KDE 4.1 requires some software that is not available in the Debian 4.0 "etch" release. Therefore, it can only be installed on systems using the testing & unstable branches.
Users of Debian testing (a.k.a. Lenny) must also add Debian unstable to their sources.list in order to meet the requirements of KDE 4.1.
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ sid main non-free contrib deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ sid main non-free contrib
You should replace ftp.de.debian.org by a mirror near you.
To enable unstable without upgrading your entire system, see this page.
To install KDE 4.1, the experimental branch must be enabled. Add the following to /etc/apt/sources.list, then update APT.
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ experimental main non-free contrib deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ experimental main non-free contrib
You should replace ftp.de.debian.org by a mirror near you.
APT will not install packages from experimental unless specifically requested. To install a package from experimental, run the command:
aptitude -t experimental install package1 package2 package3...
For a basic KDE 4 desktop, install the kde4-minimal package, which includes
kdebase-runtime |
Essential runtime components |
kdebase-workspace |
Desktop environment |
kdebase |
Core applications |
For (almost) all of KDE 4, install the kde4 package, which also includes
kdeplasma-addons |
Additional Plasma applets |
kdegraphics |
Graphics applications, including the Okular document viewer |
kdegames |
Assortment of fun games |
kdemultimedia |
Multimedia players and utilities |
kdenetwork |
networking-related applications, such as the Kopete IM client |
kdepim |
Personal Information Management apps, such as Kontact or KMail |
kdeutils |
General-purpose utilities |
kdeedu |
Educational applications |
kdeadmin |
System administration tools |
kdeartwork |
Additional artwork and sound themes |
Most users will also want to install kdm. There are still a couple of packages more:
kdetoys |
Desktop amusements |
kdesdk |
Software development tools |
You can co-install along your KDE 3 packages the following KDE 4 packages: kdelibs5, kdepimlibs5, kdebase-runtime
This is useful if you want to keep your KDE 3 enviroment but want to use a KDE 4 application like okular or even konsole. But remember KDE 4 apps will not integrate in your KDE 3 desktop so well as the current KDE 3 do.