KDE 3 libs from Slackware extra
 

To start with this KDE 4 is screwed up.
I considered that I would bring over some of the KDE 3 tools from 2.4.31.
In the extra I found KDE 3 libs, which from the description sound like libraries from KDE 3 that would allow your KDE 3 programs to run.

Explicit question for Slackware developers:
Is the KDE3 libs in extra/ meant to be installed along side of KDE4 ??
Is it compatible or incompatible with KDE4 ??
What was your intent in making the KDE3 libs package ???
Please (really) put this answer in the txt file for that package, as it is dangerous without this information.

After installing KDE3 libs I got the Help system not able to find the Application help files (it wants to make an index), among a host of other problems. Programs can find their own help files, the Help system runs, and the table of contents is there.

I have already reinstalled almost all of KDE. Whatever is wrong is persistant.

First of all, Do you _really_ use KDE help? :-)

Second, the kde3-compat packages in extra/ are provided to support the legacy k3b-1.0.5, because for some people k3b-2.0 isn't working well. And yes, they are meant to be installed alongside KDE4.
Reinstalling stuff in Slackware won't help you much, except for curing data corruption problems. Otherwise, Slackware does very little post-install configuration. This is not Debian.

Third, if you look at http://slackware.osuosl.org/unsuppor...for-slack13.0/ , you will find a complete KDE3 build (although it's for Slackware 13.0, it might work on 13.1 still).

Fourth, KDE4 is not screwed up. If, in your opinion, it is, then indicate that this is your personal opinion :-)

Cheers,
V'yacheslav.

That is your personal opinion. It would have been better if you had described where you have issues so that they can be addressed here.
Note that Slackware also ships with XFCE, and that you can use the 3rd party GnomeSlackBuild to get a Gnome desktop. And "vst" pointed you to the KDE 3.5.10 package set for Slackware 13.0 - if you want to use that, then please stick with Slackware 13.0. As much as I respect your wish to keep using the old KDE3, that version of KDE has been abandoned by its developers. It does not make sense to keep shipping it in new releases of the distro.

Yes, it was added to Slackware 13.0 as a way to keep using the KDE3 version of k3b. You can use the KDE3 compatibility libraries to run other KDE3 software, not just the old k3b, while having KDE4 as the main desktop environment.
These packages are not meant to be used standalone. The kde3-compat packages are meant to be installed on top of Slackware with KDE4. The kde3-compat packages install themselves in another prefix so they will not clash with the KDE4 packages.
See above
I doubt that these packages will still be present when the next release of Slackware ships, you yur question is basically redundant.

No idea what happens there.

Eric

Thank you for replying.

I was having severe problems with this KDE4 install before I installed the KDE3 libraries, thus we cannot assume that all the problems that are present can be freely blamed on the KDE3 libs, and that is all I was saying.

** THIS (my installation) ** KDE4 is screwed up. I do not know if it is the installation, config files, some missing library, old stuff from the previous KDE, or what is wrong. It persists even after trying to re-install the KDE packages from slackware (using pkgtool).

Several of the apps (from the menu) show the busy cursor for about 15 seconds, and then silently die. Selecting the GTK+ button theme causes the whole control app to lock up and freeze. The Help system cannot find its own help files, but applications do. Konsole will not load /etc/profile like Konsole from the my previous KDE.
Gimp help files are missing, totally. I got no end of problems to solve. Those are not questions for this forum.

I had pre-existing problems, and I was not asking this forum about them, just one tightly worded question so I can eliminate one thing from consideration.

I did find the KDE Help files, well after having already installed KDE several times. They do have some information that I really needed at
the time I was running pkgtool (like which packages were REQUIRED and which were OPTIONAL). Other parts of the Help are out-dated (I assume), because when I check up on them, I find that the directory mentioned does not even exist ( /usr/local/kde/bin , nor /usr/kde/bin neither, they are in /usr/bin now). So trying to rely on that Help just has me chasing down more false leads.

****
To Slackware developers:
I have been running Slackware for 10+ years and previous installs were never this much trouble.

Those Required and Optional lines that used to appear when running pkgtool are sorely missed. Maybe you think they were too much trouble to maintain, but now I am the one trying to figure out the REQUIRED and the OPTIONAL from post-install trial and error.

I wish that every single package had a line (that pkgtool showed) that would inform as to REQUIRED, OPTIONAL, and what other packages were (would be) involved. It could even be a separate file of dependency information, suggestions, why-you-really-need-this, etc., along with the pkgtool TAGS needed (to make a TAG file).

****

The current echo $PATH gives (I added some CR):
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/games:
/usr/lib/java/bin:/usr/lib/java/jre/bin:/usr/lib/java/bin:
/usr/lib/kde4/libexec:/opt/kde3/lib/qt3/bin:
/opt/kde3/bin:/usr/lib/qt/bin:
/usr/share/texmf/bin

Both /opt/kde3/lib/qt3/bin and /usr/lib/qt/bin have:
assistant, designer, linguist, lrelease, lupdate
moc, qmake, qtconfig, uic
and there would be more conflicts if I had installed more than kde3libs
and qt3.
From the $PATH it looks like qt3 versions of these programs will be found before the qt4 versions.
I see no way to direct kde3 programs to the qt3 versions.
Perhaps there is some black-magic that keeps KDE4 from trying to use these KDE3 binaries, or finding them first. To me this looks like a problem.

The order of $PATH is determined by scripts in /etc/profile.d.
see /etc/profile.d/qt.sh /etc/profile.d/qt4.sh
The order of execution is whatever the directory gives to the bash
"for loop".
The scripts are similar, and I am not sure which actually executes last, which to blame, fix, whatever !

I will probably removepkg KDE3libs, but that does not do anything to solve the problem for anyone else trying to use them. I have some old programs, and if they will not run under KDE4, I am going to be right back to trying KDE3libs again.

****
From following KDE Help, I have a new problem with xfce-session not running, probably another false lead. No need to reply on this one, probably the wrong forum.

****
I was only asking about Slackware extra packages here and trying find out if it was a total mistake to even try to load that package with KDE4 present.
Thank you for the clarification.

I suppose that $PATH is not interesting enough to get any comments on from Slackware people.

The kde3 qt3 libraries are in $PATH before the kde4 qt libraries.
Unless someone knows of a reason why not, I think that will have KDE getting old qt libraries for all its tools.

I'm not sure about which KDE3 programs you are referring to. But if you want to use a KDE3 program with those kde3-compat packages in slackware 13.x, you would need to recompile those programs so that the path would be correct.

Refer to a sample configuration below (in bold characters for relevant options):

You can see another example in the Slackbuild of kde 1.0.5 (i.e. the package available in /extra/kde3-compat):

Remove the executable bit on /etc/profile.d/qt.sh and only source it with
when necessary if you have any problems building something against QT4 instead of QT3. I don't know much about qmake and similar tools so I'm not sure if it would try to find the correct version when compiling or not, but certainly the above is a foolproof solution.