre15
dpkg-source: info: unpacking meta-kde_71~pre15.tar.gz

And to compile:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ ( cd meta-kde-71~pre15 && nice -n 19 dpkg-buildpackage -j3 -b -us -uc )
dpkg-buildpackage: source package meta-kde
dpkg-buildpackage: source version 5:71~pre15
dpkg-buildpackage: source changed by Debian Qt/KDE Maintainers <debian-qt-kde@lists.debian.org>
dpkg-buildpackage: host architecture i386
[...]

That generates several packages, but I just install the one I want:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo dpkg -i kde-sc-dev-latest_4.7.2+5.71~pre15_all.deb
Selecting previously unselected package kde-sc-dev-latest.
(Reading database ... 218469 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking kde-sc-dev-latest (from kde-sc-dev-latest_4.7.2+5.71~pre15_all.deb) ...
Setting up kde-sc-dev-latest (4:4.7.2+5.71~pre15) ...

Now the build-deps again:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo apt-get build-dep kdebase
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libkatepartinterfaces4
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libqimageblitz-dev libtidy-dev
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 1 to remove and 8 not upgraded.
Need to get 205 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,932 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
[...]

You'll probably won't notice (as I didn't) that it has removed a package, libkatepartinterfaces. This is because in my system I have the old version of it and there seems to be some kind of conflict somewhere. I just cross my fingers it won't break much3.

Now get the sources and compile:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ apt-get source kdebase
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
NOTICE: 'kdebase' packaging is maintained in the 'Git' version control system at:
git://git.debian.org/pkg-kde/kde-sc/kdebase.git
Need to get 2,721 kB of source archives.
Get:1 http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian/ experimental-snapshots/main kdebase 4:4.7.1-0r2 (dsc) [3,217 B]
Get:2 http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian/ experimental-snapshots/main kdebase 4:4.7.1-0r2 (tar) [2,685 kB]
Get:3 http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian/ experimental-snapshots/main kdebase 4:4.7.1-0r2 (diff) [33.1 kB]
Fetched 2,721 kB in 26s (105 kB/s)
gpgv: Signature made Tue 27 Sep 2011 09:43:53 PM CEST using RSA key ID 73A85F31
gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found
dpkg-source: warning: failed to verify signature on ./kdebase_4.7.1-0r2.dsc
dpkg-source: info: extracting kdebase in kdebase-4.7.1
dpkg-source: info: unpacking kdebase_4.7.1.orig.tar.bz2
dpkg-source: info: unpacking kdebase_4.7.1-0r2.debian.tar.gz
dpkg-source: info: applying enable_debianabimanager.diff
dpkg-source: info: applying enable_dlrestrictions.diff

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ ( cd kdebase-4.7.1 && nice -n 19 dpkg-buildpackage -j3 -b -us -uc )
[...]

Installing the resulting packages is another history, as some of them depend on kde-runtime, so it's better if you compile kde-runtime before4. Trying to install its build-deps, you realize taht you actually need to compile soprano first.

You get the idea. Now I'll just show the generated packages I installed by hand after each compilation, but only those that suited my needs:

soprano:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo dpkg -i \
soprano-daemon_2.7.3+dfsg.1-0r0_i386.deb \
libsoprano4_2.7.3+dfsg.1-0r0_i386.deb \
libsoprano-dev_2.7.3+dfsg.1-0r0_i386.deb

kde-runtime:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo dpkg -i \
kdebase-runtime_4.7.2-0r3_all.deb \
khelpcenter4_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb \
kde-config-phonon-xine_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb \
kde-runtime-data_4.7.2-0r3_all.deb \
kde-runtime_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb \
plasma-scriptengine-javascript_4.7.2-0r3_i386.deb

While installing kde-runtime-data I had to remove kdebase-runtime-data:

[...]
Selecting previously unselected package kde-runtime-data.
dpkg: regarding kde-runtime-data_4.7.2-0r3_all.deb containing kde-runtime-data:
 kde-runtime-data breaks kdebase-runtime-data (<< 4:4.7.2)
  kdebase-runtime-data (version 4:4.6.5-1) is present and installed.
[...]

