Kde-minimal?

[bailout]

I currently run Lubuntu. Having just installed Digikam and Kmymoney and seen the huge amount of kde that they pull in by default I was considering installing a minimal kde as well to test out. I used to run kde all the time but was scared away by kde4 so was thinking of seeing whether it was usable yet.

I don't want a full kubuntu desktop with all the apps. I can't find kde-minimal in synaptic. From a bit of searching it looks like kdebase-workspace or kde-plasma-desktop are probably the closest.

Both list kdm. I already have lxdm. If I install kdm will it replace lxdm without issues? I don't really care what dm I use tbh.

thanks

[sithlord48]

any time you have this kind of thing where you want to use a gtk program in kde or a kde program in not kde you can use the "--no-install-recommends" option of apt-get to only install the nessessary items. (ie sudo apt-get --in-install-recommends install digikam).

you can install kdm w/ lxdm the only thing you will be prompted on is what one to use when the macine start. so keep an eye out for the prompt

[bailout]

Thanks for the reply. I had tried the no-install recommends but it doesn't make a lot of difference. It still insists on installing Phonon, KDEpim, Akonadi Dolphin etc etc. I wouldn't mind QT and basic KDE libs but a lot raft of other KDE apps is unnecessary. I don't know whether the problem is with the digikam devs or the ubuntu/debian packagers or the design of KDE4.

IIRC installing kmymoney (kde3) on gnome pulled in qt3 libs and a few kde3 libs whereas kmymoney (kde4) pulls in much more so I suspect it is another 'benefit' of kde4.

Any advice on what I need to install now to get to a minimal kde desktop install? ie kubuntu without the bundled aps? Will kdebase-workspace or kde-plasma-desktop do this?

thanks

[sithlord48]

do you plan on running the kde desktop if not just install the programs you want from kde. they will pull the dependcies needed for themselves. if your worried you can use the --no-install-recommends switch as described above to have it not install its recommeds just what it needs to run .

[bailout]

I was thinking of trying kde desktop seeing as I now have so much of kde installed anyway. I used to use kde but after my initial experience of kde4 I swapped to gnome/lxde/xfce. The reports on kde4 seem to be getting better so I thought I would have another try but don't want to install all the kubuntu chosen apps if I can avoid it. Hence I was trying to find out what packages would give me a usable kde desktop with a minimum of additional apps.

thanks

[Teunis]

There used to be a packages called kde-core and minimal.
Presently there's only Kubuntu-desktop.
You get something functional with kdebase-workspace.

You will find the present KDE4.5 is a world of difference with KDE4.0 8)

[bailout]

Thanks for the reply. I installed kde-plasma-desktop which seems to be the new equivalent of kde-core or minimal. It installs the kde desktop with very minimal apps. As I started with a lubuntu install and had already installed kmymoney and digikam which pulled in huge amounts of kde there wasn't much to add. I then selected kubuntu-desktop in Synaptic and looked at the list of additional packages to see if I was missing anything important.

I added the kubuntu ppa so I think it was actually 4.5.5 installed. It is certainly much better than 4.0. I even installed kubuntu full version last summer and was so unimpressed that I immediately got rid of it. That was mainly disgust that knetworkmanager still didn't work and horror at kpackagekit after so long using Synaptic. This time the knm widget seems to work well and I still use Synaptic from my Lubuntu install.

Not very impressed with the heaviness of it though. 270MB ram use on boot :( over 40MB used by Akonadi which I am not using (tbh I don't really understand what it does). On the whole it seems quite nice and if I had more modern computers I might be more keen but at the moment I can't see anything that would tempt me back. Will keep it for a while and see if it grows on me.

[JontheEchidna]

Akonadi is used for personal information management apps like the Kontact family. I think that the plasma clock might use it for calendar events and such. You can turn it off with the command "akonadictl stop".