KDE: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:42, 10 January 2024

KDE is a software project comprising a desktop environment known as Plasma, a collection of libraries and frameworks known as KDE Frameworks, and several applications known as KDE Applications. Their UserBase wiki has detailed information about most KDE Applications.

Note: the plasma-desktop-meta package isn't available for the ppc64le, s390x, armhf, or riscv64 architectures due to the kdeplasma-addons dependency not being available there. However, the rest of Plasma may be installed separately to potentially get a functional desktop.

Prerequisites

Install Alpine Linux
Create a user account
Enable the community repository
For users interested in Xorg as opposed to Wayland, install the Xorg base packages
Install and configure D-Bus
Install and configure Elogind

Installation

The following command will install the Plasma desktop as specified by the plasma metapackage, including the sddm display manager and other assorted niceties.

# apk add plasma

Setting up eudev as device manager on a desktop system is recommended. The alpine-conf package provides setup-devd script to easily install and setup device managers.

To set up eudev, issue the command:

# setup-devd udev

Note: polkit and udev are optional services for authentication and device management respectively. While KDE will function without these services enabled, some functionality may be missing or incomplete.

KDE Applications

To install the full set of KDE Applications, install kde-applications. You can also choose to install a smaller set of applications by installing any of the subpackages:

Note: Most of these are not available on ppc64le or s390x.

Starting Plasma

Plasma can be started using a display manager or from the console.

Using a display manager

When Plasma is installed via the plasma meta-package, the display manager is set up using sddm.

Make sure you enable and start the SDDM service.

rc-update add sddm rc-service sddm start

Select Plasma to launch a new session in Wayland
Select Plasma (X11) to launch a new session in Xorg

From the console

The Xorg session can be launched by installing xinit and appending exec startplasma-x11 to your .xinitrc file. To start X:

xinit

For the Wayland session run

XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland dbus-run-session startplasma-wayland

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 KDE is a software project comprising a desktop environment known as Plasma, a collection of libraries and frameworks known as KDE Frameworks, and several applications known as KDE Applications. Their [https://userbase.kde.org/Welcome_to_KDE_UserBase UserBase wiki] has detailed information about most KDE Applications.
-{{Note|the {{Pkg|plasma}} package isn't available for the <code>ppc64le</code> and <code>s390x</code> architectures due to the {{Pkg|kdeplasma-addons}} dependency not being available there. However, the rest of Plasma can be installed separately to get a functional desktop.}}
+{{Note|the {{Pkg|plasma-desktop-meta|arch=}} package isn't available for the <code>ppc64le</code>, <code>s390x</code>, <code>armhf</code>, or <code>riscv64</code> architectures due to the {{Pkg|kdeplasma-addons|arch=}} dependency not being available there. However, the rest of Plasma may be installed separately to potentially get a functional desktop.}}
+<br>
-<br>
 == Prerequisites ==
@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 == Installation ==
-The following command will install the Plasma desktop as specified by the {{Pkg|plasma}} metapackage, including the {{Pkg|sddm}} display manager and other assorted niceties.
+The following command will install the Plasma desktop as specified by the plasma metapackage, including the {{Pkg|sddm|arch=}} display manager and other assorted niceties.
 {{Cmd|# apk add plasma}}
@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 To install the full set of KDE Applications, install {{Pkg|kde-applications}}. You can also choose to install a smaller set of applications by installing any of the subpackages:
-* {{Pkg|kde-applications-accessibility}}
+{{Note|Most of these are not available on <code>ppc64le</code> or <code>s390x</code>.}}
-* {{Pkg|kde-applications-admin}}
+* {{Pkg|kde-applications-accessibility|arch=}}
-* {{Pkg|kde-applications-base}}
+* {{Pkg|kde-applications-admin|arch=}}
-* {{Pkg|kde-applications-edu}}, not available for <code>ppc64le</code> and <code>s390x</code>
+* {{Pkg|kde-applications-base|arch=}}
-* {{Pkg|kde-applications-games}}
+* {{Pkg|kde-applications-edu|arch=}}
-* {{Pkg|kde-applications-graphics}}
+* {{Pkg|kde-applications-games|arch=}}
-* {{Pkg|kde-applications-multimedia}}
+* {{Pkg|kde-applications-graphics|arch=}}
-* {{Pkg|kde-applications-network}}, not available for <code>ppc64le</code> and <code>s390x</code>
+* {{Pkg|kde-applications-multimedia|arch=}}
-* {{Pkg|kde-applications-pim}}, not available for <code>ppc64le</code> and <code>s390x</code>
+* {{Pkg|kde-applications-network|arch=}}
-* {{Pkg|kde-applications-sdk}}
+* {{Pkg|kde-applications-pim|arch=}}
-* {{Pkg|kde-applications-utils}}
+* {{Pkg|kde-applications-sdk|arch=}}
-* {{Pkg|kde-applications-webdev}}
+* {{Pkg|kde-applications-utils|arch=}}
+* {{Pkg|kde-applications-webdev|arch=}}
 <br>
@@ Line 56: / Line 57: @@
 === Using a display manager ===
-When Plasma is installed via the {{Pkg|plasma}} meta-package, the display manager is set up using {{Pkg|sddm}}.
+When Plasma is installed via the plasma meta-package, the display manager is set up using sddm.
 Make sure you enable and start the SDDM service.
@@ Line 69: / Line 70: @@
 === From the console ===
-The Xorg session can be launched by installing {{Pkg|xinit}} and appending <code>exec startplasma-x11</code> to your <code>.xinitrc</code> file. To start X:
+The Xorg session can be launched by installing {{Pkg|xinit|arch=}} and appending <code>exec startplasma-x11</code> to your <code>.xinitrc</code> file. To start X:
 {{Cmd|xinit}}