# 4.12. Is it possible to install KDE in a user directory?

You can install KDE in every directory you want. What you have to do depends on the kind of packages you want to install:

Source packages

To configure, use a command like:

     configure --prefix=/users/myhome/kde; make; make install

to install into `/users/myhome/kde`.

After you have installed the packages in the user directory, you should add the following to your init files. Please note that if it isn't necessary for you to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH, it's better to leave it out.

For csh or tcsh:

     setenv KDEDIR /users/myhome/kde

     if ( $?LD_LIBRARY_PATH ) then
        setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH $KDEDIR/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
     else
        setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH $KDEDIR/lib
     endif

     if ( ! $?LIBRARY_PATH ) then
        setenv LIBRARY_PATH $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
     endif

For bash, please use:

     KDEDIR=/users/myhome/kde
     PATH=$KDEDIR/bin:$PATH
     LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$KDEDIR/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
     LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

export KDEDIR PATH LD_LIBRARY_PATH LIBRARY_PATH

RPM packages

`rpm` allows you to use the `-prefix` option to select the directory to for installtion, e.g.

     rpm -i -prefix=/users/myhome/kde package.rpm

Problems to expect

KDE will run from the users directory. There are some problems with programs that require SUID root, e.g. the programs in the kdeadmin package, but they are not meant to be run by users, so this is nothing to worry about.

However, on systems using shadow passwords, the screensavers have to be run SUID root to enable password access for unlocking the screen, so this option will not work.