Building from source
While using precompiled binary packages will be appropriate most of the time compiling from sources may very well make sense, too, e. g. to run latest development versions if these aren't available on a particular operating system. So here's a guide how to achieve this.
If running latest development snapshots is your intent please note that these can be compiled in a very convenient way on Arch Linux using its AUR and that corresponding repositories exist in Debian and openSUSE as well, see Binary packages.
We'll try to be verbose yet basic knowledge about working on the shell, package management and how to compile using CMake and GNU make is needed. You may just want to give it a try.
The descriptions stated below should work on any operating system of the *ix ecosystem, that is on all current Linux distributions as well as on BSD. For now distinct packages of Arch Linux, Debian / Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE are stated only. Additional distributions may be added.
As for Debian to build the current release 1.4.x Debian version 12 ("bookworm") is mandatory.
Before compiling it is strongly recommended to remove any preexisting LXQt and associated components which were installed other than according to this guide (updating by following the guide once more hasn't been thoroughly tested yet but should work without issues).
Next we need to install the dependencies to compile LXQt. These are the build environment as well as the various components needed by the software we are going to compile.
A CMake version ≥ 3.1.8 is required, see documentation of your distribution.
pacman --needed -S base-devel cmake git pkgconf
apt install build-essential cmake git
dnf group install c-development
dnf install cmake git
zypper install -t pattern devel_basis
zypper install cmake git
Qt version ≥6.6 is required now. Compiling Qt from its sources isn't exactly a trivial task and not within the scope of this document.
So if you need to compile Qt you may want to look into the various sources addressing this topic (and optionally tell us about your experience).
pacman --needed -S qt6-base qt6-svg qt6-tools
apt install qtbase6-private-dev libqt6svg6-dev qttools6-dev libqt6x11extras6-dev libpolkit-qt6-1-dev
dnf install qt6-qtbase-devel qt6-qtsvg-devel qt6-qttools-devel
zypper install libqt6-qtbase-private-headers-devel libqt6-qtsvg-devel libqt6-qttools-devel
pacman --needed -S kguiaddons libkscreen kidletime kwindowsystem solid layer-shell-qt
apt-get install libkf6guiaddons-dev libkf6idletime-dev libkf6screen-dev libkf6windowsystem-dev libkf6solid-dev liblayershellqtinterface-dev
dnf install kf6-kguiaddons-devel libkscreen-qt6-devel kf6-kidletime-devel kf6-kwindowsystem-devel kf6-solid-devel layer-shell-qt-devel
zypper install kguiaddons-devel libkscreen2-devel kidletime-devel kwindowsystem-devel solid-devel layer-shell-qt
pacman --needed -S bash libstatgrab alsa-lib libpulse lm_sensors libconfig muparser upower polkit-qt5 sudo xorg-xmessage libxss libxcursor libxcomposite libxcb libxkbcommon-x11 libfm menu-cache gtk-update-icon-cache hicolor-icon-theme xdg-utils xdg-user-dirs oxygen-icons openbox libxslt
apt install bash gtk-update-icon-cache hicolor-icon-theme libasound2-dev libconfig-dev libdbusmenu-qt5-dev libexif-dev libfm-dev libjson-glib-dev libmenu-cache-dev libmuparser-dev libpolkit-agent-1-dev libpulse-dev libsensors4-dev libstatgrab-dev libudev-dev libupower-glib-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxcb-composite0-dev libxcb-damage0-dev libxcb-dpms0-dev libxcb-image0-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-screensaver0-dev libxcb-util0-dev libxcomposite-dev libxcursor-dev libxdamage-dev libxi-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev libxss-dev libxtst-dev openbox-dev oxygen-icon-theme sudo x11-utils xdg-user-dirs xdg-utils xserver-xorg-input-libinput-dev libproc2-dev
Same as Debian but replace gtk-update-icon-cache with libgtk2.0-bin.
dnf install systemd-devel bash libstatgrab-devel alsa-lib-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel lm_sensors-devel libconfig-devel muParser-devel upower-devel polkit-devel polkit-qt5-1-devel sudo libexif-devel xorg-x11-apps libSM-devel libXScrnSaver-devel libXcursor-devel libXcomposite-devel libxcb-devel xcb-util-devel libxkbcommon-x11-devel dbusmenu-qt5-devel libfm-devel menu-cache-devel gtk-update-icon-cache hicolor-icon-theme xdg-utils xdg-user-dirs oxygen-icon-theme openbox openbox-devel libxslt-devel
zypper install bash libstatgrab-devel alsa-devel libpulse-devel libsensors4-devel libconfig-devel muparser-devel libupower-glib-devel libpolkit-qt5-1-devel sudo libexif-devel xmessage libXss-devel libXcursor-devel libXcomposite-devel libxcb-devel xcb-util-devel libxkbcommon-x11-devel libfm-devel menu-cache-devel gtk3-tools hicolor-icon-theme xdg-utils xdg-user-dirs oxygen5-icon-theme openbox-devel libxslt-devel
In order to meet all mutual dependencies the various components have to be compiled in a particular order which is summed up below.
