docker-kdesrc-build

This project aims to provide a lightweight and ready to use KDE development environment by wrapping the kdesrc-build tool in Docker.

This way, you can compile and work on the latest version of the KDE project and keep your main system clean of unwanted development packages.

You can run a KDE application on your current desktop by sharing your X server instance inside the Docker container

Moreover, you can run and try the entire Plasma Desktop in another tty !

Requirements

• python >= 3.2
• docopt
• docker

Usage

Quick and simple

Just choose a distro as a base system for the container (archlinux is recommended, as it has the latest dependencies), and run the script :

./run.py --base archlinux

The script will do the following operations :

• check for a Dockerfile-archlinux file
• create a dir under $HOME/kdebuild/archlinux to be mounted under /work
• build or update the Docker image archlinux-kdedev if necessary
• mount bashrc as a volume (/home/kdedev/.bashrc)
• mount kdesrc-buildrc as a volume (/home/kdedev/.kdesrc-buildrc)
• run the container
• run /bin/bash

Run the Plasma Desktop

1 - Using a shared X11 socket

To run an entire Plasma Desktop session, we need to create a new X server instance , running on a new tty, for example, tty8.

# startx -display :1 -- :1 vt8

Also you have to explicitly authorize access to allow clients inside the container to use this xserver instance :

# DISPLAY=':1' xhost +

Then, run the container and use the --display option to specify the right tty to be used by applications :

./run.py --base archlinux --display ':1'

Execute startkde from your install directory (which is /work by default)

Note that you should have build the workspace set first (kdesrc-build workspace)

Inside the container :

$ /work/install/bin/startkde

And the KDE desktop should be starting on tty8 !

2 - Using a VNC Server

Another method consist to run a Virtual FrameBuffer inside the container, as well as a VNC server to view it's content.

Run the environement :

./run.py --base archlinux 

Run the Xvfb server :

sudo Xvfb $DISPLAY +extension GLX +render -screen 0 1024x780x24 &

Run the VNC server :

sudo x11vnc -usepw -display $DISPLAY

Now you should inspect the container on the host

docker inspect <container name | ID>

and check for it's IP address:

"IPAddress": "172.17.0.10"

You can connect to the VNC server container-ip-address:5900 with a VNC client on the host !

Now you can run any applications, including startkde !

Command line options reference

Usage: build.py [options]

Options:
    -b --base DISTRO        Use DISTRO as base system [Default: all]
    --no-cache              Do not use cache when building the image [Default: False]
    --rm                    Automatically remove the container when it exits [Default: True]
    --display DISPLAY       Change the DISPLAY environment variable passed to the container [Default: :0]
    --vnc                   Enable port forwarding and disable X11 socket sharing
    --qt PATH               Set the PATH to your a specified Qt installation (mounted as /qt) [Default: False]
    -h --help               Display this message

kdesrc-buildrc configuration

To configure kdesrc-buildrc, take a look at http://kdesrc-build.kde.org/documentation/

Use a specific version of Qt

If you want to change the Qt version used during the compilation, you can provide a the path to a Qt installation on the host with :

./run.py --base archlinux --qt /path/to/qt

This path will be mounted under /qt

Don't forget to change the qtdir variable in the kdesrc-buildrc

Dependencies installed

	Archlinux	Fedora	OpenSUSE	Ubuntu
Frameworks	✓	✗	✗	✗
Workspace	✓	✗	✗	✗
Applications	✗	✗	✗	✗