****** DONE My KDE Setup :blog:lb_persistent: CLOSED: [2025-11-11 Tue 17:49] :PROPERTIES: :CREATED: [2025-10-26 Sun 18:10] :ID: 2025-10-26-KDE-Setup :END: :LOGBOOK: - State "DONE" from "STARTED" [2025-11-11 Tue 17:49] :END: This is an article describing my KDE setup. It gets updated on new changes. Brief background: I've been using the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xfce][XFCE desktop environment]] for more than 15 years until 2025-08 when I wanted to try out something new with some additional armenities and better styling. Then I set up a new [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME][GNOME desktop environment]] with [[https://release.gnome.org/48/][GNOME 48]] of Debian 13 (Trixie). However, I've face some issues I could not fix over a couple of months. So I tested Debian 13 Live KDE on 2025-10-26 and found out that most things I had to add GNOME extensions and manual workarounds were built-in with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kde][KDE]] 6. So I migrated to KDE and this is my system configuration just like I did with my [[id:2025-07-18-Gnome-Setup][GNOME setup]] before. With the switch to KDE, I also started with a dotfile management tool called [[https://www.chezmoi.io/][chezmoi]]. In particular for KDE ini file management, I also installed [[https://github.com/VorpalBlade/chezmoi_modify_manager][chezmoi_modify_manager]]. The latter allows for ignoring KDE ini file settings that are host/user-specific and should not be synchronized across hosts. My settings for chezmoi+chezmoi_modify_manager will not be public as they contain too much personal settings where I don't want to spend too much effort for obfuscating before publishing. So far, I really, really like this kind of dotfile management concept. ******* General Remarks :PROPERTIES: :END: I was using KDE maybe 20 years ago. I can not recall why I left KDE as a desktop environment and finally ended up using xfce for so long. After [[id:2025-07-18-Gnome-Setup][my issues with GNOME 48]], I tested KDE 6.3.6 on my Debian 13 machine: Lenovo X13 Gen5 2-in-1. When GNOME shines with extensions, KDE shines with "almost anything is possible with out-of-the-box functionality". I think that's the better approach for people like me who need to [[adapt their system to their requirements][adapt their system to their requirements]]. There are less side-effects and its much better tested. To my surprise, KDE is *way* faster than GNOME shell when it comes to switching windows, virtual desktops or opening up the "start something" windows. KDE adds an enourmous amount of nice-to-haves to the Linux desktop. I need to play around with: - mobile phone integration - Activities - Window rules - and many more As of 2025-11-11, I'm running KDE just for a few days. I still need to test it for the upcoming weeks/months in order to come to final conclusions. So far, it's looking great. When the dock unplug instability and other oddities aren't happening any more, this could be a very promising environment to me. ******* Transition from GNOME to KDE on Debian 13 Software-wise, the transition was quite easy to do: #+BEGIN_SRC sh sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade ## update the whole system before migration reboot ## to make sure latest software is running sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop sddm ## install KDE and its login manager reboot ## reboot into sddm and KDE Plasma Wayland #+END_SRC There is some cleanup I could do but so far, I kept GNOME just in case: #+begin_src sh sudo apt remove gnome-shell gnome-session gnome-shell-extensions gdm3 sudo apt autoremove #+end_src - Signal desktop config needed to be removed and new connection made from scratch as Signal was looking for GNOME keyring. - OpenVPN credentials needed to be entered in Network settings in order to remember them. - GNOME Evolution was asking for OpenPGP credentials since they were stored in GNOME keyring. - ssh-agent is now handling it and needed larger values for remebering credentials. ******* System Settings :PROPERTIES: :END: Here are my settings for KDE System Settings: - Mouse & Touchpad - Touchpad - Scrolling: activate "Invert scroll direction (Natural scrolling)" - Keyboard - Keyboard - enable Layouts - Add: "English (US)" → "English (US, intl., with dead keys)" - Key Bindings - "Caps Lock behavior": "Make Caps Lock act as an additional Ctrl modifier [...]" - Shortcuts - KRunner - Launch: add "Ctrl-F8" - Spectacle - "Capture Rectagular Region": Print Screen - Accessability - remove shortcut from Screen Reader - Keyboard Layout Switcher: remove shortcuts - KWin - replace "Switch to Desktop 1-4" → Ctrl F9-F12 - "Window to Desktop 1-4" → Shift Ctrl F9-F12 - Touchscreen - (nothing special here so far but I may add some gestures in future as I own a 2-in-1 device.) - Disks & Cameras - Device Auto-Mount - enable: "All devices" → "On Attach" - enable: "Automatically mount removable media that have never been mounted before" - Wallpaper - Wallpaper type: Slideshow - (replace the default background folder with my personal photographs of the month) - Colors & Themes - Global Theme - "Breeze Twilight" (default) looks good and icon contrast and so forth is working. - I tested "Debian Breeze" but had display issues with low contrast icons (dark gray icons on black background). So I guess it's better to stick to defaults here. - Colors: "Breeze Light" (default) looks good and icon contrast and so forth is working. - Night Light - Switching times: Sunset and sunrise at manual location - (select location on map) - System sounds - disable notification sounds - Login Screen (SDDM) - I currently installed "WhiteSour-dark" because I dislike the look of the "maya" default. - Behavior - Automatically log in: (main user) - I do have full disk encryption on my devices so there is no need to authenticate the user as well on a single-user device. Make sure that (auto) screen lock protects you as well. - Default Applications - Default Applications - (according to [[id:apps-I-am-using][my personal taste]]) - Window Management - Window Behavior - Focus - Window activation policy: "Focus follows mounse (mouse precedence) - [ ] I still need to test other "Focus follows mounse" variants though - Delay focus by: 0 ms - Window Rules - [ ] looks promising: needs investigation! - Virtual Desktops: create 4 virtual desktops - Activities - [ ] Lean what this is and if it is an interesting feature to me. