Difference between revisions of "KDE"
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{{Note| KDE 4.x is '''modular'''; you can install your preferred KDE applications without having to install an entire set of packages. See [[KDE Packages]] for more information.}} | {{Note| KDE 4.x is '''modular'''; you can install your preferred KDE applications without having to install an entire set of packages. See [[KDE Packages]] for more information.}} | ||
− | {{Note| KDE 4.x | + | {{Note| KDE 4.x does not need Gamin or Fam packages for monitoring changes on local files and directories [[#Monitoring_changes_on_local_files_and_directories|see more]]}} |
=== Minimal install === | === Minimal install === | ||
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=====Icons===== | =====Icons===== | ||
− | If you | + | If you are using Oxygen icons and want a consistent look in GTK open/save dialogs, you can install an [http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?O=0&K=oxygenrefit2-icon-theme&do_Search=Go oxygenrefit2] icon theme from AUR and set it as your GTK icon theme. Add the theme to the {{Filename|~/.gtkrc-2.0}} file or you can use lxappearance and set it. |
gtk-icon-theme-name="OxygenRefit2" | gtk-icon-theme-name="OxygenRefit2" | ||
There are also a couple GTK themes built on the [http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=24329 gtk-kde42-oxygen-theme Oxygen style] that can also do this. | There are also a couple GTK themes built on the [http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=24329 gtk-kde42-oxygen-theme Oxygen style] that can also do this. | ||
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Try to force fonts DPI to '''96''' on '''System Settings > Application Appearance > Fonts.''' | Try to force fonts DPI to '''96''' on '''System Settings > Application Appearance > Fonts.''' | ||
− | If it | + | If it does not work try set DPI directly on Xorg configuration [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg#Setting_DPI_manually here]. |
====Space efficiency==== | ====Space efficiency==== | ||
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==== How to enable Cpufreq based power saving ==== | ==== How to enable Cpufreq based power saving ==== | ||
− | Since KDE 4.6, CPU frequency scaling is no longer managed by KDE. Instead it | + | Since KDE 4.6, CPU frequency scaling is no longer managed by KDE. Instead it is assumed to be handled automatically by the the hardware and/or kernel. While some distributions use the {{codeline|ondemand}} cpufreq governor by default, Arch does not. |
As a prerequisite to the following, you should carefully read through the [[cpufreq|wiki article on cpufreq]] and ensure that the appropriate kernel modules are loaded. If you are happy with setting your governor once at boot (with the {{filename|cpufreq}} daemon script, for example) then this section is not relevant and can be skipped. | As a prerequisite to the following, you should carefully read through the [[cpufreq|wiki article on cpufreq]] and ensure that the appropriate kernel modules are loaded. If you are happy with setting your governor once at boot (with the {{filename|cpufreq}} daemon script, for example) then this section is not relevant and can be skipped. | ||
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pacman -S cpufrequtils | pacman -S cpufrequtils | ||
− | 2. Next, you | + | 2. Next, you will need to grant access to {{filename|cpufreq-set}} for the appropriate users by configuring [[sudo]]. For example, if you are part of the ''wheel'' group, you could use {{codeline|visudo}} to add |
%wheel ALL = (ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/cpufreq-set | %wheel ALL = (ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/cpufreq-set | ||
to your {{filename|sudoers}} file. | to your {{filename|sudoers}} file. | ||
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==== Disabling Akonadi ==== | ==== Disabling Akonadi ==== | ||
− | If you | + | If you do not want Akonadi to be ran in your system (for your own reasons), edit {{filename|~/.config/akonadi/akonadiserverrc}} and turn |
StartServer=true | StartServer=true | ||
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On the "General" submenu, select the "WebKit" as the "Default web browser engine". | On the "General" submenu, select the "WebKit" as the "Default web browser engine". | ||
− | You can, of course, choose KHTML again, if you | + | You can, of course, choose KHTML again, if you do not like WebKit as the rendering engine. |
==Using Telepathy== | ==Using Telepathy== | ||
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===KDE and Qt programs look bad when in a different window manager=== | ===KDE and Qt programs look bad when in a different window manager=== | ||
− | If you | + | If you are using KDE or Qt programs but not in a full KDE session (specifically, you did not run "startkde"), then as of KDE 4.6.1 you will need to tell Qt how to find KDE's styles (Oxygen, QtCurve etc.) |
You just need to set the environment variable QT_PLUGIN_PATH. E.g. put | You just need to set the environment variable QT_PLUGIN_PATH. E.g. put | ||
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export QT_PLUGIN_PATH=$HOME/.kde4/lib/kde4/plugins/:/usr/lib/kde4/plugins/ | export QT_PLUGIN_PATH=$HOME/.kde4/lib/kde4/plugins/:/usr/lib/kde4/plugins/ | ||
− | into your {{filename|/etc/profile}} (or {{filename|~/.profile}} if you | + | into your {{filename|/etc/profile}} (or {{filename|~/.profile}} if you do not have root access). qtconfig should then be able to find your kde styles and everything should look nice again! |
Alternatively, you can symlink the Qt styles directory to the KDE styles one: | Alternatively, you can symlink the Qt styles directory to the KDE styles one: | ||
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===== The Raster engine workaround ===== | ===== The Raster engine workaround ===== | ||
− | If this | + | If this does not solve your problems, maybe your driver does not provide a good '''XRender''' acceleration which the current Qt painter engine relies on by default. |
You can change the painter engine to software based only by invoking the application with the "'''-graphicssystem raster'''" command line. This rendering engine can be set as the default one by recompiling Qt with the same as configure option, "'''-graphicssystem raster'''". | You can change the painter engine to software based only by invoking the application with the "'''-graphicssystem raster'''" command line. This rendering engine can be set as the default one by recompiling Qt with the same as configure option, "'''-graphicssystem raster'''". | ||
