%general-entities; ]> $LastChangedBy$ $Date$ One option is to put KDE4 into the /usr hierarchy. This creates a simpler setup but makes it more difficult to try multiple versions of KDE. export &kde4-dir-var;=/usr A method of building multiple versions installs KDE4 in the /opt hierarchy: export &kde4-dir-var;=/opt/kde4 If you are not installing KDE4 in /usr, you will need to make some additional configuration changes. Best practice is to add those to your system or personal profile: cat > /etc/profile.d/kde4.sh << "EOF" # Begin /etc/profile.d/kde4.sh &kde4-dir-var;=/opt/kde4 KDE4DIR=&kde4-dir; KDEDIR=&kde4-dir; pathappend &kde4-dir;/bin PATH pathappend &kde4-dir;/lib/pkgconfig PKG_CONFIG_PATH pathappend &kde4-dir;/share/pkgconfig PKG_CONFIG_PATH pathappend &kde4-dir;/share XDG_DATA_DIRS pathappend /etc/kde4/xdg XDG_CONFIG_DIRS export KDE4_PREFIX KDE4DIR KDEDIR # End /etc/profile.d/kde4.sh EOF Add to your /etc/ld.so.conf: cat >> /etc/ld.so.conf << "EOF" # Begin kde4 addition /opt/kde4/lib # End kde4 addition EOF /etc/ld.so.conf Add to your /etc/man_db.conf: cat >> /etc/man_db.conf << "EOF" # Begin kde4 addition MANDATORY_MANPATH /opt/kde4/man # End kde4 addition EOF /etc/man_db.conf Several KDE4 packages install files into D-BUS and polkit directories. When installing KDE4 in a location other than /usr, D-BUS and polkit need to find these files. The easiest way to achieve this is to create the following symlinks (as the root user): install -d /opt/kde4/share && ln -svf /usr/share/dbus-1 /opt/kde4/share && ln -svf /usr/share/polkit-1 /opt/kde4/share Sometimes, the installation paths are coded into installed files. This is the reason why /opt/kde4 is used as installation prefix instead of /opt/kde-&kde4-version;. After installing KDE4, you may rename the directory and create a symlink: mv /opt/kde{4,-&kde4-version;} && ln -vsf kde-&kde4-version; /opt/kde4 Later on, you may want to install other versions of KDE4. To do that, just remove the symlink and use /opt/kde4 as ithe prefix again (KDE4 must not be started). Which version of KDE4 you use depends only on where the symlink points to. No other reconfiguration will be needed.