KDE 2.0 Info Page

KDE 2.0 was released on October 23, 2000. Read the official announcement.

For a high-level overview of the features of KDE, see the KDE info page

For a graphical tutorial on using KDE 2, see this tutorial page from Linux Mandrake

Updates

Meanwhile, KDE 2.1 has been released. It contains many new features and a lot of bug fixes.

We strongly encourage to upgrade to 2.1 in case of trouble and before filing any bug reports. Check the above link for further info including a change log.

FAQ

The KDE-2.0.1 packages for Mandrake 7.2 give "Can't talk to klauncher"

Reason:Broken package

kdelibs-2.0.1-1mdk misses several important files. Update to kdelibs-2.0.1-2mdk.

Most KDE applications crash immediately

Reason:Conflict with libpng version 1.0.8

Qt 2.2.1 conflicted with libpng 1.0.8. Either downgrade libpng to version 1.0.7 or update to Qt 2.2.2 which contains a proper fix for this (and other) problems.

Most KDE applications crash immediately

Reason:Environment variables set incorrectly

The environment variables KDEDIR, KDEHOME, PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH, if set, must point to the correct KDE 2.0 locations. RedHat users should make sure to change their kde.csh and kde.sh scripts.

Most KDE applications crash immediately

Reason:Missing ksycoca database

In some installations the KDE program kbuildsycoca fails to properly create a file called ksycoca. This file is needed by KDE to operate properly. Depending on the environment variable $KDEHOME this file should either be found in ~/.kde/share/config/ksycoca or ~/.kde2/share/config/ksycoca.

Make sure that your $KDEHOME environment variable is always set to the same value. Leaving it empty is ok, it will then assume ~/.kde in which case you should have a recent ksycoca in ~/.kde/share/config/ksycoca.

Run kbuildsycoca from a command line to generate the ksycoca file.

DCOPServer fails to start

Reason:Too old version of Qt

You need to have at least Qt version 2.2.1. Version 2.2.0 is NOT sufficient, no matter what your RPM says. Qt 2.2.2 is recommended, though.

Logout problems

Various people have reported that they are not able to log out from KDE. Others have reported that logging out takes a very long time. No exact reason for this failure is currently known.

Why can't I hear any sound ?

Stefan Westerfeld has compiled a aRts FAQ that will help you going.

Why is Konqueror/khtml unable to display some images on the web?

Reason:You didn't compile Qt to include support for those formats

Make sure that you included support for them while compiling Qt.

for GIF images, include -gif during configuring (if you have a GIF license).
for JPEG images, make sure that you have jpeglib6b installed while configuring kdelibs.
for MNG movies, make sure that you compiled Qt with -system-libmng

Konqueror problems

See the Konqueror FAQ for Frequently Asked Questions and their answers concerning KDEs webbrowser and file-manager.

KMail and KNode frequently crash (Caldera Open Linux 2.4)

Reason:A conflict between the mimelib versions distributed with KDE 1.x and 2.0

Updated RPMS will be made available soon. Temporary workaround:

cd /opt/kde/lib
rm libmimelib.so
ln -s /usr/lib/libmimelib.so.1.0.1  libmimelib.so
rm libmimelib.so.1
ln -s /usr/lib/libmimelib.so.1.0.1  libmimelib.so.1

Logout and other tasks take very long

Reason:Problems resolving your hostname

See the KDE FAQ for any specific questions you may have. Questions about Konqueror should be directed to the Konqueror FAQ and sound related questions are answered in the Arts FAQ

Download and Installation

See the links listed in the announcement. The KDE Installation FAQ provides generic instruction about installation issues.

If you want to compile from sources we offer instructions and help for common problems in the Compilation FAQ.

Security Issues

NOTE:This section is no longer maintained. Please refer to the 2.2.2 Info page instead.

Denial of Service

A continuous stream of nonsense characters directed at the XML-RPC to DCOP daemon (kxmlrpcd) will cause the daemon to take up 99% of the CPU for as long as the attack lasts. This is fixed in 2.0.1

Bugs

Here we will provide a list of grave bugs or common pitfalls surfacing after the release date.

Please check the bug database before filing any bug reports. Note that this version has been redeemed by KDE 2.0.1. Always check the latest stable version before filing any bug report. This will relieve the developers from extra work required to deal with outdated reports. Thanks.

KControl crashes on exit.

After using a file selection dialog in kcontrol, the style dialog or the background dialog, KControl will crash when you exit the program.

Apart from being annoying this crash is harmless.

Developer Info

If you need help porting your application to KDE 2.0 see the porting guide or discuss your problems with fellow developers on the kde-devel@kde.org mailing list.

There is also info on the architecture and the programming interface.