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The raster paint engine enables the CPU to do the majority of the painting, as opposed to the GPU. You may get better performance, depending on your system. This is basically a work-around for the terrible Linux driver stack, since the CPU should obviously not be doing graphical computations since it is designed for fewer threads of greater complexity, as opposed to the GPU which is many threads but lesser computational strength. So, only use Raster engine if you are having problems or your GPU is much slower than you CPU, otherwise is better to use XRender. | The raster paint engine enables the CPU to do the majority of the painting, as opposed to the GPU. You may get better performance, depending on your system. This is basically a work-around for the terrible Linux driver stack, since the CPU should obviously not be doing graphical computations since it is designed for fewer threads of greater complexity, as opposed to the GPU which is many threads but lesser computational strength. So, only use Raster engine if you are having problems or your GPU is much slower than you CPU, otherwise is better to use XRender. | ||
− | Since Qt 4.7+, recompiling Qt is not needed. Simply export '''QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=raster''', or "opengl", or "native" (for the default). Raster depends on the CPU, OpenGL depends on the GPU and high driver support (it | + | Since Qt 4.7+, recompiling Qt is not needed. Simply export '''QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=raster''', or "opengl", or "native" (for the default). Raster depends on the CPU, OpenGL depends on the GPU and high driver support (it is buggy and highly in development, so I would not expect it to work), and Native is just using the X11 rendering (mixture, usually). |
'''The best and automatic way to do that''' is to install [http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=40582 kcm-qt-graphicssystem] from AUR and configure this particular Qt setting through | '''The best and automatic way to do that''' is to install [http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=40582 kcm-qt-graphicssystem] from AUR and configure this particular Qt setting through | ||
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==== Desktop compositing is disabled on my system with a modern Nvidia GPU ==== | ==== Desktop compositing is disabled on my system with a modern Nvidia GPU ==== | ||
− | Sometimes, KWin may have settings in | + | Sometimes, KWin may have settings in its configuration file ('''kwinrc''') that ''may'' cause a problem on re-activating the 3D desktop '''OpenGL''' compositing. That could be caused randomly (for example, due to a sudden Xorg crash or restart, and it gets corrupted), so, in case that happens, delete your {{filename|~/.kde4/share/config/kwinrc}} file and relogin. The KWin settings will turn to the KDE default ones and the problem should be probably gone. |
==== Flickering in fullscreen when compositing is enabled ==== | ==== Flickering in fullscreen when compositing is enabled ==== | ||
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===I want a fresh installation of KDE for my system. What should I do?=== | ===I want a fresh installation of KDE for my system. What should I do?=== | ||
− | Just rename the settings directory of KDE (just in case you | + | Just rename the settings directory of KDE (just in case you will want to go back to your original settings): |
mv ~/.kde4 ~/.kde4-backup | mv ~/.kde4 ~/.kde4-backup | ||
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KERNEL=="sda2", ENV{UDISKS_PRESENTATION_HIDE}="1" | KERNEL=="sda2", ENV{UDISKS_PRESENTATION_HIDE}="1" | ||
− | ===Konsole | + | ===Konsole does not save commands' history=== |
− | By default console commands' history is saved only when you type 'exit' in console. When you close Konsole with 'x' in the corner it | + | By default console commands' history is saved only when you type 'exit' in console. When you close Konsole with 'x' in the corner it does not happen. |
To enable autosaving after every command execution you should add following lines into your .bashrc | To enable autosaving after every command execution you should add following lines into your .bashrc | ||
shopt -s histappend | shopt -s histappend | ||
[[ "${PROMPT_COMMAND}" ]] && PROMPT_COMMAND="$PROMPT_COMMAND;history -a" || PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a" | [[ "${PROMPT_COMMAND}" ]] && PROMPT_COMMAND="$PROMPT_COMMAND;history -a" || PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a" | ||
− | ===Kimpanel | + | ===Kimpanel does not work with the IBus backend=== |
There is a bug ({{bug|19580}}) with current Arch kimpanel packaging. See [[IBus#Kimpanel]] for a workaround. | There is a bug ({{bug|19580}}) with current Arch kimpanel packaging. See [[IBus#Kimpanel]] for a workaround. | ||
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===knotify4 process constantly uses CPU time=== | ===knotify4 process constantly uses CPU time=== | ||
− | It | + | It is a bug with Gstreamer phonon back-end. Try changing to VLC phonon on '''System Settings > Multimedia > Phonon > Backend'''. If this is not in the list, install it: |
#pacman -S phonon-vlc | #pacman -S phonon-vlc | ||
− | If you | + | If you do not want change the back-end you can try use an external player to play the sound systems. First install mplayer, vlc or any other sound player. |
Go to '''System Settings > Application and System Notifications > Manage Notifications > Player Settings''' and change to '''Use an external player''' putting the path of your preferred sound player. | Go to '''System Settings > Application and System Notifications > Manage Notifications > Player Settings''' and change to '''Use an external player''' putting the path of your preferred sound player. | ||
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Server = http://rapinjam.com/beta/lefa/kdemod3/x86_64/ | Server = http://rapinjam.com/beta/lefa/kdemod3/x86_64/ | ||
− | * After adding the repository, issue '''‘pacman -Syu’'''. If that fails to trigger the update (or if you | + | * After adding the repository, issue '''‘pacman -Syu’'''. If that fails to trigger the update (or if you do not have kdemod3 installed), then use '''‘pacman -Sy kdemod3-complete’''' |
=== Chakra Project KDEmod === | === Chakra Project KDEmod === |
Revision as of 19:56, 25 September 2011
Template:Article summary start Template:Article summary text Template:Article summary text Template:Article summary heading Template:Article summary text Template:Article summary heading Template:Article summary wiki Template:Article summary wiki Template:Article summary wiki Template:Article summary end
From KDE - KDE Software Compilation:
- The KDE Software Compilation grew out of the history of the KDE Project. In its inception, KDE was formed to create a beautiful, functional and free desktop computing environment for Linux and similar operating system. At the time, these systems lacked a graphical user environment that could rival the offerings from the larger proprietary operating system vendors. KDE was created to fill this gap.
