These are instructions for setting up a development environment for Pentaho. It is based on what we do internally at BizCubed. For setting up a server environment, see here.
Hardware: Pentaho and its tools are very resource hungry. You'll need a fast CPU and 2GB of RAM (you can make do with less, but it'd be frustratingly slow).
Operating system:Fedora 8 (we use x86_64, but i386 is fine)
Java
See the Install and Configure Java page to get you started, and the Java page page for further detail on setting up and optimising Java for Pentaho.
Fixes
These are fixes to work around some issues with Java.
update your system and install some packages
# yum update
# yum install libxcb libXp
add the following to your /etc/profile (system-wide) or ~/.profile (per user)
export AWT_TOOLKIT="MToolkit"
This is to resolve some issues between Sun Java 1.5 and Report Designer. Logout then log back in for it to take effect.