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG6HmmNi4LM This guy (also coming from xfce) is thinking great on Activities. - [[https://docs.kde.org/stable5/en/plasma-desktop/plasma-desktop/activities-interface.html][Activities]] in the KDE docu (link is about Plasma 5 I guess) - [[https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/psdq10/who_uses_activities_in_kde_is_it_a_helpful_feature/][reddit discussion on usage of Activities]] → a great suggestion is [[https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/psdq10/comment/hdp3cb2/][this comment]] where somebody suggest that everybody is creating an activity for video conferences. However, I think I want to access all types of apps and windows from within a video conference. So I'm still thinking about what I may get from Activities. - General Behavior - Animation speed: I prefer very fast settings here - Search - File Search - (add folders according to your liking) - Plasma Search → very important to me as it defines search result order when looking for anything - "Windows" on top! - Applications - disable - Web Search Keywords - Terminate Applications - Screen Locking - (to my liking) - Configure Appearance ... - I currently like "Joy Lock Screen" - Region & Language - Language: American English - Time: en_AT.UTF8 - Currency: en_AT.UTF8 - Measurements: en_AT.UTF8 - Paper Size: en_AT.UTF8 - Address: de_AT.UTF8 - Name Style: de_AT.UTF8 - Phone Numbers: de_AT.UTF8 - Power Management - On AC Power - Supend Session - When inactive: do nothing - When power button pressed: Show logout screen - When laptop lid closed: Do nothing - On Battery - Supend Session - When inactive: Sleep after 60min - When power button pressed: Show logout screen - When laptop lid closed: Do nothing - On low Battery - Supend Session - When inactive: Sleep after 5min - When power button pressed: Show logout screen - When laptop lid closed: Do nothing - Advanced Power Setting - Battery Levels - Low level: 10% - Critical level: 5% - At critical level: Hibernate - Charge Limit - Stop charging at: 65% - Start cahrging once below: 45% - Software Update - Manually weekly - Session - Desktop Session - Session Restore - Start with an empty session - Locations - set everything to $HOME except: - Desktop - Downloads → my personal download folder - Templates → my personal template folder - Music → my personal music folder ******* Plasma Widgets :PROPERTIES: :END: KDE 6 on Debian 13 comes with a wide variety of widgets. However, some functionality is still missing for me. You can install additional widgets using the "Get New Widgets" tool. As with GNOME, the Widgets get installed for each user separately via its particular install mechanism. So updates aren't done via system update mechanism. Furthermore, each user has to update them separately. ******** Desktop Indicator :PROPERTIES: :END: I prefer a minimalistic indicator, showing only dots instead of previews/windows/... and thus, maximizing screen space for the "Icons-and-Text Task Manager". ******** Cursor Eyes :PROPERTIES: :END: I like this method to easily spot the mouse pointer when using multiple screens. Note that by default, wiggling the mouse does highlight the mouse pointer by temporarily making it huge. ******* Panel :PROPERTIES: :END: - context on task bar - Show Alternatives... - "Icons-and-Text Task Manager" - context on virtual desktop preview - Pager Settings - General - General: disable "Show window outlines" - Text display: "Desktop number" - context on Panel → "Show panel configuration" - Panel Height: 44 (default) → 20 - Position: Top - Style: disable "floating" - contect on "EN" (language) - disable "Show icon on system tray" - context on "Clipboard" - General - disable "Save history across desktop sessions - History size: 50 entries - activate "Keep the selection and clipboard the same" - Text selection: Always save in history - Actions Configuration - [ ] This looks very nice → play around with it - context on "Power and Battery" (might be hidden in a dropdown) - activate "Show Bettery Percentage on Icon When Not Fully Charged" - System Tray Settings - Entries - switch to "Always shown": - Networks - Power and Battery - Clipboard - context on "Digital Clock" Settings - Appearance - Date format: ISO date - Calendar - Show week numbers - first day: Monday - activate Holiday plugin - Holidays - set to Austria + other countries (customers) - context on Panel: "Add or Manage Widgets" → add additional widgets: - Hard Disk Activity - Individual Core Usage - Lock/Logout - General - Show actions: deselect everything except: - Show logout screen - Memory Usage - Network Speed - "System Monitor Settings" - Sensors Details - remove "Total Sensors" (to get rid of percentage number above the panel chart) - remove "Peek at Desktop" icon ******* Spectacle :PROPERTIES: :END: This is the name of the KDE screenshot tool. - Settings - Image Saving - Filename: =--
T.. -- screenshots= ******* Nice to Know :PROPERTIES: :END: - Super + . → Emoticon chooser (default) ******* Bugs and Oddities :PROPERTIES: :END: - My OpenVPN connection does not reconnect after resume. While this is considered as normal, the process of re-starting is cumbersome. At the moment, my process is: - Click on "Networks" in the panel - Disconnect all network connections - Restart all network connections and enter password (was stored with GNOME 48) - If this doesn't help: open network preferences and switch VPNs until it's working - Jitsi Meet: Custom background doesn't work: green/red lines instead of image. - Might be related to Wayland as I've had that issue with GNOME 48 before as well? - [2025-11-11 Tue] 2 out of 3 Wayland user sessions crashed when I unplugged the USB-C/Thunderbolt cable of my dock. - [2025-11-11 Tue] External sound card was not re-activated after plugging in to the USB-C/Thunderbolt dock.