This little guide is advanced, so if you are unexperienced, I don't suggest doing this.

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What Mepis has already installed or there
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* KDE 3.3.2 - older version of kde
* Gnome 2.8 - older gnome
* XFree86 - x-window system, not very good in my opinion, flickery, hurts eyes more.
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What you will get when your done.
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* KDE 3.4 - Newest version of kde, released, but not in official debian repositories yet.
* UNSTABLE Gnome 2.10 - Newest version of gnome, released, but not in official debian repositories yet.
* X.org 6.8.2 - Newest version of X.org, way better than xfree86, not in any official debian repositories.

When i say it's not in official debian repositories, it means debian doesnt have it yet, but this guide shows how to use unofficial repositories, and it works just as good.

*edit* guide edited, it should now explain it more clearly.
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INSTALLING KDE 3.4 <part 1 of guide>
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1.open up kde, or other window manager.

2. Then go into a terminal and type... <install nano, or gedit, or whatever, i prefer nano>
# nano /etc/apt/sources.list

3. Add this line to it, without quotes.
"deb http://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/kde-3.4.0/ ./"

4. Then open up synaptic

5. click reload

6. go to settings >preferences>distribution
and check the third bullet, or point, and make sure in the drop down you have experimental

7. then search for, kde,

8. find all the appropriate kde packages, and right click them, and hit, "mark for upgrade"
The most Important packages would be...
- kdebase
- kdelibs

Additional packages would be,,,
- kdegraphics
- kdemultimedia
- kdegames
- kdeaddons
- kdeartwork
- kdetoys

9. hit apply, and now kdm is dead so...

10. so search for kdm, do mark for removal.

11. search for gdm, do mark for installation <it does the same thing as kdm>

12. then hit apply

13. then change synaptic settings back to normal.

14. in terminal type in, killall kdm

15. then type, gdm, and it will start the x, and bring you into your login screen, which will allow you to login to kde 3.4

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INSTALLING X.org 6.8.2
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1. As before, do, nano /etc/apt/sources.list

2. add this line this time. without quotes.
"deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ hoary main

3. then save sources.list

4. go into synaptic, hit refresh.

5. go into settings > preferences > distribution
* check the third point, and make sure in the drop down, it says "hoary"

6. then search for, xserver

7. find xserver-xfree86, and right click it, and do, mark for complete removal

8. find xserver-xorg, and right click it, and do mark for installation

9. hit apply

10. now go into a terminal and type this.
# xorgconfig
<go through the process of creating a xorg.conf file.

11. type, killall XFree86, then gdm will automaticaly start up, and if it doesnt for any paticular reason, you can ask me, and I'm sure I could help resolve the problem.

and make sure to change synaptic back to default settings, by unchecking the third point with hoary, and checking the first one.

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UNSTABLE! *EDIT* INSTALLING Gnome 2.10 part 3 <optional> *EDIT* UNSTABLE!
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[Unstable note:] I have discovered gnome 2.10 had minor flaws, which didnt cause too much trouble, but it certainly caused a few packages not to install.

I'd reccomend keeping 2.8 until 2.10 is released.
- To remove, if installed.
1. go into synaptic, remove the ubuntu repository site, and right click every gnome package, and click, mark for complete removal, then refresh, and gnome 2.8 stable should now be in the list.

As of now, KDE and Xorg are stable with apt and synaptic packages.
{Note:] skip steps 1-4 if you installed x.org

1. As before, do, nano /etc/apt/sources.list

2. add this line this time. without quotes.
"deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ hoary main restricted

3. then save sources.list

4. go into synaptic, hit refresh.

5. go into settings > preferences > distribution
* check the third point, and make sure in the drop down, it says "hoary"

6. search for gnome

7. find the packages you need, such as, gnome 2.10, or whatever.

8. hit apply

9. change synaptic back to default settings

then to go into gnome, killall Xorg, or killall XFree86, then it will reload into the desktop manager, then select, Gnome, as the session.

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The KDE is the package from KDE, so it is official and working.
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Now you have what I like to call, HoaryMepis, or UMepis, because of some ubuntu packages.
here's a screenshot of the kde 3.4 desktop. Running the theme called "baghira" which can be installed in synaptic, by searching for "baghira"
http://f-designs.net/kde3.4.png
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Hope this helps a lot of you.

leave comments

and since nobody else has warned yet.... you can make your entire system unstable, especially when x.org officially comes out. Do this and you get to keep the pieces

what? this is completely stable, ubuntu is a stable operating system, and it is based off the same thing as mepis, which is "Debian Unstable"

so using the ubuntu x.org completely works, and has no stability issues what so ever.

the only thing that I think is the whole entire XFree86 project


i wouldn't call it unstable, that was sarcasm, because of all the problems, I, relatives, and other users experience, it is certainly better to have mepis with all the latest versions, and xorg, if I experience any problems, I will tell you to be careful, but as of 24 hours ago, I have not experienced any problems.

I run the IRC support channel for mepis, people install kde3.4 and get lots of bugs and it causes problems, people install x.org and cant get x to come up. I hear these problems quite often, its far easier to just tell them the could break something if they install these.