- The KDE Software Compilation is the set of libraries, workspaces, and applications produced by KDE that share this common heritage, and continue to use the synchronized release cycle. Software may move in and out of this semi-formally defined collection depending on the particular needs of the contributors who are working on that software, with exceptions made to ensure that binary compatibility remains at the library level throughout any major release of the compilation.
From KDE - Getting KDE Software:
- KDE software consists of a large number of individual applications and a desktop workspace as a shell to run these applications. You can run KDE applications just fine on any desktop environment. KDE applications are built to integrate well with your system's components. By using also KDE workspace, you get even better integration of your applications with the working environment while lowering system resource needs.
Contents
- 1 Overview
- 2 Installation
- 3 Starting KDE
- 4 Configuration
- 4.1 Personalization
- 4.2 Networking
- 4.3 Printing
- 4.4 Samba/Windows support
- 4.5 KDE Desktop Activities
- 4.6 Power Saving
- 4.7 Monitoring changes on local files and directories
- 5 System Administration
- 6 Desktop Search and Semantic Desktop
- 7 KDM (KDE Desktop Manager)
- 8 Phonon
- 9 Using WebKit in Konqueror
- 10 Using Telepathy
- 11 Troubleshooting
- 11.1 KDE4 does not finish loading
- 11.2 KDE and Qt programs look bad when in a different window manager
- 11.3 KHotkeys issue
- 11.4 Enabling back/forward mouse buttons in Konqueror and Dolphin file managers
- 11.5 Enabling thumbnails under Konqueror and Dolphin file managers
- 11.6 Suspend to Disk/Ram not working
- 11.7 Graphical related issues
- 11.8 Sound problems under KDE
- 11.9 Arch linux specific packaging issues
- 11.10 I wanted a minimal installation of KDE. After I installed some packages and logged in KDE, there are no panels
- 11.11 I want a fresh installation of KDE for my system. What should I do?
- 11.12 Plasma desktop behaves strangely
- 11.13 Hiding partitions
- 11.14 Konsole does not save commands' history
- 11.15 Kimpanel does not work with the IBus backend
- 11.16 KDE password prompts display three bullets per char
- 11.17 knotify4 process constantly uses CPU time
- 11.18 Nepomukserver process still autostart even with semantic desktop disabled
- 12 Other KDE projects
- 13 Bugs
- 14 External Links
Overview
KDE 4.7 Software Compilation is the current major release of KDE that includes a number of improvements and bug fixes. The new Arch package set for KDE makes it possible to only install those applications you like.
Important features of the Arch Linux KDE SC in short:
- Split packages; for more Information see KDE Packages and Splitting KDE.
- You can use different Phonon backends, like Gstreamer or VLC
- Meta packages ensure a smooth upgrade and emulate the old monolith packages for those who prefer them.
Important hints for upgraders:
- Always check if your mirror is up to date.
- pacman will ask you to replace all kde packages with kde-meta packages.
- Do not force an update. If pacman complains about conflicts please file a bug report.
- You can remove the meta packages and the sub packages you do not need after the update.
- If you do not like split packages just keep using the kde-meta packages.
Information about upstream changes is available here
Installation
Full install
To install the entire KDE set, first fully upgrade your system:
# pacman -Syu
and then:
# pacman -S kde
or
# pacman -S kde-meta
If you need language files:
# pacman -S kde-l10n-yourlanguagehere
e.g. kde-l10n-de, for the German language.
Minimal install
If you want to have a minimal installation of the KDE SC, here is an example:
# pacman -S kdebase kde-l10n-yourlanguagehere phonon-vlc
You can choose phonon-gstreamer instead phonon-vlc.
Starting KDE
Start the dbus daemon and add dbus to your DAEMONS array so it starts automatically on boot.
Starting KDE depends on your preferences. Basically there are two ways of starting KDE. Using KDM or xinitrc.
Using KDM (KDE Display Manager)
It is highly recommended to get familiar with the full article concerning display managers, before you make any changes. See also KDM Wiki page.
Starting KDM as a daemon
Add "kdm" (without the quotes) to daemons array in Template:Filename
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng dbus network crond ... kdm)
Starting KDM through /etc/inittab [preferable]
Edit Template:Filename and comment out:
#id:3:initdefault: [...] #x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon
Then uncomment:
id:5:initdefault: [...] x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/kdm -nodaemon
Using xinitrc
The meaning and usage of xinitrc is very well described here.
Edit Template:FilenameTemplate:FilenameTemplate:Filename. Then uncomment:
exec ck-launch-session startkde
After a reboot or/and login, each execution of Xorg (startx or xinit) will start KDE automatically.
Configuration
For other personalization options not covered below such as activities, different wallpapers on one cube, etc please refer to the Plasma wiki page.
Personalization
How to set up the KDE desktop to your personal style; use different Plasma themes, window decorations and icon themes.
Plasma Desktop
Plasma is a desktop integration technology that provides many functions from displaying the wallpaper, adding widgets to the desktop, and handling the panels or "taskbar".
Themes
Plasma themes can be installed through the Desktop Settings control panel. Plasma themes define how your panels and plasmoids look like. If you like to have them installed system-wide, themes can be found in both the official repositories and AUR.
Widgets
Plasmoids are little scripted or coded KDE apps that enhance the functionality of your desktop. There are two kinds, plasmoid scripts and plasmoid binaries.
Plasmoid binaries must be installed using PKGBUILDS from AUR. Or write your own PKGBUILD.
The easiest way to install plasmoid scripts is by right-clicking onto a panel or the desktop:
Add Widgets -> Get new Widgets -> Download Widgets
This will present a nice frontend for kde-look.org and allows you to (un)install or update third-party plasmoid scripts with just one click.
Most plasmoids are not created officially by KDE developers. You can also try installing Mac OS X widgets, Microsoft Windows Vista/7 widgets, Google Widgets, and even SuperKaramba widgets.
Window Decorations
Window decorations can be changed in
System Settings -> Workspace Appearance -> Window Decorations
There you can also directly download and install more themes with one click and some are available on AUR.
