Use this for reference only. I have since made another post at http://antreimer.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/debian-with-minimal-kde-simple/ which as of right now only tells you how to do a minimal install of kde on debian and lists the programs that you would have gotten if you had installed kde-desktop or kde-core.
This is basically a blog that I use to install debian KDE desktop for my laptop. You may find it helpful for yourself if you decide to create a Debian Desktop pc. At the time of posting I noticed that many of the packages in Unstable and Testing where the same.
This is a great tutorial on how to build a debian personal desktop computer based on linuxmint http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=197&t=103839.
Download debian testing
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
Install debian with no additions
Configure your sources (The main reason for adding stable is to install the quasar accounting program which you probably won't want)
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
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# testing
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free
# security
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
# stable
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
# unstable
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
# multimedia
deb http://www.deb-multimedia.org testing main non-free
# liquorix
deb http://liquorix.net/debian unstable main
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We will use app pinning to get some of newer or older packages that we might need http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html create/edit your /etc/apt/preferences file
nano /etc/apt/preferences
Add the fallowing (it will prefer to install from highest number)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Package: *----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 800
Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 700
Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 600
Udpate the package list
apt-get update
When I installed debian with KDE I had a problem where all languages where downloaded If you have that problem modify /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf and add the fallowing line
Acquire::Languages "none";
apt-get install '^liquorix-([^-]+-)?keyring.?' deb-multimedia-keyring
apt-get update
Get a better kernel for desktop http://liquorix.net/
apt-get install linux-image-liquorix-amd64 linux-headers-liquorix-amd64
reboot
Check which kernels you want to remove http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/proper-way-to-remove-old-linux-kernels/
dpkg --list 'linux-image*'
dpkg --list 'linux-headers*'
apt-get remove linux-image-3.2 linux-headers-3.2 --purge
Install KDE
You can find more info on installing kde at http://wiki.debian.org/KdeDebInstall or http://qt-kde.debian.net/ currently unstable has the newest kde so we will get it from there. At the time of posting testing already contains 4.8.4 so using the -t unstable makes little difference now.To install kde minimal install run
apt-get install -t unstable kdm kde-core
Reboot computer
reboot
The way I Install it
This installs all the programs I like it to have installed. You may not need or want some of the developing tools included here. Currently kde-core depends on kde-desktop which installs more stuff then I like for that reason I'm install kde-plasma-desktop etc separately, I hope debian gives an option soon again to only install the core of kde.
aptitude install -t unstable kdm kde-plasma-desktop kdeplasma-addons kdeartwork gtk2-engines-oxygen kde-config-gtk-style gdebi-kde kde-config-touchpad system-config-printer-kde network-manager-kde kvkbd ksystemlog kuser update-notifier-kde kwrite krdc partitionmanager kdegames ktouch kopete okular knotes kcalc k3b dragonplayer gwenview sweeper kmix nautilus-dropbox iceweasel icedove banshee libreoffice libreoffice-kde; \apt-get install xdg-user-dirs printer-driver-all cups-pdf unetbootin synaptic ark gnucash firmware-linux-nonfree w64codecs libdvdcss2 gecko-mediaplayer flashplayer-mozilla ffmpeg linux-image-liquorix-amd64 linux-base preload readahead-fedora plymouth plymouth-drm desktop-base sudo ntpdate
One time I had a problem installing dropbox. To get it to work I downloaded and installed KFilebox http://kdropbox.deuteros.es/.
Applications I installed that you might not be interested in
apt-get install blogilo pgadmin3
Things needed to install transparent theme mentioned later in the blog
apt-get install kdelibs5-dev kdebase-workspace-dev build-essential cmake libxrender-dev libx11-dev subversion git
Things I don't need and removed after installing
apt-get remove linux-image-3.2 akregator amarok kmail juk memtest86+ --purge; \
apt-get autoremove --purge
Install Sudo
Install sudo http://technowizah.com/2005/12/debian-how-to-sudo.html and http://wiki.debian.org/sudoapt-get install sudo
usermod -G sudo user-name
Log back into your user to get the new sudo permissiom or logout and back in
su user-name
Make GTK apps look nice
I had a problem getting GTK apps to look nice under KDE. After googling a long time I found this http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=66333. I think they have fixed the problem already.Install and configure
apt-get install -t unstable gtk2-engines-oxygen kde-config-gtk-style
open System Settings > Application Appearance> GTK + Appearance and set it to Oxygen-GTK
If the above does not work install gtk-chtheme and run it. Select the theme you want to use for GTK apps.
apt-get install gtk-chtheme
gtk-chtheme
Speed Up booting
Speed up the boot process http://wiki.debian.org/BootProcessSpeedupChange grub to boot imediatly
nano /etc/default/grub
Change the fallowing. Setting it to 0 will make it boot imediatly. If you are dual booting you may want to set it at 3 seconds.