Personally, I have always shied away from mixing packages from different distros. While Ubuntu started out being based on Debian unstable, they use a great many of their own packages now and are not entirely Debian compatible. The Xorg package is NOT a Debian package, it's an Ubuntu package.

I know some people have installed KDE 3.4 in Mepis and had reasonably good success, I know of others who had nothing but headaches.

I would definately not advise anyone to follow these steps as mixing distros is a recipe for a broken system.

There are different ways about doing this, some work, some don't, this one just happens to work.

maybe you won't advise them to use this small little guide, but it explains a way which worked excellent for me, the X.org package (I believe from ubuntu, unless a mepis server had it <which i doubt>)
it is not a ubuntu package, it is just simple called, xserver-xorg-6.8.2.deb, and it works good.

the ubuntu packages are called something like this, gnome-2.10.1-ubuntu0.deb

and even if you mix the ubuntu packages, there is no way you'll get unrecoverable problems, because just as easy as that, they can be uninstalled.

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I certainly know gnome would not cause any xserver start problems but in case xorg does, and you generated a new file <like guide says, because without new file it wont start, you can't copy xfree file either>, it is as simple as 2 commands to get xfree86 back.

1. apt-get remove xserver-xorg
2. apt-get install xserver-xfree86
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The KDE is fully safe, and should be easy for everyone, but notice how it is stated "advanced users"

I'm quite experienced, I know all the files, I ran a lot of difficult distros (such as gentoo stage 1, debian woody, slackware 9)

tampering with files as important <for graphical> as KDE, Xorg, and Gnome, should not be done by everyone, but this guide will work 99% of the time, i guarantee it, if you do it right.

people may like mepis the way it was (I certainly didnt like xfree86, or gnome 2.8) so I found a way to do it, and finding kde 3.4, which is incredible compatible <the ubuntu server's kde was not compatible with outside packages> was just a bonus, there is also no compatibility issues with xorg, I can't guarantee no issues with gnome, because I don't use it enough.

As you stated.. more for the advanced users.. the "not-so-advanced"
try this on a test machine..

The xorg package you list is from an Ubuntu server and is an Ubuntu specific package. There is no official Debian Xorg package as of yet, only 3rd party packages.

While this method you described may well work for you now, it may cause problems down the road when you upgrade your system due to the mixing of distro packages and the differing dependencies.

It's your system and you can do whatever you want with it (I certainly do), but many years of using Linux has taught me some measure of good practices when administering my system and what works at the moment may well come back to bite you in the tail later.

I merely advise caution when mixing packages from different distros as this is not a good practice. The best way to add something new that isn't available in a package for your distro is to compile it yourself.

Ubuntu and Mepis are based off of debian unstable, and that's the reason why ubuntu packages work on mepis, they're made by ubuntu, but they work with debian unstable.

I don't care where I get the packages, they work, I haven't paid any price since 4 days ago when I first did it, the packages also show up in apt, and it knows what it is, so there's no dependency issues with anything, yeah sure mixing distro packages can be harmful you say, but usually mixing distro packages don't work, for example, take a rpm built for mandrake, it won't work on fedora, or take a .deb file made for woody, I don't believe it would work on unstable or sarge.

Ubuntu has updated many libraries in their base system and even when they use the source packages taken from Debian unstable, Ubuntu's binary packages are not identical with the Debian binary packages because Ubuntu's binaries have been built against different library versions. This means that Ubuntu's binary packages may work in Debian/Mepis if you're lucky but that's certainly not quaranteed. Using lots of Ubuntu's binary packages in Debian/Mepis is likely to lead into unresolvable dependency problems that will sooner or later break the APT package management system.

oh alright, that's fine, I'd never even think of using ubuntu's packages, but you need to consider, using 1, or 2 if you want an option of a different desktop can't break apt.

X.org 6.8.2 is nothing to worry about installing, it will not break apt or xwindow.

to fix, remove the repository, and apt-get remove xserver-xorg, then apt-get install xserver-xfree86, and you don't even really need to configure xwindow, it should just start, maybe a new file, but its easy with gdm or kdm.

gnome 2.10 is definitely not anything to worry about, it won't break anything, maybe some things that depend on gnome (which is only other gnome packages) won't install, but if that's the case, remove it, and install 2.8.

don't get me wrong, I know you could ruin some files, but it is really nothing that can't be fixed, apt can't break from adding a repository, and installing 1 or 2 packages from it. on apts website they have a whole search of unofficial repository sites, and kde 3.4 is included on there, except it doesnt work, so I used a differnet one.

and if you really mess something up, mepis is not hard to install, and installing packages is just a few clicks in synaptic, and getting your old system back is not hard at all. No offense to anyone, but mepis would be considered more of a "beginners" distribution, if I broke mepis, i would not care.

If I broke emerge (which happened to me) in a gentoo stage 1 install, then I'd be furious, because its not easy to fix that, and it's very long process of installing gentoo, expecially stage1.

For me, mepis is just a distro to use, if I break it, it's just more fun, because as we all know, installing linux is a very fun thing expecially when its a challenging install, and you feel important when you succeed.