Hey, first of all I want to apologize for using this space to request help at such a basic thing. I'm new at both Debian and KDE and although I've spent hours looking for information on such a basic topic as personalizing KDE, I've been unable to find something which works for me.

I'm using the latest version for Debian (testing - Wheezy), 4.7.4. And when it comes to download plasmoids or themes I've been able to figure out two ways.


1) Click on "Get more...". This takes me to a enviroment where, altought I can select items, I can't change de source to kde-looks.org (that is where I want to get my stuff). Being specially frustrating for Desktop Themes.

2) Download the content and install it myself. I've tried to do this with plasmoids. After I've the .tar.gz file, I extract it, create a build/ folder and run

Code: Select all

cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix` ..

in there. Altough I've installed both cmake and kdelibs5-dev, it won't succeed (I've upgraded g++ too). If necesary, I can C&P what Konsole displays.


Again, I'm sorry for wasting your time reading (and hopefully answering) this, but I couldn't come to a solution by myself.

Hi and welcome to KDE!

In short, there are two types of widgets - binary and scripted. The former has to be compiled, as you try to do with the cmake command. The easiest way to install those is usually to find a package for your distribution. The latter can be installed via "Get More...", but you'll only find scripted plasmoids here (the source is in fact kde-look.org).

If you want help with compilation, it would help if you could tell us which plasmoid and show the error messages. If they're too long you can paste them to http://paste.kde.org and post the link here.

Don't worry about asking questions, KDE is a very helpful community and everyone was a newbie once.

Hey, thanks for the very kind and useful aswer! It pretty much explained why I could find what I wanted in GNHS (or whatever the acronym is ), never payed atention to whether it was scripted or binary (dork! )

Here is a C&P of the message cmake gives me: (I've been unable to find the package for my version, maybe adding some repositories - Only had the debian wheezy ones for now - ).

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-- Found Qt-Version 4.7.4 (using /usr/bin/qmake)
-- Found X11: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so
-- Found KDE 4.7 include dir: /usr/include
-- Found KDE 4.7 library dir: /usr/lib
-- Found the KDE4 kconfig_compiler preprocessor: /usr/bin/kconfig_compiler
-- Found automoc4: /usr/bin/automoc4
CMake Error at /usr/share/kde4/apps/cmake/modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:198 (MESSAGE):
  Could NOT find KDE4Workspace (missing: KDE4Workspace_CONFIG)
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  /usr/share/kde4/apps/cmake/modules/FindKDE4Workspace.cmake:70 (find_package_handle_standard_args)
  CMakeLists.txt:23 (find_package)


Try to install kdebase-workspace-dev.

By the way, the difference between scripted and binary plasmoid is confusing, I think the Plasma developers wanted most third-party plasmoids to be scripted since they're easy to develop, install, and don't take plasma-desktop with them when crashing.

That changed the error message. Here we go again:

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-- Found Qt-Version 4.7.4 (using /usr/bin/qmake)
-- Found X11: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so
-- Found KDE 4.7 include dir: /usr/include
-- Found KDE 4.7 library dir: /usr/lib
-- Found the KDE4 kconfig_compiler preprocessor: /usr/bin/kconfig_compiler
-- Found automoc4: /usr/bin/automoc4
CMake Error at /usr/share/kde4/apps/cmake/modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:198 (MESSAGE):
  Could NOT find DBusMenuQt (missing: DBUSMENUQT_LIBRARIES
  DBUSMENUQT_INCLUDE_DIR)
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  /usr/share/kde4/apps/cmake/modules/FindDBusMenuQt.cmake:90 (find_package_handle_standard_args)
  CMakeLists.txt:24 (find_package)


Tried searching packages like that in aptitude with no success.

The package in dispute is this one: http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=144808


I want the iconized task bar basicaly, so if you have any alternative plasmas to suggest, I'll receive advise.I think that now or at somepoint I'll have to figure out how to compile the binary anyway.



Thanks again for the answers Hans, you are somehow Father Hans haha.

Hm, do you have a package named dbusmenu-qt-dev or libdbusmenu-qt-dev?

There's also Smooth Tasks if you want an iconized taskbar, but Icon Tasks has some other nice features that makes it behave more like a "dock". Icon Tasks is included in 4.8 (usually in a package called kdeplasma-addons or something like that) but I guess it'll take a while before it hits the Debian repos.

Nailed it.

Icon task is working

Thanks a lot Hans!

No problem, and thanks for marking it as solved. Don't hesitate to ask if you have any other questions.