Before compiling, please see iqnotes.pro. Pay attention to this lines: CONFIG = qt warn_on desktop This should be written if you are going to compile desktop version. DEFINES = IQNOTES_PICDIR="\"/usr/share/iqnotes\"" That defines the directory for the pictures which can be assigned to the note. To compile IQNotes, please write at source directory: qmake -o Makefile iqnotes.pro make Binary file is located at ../bin. Then please create directory defined by IQNOTES_PICDIR macro and copy there a content of the pics/ directory. And that's all folks!