No, Krusader does not need the KDE window manager to run on your computer but Krusader's natural environment is KDE, because it relies on services provided by the KDE base libraries. Only some shared libraries are needed e.g. KDE libraries, Qt™ libraries, etc. This means that Krusader runs on GNOME, AfterStep, XFce and other window managers provided the approriate libraries are installed on your computer. All this is not a problem since the apt-get world can resolve these dependencies instantly.

You do not need to switch to the KDE window manager to use Krusader; you can still use GNOME, AfterStep, XFce or another window manager. However, the configuration of the Krusader fonts and some behavior is done by running kcontrol.

A lot depends on what you want to do with Krusader. You should know that Krusader uses the KDE KIOSlaves to access remote file systems, and support for only a limited number of file system types are shipped with KDElibs, most of the KIOSlaves are bundled with KDEbase (including fish, sftp and tar). However, if you want the property-dialog to show EXIF-data for .jpeg's, you need KDEgraphics. If you want ID3-infos, you need KDEmultimedia, and so on.

To summarize, if you want a working Krusader - install KDElibs. If you want a functional Krusader then you need KDElibs + KDEbase. For maximum functionality, Krusader needs all of the KDE package libraries, but the KDE window manager is optional.

For running Krusader (e.g. when you have installed Krusader with a binary RPM) you need less libraries than if you compile Krusader from source. e.g. you only need the C-compliler gcc when you compile Krusader from source (see the next question).

Here is a list of the required shared libraries when you run Krusader:

Install the missing packages.

Here is a list of the required packages to compile Krusader from source:

Most RPM-based distributions separate the headers from the libs. The headers are needed to compile Krusader. Look for packages in the form foo-devel-*.rpm (e.g. kdelibs-devel-foo.i586.rpm) or foo-dev-*.deb for Debian® based distributions. These are usually included with your distribution.

As far as we know, there are no issues. Krusader is also available on many other architectures.

Since we only prepare (and use) the source, we have no way of knowing this. Did you test the binary RPM before installing?

$ rpm -i --test </path/to/rpmfile> krusader-x.xx.dist.rpm

If the RPM is not OK, try to find another package at Linux® software archives such as freshmeat.net or KDE-APPS.org. If you still can't find the appropriate package for your Linux® distribution, we recommend searching for it with rpmfind or rpmpbone.

In general, a package for an older version of your distrubution or even for another distribution might work on your computer (e.g. FC RPM's often work on Mdk and RH, and vice versa), but it is always the best that you install only RPM's that exactly match your distribution. If you can't find a package that matches your distribution version, architecture or distribution, then use a source RPM. When you use a source RPM, the Krusader sources will be built, on your computer, guaranteeing a suitable binary RPM for your specific distribution and architecture. In addition, this method results in maximum system speed, since the resulting binary is customized for your computer. Please read the previous question, it explains how to install a source RPM. The best solution is explained in the next question.

Check if your distribution provides Krusader, if it doesn't then contact your distribution creator and ask them to include Krusader!

Did you take a look at the URL's on the Installation procedure page? If you have and found nothing, you can always compile Krusader from source. Even if you feel you haven't got the necessary skills, you will probably succeed in compiling Krusader: we provide a very detailed installation procedure. This HowTo enables newcomers to compile Krusader from source, even if they have never done a compilation from source before, just follow the instructions carefully. Feel free to post a help request if you encounter problems.

In this case only the Help menu is visible and all other menu items like e.g. File and Select are missing. This is because some distributions put the krusaderui.rc file in the wrong directory. To solve the problem, just copy the krusaderui.rc file from the package krusader_kde3/krusader/krusaderui.rc to $KDEDIR/share/apps/krusader/krusaderui.rc and ~/.kde/share/apps/krusader/krusaderui.rc and re-run Krusader. If you have compiled Krusader from sources this is often caused if the KDEDIR - QTDIR environment variables are not correctly set. The result is that the krusaderui.rc file is installed in the wrong directory. Please read the following question, as well.

