KDE PIM/Docker

To make developing KDE PIM as easy as possible we have prepared a Docker image based on the KDE Neon distribution. It contains all the dependencies necessary to compile KDE PIM, the environment for running self-compiled KDE PIM and pre-configured tool (kdesrc-build) used to build latest KDE PIM from sources.

Set up Docker

If you use KDE Neon, Ubuntu or Debian, run the following commands to install Docker and add yourself to the docker group, so you can use it:

sudo apt install docker.io xserver-xephyr
sudo usermod -aG docker $(whoami)
newgrp docker

Warning

It's important to note that any user added to the docker group is root equivalent. More information here and here.

On other distributions, please follow your distro's guide on how to set up Docker there, since the steps can differ slightly on different distributions.

Preparations

Clone the git repository with the Dockerfile and support scripts.

git clone [email protected]:pim/kdepim-docker.git
cd kdepim-docker

Making OpenGL work in the container

Several parts of KDE PIM depend on OpenGL - this is due to our use of QtWebEngine, which is based on Blink and has a hard dependency on OpenGL for rendering web pages. There's no way around that and so we need to make OpenGL work in the container. Unfortunately, that is not a very straightforward process and it differs for each GPU vendor and drivers used.

NVIDIA proprietary drivers

The easiest way is to use NVIDIA's nvidia-docker from nvidia-docker Github. You can follow the instructions on the Github page regarding how to install it. The nvidia-docker will automatically find your installed NVIDIA drivers and will expose them into the Docker container at runtime, so you don't have to rebuild your container whenever you upgrade your NVIDIA drivers.

Note that if you do this, you must pass -n switch to the build.sh and run.sh scripts from the kdepim-docker.git repository.

Nouveau (NVIDIA opensource drivers)

TODO

Intel

Works out of the box

AMD/ATI

TODO

Building Docker image

In order to build the Docker image, run the build.sh script. If you are using proprietary NVIDIA drivers, run the script with the -n switch.

The command will create a Docker image called kdepim:dev.

Running the Docker container

Create a directory where you want the source code, build folders, and everything else related to KDE PIM development to be stored. This is also where runtime data and configuration of Akonadi, Kontact and other apps you run inside the container will be stored. You will then expose this directory to the Docker container at runtime. The content of the directory will be available in the container in its /home/neon/kdepim directory.

mkdir $HOME/kdepim-dev

To run the container, use the run.sh script. When you run it for the first time, you must give it the path to the storage directory:

run.sh $HOME/kdepim-dev

If you are using proprietary NVIDIA drivers, run the script with the -n switch:

run.sh -n $HOME/kdepim-dev

The first run will create a container named after the storage directory. After the first run you can just use the name instead of the full path:

run.sh kdepim-dev

If you want to get another terminal window opened inside the same container, just run run.sh again. It will automatically create a new terminal on the already running container.

Note

In some systems, the container's /home/neon/kdepim directory may not be writable. If so, edit run.sh to remove the parameter :rw,z from the -v options. Then delete the container with the command docker rm kdepim-dev, and run the container again.

Running Multiple Containers

You can have more than one container, each with its own state. For example, KDE PIM bug fixing mostly occurs on the current Release git repository branches, while new development occurs on the master branches. Switching between them (with kdesrc-build --branch) requires lengthy recompilation. Instead of switching, you can have one container for each.

mkdir $HOME/kdepim-stable    # Storage for second container.
run.sh $HOME/kdepim-stable   # Create second container.

Building and updating KDE PIM

Once inside the container, you can use the following commands to compile the entire KDE PIM suite:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
kdesrc-build kde-pim

This will take a lot of time the first time, but all subsequent builds will be faster thanks to incremental builds and use of ccache. You can also use a specific repository name instead of the kde-pim group.

Check the kdesrc-build documentation for more details about using kdesrc-build. For a start, you may want to customize the -j option in the make-options option group in /home/neon/.kdesrc-buildrc.

kdesrc-build will clone all the repositories into /home/neon/kdepim/src/kde/pim. Build directories (where you can run make and ctest manually) are in /home/neon/kdepim/build/kde/pim. Two command-line aliases, cb and cs, switch back and forth between them.

The binaries are installed to /home/neon/kdepim/install. The environment of the container is adjusted to work with the custom installation prefix.

Fixing build errors

If kdesrc-build cannot build from a repository, it will write a log file in /home/neon/kdepim/logs/latest/repository/error.log.

It is often the case that some system has added a dependency on some package that is not installed. In that case, error.log will contain messages like

 Could not find a package configuration file provided by "Qt5Location" with
 any of the following names:
 
   Qt5LocationConfig.cmake
   qt5location-config.cmake

If the system you are trying to build is normally distributed in some KDE Neon package, you can try to install all of its dependencies at once:

 sudo apt update
 sudo apt build-dep package

Another way to find a missing package is to visit Ubuntu Packages Search and use the "Search the contents of packages" form to search for the cmake file, then use sudo apt install to install the package.

Development tools

There's KDevelop and QtCreator preinstalled in the container and you can run them from there. You can also use them from outside of the container, but code completion might not work perfectly then.

You can also use any other IDE of your choice either by installing it into the container with apt-get or use it from outside of the container.

Contributing

You can find more details in the Development section of our wiki. If you have any issues or questions, feel free to stop by on our IRC channel (#kontact) on Libera Chat, or talk to us on the kde-pim mailinglist.