[wellylug] Running KDE3 on Debian Testing

[lug]

Hi,

Jamie Dobbs was asking about how he could get kde3 (or even just KDE)
running on a new install of Debian Sarge/Testing. At the moment kde on
debian testing is borked. But there is a solution.

I did this today, and it seemed to go alright. I'm not sure in the long
run if the dependency demons will catch up with me, but hey it solved
the problem. And it seems to be what other people are doing, although
always use backports where you can.

Basically I followed this advice:
http://wiki.debian.net/index.cgi?DebianKDE

viz:
Sarge [aka testing] (using sid debs)

As of 24-Jan-2004, the current version of KDE on DebianTesting is not
installable, though that will eventually get fixed.

If you want to get the latest KDE packages from sid (on a testing
system):

    * create /etc/apt/preferences containing: 

Package: *
Pin: release testing
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: release unstable
Pin-Priority: 600

    * add lines to existing /etc/apt/sources.list pointing at unstable 


deb http://linux.citylink.co.nz/debian sid main contrib non-free
deb http://linux.citylink.co.nz/debian-non-US sid/non-US main contrib
non-free

    * update and install KDE from unstable! 

apt-get update
apt-get -u install kde kdm -t unstable

* kde is a meta-package for most of the kde stuff, kdm is a login
manager. Make sure you can do about 50++ MB of download.

    * you can easily install futher KDE packages - just remember to use
-t unstable
    * apt-get upgrade will work as normal, and keep you up-to-date 

For those of you interested in this technique, it's known as pinning.

chez

Jamie