Mac - KDE Community Wiki

Building KDE Frameworks based software on Mac OS X

Install Qt (use the official Qt installer, recommended version Qt >= 5.6)

Install Python >= 3.5 (using the pkg installer from http://python.org)

Install homebrew and get some basic dependencies (http://brew.sh/)

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
brew install cmake p7zip gettext ninja

Prepare some build directory in your home directory, here we assume:

mkdir ~/kf

Switch to this build dir

cd ~/kf

Get the unix3 branch of KDE emerge

git clone kde:emerge
cd emerge
git checkout unix3
cd ~/kf

Copy Mac OS X config template to right location, should be OK to use out of the box

mkdir etc
cp emerge/kdesettings.mac etc/kdesettings.ini

Setup environment (path must contain your Qt install, here 5.7 default location and brew's gettext)

export PATH=/Users/cullmann/Qt5.7.0/5.7/clang_64/bin:/usr/local/Cellar/gettext/0.19.7/bin:$PATH
. emerge/kdeenv.sh

In this shell, now emerge is usable, e.g. to build Kate with all dependencies:

emerge kate

Installing KDE software on Mac OSX

The easiest way to do this is to use one of the Mac build systems which will automatically resolve all the dependencies for you. Unfortunately, this can be a very long process, taking up to 2 or more days. As at December 2012 MacPorts is currently recommended as it is the most up-to-date.

Installing using MacPorts

http://www.macports.org/

As of June 2016, the latest available and supported version is KDE SC 4.14.3.

Instructions are provided on TechBase for installing a development environment using MacPorts. If you want a user installation then just skip the final 'Configure your KDE development environment' section.

Additional information:

Installing using Fink

http://www.finkproject.org/

As of June 2016, the latest available and supported version is KDE SC 4.14.6.

The Fink packages allow you to install KDE SC 4 as either Qt/X11 or Qt/Mac (native) packages by selecting either packages ending in "-x11" or "-mac", for example "kdebase4-x11" and "kdebase4-mac".

Additionally, the Fink packages allow the running of the Plasma desktop in X11 mode. Just install "kdebase4-workspace-x11" to install it.

The Fink KDE software packages will be installed in /sw/opt/kde4/x11 or /sw/opt/kde4/mac respectively. They also are able to start D-Bus for you as long as you run "/sw/bin/init.sh" normally, or when you open a terminal, if you have run the path setup script in the Fink installer.

Installing using Homebrew

Installing KDevelop and Kate using Homebrew (KDE4-based)

https://github.com/adymo/homebrew-kde

As of June 2016, the latest available and supported version is KDE SC 4.14.3.

You can tap this repository into your homebrew. It installs the following apps and all their dependencies:

KDevelop
Kate
Konversation
Massif Visualizer

Please carefully follow installation instructions on that above page.

Installing KDE Frameworks 5 using Homebrew

https://github.com/haraldF/homebrew-kf5

As of June 2016, the latest available and supported version is KDE SC 5.22.0.

You can tap this repository into your homebrew. It adds KDE Frameworks 5 packages (and all their dependencies) and some applications that already make use of them (e.g. Kate and Kwrite). As of March 28th, 2014 the repository still is experimental as the developer tries to get them into a working state. Hints and patches are welcome.

Please carefully follow installation instructions.

Standalone Application Installers

Some KDE applications provide a standalone installer, usually in a Qt only mode and missing some KDE software integration features.

Marble Virtual Globe v1.5.0 (outdated)

Running KDE Applications

Please see the distribution notes for MacPorts / Fink / Homebrew formulas you are using. You may need to run the following steps once after installation:

sudo chown -R $USER ~/Library/Preferences/KDE
sudo launchctl load  -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freedesktop.dbus-system.plist

Sometimes, Installer.app fails to run the post-install. If things are acting funny, try running these two commands in a terminal:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist
/opt/local/bin/kbuildsycoca4

Getting Help

IRC:

#kde-mac on Freenode

Mailing list:

https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-mac

Forums:

http://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=60

Bugs:

bugs.kde.org

Continuous Integration

In the Frameworks section of this wiki you find more information about Continuous Integration on Mac and other systems.