KDE 4 Theme Integration with GTK Applications
To better integrate GTK and KDE 4 themes, you can use oxygen-gtk, a GTK port of the default KDE widget theme (Oxygen):
pacman -S oxygen-gtk
This theme comes closer to the original Oxygen and is updated frequently. Alternatively, you can use QtCurve, a GTK theme that has a Qt equivalent:
pacman -S qtcurve-gtk2 qtcurve-kde4 gtk-kde4
or you can install Template:Package AUR from the AUR, a GTK theme that matches your version of KDE (not updated anymore).
Automatic procedure
To change the GTK theme a few applications are available:
pacman -S gtk-kde4 pacman -S gtk-chtheme pacman -S gtk-theme-switch2 pacman -S lxappearance
Then change the theme of your choice in the respective application:
gtk-kde4 ("System Settings > Lost and Found > GTK style") gtk-chtheme gtk-theme-switch2 lxappearance
You can also install Template:Package AUR. After install it can be found in System Settings > Application Appearance > GTK Config.
Manual procedure
oxygen-gtk
To manually change the GTK theme to oxygen-gtk, you need to create the file Template:Filename with the following content:
include "/usr/share/themes/oxygen-gtk/gtk-2.0/gtkrc" include "~/.themes/oxygen-gtk/gtk-2.0/gtkrc" style "user" { fg[NORMAL] = "#1b1918" bg[NORMAL] = "#d5d1cf" text[NORMAL] = "#181615" base[NORMAL] = "#ffffff" fg[ACTIVE] = "#1b1918" bg[ACTIVE] = "#d5d1cf" text[ACTIVE] = "#181615" base[ACTIVE] = "#ffffff" fg[PRELIGHT] = "#1b1918" bg[PRELIGHT] = "#d5d1cf" text[PRELIGHT] = "#ffffff" base[PRELIGHT] = "#43ace8" fg[SELECTED] = "#1b1918" bg[SELECTED] = "#d5d1cf" text[SELECTED] = "#ffffff" base[SELECTED] = "#43ace8" fg[INSENSITIVE] = "#8d8a88" bg[INSENSITIVE] = "#ccc7c5" text[INSENSITIVE] = "#a6a5a5" base[INSENSITIVE] = "#f4f4f4" GtkTreeView::odd_row_color="#ffffff" GtkTreeView::even_row_color="#f8f7f6" } widget_class "*" style "user" style "tooltips" { bg[NORMAL] = "#bedfff" fg[NORMAL] = "#252321" } widget "gtk-tooltips" style "tooltips" #gtk-theme-name="qt4" gtk-font-name="Sans Serif 9" gtk-icon-theme-name="gk4ico" gtk-icon-sizes = "panel-menu=16,16:panel=16,16:gtk-button=22,22:gtk-large-toolbar=22,22"
Then you need to create the symbolic link Template:Filename:
ln -s ~/.kde4/share/config/gtkrc-2.0 ~/.kde4/share/config/gtkrc
QtCurve
To manually change the GTK theme to QtCurve, you need to create the file Template:Filename with the following content:
include "/usr/share/themes/QtCurve/gtk-2.0/gtkrc" include "/etc/gtk-2.0/gtkrc" style "user-font" { font_name="Sans Serif" } widget_class "*" style "user-font" gtk-theme-name="QtCurve"
Then you need to create the symbolic link Template:Filename:
ln -s .gtkrc-2.0-kde4 .gtkrc-2.0
If you want also specify a font, you can add (and adapt) the following line to the file:
gtk-font-name="Sans Serif 9"
Icons
If you are using Oxygen icons and want a consistent look in GTK open/save dialogs, you can install an oxygenrefit2 icon theme from AUR and set it as your GTK icon theme. Add the theme to the Template:Filename file or you can use lxappearance and set it.
gtk-icon-theme-name="OxygenRefit2"
There are also a couple GTK themes built on the gtk-kde42-oxygen-theme Oxygen style that can also do this.
Icon Themes
Not many full system icons themes are available for KDE 4. You can open up System Settings > Application Appearance > Icons and browse for new ones or install them manually. Many of them can be found on kde-look.org.
Right click on the Kicker menu button, press Application launcher settings and then press the icon on the right. Then you may choose an Arch Linux icon or any other icon that will replace the default one.
Official logos, icons, CD labels and other artwork for Arch Linux are provided in the Template:Package Official package. After installing you can find such artwork at Template:Filename.
Fonts
Fonts in KDE look poor
Try installing the ttf-dejavu and ttf-liberation packages.
After the installation, be sure to log out and back in. You should not have to modify any settings in the "Fonts" panel of the KDE System Settings application.
If you have personally set up how your Fonts render, be aware that System Settings may alter their appearance. When you go System Settings > Appearance > Fonts System Settings will likely alter your font configuration file (Template:Filename).
There is no way to prevent this but if you set the values to match your Template:Filename file the expected font rendering will return (it will require you to restart your application or in a few cases for you to have to restart your desktop).
Note too that Gnomes' Font Preferences will also do this if you use both desktop environments.
Fonts are huge or seems disproportional
Try to force fonts DPI to 96 on System Settings > Application Appearance > Fonts.
If it does not work try set DPI directly on Xorg configuration here.
Space efficiency
KDE is often criticized for being bloated.
The user might get this perception from seeing many toolbars and pretty big scaled icons in the applications. One thing that improved the situation was the new Kwin-Theme that came with KDE SC 4.4.* with the more elegant buttons that one can also resize. KDE Apps allows to hide many toolbars, menubars and statusbars.
All sorts of *bars
Most toolbars of a program can be removed in the menubar-entry "Settings". There you often can hide the statusbar and often all toolbars. The last step should be to remove the menubar itself via Ctrl + M.
If you do not want to remove any bars you can still make them smaller or remove the text via:
System Settings -> Application Appearance -> Style -> Fine Tuning -> (Main toolbar text / Secondary toolbar text)
Since most aspect ratios of modern flat screens are wider than 4:3 it could be reasonable to put the toolbar at the left or right of a window to artificially stretch windows more to the monitors aspect ratio.
