Download and install newer KDE without root access?

Question

Without being root, is it possible to download a newer version of KDE and use that as your window manager for a RealVNC server?

Answer 1

It's absolutely possible. If you can sudo, you can install the newer KDE via your favorite package manager (assuming it's available in the repositories).

If the version you want isn't in your distribution's repositories, you can build KDE yourself (Getting Started link).

If you can't sudo, you won't be able to install anything under /usr/local. You'll need to install to your home directory instead. Anytime the instructions list an "install prefix" variable, change it from /usr/local/... to /home/username or /home/username/.... If configure scripts are in use, this is easy:

./configure --prefix=/home/username

That change will allow you to install your build to your home directory, under $HOME/bin, $HOME/lib, $HOME/share, etc. You'll need to update your login scripts to include your home directory in the PATH and LDPATH in order to access it.