A.2. Building From Source

While time consuming, the most flexible way to build aRts is to compile it yourself from source code. This ensures you have a version compiled optimally for your system configuration and allows you to build the most recent version.

You have two choices here -- you can either install the most recent stable version included with KDE or you can get the most recent (but possibly unstable) version directly from the KDE project CVS repository. Most users who aren't developing for aRts should use the stable version. You can download it from ftp://ftp.kde.org or one of the many mirror sites. If you are actively developing for aRts you probably want to use the CVS version.

Note that at the time of writing, the most recent version of aRts was only provided as part of KDE. If you want a standalone version of aRts you will need to manually build and install only the aRts portions of KDE.

Note also that if you are building from CVS, some components of aRts (i.e. the basic core components including the sound server) are found in the CVS module kdelibs, while additional components (e.g. artsbuilder) are included in the. This may change in the future. You may also find a version in the kmusic module; this is the old (pre-KDE 2.0) version which is now obsolete.

The requirements for building aRts are essentially the same as for building KDE. The configure scripts should detect your system configuration and indicate if any required components are missing. Make sure that you have a working sound driver on your system (either the OSS/Free driver in the kernel, OSS driver from 4Front Technologies, or ALSA driver with OSS emulation).

More information on downloading and installing KDE (including aRts) can be found in the KDE FAQ.