KDE

KDE stands for K Desktop Environment. It is one of the most popular graphical desktop environments for Linux and Unix workstations. It combines ease of use, contemporary functionality and outstanding graphical design with the technological advances of the Unix operating system.

Packages
KDE is available in the kde-base category and the kde-misc package categories.

Meta Packages
KDE uses meta packages which are packages that install nothing themselves, but rather drag in other packages as dependencies. To install all of KDE you may run: To get a full list of all meta packages you can use :

Stable KDE
Before emerging KDE, set languages for internationalization, i.e. for English and French Canadian:

Install KDE

To get the complete KDE-Environment just run:

But if you prefer a lightweight kde installing only the applications you need, start by:

This will give you a minimal desktop-environment and you can go on by emerging single applications from the kde-* package categories:

Auto-mounting
In order to use the auto-mounting features in kde, you need hal:

Starting with startx
Configure your local session using ~/.xinitrc

Now start up your graphical environment by running startx:

Using the display manager
Setting KDM to run automatically

Further reading is available in the official Gentoo Docs.

Troubleshooting
If you re-enable compositing and your panel and desktop disappear, one fix I've found is to leave X, remove all the sockets in /tmp/ksocket- (they're not being used anyway) and then restart KDE... or run plasma-desktop