The krusaderui.rc file is stored in $KDEDIR/share/apps/krusader/krusaderui.rc. When you change the "Toolbar", KDE makes a copy of that file in the home directory at ~/.kde/share/apps/krusader/krusaderui.rc. If Krusader was previously installed on your computer, and you install a newer Krusader version the ~/.kde/share/apps/krusader/krusaderui.rc file must be replaced with the newer version. Note: this will also reset all your changes on toolbars and shortcuts!

The first line of krusaderui.rc contains the version number. After installing a newer Krusader version, KDE will automatically replace the old ~/.kde/share/apps/krusader/krusaderui.rc with the newer version when starting the new Krusader for the first time (KDE will detect the newer version number in the first line).

If you install a CVS or beta version and Krusader was already installed on your computer then you should delete the krusaderui.rc file from your home directory to activate the new menu entries $ rm ~/.kde/share/apps/krusader/krusaderui.rc

If the ~/.kde/share/apps/krusader/krusaderui.rc file is older, then the new menu elements will not be shown. Read the previous question for information on how to update the krusaderui.rc file. If krusaderui.rc is missing or in a wrong directory, only the "Help" menu appears, please read the previous question.

The ./configure script does not check for the presence of libfam.la, and make needs libfam.la to compile Krusader. If you know how this can be solved, please let us know. Install libfam0-devel-foo.rpm. Note: when you install Mandrake™-Linux® 9.2 with the default settings, this package is not installed. If you need more information take a look at FAQ missing libs or headers.

This problem occurs when you use gcc 2.95, you need to install gcc 3.2 (or higher). You also need to set the enviroment variables "CC, CPP and CXX" before running the ./configure script.

$ export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-3.2
          $ export CXX=/usr/bin/g++-3.2
          $ export CPP=/usr/bin/cpp-3.2
          

This problem occurs when you use the NVIDIA® installer and not the official NVIDIA® packages of your distribution. Krusader is based on Qt™ which can be linked against the X OpenGL libraries. As a result Krusader may look for OpenGL as well. The problem is that the NVIDIA® installer (prior to version 7xxx) doesn't perform it's task properly: it replaces the OpenGL header files (which get included into Krusader) but doesn't set the libGL links correctly. The best solution is to use the NVIDIA® packages provided by your distributor or a new NVIDIA® installer, the current version at the moment of writing is 7114. If, for some reason, you must use an old NVIDIA® driver, one solution is the following hack, the exact commands depend on the distribution used and the version of the NVIDIA® driver (6111 in this example), but it should read something like this:

$ ln -s libGLcore.so.1.0.6111 libGLcore.so.0
          $ ln -s libGLcore.so.1.0.6111 libGLcore.so
          $ ln -s libGLcore.so.1.0.6111 libGLcore.so.1.0.0
          $ ln -s libGLcore.so.1.0.6111 libGLcore.so.0.0.0
          $ ln -s libGLcore.so.1.0.6111 libGL.so
          $ ln -s libGLcore.so.1.0.6111 libGL.so.0
          $ ln -s libGLcore.so.1.0.6111 libGL.so.0.0.0
          $ ln -s libGLcore.so.1.0.6111 libGL.so.1
          $ ln -s libGLcore.so.1.0.6111 libGL.so.1.0.0
          $ ln -s /usr/lib/libGLU.la /usr/X11R6/lib/libGLU.la
          

Because Krusader-1.60.x was not gcc4 compatible, it first needs some patches:

Please read our detailed installation procedure and the FAQ. If you can't find a solution to your problem then feel free to post a help request at our Krusader forum or use the Krusader-users mailing list. But before posting a help request, please try the following:

Thank you for your co-operation!

If you have experience with compiling from source, you will probably be able to build a Krusader RPM too. Information about RPM can be found at rpm.org and in the RPM Guide by Eric Foster-Johnson. The following is the short procedure howto on building an RPM.

Because we only change the version number just before we do a new release. Krusader-cvs will show an older version number, so ignore the version number and check the download date. We simply haven't yet decided what the next version number will be.