KDE: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:02, 24 April 2024

KDE is a "free software community dedicated to creating an open and user-friendly computing experience, offering an advanced graphical desktop, a wide variety of applications for communication, work, education and entertainment and a platform to easily build new applications upon." (read more at kde.org and at wikipedia.org).

The projects developed by the community develops includes a well-known graphical user environment (desktop view/files, virtual desktops, dashboard-like panel) called Plasma, a set of libraries called Frameworks which extend Qt, and various applications which covers various use cases (file manager, messaging, calendar, address book, web browsing, graphics), all available in the Fedora Linux distribution.

Plasma Desktop

KDE Plasma provides a modern and customizable environment for running your favourite applications and accessing your information wherever it may be. It is available in Fedora as a spin and as an alternative to the default desktop offering (GNOME) or other desktop environments and window managers.

Download

Get the KDE Plasma Desktop spin here. Alternatively, Fedora Kinoite is also available as the atomic equivalent of Fedora KDE.

The KDE spin and Kinoite are the only recommended ways to use KDE Plasma on Fedora.

Otherwise, if you have an existing installation of Fedora Workstation, any other Fedora spin, or a non-Kinoite variant of Fedora Atomic Desktop and wish to keep that installation, follow the instructions below in #Installing KDE Plasma on non-KDE variants of Fedora.

Installing KDE Plasma on non-KDE variants of Fedora

You can also install packages for a KDE Plasma experience on any non-KDE variant of Fedora (excluding Atomic versions) using the command line.

On regular Fedora

To install Plasma using the command line with dnf, execute the following with sudo or as root:

dnf install @kde-desktop-environment

Or to install the full package set with the groupinstall command:

dnf groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces"

On Fedora Atomic

You can rebase any existing Fedora Atomic Desktop (Silverblue, Atomic Sway, etc) installation to Kinoite with rpm-ostree by simply running

rpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/VersionNumber/x86_64/kinoite

Replace VersionNumber with the number of the current Fedora release you're running. (For example, if you're on Fedora Silverblue 40, you would run rpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/40/x86_64/kinoite.)

Rebasing to Kinoite gives you a complete setup, with SDDM pre-configured and all. All you need to do is simply reboot after rebasing.

Logging into KDE Plasma

After installing the packages, either log out or reboot back to your login screen.

If you're using GDM (GNOME's Display Manager), click on the gear at the bottom right of the screen, and select the option listed as Plasma.

If you're using LightDM (default on the Fedora Cinnamon, Budgie, XFCE and MATE-Compiz spins), select the button next to your username and select Plasma.

Switching the display manager to SDDM

You may want to switch your existing display manager (also known as a login manager) to SDDM, recommended by the Plasma team (but not developed by the KDE community). This has little impact on the end-user experience and isn't necessary in order to use Plasma.

To enable SDDM / replace your existing display manager, run the systemctl enable --force sddm.service command.

Communicate

Fedora KDE users and developers are primarily available on the Fedora KDE Matrix channel for real-time conversations. We also have a Fedora KDE mailing list at

Fedora's KDE SIG

The KDE SIG (Special Interest Group) is a group of Fedora contributors that maintain popular KDE packages, take care of KDE-related documentation, artwork and other KDE specific tasks.

Links

https://www.kde.org/ - Home of the KDE community
https://www.kde.org/plasma-desktop/ - The Plasma Desktop
https://userbase.kde.org/Tutorials - KDE-related tutorials
https://community.kde.org/Main_Page - KDE Community Wiki

