Now you are ready to run the script. From a terminal window, log in to the user you are using to compile KDE and execute the script:

%su - devel-username
%kdesvn-build

Now, the script should start downloading the sources and compiling them. Depending on how many modules you are downloading, it is possible that Kdesvn-build will not succeed the first time you compile KDE. Do not despair!

Kdesvn-build logs the output of every command it runs. By default, the log files are kept in ~/kdesvn/log. To see what the caused an error for a module in the last Kdesvn-build command, usually it is sufficient to look at ~/kdesvn/log/latest/module-name/error.log.

In that file, you will see the error that caused the build to fail for that module. If the file says (at the bottom) that you are missing some packages, try installing the package (including any appropriate -dev packages) before trying to build that module, and pass the --reconfigure option after install the missing packages.

Or, if the error appears to be a build error then it is probably an error with the KDE source, which will hopefully be resolved within a few days. If it is not resolved within that time, feel free to mail the (kde-devel AT kde.org) (subscription may be required first) in order to report the build failure.

You can find more common examples of things that can go wrong and their solutions, as well as general tips and strategies to build KDE in the Building KDE from Source Step by Step Guide.