Plasma
There are also some settings and modifications you can apply to your plasmoids to make KDE less space wasting.
For example, the "Digital Clock" wastes more space than the "Analogue Clock". The little plasma icon ("Cashew") that one can see in the panel can be hidden by locking the widgets via rightklicking onto the panel.
If you have got many tasks in your task-manager you should consider using Smooth-tasks.
This alternative task-manager allows you to just display the icons of a task thus using less space but still maintaining the ability of the user to distinguish the different tasks.
Install smooth-tasks from the AUR.
After installing and substituting it with the original task-manager you should have a deep look at the settings since they are much broader. One way of using the features of smooth-tasks could be to only display the icons of tasks and move the panel to the left or right of the screen. This is most useful on widescreens.
On very small screens it could be reasonable to set the bottom-panel to auto-hide completely.
For netbooks there is a special workspace, called Plasma Netbook, that makes better use of the screen:
System Settings -> Workspace Behavior -> Workspace -> Workspace Type
KWin
Windows decorations can also be resized by decreasing button size in the decoration thus making the whole top border smaller:
System Settings -> Workspace Appearance -> Window Decorations -> Configure Decoration... -> Button size
You could also remove the side-border of all windows via:
System Settings -> Workspace Appearance -> Window Decorations -> Configure Decoration... -> Border size
Networking
NetworkManager support has been added in KDE SC. See NetworkManager for more information.
Also you can use wicd-kde.
Printing
The printers are configured in this way can be found in applications KDE.
You can also choose the printer configuration through System Settings -> Printer Configuration. To use this method, you must first install the packages:
# pacman -S kdeadmin-system-config-printer-kde cups
This means you need to give the user rights to manage printers.
For CUPS, this is set in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf.
Adding lp to SystemGroup allows anyone who can print to configure printers. You can, of course, add another group than lp.
Template:File
Samba/Windows support
If you want to have access to Windows services:
pacman -S samba
You may then configure your Samba shares through
System Settings -> Sharing -> Samba
KDE Desktop Activities
KDE Desktop Activities are Plasma based "virtual desktop"-like set of Plasma Widgets where you can independently configure widgets as if you had more than one screens/desktops. Since KDE 4.5, the feature of changing Desktop Activities has been simplified.
On your desktop, click the Cashew Plasmoid and on the pop-up window press "Activities".
A plasma bar will appear at the bottom of the screen which presents you the current Plasma Desktop Activities which exist. You can then navigate between them by pressing their correspondent icon.
Power Saving
KDE has an integrated power saving service called "Powerdevil Power Management" that may adjust the power saving profile of the system and/or the brightness of the screen (if supported).
How to enable Cpufreq based power saving
Since KDE 4.6, CPU frequency scaling is no longer managed by KDE. Instead it is assumed to be handled automatically by the the hardware and/or kernel. While some distributions use the Template:Codeline cpufreq governor by default, Arch does not.
As a prerequisite to the following, you should carefully read through the wiki article on cpufreq and ensure that the appropriate kernel modules are loaded. If you are happy with setting your governor once at boot (with the Template:Filename daemon script, for example) then this section is not relevant and can be skipped.
1. If you have not already done so, install the Template:Codeline package (for the Template:Filename utility):
pacman -S cpufrequtils
2. Next, you will need to grant access to Template:Filename for the appropriate users by configuring sudo. For example, if you are part of the wheel group, you could use Template:Codeline to add
%wheel ALL = (ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/cpufreq-set
to your Template:Filename file.
3. From System Settings > Power Management > Power Profiles select a profile to edit or create a new one. Check the Run Script option and add an appropriate Template:Filename command for the selected power profile. For example, your "Powersave" profile might have:
sudo cpufreq-set -r -g ondemand
Your "Performance" profile might have
sudo cpufreq-set -r -g performance
For some CPU families the Template:Codeline switch may not set the governor for all cores/cpus and instead only set the governor for CPU 0. In this case you will need to write a script to iterate through all your cores. A simple script for a four core system could look like:
#!/bin/bash for i in {0..3}; do sudo /usr/bin/cpufreq-set -c${i} -gondemand done
Monitoring changes on local files and directories
KDE now uses inotify directly from the kernel with kdirwatch (included in kdelibs), so Gamin or FAM are no longer needed. You may want to install this Template:Package AUR from AUR which is a GUI frontend for kdirwatch.
System Administration
Set keyboard layout in order switch language inputs
In order to do that, navigate to
System Settings > Hardware > Input Devices > Keyboard
There you may choose your keyboard model at first.
In the "Layouts" tab, you choose the languages you may want to use by pressing the "Add Layout" button and therefore the variant and the language. In the "Advanced" tab, you can choose the keyboard combination you want in order to change the layouts in the "Key(s) to change layout" sub-menu.
Terminate Xorg-server through KDE system settings
Navigate to
System Settings -> Input Devices -> Keyboard -> Advanced (tab) > "Key Sequence to kill the X server" submenu
and tick the checkbox.
Useful KCM
KCM means KConfig Module. This modules help you to configure you system providing a interface on System Settings.
Configuration for look&feel of your GTK apps.
Configuration for the GRUB2 bootloader.
Configuration for Synaptics driver based touchpads.
Configuration for main system config file rc.conf.
Configuration for UFW
Configuration for Policy Kit
Configuration for Wacom Tablet
More KCM can be found here.
Desktop Search and Semantic Desktop
Most users who freshly install KDE are wondering what functionality the following four pieces of software are able to offer. Most features are still somehow hidden under the hood and yet not many applications featured in the KDE SC are using these interfaces. This chapter intends to first explain the features and then convince the user of the power these tools offer once properly integrated into KDE. The following sections are more or less a roughly shortened version of this blogpost.