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 __TOC__
-== Plasma ==
+== Plasma Desktop ==
-[https://www.kde.org/plasma-desktop/ KDE Plasma] provide a modern and customizable environment for running your favourite applications and accessing your information wherever it may be. It is available in Fedora as an alternative to the default desktop offering (GNOME) and other desktop environments and window managers.
+[https://www.kde.org/plasma-desktop/ KDE Plasma] provides a modern and customizable environment for running your favourite applications and accessing your information wherever it may be. It is available in Fedora as a [https://fedoraproject.org/spins/kde/ spin] and as an alternative to the default desktop offering (GNOME) or other desktop environments and window managers.
 [[File:Kde-plasma-screenshot.png|800px|center]]
@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 === Download ===
-Get it at the [https://spins.fedoraproject.org/kde/ KDE (Plasma desktop) spin] page.
+Get the KDE Plasma Desktop spin [https://fedoraproject.org/spins/kde/ here]. Alternatively, [https://fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/kinoite/ Fedora Kinoite] is also available as the atomic equivalent of Fedora KDE.
-You can also download default Fedora and then follow the instructions in the section [[#Installation]].
+{{Admon/tip| The KDE spin and Kinoite are the only recommended ways to use KDE Plasma on Fedora.}}
-=== Installation===
+Otherwise, if you have an existing installation of Fedora Workstation, any other Fedora spin, or a non-Kinoite variant of Fedora Atomic Desktop and wish to keep that installation, follow the instructions below in [[#Installing KDE Plasma on non-KDE variants of Fedora]].
-You will have the option of installing Plasma during the Fedora installation process.
+=== Installing KDE Plasma on non-KDE variants of Fedora ===
-You can also install Plasma packages after installation using the command line or the package manager of your choice.
+You can also install packages for a KDE Plasma experience on any non-KDE variant of Fedora (excluding Atomic versions) using the command line.
-To install Plasma using the command line with [[dnf]], execute the following as root:
+===== On regular Fedora =====
+To install Plasma using the command line with [[dnf]], execute the following with <code>sudo</code> or as root:
   dnf install @kde-desktop-environment
-Or to install the full package set:
+Or to install the full package set with the <code>groupinstall</code> command:
   dnf groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces"
-==== Activation ====
+===== On Fedora Atomic =====
-During the default login process, you can use the "Session" menu to choose a Plasma login instead of a GNOME login.  You will be asked if you wish to make KDE Plasma Desktop your default desktop.
-You can make Plasma the system-wide default desktop. This is not necessary in order to use Plasma and may affect other users on the system. There are several ways to make Plasma the default desktop  - GUI and command line tools and manually editing system configuration file.
-The default display manager on Fedora is GDM - The GNOME Display Manager.  You can switch this to SDDM, recommended by the Plasma team (but not developed by the KDE community).  This has little impact on the end-user experience and isn't necessary in order to use Plasma.
-==== Graphical interface====
+You can rebase any existing Fedora Atomic Desktop (Silverblue, Atomic Sway, etc) installation to Kinoite with rpm-ostree by simply running
-Use dnf to install <code>sudo dnf install switchdesk-gui</code>, run the <code>switchdesk</code> command and select KDE.
+ rpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/VersionNumber/x86_64/kinoite
-==== Command line interface ====
+Replace VersionNumber with the number of the current Fedora release you're running. (For example, if you're on Fedora Silverblue 40, you would run <code>rpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/40/x86_64/kinoite</code>.)
-Use your dnf to install <code>sudo yum|dnf install switchdesk</code> and run the <code>switchdesk kde</code> command.
+{{Admon/tip| Rebasing to Kinoite gives you a complete setup, with SDDM pre-configured and all. All you need to do is simply reboot after rebasing.}}
-==== Manually ====
+==== Logging into KDE Plasma ====
-Add the following line to <code>/etc/sysconfig/desktop</code>:
+After installing the packages, either log out or reboot back to your login screen.
-<pre>
+If you're using GDM (GNOME's Display Manager), click on the gear at the bottom right of the screen, and select the option listed as Plasma.
-DESKTOP="KDE"
-</pre>
-{{Admon/tip|If this file already contains a <code>DESKTOP</code> entry, you must replace that entry.}}
+If you're using LightDM (default on the Fedora Cinnamon, Budgie, XFCE and MATE-Compiz spins), select the button next to your username and select Plasma.
-To make KDM the default display manager, add the following line to <code>/etc/sysconfig/desktop</code>:
+==== Switching the display manager to SDDM ====
-<pre>
+You may want to switch your existing display manager (also known as a login manager) to SDDM, recommended by the Plasma team (but not developed by the KDE community). This has little impact on the end-user experience and isn't necessary in order to use Plasma.
-DISPLAYMANAGER="KDE"
-</pre>
-{{Admon/tip|If this file already contains a <code>DISPLAYMANAGER</code> entry, you must replace that entry.}}
+To enable SDDM / replace your existing display manager, run the <code>systemctl enable --force sddm.service</code> command.
 == Communicate ==
-Fedora KDE users and developers are available on the #fedora-kde IRC channel at Freenode for real-time conversations.  We also have a Fedora KDE mailing list at
+Fedora KDE users and developers are primarily available on the [https://matrix.to/#/%23kde:fedoraproject.org Fedora KDE Matrix channel] for real-time conversations.  We also have a Fedora KDE mailing list at
 * listinfo: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/admin/lists/kde.lists.fedoraproject.org/
@@ Line 82: / Line 74: @@
 * [[LiveUpdates]] talks problems in updating KDE
 * [[KDE/NFS]]
+* [https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/switching-desktop-environments Fedora Docs/Switching Desktop Environments] covers using switchdesk to make KDE Plasma the default desktop system-wide or for individual users (though not necessary or required at all to use the KDE Plasma desktop)
 == Links ==
@@ Line 87: / Line 80: @@
 * https://www.kde.org/ - Home of the KDE community
 * https://www.kde.org/plasma-desktop/ - The Plasma Desktop
+* https://userbase.kde.org/Tutorials - KDE-related tutorials
+* https://community.kde.org/Main_Page - KDE Community Wiki
 [[Category:KDE]]

Search