How to install razor-qt in Debian Squeeze

According to its developers, Razor-qt is an advanced, easy-to-use, and fast desktop environment based on Qt. It works fine with weak machines, and contains most of the necessary DE components:

• Panel
• Desktop
• Application launcher
• Settings center
• Sessions

Razor-qt works with various WMs, such as Openbox, fwwm2, and kwin. So, KDE without Plasma Desktop is possible with Razor-qt.

Several distributions (Ubuntu, Arch, Gentoo, Fedora, ...) has precompiled Razor-qt packages. Unfortunately, Debian is not on the list. But, no worry, it is not necessary to compile it from source. Ubuntu Lucid's packages just work fine in Debian Squeeze. So, in order to install it, first, download the packages compiled for your architecture ( i386, amd64) into an empty directory. Then, install them with gdebi or dpkg:

# dpkg -i *

It is possible that some dependencies are missing and you have to install them manually. If you use KDE, all the necessary dependencies will be present in your system.

Next time, at login, you can choose Razor-qt session. At the start of the session, you can chose which WM would you prefer to use. Of course, only the installed WMs are on the list.

The developers recommend to use these 3rd party applications in order to have a "fully featured", Qt-based desktop.