Soprano
Soprano is a library for QT that is able to process RDF data. This is semantic data. Semantic data is a special kind of metadata which is much more flexible than metadata you might know from MP3-Tags or Meta-Tags in HTML since RDF data more resembles the structure of a spoken sentence, thus allowing a much wider field of ways dealing with them. Soprano stores semantic data in a backend and allows low level access to this data.
Nepomuk
Nepomuk is somehow the glue between Soprano and the KDE Desktop and thus the user. Nepomuk allows to tag the files with various entries and offers an API for the applications featured in KDE SC. It is enabled by default. Nepomuk can be turned on and off in
System Settings -> Desktop Search
Nepomuk has to keep the trace of a lot of files, because of that is recommended to increase the number of files that can be watched with inotify, to do that:
sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288
To do it persistant:
echo "fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 524288" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
And restart Nepomuk.
Akonadi
Akonadi is one of the ways of getting data into Nepomuk. Its intention is to gather all kinds of PIM data from KMail, KAdressbook or Kopete. It collects chat contacts, email addresses, email attachments and email contents. First of all it feeds Nepomuk with this data but moreover it provides a centralized access point for all this data.
Disabling Akonadi
If you do not want Akonadi to be ran in your system (for your own reasons), edit Template:Filename and turn
StartServer=true
to
StartServer=false
And then relogin into your account.
Configuring Akonadi to use MySQL Server running on the System
First, you need to set up the database using the following commands (replace password with the correct one):
CREATE DATABASE akonadi; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON akonadi.* TO 'akonadiuser' IDENTIFIED BY 'password'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
If Template:Filename does not exist then
cp /usr/share/config/akonadi/mysql-global.conf ~/.config/akonadi/mysql-local.conf
and uncomment the following line
sql_mode=strict_trans_tables
Then edit Template:Filename:
[%General] Driver=QMYSQL [QMYSQL] Name=akonadi Host=localhost ServerPath=/usr/bin/mysqld StartServer=false User=akonadiuser Password=<password> Options= [Debug] Tracer=null
Restart the Akonadi server with:
akonadictl restart
Strigi Search
Strigi is another way of feeding data into Nepomuk. It preferably indexes the users home-folder. Indexing means that it not only gathers filenames but also information about your music collection or tagged downloads you did with Kget. The Strigi search is also integrated into KDEs launcher which can be accessed via: Template:Keypress + Template:Keypress
By default, Dolphin has a search bar on top-right where you may type what you want to be found from Strigi's index.
Strigi folder indexing can be configured in:
System Settings -> Desktop Search -> Desktop Query -> Customize index folders…
KDM (KDE Desktop Manager)
KDM Xserver file
An example configuration for KDM can be found at Template:Filename. See Template:Filename for all options.
Configuring KDM
You can visit System Settings > Login Screen and make your changes. Whenever you press "Apply", a KDE Polkit authorization window appears which will ask you to give your root password in order to finish the changes.
Problems while Configuring KDM as a user
If you seem not to be able to KDM settings when launching System Settings as user, press
Template:Keypress + Template:Keypress
and type
kdesu systemsettings
In the pop-up kdesu window, enter your root password and wait for System Settings to be launched.
In the System Settings window, go to Login Screen.
Phonon
What is Phonon?
Phonon is the multimedia API for KDE 4. Phonon was created to allow KDE 4 to be independent of any single multimedia framework such as GStreamer or xine and to provide a stable API for KDE 4's lifetime. It was done for various reasons: to create a simple KDE/Qt style multimedia API, to better support native multimedia frameworks on Windows and Mac OS X, and to fix problems of frameworks becoming unmaintained or having API or ABI instability.
from Wikipedia.
Phonon is being widely used within KDE, for both audio (e.g., the System notifications or KDE audio apps) and video (e.g., the Dolphin video thumbnails).
Which backend should I choose?
You can choose between various backends, like GStreamer (Template:Package Official), VLC (Template:Package Official), Xine in [unsupported] (Template:Package AUR) or even MPlayer in [unsupported] (Template:Package AUR). Most users will want GStreamer or VLC which have the best upstream support. Note that multiple backends can be installed at once and you can switch between them via System Settings -> Multimedia -> Phonon -> Backend.
According to announce of KDE 4.6 in Arch and mail in Phonon dev list:
"Phonon Xine is not maintained and thus will not see releases."
"This intial preference currently rates GStreamer highest, followed by VLC as there is some feature difference."
Using WebKit in Konqueror
What is WebKit?
WebKit is an open source browser engine developed by Apple Inc. It is used by Safari and Google Chrome. WebKit is a derivative from the KHTML and KJS libraries and contain many improvements.
How to use in Konqueror
It is possible to use WebKit in Konqueror instead of KHTML. First install the kwebkitpart package :
pacman -S kwebkitpart
Then, after executing Konqueror, press Settings > Configure Konqueror.
On the "General" submenu, select the "WebKit" as the "Default web browser engine".
You can, of course, choose KHTML again, if you do not like WebKit as the rendering engine.
Using Telepathy
A new project, known as Real-Time Communication and Collaboration, has been started in KDE. The goal is to integrate Instant Messaging clients with the desktop systems.
At the moment things are in progress and miss some features, but a very base communication system is ready.
To install all Telepathy protocols install the telepathy group. To use the Telepathy KDE client, install the telepathy-kde group.
Troubleshooting
KDE4 does not finish loading
There might be a situation in which the graphic driver might create a conflict when starting KDE4. This situation happens after the login but before finishing loading the desktop, making the user wait indefinitely at the loading screen. Until now the only users confirmed to be affected by this are the ones that use Nvidia drivers and KDE4.
A solution for Nvidia users is to edit the file at Template:Filename and change the option Enabled=true to false in the [Compositing] section. For more information look at this thread: [2].
KDE and Qt programs look bad when in a different window manager
If you are using KDE or Qt programs but not in a full KDE session (specifically, you did not run "startkde"), then as of KDE 4.6.1 you will need to tell Qt how to find KDE's styles (Oxygen, QtCurve etc.)
