KDE

KDE is Article description::a free software community, producing a wide range of applications including the popular Plasma desktop environment.

Gentoo support for the KDE project is excellent, with comprehensive packaging of KDE Frameworks 5, Plasma 5, and Applications, as well as a wide array of other miscellaneous KDE-based software.

Profile
Choosing an appropriate profile, although not required, is recommended as it sets a number of global and package-specific USE flags to ease installation and ensure a smooth KDE experience.

In order to choose the most suitable profile, first list what's available:

Then, select the right profile, substituting  with the appropriate profile number:

For Plasma 5 desktop environment choose  with OpenRC or   with systemd. Note that other USE flag combinations than set by the profile may technically be possible (especially if selected applications are run instead of a full KDE Plasma desktop environment), but may be unsupported, untested, or lead to unexpected loss of functionality.

Services
Default choices of these services will be pulled in automatically - by the installation steps in the following chapters - depending on the profile selection made earlier, but still need to be set up properly before starting KDE Plasma for the first time. For deviating from the defaults, it is recommended to install them in advance of KDE Plasma or KDE Applications via  so that Portage will take them into account. Follow the links for information how to set up these services.

Session tracker
Choose exactly one of:


 * elogind: Standalone logind package extracted from systemd project for use with OpenRC or other init systems.
 * systemd: Uses the session tracker part of systemd. Users of systemd do not need to take any other initiative here.
 * consolekit: Framework for defining and tracking users, login sessions, and seats. It is currently default for the profile.

Device manager
Choose exactly one of:


 * udev: Enables support for udev Linux dynamic and persistent device naming.
 * eudev: Fork of udev for better compatibility with older kernels and various toolchains.
 * systemd: Uses the device manager part of systemd. Users of systemd do not need to take any other initiative here.

Miscellaneous

 * D-Bus: Enables use of the D-Bus message bus system.
 * polkit: Enables the polkit framework for controlling privileges for system-wide services.
 * udisks: Enables support for some storage related services.

X server
Read and follow the instructions in the X server article to setup the X environment.

Package conflicts
KDE Plasma and Applications come with many dependencies. Some of these dependencies will predetermine package choices where otherwise there would be options to choose from.


 * FFmpeg: By default, has USE   enabled, making it depend on . Users preferring  for the rest of their system will need to switch off that flag.
 * JPEG: depends on . It is Gentoo's recommended default over  anyway.

Plasma
Plasma 5 is the current generation of KDE's desktop environment, based on Qt 5 and KDE Frameworks 5.

Installation
The package provides the full Plasma 5 desktop, configurable by a wealth of USE flags:

Alternatively, provides a very basic desktop, leaving users free to install only the extra packages they require - or rather, figure out missing features on their own.

Widgets
Many useful widgets are in the package (already pulled in by ):

Display manager
SDDM (Simple Desktop Display Manager) is the recommended login manager and is pulled in automatically via by default. This is the preferred option. Alternatively, LightDM can be used and pulled in by setting USE flag  for. Change the setting accordingly in. Also, be sure to read through the SDDM page if further issues appear.

SDDM does not yet support multiseat, while LightDM does.

No display manager
Plasma can be started the old-fashioned way with, but extra care needs to be taken to ensure it gets a valid session.

For Plasma 5.17 and later, replace  with

System tray
Plasma 5 uses the StatusNotifier specification for systray icons. As not all applications have been ported to the new system, some workarounds exist, and Plasma 5 has a means to convert old xembed-based system tray icons to StatusNotifier icons.

Legacy support is enabled by activating  for, which is pulling in.

Pidgin
requires. After install, the Ubuntu Indicator plugin can be found under Tools | Plugins.

KWallet
Many users will be introduced to, Plasma's encrypted password storage, while adding a (wireless) network connection after login or adding E-Mail accounts in.

For managing KWallets, importing and exporting passwords, there is :

KWallet auto-unlocking
provides a mechanism to avoid being subsequently asked for access to kwallet after login.

It requires the following setup:
 * For KWallet security, use classic blowfish encryption instead of GPG
 * Choose same password for login and kwallet
 * Configure a display manager with support for PAM - both and  fulfill that requirement:

Disabling KWallet
To disable the KWallet subsystem completely, edit the following file:

SSH/GPG Agent startup/shutdown scripts
ssh-agent scripts are located in and. The Keychain article provides more information about this.

In Plasma 5.17 and later, these are only template paths and it is necessary to copy and configure them in the user's home directory. The respective paths are and.

Run GUI applications with root privileges
KDE Plasma has a utility in order to start graphical programs with root privileges. It is provided by - if built with USE flag , a graphical frontend to  is installed. This requires Xorg, and only works within X.

Remember to rebuild the package to pick up the changes:

It can be used by invoking either from KRunner or a terminal emulator:

A message dialog will be displayed prompting for the root password.

Applications
Releases consist of various applications and supporting libraries based on Qt 5/KDE Frameworks 5.

Available versions
KDE Applications is divided in the following meta packages:

Installation
The package provides the full Applications bundle, but alternatively, one or several smaller meta packages from the list above may be picked instead:

Localization
Plasma-5 and Applications are shipping their localization per-package. Enable your localization in systemsettings.

KDE PIM
KDE PIM is a whole suite of applications to manage personal information including mail, calendar, contacts and more. It has several optional runtime dependencies to extend its functionality:


 * Virus detection:
 * Spam filtering: or

Frameworks
KDE Frameworks 5 is a collection of libraries and software frameworks that provide the foundation for KDE Plasma 5 and KDE Applications, but may be leveraged by any Qt application.

As Frameworks are mostly libraries and provide little user functionality, it's not necessary to install them manually - the required packages will be pulled in automatically as dependencies.

More KDE software
The most important KDE applications are in the Gentoo ebuild repository and many are located in the kde-apps and kde-misc categories.

Troubleshooting
Refer to the Troubleshooting sub-article.