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Installing and Running KDE 3.x on Sun Solaris OS-Based Workstations

Overview

GNOME and KDE have become the two major desktop environments on Linux as both of them provide many ease-of-use advantages over traditional UNIX desktop environments like CDE and OpenWindows. The good news for users of the Solaris Operating System is that both GNOME and KDE are now available from Sun or other freeware web sites. Recently Sun started to tout GNOME as the default desktop environment on Solaris in the future, but for some people KDE is still their favorite. This article will not go into any GNOME vs. KDE debate, and will only focus on how to install and run KDE on Sun workstations using the Solaris OS.

Where Can I Get KDE 3.x for the Solaris OS?

The easiest way to get the KDE 3.x binaries is to go to the Sun Solaris freeware web site.

You can download the whole Solaris 8/9 companion software CD images or just the KDE-related software packages here. Let's suppose you only want the KDE 3.x-related software packages -- you will need to download at least the following files:

qt 3.1.1
KDE 3.1

If you want to install the office software for KDE, you can also download this:

Koffice 1.2.1 

qt-3.1.1 and KDE-3.1 have software dependencies on other files. If you do not have those files installed on your workstation, you might also need to download and install the following files:

SDL 1.2.5 
Ogglib 1.0 
gdb 5.0 
gcmn 1.0

If you think it is too troublesome to download so many different files, and a high-speed network connection is available to you, I strongly suggest that you download the Solaris companion CD image instead. All the necessary files will be installed automatically if you install using the Solaris companion CD.

How to Install KDE 3.x on Solaris-Based Workstations

To install KDE 3.x on a workstation running the Solaris OS, you need administrator (root) permission. If you choose to download the individual files, you will need to unzip the downloaded files first and then use the pkgadd command to install them one by one. Let's use gcmn 1.0 as an example; after downloading the file SFWgcmn.bz2, execute the following:

bunzip2 SFWgcmn.bz2

By default bunzip2 is installed on the Solaris OS 8/9. If you do not have it, you need to install it first. After unzipping, SFWgcmn.bz2 becomes SFWgcmn, and then you can use pkgadd to install it:

pkgadd -d SFWgcmn

Follow the same procedure on all the downloaded files, and KDE 3.x should be installed correctly. As I mentioned earlier, the easiest way to install KDE 3.x on your Solaris workstation is to download the Solaris companion CD image and use a CD-ROM burner to create the Solaris companion CD. After the CD is created, put it into your workstation and simply run the installer script. You can easily choose all the software packages you want, and all the software dependency issues will be taken care of by the Solaris Web Start software.

After executing the installer script, a terminal window shows up and asks you for the root password. Enter the root password, and then the Solaris Web Start installer screen should appear. Follow the instructions on the screen to continue.

If you only want to install KDE 3.x on your system, when the 'Product Selection' screen appears, select 'No Install' for all items except for the item 'Desktop/Environment'. Select 'Custom Install' for item 'Desktop/Environment' and click on 'Next'.

On the next screen you should be able to select what components you want to install. You can then select KDE and KOffice if you like. After you have selected all the components you want, click on 'Next' and KDE 3.x will be installed on your system.

After you have installed all the KDE 3.x files on your system, if you want KDE 3.x integrated into your login screen with other desktop systems like CDE, you also need to execute this script:

/opt/sfw/kde/dtlogin/install-dtlogin

Also, you need to add /opt/sfw/kde/bin to your PATH environment variable and /opt/sfw/kde/lib to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. For example, if you are using c shell as your login shell, you can add the following line to your .cshrc file to add /opt/sfw/kde/bin to your PATH environment variable:

set path = ($path /opt/sfw/kde/bin)

Add the following line to your .login file to add /opt/sfw/kde/lib to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable:

setenv   LD_LIBRARY_PATH ${ LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:/opt/sfw/kde/lib

Now you can reboot your system and wait for the login screen to show up.

Using KDE 3.x on Your Solaris OS-Based Workstation

If you have installed everything correctly, you should be able to choose 'KDE 3.1' as your desktop environment from the 'Options - Session' menu when the dtlogin screen appears after rebooting.

If you are already familiar with KDE, then it should be no problem for you to use it on Solaris-based workstations. Basically, using KDE on Linux and the Solaris OS is almost identical except the default installation path for KDE/Linux is usually /usr/local/kde and for KDE/Solaris is /opt/sfw/kde3.

If KDE is a brand-new experience for you, congratulations! Now you have found a great desktop system. Some very useful tools on KDE can make your life much easier than before. One of the most famous tools on KDE is, of course, the almighty Konqueror. With Konqueror, you can easily create, copy, move, delete, and find any files or directory either on your file system or on the web. It is also a great web browser and FTP client. Starting from KDE 3.x, you can even preview multimedia files with it.

If you still prefer to use CDE or other traditional desktop systems but want to enjoy the benefits of all the great tools in KDE, don't worry, you still can use tools like Konqueror under the CDE environment. Simply type konqueror in a terminal window and it should launch even under the CDE environment.

Test Configuration

• Sun Ultra 5 workstation
• 360 MHz UltraSPARC IIi processor
• 256 MB RAM
• 80 GB IDE hard disk
• Solaris 9 04/03 Operating System

References

• Sun Solaris freeware web site
• KDE official web site

About the Author

Corey Liu has been a user and administrator of Solaris systems for over six years in Taiwan. He is currently working in the semiconductor industry as an applications engineer.

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