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
After you have changed the grub file you will need to run the fallowing command to apply the changes.
update-grub
Using readahead to load files from disk
apt-get install readahead-fedora
You may wish to later rerun the profiling when things changed. Also creating a monthly cronjob was suggested by someone.
touch /.readahead
Using dash instead of what linux uses defaultly will also speed up things.
apt-get install dash
dpkg-reconfigure dash
Parallelizing init.d scripts. This will make more then one service start at the same time.
apt-get install insserv
dpkg-reconfigure insserv
Finally make applications load faster. This will put commonly run tasks in memory for faster program startup.
apt-get install preload
Make things look better
Get a boot splash screen. For more details visit http://wiki.debian.org/plymouth. There are a couple dependencies for this to work.apt-get install plymouth plymouth-drm firmware-linux-nonfree desktop-base
Edit the file /etc/initramfs-tools/modules and add modesetting.
nano /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
Add the highlighted text to the bottom of the file.
For Intel:intel_agp
drm
i915 modeset=1
For Nouveau (nVidia):
drm
nouveau modeset=1
For ATI:
drm
radeon modeset=1
/usr/sbin/plymouth-set-default-theme spacefun
For Transparent windows kind of like in windows aero just better visit http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/11/get-gorgeous-transparent-blurred-app-windows-in-kubuntu
You'll need to install these dependencies
apt-get install kdelibs5-dev kdebase-workspace-dev build-essential cmake libxrender-dev libx11-dev subversion git
You need to run oxygen-setup.pl as the following for it to work
oxygen-setup.pl --branch stable
update-initramfs -u
I like the Faenza icons. Visit the following site for information on how to install it http://www.thepowerbase.com/2012/03/install-faenza-icons-in-kde-4-8/2/
Install Quasar
Install some dependencies needed for quasar (polymer is for looks) (libicu is a dependency of quasar). Some of these packages are only in squeeze or stable repository.apt-get install tcl postgresql postgresql-contrib polymer qt3-qtconfig
Download quasar and needed files
wget ftp://linuxcanada.com/pub/Quasar/2.2.0/binaries/amd64/Kubuntu/11.10/quasar-single_2.2.0-1_amd64.deb
To just install Quasar 2.1.5 client download
wget ftp://linuxcanada.com/pub/Quasar/2.1.5/binaries/amd64/Kubuntu/10.04/quasar-client_2.1.5-1_amd64.deb
wget http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/i/icu/libicu42_4.2.1-3ubuntu0.10.04.1_amd64.deb
Install quasar
dpkg -i quasar-single_2.2.0-1_amd64.deb
apt-get -f install
Fix quasar looks
qtconfig
Appearance > GUI Style > Polymer
Fonts > Family > Sans Serif
Fonts > Point Size > 9
You might also what to alter the color skeme a bit
Appearance > Tune Palette
Description of Packages
Base
bluedevil (net): KDE Bluetooth stack
xdg-user-dirs (utils): tool to manage well known user directories
ndisgtk (net): graphical frontend for ndiswrapper (installation of Windows WiFi drivers)
kvkbd (kde): Virtual keyboard for KDE
winbind (net): Samba nameservice integration server
ksystemlog (admin): system log viewer
kuser (admin): user and group administration tool
krdc (net): Remote Desktop Connection client
kppp (net): modem dialer for KDE
partitionmanager (admin): A partition management utility
unetbootin (utils): installer of Linux/BSD distributions to a partition or USB drive
bluez-cups (admin): Bluetooth printer driver for CUPS
kgpg (utils): graphical front end for GNU Privacy Guard
kde-config-cron (admin): program scheduler frontend
kdeartwork (kde): themes, styles and other artwork from the official KDE release
okular (graphics): universal document viewer
knotes sticky notes application
ark archive utility
kcalc simple and scientific calculator
synaptic
kde-config-touchpad
gecko-mediaplayer (video): Multimedia plug-in for Gecko browsers
gnucash
nautilus-dropbox
ffmpeg
update-notifier
gdebi-kde
system-config-printer-kde
korganizer
Internet
iceweaselicedove
kopete instant messaging and chat application
krfb Desktop Sharing utility
rekonq
Graphics
inkscape (graphics): vector-based drawing programksaneplugin (kde): KScan plugin for scanning through libksane
gwenview
shotwell
digikam
Multimedia
dragonplayer (video): simple video playerminitube (video): Native YouTube client
kid3 (kde): KDE MP3 ID3 tag editor
soundkonverter (kde): audio converter frontend for KDE
k9copy (video): KDE tool to backup DVDs
flashplayer-mozilla (video): Macromedia Flash Player
amarok (sound): easy to use media player based on the KDE Platform
banshee
w64codecs
libdvdcss2