You just need to set the environment variable QT_PLUGIN_PATH. E.g. put
export QT_PLUGIN_PATH=$HOME/.kde4/lib/kde4/plugins/:/usr/lib/kde4/plugins/
into your Template:Filename (or Template:Filename if you do not have root access). qtconfig should then be able to find your kde styles and everything should look nice again!
Alternatively, you can symlink the Qt styles directory to the KDE styles one:
# ln -s /usr/lib/kde4/plugins/styles/ /usr/lib/qt/plugins/styles
KHotkeys issue
Ιf khotkeys does not work, make sure you have a fully updated system first. You can also create Template:Filename with contents
#!/bin/bash (sleep 3 && qdbus org.kde.kded /modules/khotkeys reread_configuration) &
and then do a
chmod u+x ~/.kde4/Autostart/reloadkhotkeys.sh
then logout & login.
Enabling back/forward mouse buttons in Konqueror and Dolphin file managers
First, you must install Template:Package AUR from AUR and Template:Package Official from [community].
Next, create a text file named Template:Filename and save it to your home directory. The content of the file should be:
Now create an autostart entry in Template:Filename named xbindkeys.desktop containing the following code:
Now just reboot your computer and you should have back/forward mouse button functionality in Dolphin and Konqueror.
Enabling thumbnails under Konqueror and Dolphin file managers
For thumbnails of videos in konqueror and dolphin:
# pacman -S kdemultimedia-mplayerthumbs
or
# pacman -S kdemultimedia-ffmpegthumbs
Suspend to Disk/Ram not working
If you are starting KDE with startx try adding ck-launch-session to the Template:Filename, as so:
#!/bin/sh # # ~/.xinitrc # # Executed by startx (run your window manager from here) # exec gnome-session exec ck-launch-session startkde # exec startxfce4 # ...or the Window Manager of your choice
This is done automatically with KDM.
Low 2D desktop performance (or) Artifacts appear when on 2D
GPU driver problem
Make sure you have the proper driver for your card installed, so that your desktop is at least 2D accelerated. Follow these articles for more information: ATI, NVIDIA, Intel for more information, in order to make sure that everything is all right. The open-source ATI and Intel drivers and the proprietary (binary) Nvidia driver should theoretically provide the best 2D and 3D acceleration.
The Raster engine workaround
If this does not solve your problems, maybe your driver does not provide a good XRender acceleration which the current Qt painter engine relies on by default.
You can change the painter engine to software based only by invoking the application with the "-graphicssystem raster" command line. This rendering engine can be set as the default one by recompiling Qt with the same as configure option, "-graphicssystem raster".
The raster paint engine enables the CPU to do the majority of the painting, as opposed to the GPU. You may get better performance, depending on your system. This is basically a work-around for the terrible Linux driver stack, since the CPU should obviously not be doing graphical computations since it is designed for fewer threads of greater complexity, as opposed to the GPU which is many threads but lesser computational strength. So, only use Raster engine if you are having problems or your GPU is much slower than you CPU, otherwise is better to use XRender.
Since Qt 4.7+, recompiling Qt is not needed. Simply export QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=raster, or "opengl", or "native" (for the default). Raster depends on the CPU, OpenGL depends on the GPU and high driver support (it is buggy and highly in development, so I would not expect it to work), and Native is just using the X11 rendering (mixture, usually).
The best and automatic way to do that is to install kcm-qt-graphicssystem from AUR and configure this particular Qt setting through
System Settings > Qt Graphics System
For more information, consult this KDE Developer blog entry and/or this Qt Developer blog entry.
Konsole is slow in applications like vim
This is a problem that is caused by slow glyph rendering. You can solve this by switching to a scalable font like Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
Low 3D desktop performance
KDE begins with desktop effects enabled. Older cards may be insufficient for 3D desktop acceleration. You can disable desktop effects in
System Settings -> Desktop Effects
or you can toggle desktop effects with Template:Keypress + Template:Keypress + Template:Keypress
Desktop compositing is disabled on my system with a modern Nvidia GPU
Sometimes, KWin may have settings in its configuration file (kwinrc) that may cause a problem on re-activating the 3D desktop OpenGL compositing. That could be caused randomly (for example, due to a sudden Xorg crash or restart, and it gets corrupted), so, in case that happens, delete your Template:Filename file and relogin. The KWin settings will turn to the KDE default ones and the problem should be probably gone.
Flickering in fullscreen when compositing is enabled
According to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/KDE/How_to_reduce_fullscreen_flicker :
Press Alt+F2 and run:
kwriteconfig --file kwinrc --group Compositing --key UnredirectFullscreen --type bool false
Apply the changes by pressing Alt+F2 and running:
qdbus org.kde.kwin /KWin reconfigure
This forces KWin not to use window unredirection but can affect performance of fullscreen OpenGL applications when desktop effects are enabled. Desktop effects can be suspended to prevent performance issues (press Alt+Shift+F12) before running such applications.
See https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=177495
As of KDE SC 4.6.0, there is an option in systemsettings -> Desktop Effect -> Advanced -> "Suspend desktop effects for fullscreen windows" Uncheck it would tell kwin to disable unredirect fullscren. (icarus-c)
Sound problems under KDE
"Falling back to default" messages when trying to listen to any sound in KDE
When you encounter such messages:
- The audio playback device <name-of-the-sound-device> does not work.
- Falling back to default
Go to
System Settings -> Multimedia -> Phonon
and set the device named "default" above all the other devices in each box you see.
I cannot play mp3 files when using the GStreamer Phonon backend
That can be solved by installing the GStreamer plugins:
pacman -S gstreamer0.10-plugins
If you still encounter problems, you can try changing the Phonon backend used by installing another such as Template:Package Official:
pacman -S phonon-vlc
Then make sure the backend is perfered via:
System Settings -> Multimedia -> Phonon -> Backend (tab)
If you have OSS4 installed and encounter any problems you should be aware that developers of Kmix are still integrating OSSv4 support. There is an AUR package that is still experimental.
Arch linux specific packaging issues
Due to some upgrades on the packages or a newer versioned pacman with bugs (pft, like there are any ;) there could be some problems during upgrading. Please read the sections below, if you have a problem.