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo dpkg --remove kdebase-runtime-data
(Reading database ... 218612 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing kdebase-runtime-data ...
[...]

kdebase:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo dpkg -i \
dolphin_4.7.1-0r2_i386.deb \
kdebase-bin_4.7.1-0r2_i386.deb \
kdebase-data_4.7.1-0r2_all.deb \
kdepasswd_4.7.1-0r2_i386.deb \
konq-plugins_4.7.1-0r2_i386.deb \
konqueror_4.7.1-0r2_i386.deb \
konqueror-nsplugins_4.7.1-0r2_i386.deb \
libkonq5abi1_4.7.1-0r2_i386.deb \
libkonq-common_4.7.1-0r2_i386.deb \
plasma-widget-folderview_4.7.1-0r2_i386.deb

While trying to get akonadi I got this error message:

Failed to fetch http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian/pool/main/a/akonadi/akonadi_1.6.2-0r1.dsc  Hash Sum mismatch

Checking the MD5, SHA1 and SHA256 checksums and comparing to the ones in the .dsc file revealed no difference. lisandro told me to use dget instead:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ dget http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian/pool/main/a/akonadi/akonadi_1.6.2-0r1.dsc
dget: retrieving http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian/pool/main/a/akonadi/akonadi_1.6.2-0r1.dsc
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  2620  100  2620    0     0   6842      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  8161
dget: using existing akonadi_1.6.2.orig.tar.bz2
dget: using existing akonadi_1.6.2-0r1.debian.tar.gz
akonadi_1.6.2-0r1.dsc:
dscverify: akonadi_1.6.2-0r1.dsc failed signature check:
gpg: Signature made Thu 03 Nov 2011 08:55:52 AM CET using RSA key ID 73A85F31
gpg: Can't check signature: public key not found
Validation FAILED!!

Unpacking by hand:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ dpkg-source -x akonadi_1.6.2-0r1.dsc
gpgv: Signature made Thu 03 Nov 2011 08:55:52 AM CET using RSA key ID 73A85F31
gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found
dpkg-source: warning: failed to verify signature on ./akonadi_1.6.2-0r1.dsc
dpkg-source: info: extracting akonadi in akonadi-1.6.2
dpkg-source: info: unpacking akonadi_1.6.2.orig.tar.bz2
dpkg-source: info: unpacking akonadi_1.6.2-0r1.debian.tar.gz
dpkg-source: info: applying x11_not_required.diff

akonadi:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo dpkg -i \
akonadi-server_1.6.2-0r1_i386.deb \
akonadi-backend-sqlite_1.6.2-0r1_i386.deb \
libakonadi-dev_1.6.2-0r1_i386.deb \
libakonadiprotocolinternals1_1.6.2-0r1_i386.deb

Here I cheated: I really didn't want to spend 10 minutes of iterative attempts to find the minimal set of lib packages to install:

libkdepim:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo dpkg -i \
kdepimlibs5-dev_4.7.2-0r1_i386.deb \
kdepimlibs-kio-plugins_4.7.2-0r1_i386.deb \
lib*.deb

kde-wallpapers:

mdione@mustang:~/src/system/debian$ sudo dpkg -i \
kde-wallpapers-default_4.7.2-0r0_all.deb

kde-workspace:

sudo dpkg -i --auto-deconfigure \
systemsettings_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
plasma-desktop_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
plasma-scriptengine-python_4.7.2-0r7_all.deb \
plasma-widgets-workspace_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
plasma-dataengines-workspace_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
klipper_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
kdm_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
kde-workspace-bin_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
kde-workspace-data_4.7.2-0r7_all.deb \
kde-window-manager_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
kdebase-workspace_4.7.2-0r7_all.deb \
kdebase-workspace-bin_4.7.2-0r7_all.deb \
libkworkspace4_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
kde-workspace-kgreet-plugins_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
kde-style-oxygen_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libkdecorations4_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libkephal4abi1_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libkwineffects1abi2_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libkworkspace4_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libplasmagenericshell4_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libtaskmanager4abi2_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libplasmaclock4abi2_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libksgrd4_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libplasma-geolocation-interface4_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libsolidcontrol4abi2_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libprocesscore4abi1_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libweather-ion6_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libkscreensaver5_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libprocessui4a_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libsolidcontrolifaces4abi2_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
kde-workspace_4.7.2-0r7_all.deb \
ksysguard_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
freespacenotifier_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \
libksignalplotter4_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb \ 
ksysguardd_4.7.2-0r7_i386.deb

I'll just finish this post here. The rest is just more of the same. The final list of packages a compile in right order is:

kde4libs
meta-kde
soprano
kde-runtime
kdebase
akonadi
prison
kdepimlibs
kde-wallpapers
kde-workspace

All in all, this took some 10 hours of finding deps, compiling and installing, and 6.4 GiB between original .tar.gz files, compilation dirs and generated packages.

  1. It's nice that I don't need to compile libqt4*, those take ages5:. ↩

  2. Later lisandro from qkd pointed me to the dependency graph that confirms my guess. ↩

  3. I did all this while running a KDE SC 4.6.5 session, and even writing this post in kate. Thanks to Linux and Debian not much actually broke, I only lost the ability to browse with konqueror after I installed the first batch of packages because KIO could not instantiate an HTTP/HTTPS ioslave anymore. ↩

  4. Note that the dependency graph two notes above is actually a build dependency graph. ↩

  5. Not that this compilation was fast. kdelibs without parallelism took some 3h and kdepimlibs and kde-workspace are two huge beasts. ↩