Installation of Cutefish Desktop on Ubuntu

1. Introduction

Cutefish Desktop is an official part of CutefishOS known for its intuitive design and visually appealing interface, offering a fairly straightforward and user-friendly experience. To install Cutefish, we typically download and compile the required packages from their designated repositories.

In this tutorial, we’ll explore how to install the Cutefish Desktop environment in Linux.

Notably, we’ll perform these operations on Ubuntu. However, the same process applies to other distributions as well.

2. Installing Dependencies

Before we begin the installation of Cutefish Desktop, we need to ensure that all the necessary dependencies are installed on the system. Further, these dependencies include libraries and tools required for building and running Cutefish.

First, let’s use the apt update command to update the package list on the system:

$ sudo apt update

This way, we ensure the repositories are up-to-date with the latest available versions of the packages we may need.

Next, we use the apt command to install all the necessary dependencies for the installation of Cutefish:

$ sudo apt install -y git devscripts build-essential cmake ninja-build \
                      qtbase5-dev qtquickcontrols2-5-dev libkf5networkmanagerqt-dev modemmanager-qt-dev \
                      debhelper extra-cmake-modules libkf5kio-dev libkf5screen-dev libqt5sensors5-dev \
                      qtdeclarative5-dev qttools5-dev qttools5-dev-tools qtbase5-private-dev \
                      libxcb-icccm4-dev kwin-dev libkdecorations2-dev libqt5xdg-dev \
                      libdbusmenu-qt5-dev libxcb-ewmh-dev libicu-dev libxcb-randr0-dev \
                      libsm-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxcb-damage0-dev libxcb-composite0-dev \
                      libxcb-shm0-dev libxcb-util-dev libxcb-image0-dev libxtst-dev libpulse-dev \
                      libpolkit-qt5-1-dev libpolkit-agent-1-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev qml-module-qtquick2 qml-module-qtquick-controls2 \
                      libkf5bluezqt-dev libkf5bluezqt-dev libqt5opengl5-dev libxcursor-dev

This command employs the apt package manager to install the requisite dependencies. Additionally, the -y option automatically answers yes to prompts, enabling the installation to proceed without further user intervention.

3. Create Cutefish Components Directory

Firstly, let’s create a directory for downloading the Cutefish Desktop components:

$ mkdir -p ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish

The mkdir -p command facilitates the creation of a new directory, with the -p option enabling the creation of any missing parent directories as required. Additionally, the cd command transitions the current directory to the specified location.

4. Clone Cutefish Components

Next, let’s proceed by cloning the essential repositories and compiling the Cutefish packages. For each component of the Cutefish Desktop environment, we begin by cloning its GitHub repository via git clone.

Subsequently, we navigate into the directory and proceed to build the package using the dpkg-buildpackage command. In particular, the dpkg-buildpackage command builds a Debian package. Notably, the -uc -us -b options tell the command not to sign the changes and source files and to build binary-only packages.

4.1. Libcutefish Component

Let’s clone and build the libcutefish component:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/libcutefish --branch=0.2
$ cd libcutefish
$ dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

At this point, we should have the relevant Debian package.

4.2. Fishui Components

Now, let’s proceed with cloning and building the Fishui component:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/fishui --branch=0.3
$ cd fishui
$ dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

Similarly, we navigate to the Cutefish directory, clone the fishui repository from GitHub, building a Debian package after.

4.3. Other Components

Let’s proceed with a similar process for the remaining components of the Cutefish Desktop environment.

kwin-plugins component:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/kwin-plugins --branch=0.3
$ cd kwin-plugins
$ dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

launcher component:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/launcher --branch=0.3
$ cd launcher
$ dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

qt-plugins component:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/qt-plugins --branch=0.3
$ cd qt-plugins
$ dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

wallpaper component:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/wallpapers --branch=0.2
$ cd wallpapers
$ dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

dock component:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/dock --branch=0.3
$ cd dock
$ dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

filemanager component:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/filemanager --branch=0.3
$ cd filemanager
$ dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

settings component:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/settings --branch=0.3
$ cd settings
$ dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

statusbar component:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/statusbar --branch=0.3
$ cd statusbar
$ dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

core component:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/core --branch=0.3
$ cd core
$ dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

Once the build process is complete for each component, we can install the various components.

5. Installing Cutefish Components

After successfully building all the required packages for each component, let’s proceed to install the Cutefish Desktop environment:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ sudo apt-get install -y ./*.deb

This command uses the apt-get package manager to install all .deb files in the current directory, resolving dependencies where necessary.

6. Building and Installing Components Without Debian Directory

For components such as the Calculator and icons, which lack a Debian directory, we take a slightly different approach to build and install them.

So, let’s walk through the process for each component.

6.1. Calculator

First, we navigate to the designated directory for storing Cutefish-related files:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish

Next, let’s clone the calculator repository from GitHub.

$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/calculator --branch=0.3

Once the repository is cloned, let’s move into the calculator directory:

$ cd calculator

Then, we create a new directory named build to organize the build files and navigate into the directory:

$ mkdir build
$ cd build

Now, we use cmake to configure the build process for the calculator:

$ cmake ..

With the configuration set, we initiate the build process:

$ make

Finally, let’s install the Calculator application system using the make command:

$ sudo make install

This command instructs the system to install the compiled software onto the system, making it available for use.

6.2. Icons

Similarly, let’s go through the same steps to build and install the icons component:

$ cd ~/Downloads/cutefish
$ git clone https://github.com/cutefishos/icons --branch=0.3
$ cd icons
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake ..
$ make
$ sudo make install

By following these steps, we successfully build and install the calculator and icons components of the Cutefish Desktop environment.

Finally, we reboot the system:

$ sudo reboot

Once the operation is complete, we should have a working Cutefish Desktop environment, which we can configure accordingly.

7. Conclusion

In this article, we outlined the steps for installing the Cutefish Desktop Environment on Ubuntu.

Then, we went through each stage, from dependency installation to handling components without Debian directories.

Finally, with Cutefish now operational on the system, we can explore its intuitive design and user-friendly features for a delightful desktop experience.