[Nobody]

I followed the instructions in the August issue of Macworld for installing X11, fink and KDE, and everything appears to have installed fine. I do have one observation and one question, however.
Observation:
The article apparently assumes that the user is using the (default?) bash shell, since I could only get X11 up by issuing the command from my tcsh shell: "bash startx".
Question:
When KDE comes up, it opens up all the folders on my OSX (10.3.4) desktop, and I'm unable to close them with either the mouse or using ctrl_x. In fact, clicking on an open window or one of the buttons on the title bar has no effect at all. Plus, when I go to the Control Center (via the K in the Kicker) and try to expand the Desktop menu as recommended in the article, the folders on the Desktop open up again instead of the Desktop menu expanding. Some things on the Kicker bar do apparently work, but switching workspaces is flaky. I forget the details, however, since I want to get to the KDE preferences first as the article recommends.
So, do I have a messed up installation, or is this release of KDE for OSX Not Yet Ready For Prime Time?
Bryan

[drmbb]

I can't answer your questions about problems. I would ask though, why do you even want to install KDE? Aside from the KDE specific apps (eg KOffice), there's nothing that runs under KDE that you can't set up under Apple's X11. Running KDE simple adds another desktop layer to OS X that will further bog down your system, and is miles behind the capability of the native OS X Aqua interface.
If you really want, or need KDE, don't run it under OS X. Do a dual boot, install something like YellowDog, or Mandrake Linux, and run it natively under Linux.
Why do you want KDE anyway? As a Linux desktop, I'd say it's excellent, better then GNome, but on top of OS X, I really do not see the point /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[johnd0e]

couldn`t agree more with drmbb.
As long as you don't need KDE (and to be honest I can't think of any reason.. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ), it's a nice thing to play with. Aqua is right now at the point KDE will reach one day : very user-friendly, very stable.

In reply to:

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Do a dual boot, install something like YellowDog, or Mandrake Linux, and run it natively under Linux

---

Gentoo runs really well on macs. I used to work with gentoo on an iBook G3 600 Combo (640 MB RAM). It was definitely faster than 10.2 at that time. Installation and configuration is very easy because of the great documentation.

[Nobody]

OK, so I don't need something like Gnome or KDE to run the GIMP? How about things like Open Office?

[nkasuri1]

You can find MacGIMP and OpenOffice for OS X (X11) at these links.

[drmbb]

Since you already have FINK and X11 installed, you can also just use:
"fink install gimp" (or gimp2, but it's in the unstable branch, while gimp is in the stable branch).
That will do it.

[Nobody]

OK, I tried installing gimp by entering
fink install gimp
as suggested. After quite a while (downloading packages, unpacking, etc.) I got the following message:
"You have an existing X11 installation in /usr/X11R6 and/or /etc/X11. This package refuses to overwrite these. Remove them, then tell Fink to install xfree86 again. (The package won't be recompiled.) If you want
to keep your X11 installation, install system-xfree86 resp. system-xtools instead to make this known to Fink's package system."
which is correct, I'd already installed X11 from the OSX CDs. I'd rather keep that version of X11 instead of the one that comes with gimp (I guess that's a good choice), so I tried
fink install system-xfree86
and
fink install system-xtools
as I understand the above message to say, and got as a response:
"No packages to install."
Indeed, those don't show up in the list of installable items in Fink Commander's table.
So, how can I keep my Apple-supplied version of X11 and still install gimp? I'm learning as I go along, here.

[drmbb]

What version of FINK are you running (current is 0.7.0)? The system-xfree86 placeholder package should be automatically installed when FINK detects Apple's X11. Try running "fink selfupdate" followed by "fink update-all".

[catbyte]

Personally - I would like to get KDE working just so I can learn how to use it. I am having the same problems as well. It seems that windows are not receiving mouse events for some reason. Certain keyboard events are also not picked up.
I have Gimp and EtherPeek running fine under X11. Now that I know KDE will not run, is there a way to Uninstall it???

