The startkde script is quite an essential part of the KDE startup process, at least of you really use the DE and not only single app. It should be pulled in by kdesktop or kdm. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: Portage 2.0.51-r15 (default-linux/x86/2004.3, gcc-3.3.5, glibc-2.3.4.20040808-r1, 2.6.10-gentoo-r4 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.10-gentoo-r4 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) Processor Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16 Python: dev-lang/python-2.2.3-r5,dev-lang/python-2.3.4-r1 [2.3.4 (#1, Feb 8 2005, 21:52:30)] distcc 2.16 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] ccache version 2.3 [disabled] dev-lang/python: 2.2.3-r5, 2.3.4-r1 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.59-r6, 2.13 sys-devel/automake: 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.5, 1.4_p6, 1.6.3, 1.9.4 sys-devel/binutils: 2.15.92.0.2-r1 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.10-r4 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.8.1-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-pipe -march=athlon-tbird -O2 -fstack-protector" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env /usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3.4/env /usr/kde/3.4/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-pipe -march=athlon-tbird -O2 -fstack-protector" DISTDIR="/var/cache/portage/sources" FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig candy distlocks sandbox sfperms" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/gentoo/ http://gentoo.inode.at/" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/var/cache/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage-overlay/mortage /usr/local/portage-overlay/misc /usr/local/portage-overlay/kde-b33" SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 3dnow X aalib aavm acl acpi acpi4linux alsa apache2 apm arts artswrappersuid avi bash-completion berkdb cdr crypt cups curl dga directfb dvd dvdr encode ethereal expat f77 faad fam fbcon flac font-server foomaticdb fortran gcj gd gdbm geoip gif gphoto2 gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 hbci imagemagick imap imlib ipv6 irda jabber java javascript jpeg junit kde ldap libg++ libwww mad maildir mikmod mmx mozilla moznoirc mpeg ncurses odbc oggvorbis opengl operanom2 oss pam pda pdflib perl pic png postgres python qt quicktime rdesktop readline real samba scanner sdl slang slp speex spell sse ssl svga tcltk tcpd tetex theora tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts usagi usb wmf xine xinerama xml xml2 xmms xv xvid zlib video_cards_radeon" Unset: ASFLAGS, CBUILD, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS
It's the other way around: kdebase-startkde depends on kdesktop and some other core KDE apps. kdesktop in turn depends on kdm and kcontrol, etc. So if you want kdm + a very minimal KDE desktop, you emerge kdebase-startkde. But kdm, kdesktop and every other app can also be used standalone, so they don't carry extra deps of this sort. This is also in the doc: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/kde-split-ebuilds.xml.
Oh, I must admit I didn't read the docs, just went and emerged what I needed. And after I did so and rebootet, a new kdm greeter appeared which didn't offer me any sessions because the desktop file is shipped with the kdebase-startkde package which I didn't even see first. Or better: ignored it because the name sound slike somthing I don't want to emerge manually. It's not very intuitive for a user who just wants to try KDE without reading pages of docs first. And I don't see any useful usage case for a standalone kdesktop (having the kdm login screen might make sense), so that could pull in startkde which would be a tad more intuitive.
There may not be a meaningful use case for eg a standalone ksmserver either. This goes for quite a few kdebase-derived packages. They're only useful without stuff like kdebase-startkde if you're developing them or something related to them. But that's still no reason to make them depend on arbitrary things like startkde. You might as well say there's no use case for a standalone kdelibs or libkdepim. They're just not end-user-visible packages. I do agree kdebase-startkde isn't an intuitive name. Team, how about making it install just the startkde script etc. (no deps), and make a new ebuild called kdebase-minimal or something like that that depends on kdebase-startkde, kdesktop etc?
What about adding PDEPEND="kde-base/kdebase-startkde" to some of the key desktop packages?
Given this bug has been stalled for over two years, I assume no one at the kde team is really interested in changing the current behaviour. Thus, closed as WONTFIX.
*** Bug 207087 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