- lxqt-panel
- pcmanfm-qt
- qterminal
- lxqt-powermanagement
- lxqt-runner
- lxqt-themes
- lxqt-admin
- lxqt-notificationd
- lxqt-about
- lxqt-config
- lxqt-policykit
- lxqt-sudo
- lxqt-openssh-askpass
- lxqt-session
- pavucontrol-qt
- xdg-desktop-portal-lxqt
- lxqt-archiver
- screengrab
- lximage-qt
- qps
- obconf-qt
These groups must be processed in this order but the order of components within the each group does not matter.
All components are compiled using CMake and GNU make.
It is strongly advised to do the builds out of source tree.
At least on some operating systems like Arch Linux and Debian LXQt doesn't seem to start when CMake variable CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX which is explained below is not set to /usr which is something we may have to investigate. On the other hand this assignment will hardly ever do harm so it should be safe to recommend setting /usr in general for now.
The repositories of all components maintained by the LXQt project as well as nearly all others stated above come with a file README.md providing information how to install the respective component.
This information applies to compiling the archive files of regular releases as well.
The names of all components in the synopsis above are links to those repositories you may just follow.
The general approach is something like
mkdir build
cd build
cmake <path to sources> -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
make
make install
Directory build should be outside the directory of the sources. cmake and make can and should be run by regular users, make install requires root privileges in order to write to the FHS. These can be acquired by sudo. This is depicted in section Scripts to build in one step and mandates an invocation sudo make install. But when all components are compiled on their own its probably more convenient to open an additional root session and invoke make install there.
Aside from hosting the main issue tracker repository lxqt provides some scripts to compile latest checkouts of the Git master development branch of all components in one step.
By default this repository does not contain any source code. Rather, source code is pulled by Git submodules, see below.
Script build_all_autotools_projects.sh is covering all components where code is configured by the autotools, build_all_cmake_projects.sh those where it is configured by CMake, build_all.sh is just sourcing the other two.
The only components relying on autotools are libfm and libfm-extra of LXDE which are needed by LXQt, too. But by now its' safe to use the precompiled packages providing theses libraries. This was reflected by stating them as prerequisite and means we'll only have to run build_all_cmake_projects.sh. If you do want to compile libfm and libfm-extra from the sources as well you have to uninstall the binary packages providing them as file conflicts will result otherwise.
To install the software after building the scripts will acquire root permissions via sudo. It belongs to the Prerequisites anyway but may need some configuration depending on the defaults of the various systems.
On Arch Linux, Debian and Fedora regular users are not allowed to run make or just make install which is the invocation that matters here. So a line like
<user> ALL=/usr/bin/make
where <user> is placeholder of the system user's name should be added to /etc/sudoers. On Ubuntu regular users are allowed to run make due to their membership in group sudo. On openSUSE Tumbleweed permission to run make install can be acquired by stating the root password.
That aside adding a line like
Defaults timestamp_timeout=30
to /etc/sudoers can make sense as well. It extends the validity of the sudo permissions and can hence prevent the need to file the password several times on not so fast systems.
First we have to prepare a local checkout of repository and source code by running git on the command line.
We'll start by cloning
git clone https://github.com/lxqt/lxqt.git
The repository is using Git submodules to include the actual source code. So next we acquire the sources by running
cd lxqt
git submodule init
git submodule update --remote --rebase
It is strongly recommended to make a backup of directory lxqt prepared that way so as to avoid repeating this procedure should something go wrong.
The scripts support several environment variables, see explanation in the scripts' headers. The most important ones are
-
LXQT_PREFIX: Base directory relative to which LXQt is installed. Points to/usr/localby default and should be set to/usr. Technically it is corresponding with CMake variableCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX. -
LIB_SUFFIX: Path relative toLXQT_PREFIXlibraries are stored in. Can be used to adjust the path to habits of Linux distributions where different paths like/usr/lib,/usr/lib64or/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnucan be found. Technically it is corresponding with CMake variableCMAKE_LIB_SUFFIX.
Should only be set when the auto-detected default doesn't work as expected.
So finally we can launch by running
LXQT_PREFIX=/usr ./build_all_cmake_projects.sh
The script will build only with Qt6. For filedialog, theming and else in Qt5-based applications following packages are needed, usually provided by your package manager.
For compiling them:
Installation Introduction
Binary packages
Building from source
Third party apps
General
Launching LXQt sessions
Window managers
Screensavers/Locker
Miscellaneous
Theming
Reporting bugs
Translation
Contributing code
Admin tools
KF5 usage in LXQt
Maintaining a good new dev experience
Tarballs
TODO for Wayland
Infrastructure Fellows