I wanted a minimal installation of KDE. After I installed some packages and logged in KDE, there are no panels
If you wanted a minimal installation of KDE, logged in, heard the login sound but nothing else happened, you may not have installed the Plasma binaries. These are included in
kdebase-workspace
Install this package and restart Xorg.
I want a fresh installation of KDE for my system. What should I do?
Just rename the settings directory of KDE (just in case you will want to go back to your original settings):
mv ~/.kde4 ~/.kde4-backup
Plasma desktop behaves strangely
Plasma issues are usually caused by unstable plasmoids or plasma themes. First, find which was the last plasmoid or plasma theme you had installed and disable it or uninstall it.
So, if your desktop suddenly exhibits "locking up", this is likely caused by a faulty installed widget. If you cannot remember which widget you installed before the problem began(sometimes it can be an irregular problem), try to track it down by removing each widget until the problem ceases. Then you can uninstall the widget, and file a bug report (bugs.kde.org) only if it is an official widget. If it is not, I recommend you find the entry on kde-look.org and inform the developer of that widget about the issue (detailing steps to reproduce, etc).
If you cannot find the problem, but you do not want all the KDE settings to be lost, do:
rm -r ~/.kde4/share/config/plasma*
This command will delete all plasma related configs of your user and when you will relogin into KDE, you will have the default settings back. You should know that this action cannot be undone. You ought to create a backup folder and copy all the plasma related configs in it.
Hiding partitions
If you wish to prevent your internal partitions from appearing in your file manager, you can create an udev rule, for example Template:Filename:
KERNEL=="sda[0-9]", ENV{UDISKS_PRESENTATION_HIDE}="1"
The same thing for a certain partition:
KERNEL=="sda1", ENV{UDISKS_PRESENTATION_HIDE}="1" KERNEL=="sda2", ENV{UDISKS_PRESENTATION_HIDE}="1"
Konsole does not save commands' history
By default console commands' history is saved only when you type 'exit' in console. When you close Konsole with 'x' in the corner it does not happen. To enable autosaving after every command execution you should add following lines into your .bashrc
shopt -s histappend [[ "${PROMPT_COMMAND}" ]] && PROMPT_COMMAND="$PROMPT_COMMAND;history -a" || PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a"
Kimpanel does not work with the IBus backend
There is a bug (FS#19580) with current Arch kimpanel packaging. See IBus#Kimpanel for a workaround.
KDE password prompts display three bullets per char
You can change it under System Settings > Account Details. At Password & User Account the options are:
- Show one bullet for each letter
- Show three bullets for each letter
- Show nothing
knotify4 process constantly uses CPU time
It is a bug with Gstreamer phonon back-end. Try changing to VLC phonon on System Settings > Multimedia > Phonon > Backend. If this is not in the list, install it:
#pacman -S phonon-vlc
If you do not want change the back-end you can try use an external player to play the sound systems. First install mplayer, vlc or any other sound player.
Go to System Settings > Application and System Notifications > Manage Notifications > Player Settings and change to Use an external player putting the path of your preferred sound player.
Nepomukserver process still autostart even with semantic desktop disabled
Go to System Settings > Startup and Shutdown > Service Manager > Startup Services and uncheck the Nepomuk Search Module.
Other KDE projects
KDE unstable (snapshot)
Unofficial kde-unstable
The member ProgDan has created a repo where he uploads the testing KDE packages when a new upstream snapshot is out. You may visit this topic for more information.
Semi-official kde-unstable
When KDE is reaching beta or RC milestone, KDE "unstable" packages are uploaded to the [kde-unstable] repo.
You may add it by adding:
[kde-unstable] Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
They stay there until KDE is declared stable and passes to [extra].
Make sure you make bug reports if you find any issues.
Read this section in the wiki as well.
KDE Legacy
Along with the official KDE4, the KDE3 code "lives" under the fork project called "Trinity".
Unofficial community repository for KDE 3
From the release of KDE 4.x, the developers dropped support for KDE 3.5.x. Nevertheless you can still use KDE 3.5.x through a project called kdemod3 In this thread. The current rebuild of the unsupported KDEmod3 is based on the Trinity project code (KDE 3.5.12). See Trinity on Arch Linux below.
Trinity on Arch Linux
Trinity SVN is currently KDE 3.5.13. An unofficial effort to provide a working set of PKGBUILDs for Trinity for Arch Linux is in the beginning stages and produces a working KDE 3.5.13 desktop for Arch Linux. Links for binary packages built from the Trinity SVN code as well as the PKGBUILDs are available. For details on this effort, see the Trinity Arch wiki:
Trinity Stable (KDE 3.5.12) packages are also available as an update to kdemod3. The following repository holds binary packages from the Trinity (3.5.12) code base:
# Trinity 3.5.12 - i686 [kdemod3] Server = http://rapinjam.com/beta/lefa/kdemod3/i686/ # Trinity 3.5.12 - x86_64 [kdemod3] Server = http://rapinjam.com/beta/lefa/kdemod3/x86_64/
- After adding the repository, issue ‘pacman -Syu’. If that fails to trigger the update (or if you do not have kdemod3 installed), then use ‘pacman -Sy kdemod3-complete’
Chakra Project KDEmod
The Chakra Project KDEmod (for KDE4) is no longer active and the current Chakra Project's KDE is no longer compatible with Archlinux packages and repos.
If you have installed KDEmod (for KDE4), please remove it and install KDE SC from the official Archlinux repos.
Bugs
Distro and Upstream bug report
It is preferrable that if you find a minor or serious bug, you should visit the Arch Bug Tracker or/and KDE Bug Tracker in order to report that. Make sure that you be clear on what you want to report.
If you have any issue and you write about in on the Arch forums, first make sure that you have FULLY updated your system using a good sync mirror (check here) or try Reflector.
KDE 4 config files are usually located at
~/.kde4/share/config/
and for app-specific configs
~/.kde4/share/apps/