[Nobody]

I ran "fink selfupdate" before I checked which version I was using, but it certainly did a massive update. And "fink update-all" was still cranking away after 4.5 hours when I finally went to bed. Guess I had an older version of fink and associated files.
When the updates finish I'll try installing gimp again and see what happens. Same with KDE.

[Nobody]

Still no joy. After the fink selfupdate completed, here's what "fink -V" reports:
Package manager version: 0.20.5
Distribution version: 0.7.0.cvs
After entering "fink update-all" and waiting for hours, I was greeted this afternoon with the following messages:
You have an existing X11 installation in /usr/X11R6 and/or /etc/X11. This
package refuses to overwrite these. Remove them, then tell Fink to install
xfree86 again. (The package won't be recompiled.) If you want to keep your X11
installation, install system-xfree86 resp. system-xtools instead to make this
known to Fink's package system.
You have an existing X11 installation in /usr/X11R6/lib.
This package refuses to overwrite these. Remove them, then tell Fink to
install xfree86-shlibs again. (The package won't be recompiled.)
dpkg: error processing /sw/fink/dists/unstable/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/x11-system/xfree86-shlibs4.4.0-1darwin-powerpc.deb (--install):
subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
/sw/fink/dists/unstable/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/x11-system/xfree864.4.0-1darwin-powerpc.deb
/sw/fink/dists/unstable/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/x11-system/xfree86-shlibs4.4.0-1darwin-powerpc.deb
### execution of dpkg failed, exit code 1
Failed: can't batch-install packages: /sw/fink/dists/unstable/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/x11-system/xfree864.4.0-1darwin-powerpc.deb /sw/fink/dists/unstable/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/x11-system/xfree86-shlibs4.4.0-1darwin-powerpc.deb
So, once again entering "fink install system-xfree86" I get the following message:
/usr/bin/sudo /sw/bin/fink install system-xfree86
Password:
Information about 3424 packages read in 7 seconds.
No packages to install.
Checking with fink commander (version 0.5.3 (v.release)) I see the following entry for system-xfree86:
system-xfree86 0.0.1a-3 virtual package
Asking for the package info I get:
system-xfree86
virtual package
Installed:None
Unstable:None
Stable:None
Binary:None
Fink commander reports nothing for system-xtools.
So, it appears that the version of fink I have installed (see above) thinks that the virtual package (whatever that means) system-xfree86 is empty, or more exactly, there's nothing to install. Is this something like a soft link?
So, what now? Scrap the OSX 10.3.4 version of X11? I really shouldn't have to do that.
What am I doing wrong?

[drmbb]

When you installed X11, did you also install the X11 SDK package? It should be on your Panther CDs, or you can download it from Apple's macosx pages (start here). I didn't think you still needed the SDK package with the current FINK, but maybe it's still required?

[Nobody]

Yes, I had installed the X11 SDK package. I even re-installed it today just to be sure, and nothing was changed.
Fink commander still shows the virtual package system-xfree86 as containing no entries.
At a loss, here.

[Nobody]

Thinking that I had messed up somewhere during installation, I decided to start from scratch. I deleted everything in the /sw directory, then re-installed X11 and the associated packages from the Mac CD distribution. (That was probably not necessary, but oh well).
I then downloaded the fink 0.7.0 installation package via the link on the fink home page and went through the installation process as outlined there. That seemed to work fine, expecially since I installed from the binaries.
Then I used fink commander to install gimp from binaries, which also went smoothly. Gimp now comes up just fine. I guess I was installing from source before.
Anyway, I'll work on installing KDE when I get back from vacation.
BTW, it appears that fink commander can un-install KDE... there's an entry in fink commander's list called "bundle-kde". If your list shows that as installed, then you can un-install it by highlighting that entry and selecting "remove" in either the "source" or "binary" menus, depending on how you installed it.