KDE

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KDE is 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.

Prerequisites

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:

root #eselect profile list

  [1]   default/linux/amd64/13.0
  [2]   default/linux/amd64/13.0/selinux
  [3]   default/linux/amd64/13.0/desktop
  [4]   default/linux/amd64/13.0/desktop/gnome
  [5]   default/linux/amd64/13.0/desktop/gnome/systemd
  [6]   default/linux/amd64/13.0/desktop/plasma
  [7]   default/linux/amd64/13.0/desktop/plasma/systemd
  ...

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

root #eselect profile set X

For Plasma 5 desktop environment choose desktop/plasma with OpenRC or desktop/plasma/systemd with systemd.

Services

Before installing KDE related software it is recommended that several other services are set up first. Part of those are installed automatically if a desktop/plasma or desktop profile is used, but still need to be set up properly. These services are:

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.

Device manager

Choose one of:

eudev: Gentoo's fork of udev with the goal of obtaining better compatibility. It is the default for the desktop/plasma profile.
udev: Enables support for udev Linux dynamic and persistent device naming.
systemd: Uses the device manager part of systemd. Users of systemd do not need to take any other initiative here.

Session tracker

Choose one of:

ConsoleKit: Framework for defining and tracking users, login sessions, and seats. It is the default for the desktop/plasma profile.
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.

For Wayland support, a logind implementation is required. Gentoo provides elogind as an alternative to systemd.

Follow the links for information how to set up these services. Note that other USE flag combinations than set in this 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.

X server

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

Plasma

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

Available versions

KDE	Gentoo	Ebuild repository	Status
KDE Plasma 5.10.5	kde-plasma/plasma-meta-5.10.5	gentoo	Stable for amd64 and x86; Testing for arm
KDE Plasma 5.11.5	kde-plasma/plasma-meta-5.11.5	gentoo	Testing for amd64, arm and x86
KDE Plasma master branch	kde-plasma/plasma-meta-9999	KDE	Live version

Note
Before proceeding, make sure to choose a Plasma profile.

Installation

The kde-plasma/plasma-meta package provides the full Plasma 5 suite, configured by the following USE flags:

Cannot load package information. Is the atom kde-plasma/plasma-meta correct?

root #emerge --ask kde-plasma/plasma-meta

Alternatively, kde-plasma/plasma-desktop provides the basic desktop, leaving users free to install only the extra packages they require:

root #emerge --ask kde-plasma/plasma-desktop

Note
Please note that such installations will be missing important packages such as kde-plasma/powerdevil (power management, suspend and hibernate options) and kde-plasma/systemsettings if this alternative installation is used.

By default the classic tree view of kde-plasma/systemsettings is not enabled. The following USE flag will enable it:

FILE /etc/portage/package.use/systemsettingsEnable classic tree view

kde-plasma/systemsettings classic

Recompile systemsettings with new USE flags:

root #emerge --ask --changed-use kde-plasma/systemsettings

Widgets

Many useful widgets are in the kde-plasma/kdeplasma-addons package (already pulled in by kde-plasma/plasma-meta):

root #emerge --ask kde-plasma/kdeplasma-addons

Display manager

SDDM (Simple Desktop Display Manager) is the recommended login manager and is pulled in automatically via kde-plasma/plasma-meta by default. This is the preferred option. Alternatively, LightDM can be used and pulled in by setting USE flag -sddm for kde-plasma/plasma-meta. Change the setting accordingly in /etc/conf.d/xdm. 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 startx, but extra care needs to be taken to ensure it gets a valid session. The following solution is limited to ConsoleKit:

FILE ~/.xinitrc

#!/bin/sh
exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session startkde

System tray

Plasma 5 uses the StatusNotifier specification for systray icons ^[1]. As not all applications have been ported to the new system, some workarounds exist ^[2], and Plasma 5 has a means to convert old xembed-based system tray icons to StatusNotifier icons.

The workaround is enabled by activating legacy-systray and GUI-specific (gtk2, gtk3, qt4) USE flags for kde-plasma/plasma-desktop.

root #echo "kde-plasma/plasma-desktop legacy-systray gtk2 gtk3 qt4" >> /etc/portage/package.use/plasma-systray

Pidgin

net-im/pidgin requires x11-plugins/pidgin-indicator. After install, the Ubuntu Indicator plugin can be found under Tools | Plugins.

KWallet

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

For managing KWallets, importing and exporting passwords, there is kde-apps/kwalletmanager:

root #emerge --ask kde-apps/kwalletmanager

KWallet auto-unlocking

kde-plasma/kwallet-pam provides a mechanism to avoid being subsequently asked for access to kwallet after login.

root #emerge --ask kde-plasma/kwallet-pam

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 x11-misc/sddm and x11-misc/lightdm fulfill that requirement:

FILE /etc/pam.d/sddmAdding lines for KWallet PAM unlocking via SDDM

-auth           optional        pam_kwallet5.so
-session        optional        pam_kwallet5.so auto_start

Note
For LightDM, /etc/pam.d/lightdm needs to be edited instead.

Disabling KWallet

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

FILE ~/.config/kwalletrc

[Wallet]
Enabled=false

SSH/GPG Agent startup/shutdown scripts

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

Run GUI applications with root privileges

Warning
It could be a very bad idea to start GUI applications with root privileges, versus adding the regular user to the relevant group or simply just running the command unprivileged. Only use kdesu when absolutely necessary.

KDE Plasma has a utility in order to start graphical programs with root privileges. It is provided by kde-plasma/kde-cli-tools - if built with USE flag kdesu, a graphical frontend to kde-frameworks/kdesu is installed, which can be used by invoking kdesu. This can be done either from KRunner or a terminal emulator:

user $kdesu <program-name>

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

Note
Some applications such as kwrite, dolphin etc. refuse to be opened as root for security reasons.

Applications

Releases consist of various applications and supporting libraries based on Qt 5/KDE Frameworks 5 (slot 5 in Portage) as well as Qt 4/KDElibs 4 (slot 4). From KDE Applications 17.12 onwards, any remaining KDElibs 4-based applications are removed.

Available versions

KDE	Gentoo	Ebuild repository	Status
KDE Applications 17.08.3	kde-apps/kde-apps-meta-17.08.3	gentoo	Stable for amd64 and x86
KDE Applications 17.12.1	kde-apps/kde-apps-meta-17.12.1	gentoo	Testing for amd64 and x86
KDE Applications 17.12 stable branch	kde-apps/kde-apps-meta-17.12.49.9999	KDE	Live version
KDE Applications master branch	kde-apps/kde-apps-meta-9999	KDE	Live version

KDE Applications is divided in the following meta packages:

Package name	Description
kde-apps/kdeaccessibility-meta	Accessibility applications and utilities.
kde-apps/kdeadmin-meta	Administrative utilities, which helps in managing the system.
kde-apps/kdecore-meta	Basic applications such as file browser, editor, terminal emulator.
kde-apps/kdeedu-meta	Educational applications and games.
kde-apps/kdegames-meta	Standard desktop games.
kde-apps/kdegraphics-meta	Graphics applications such as image viewers, color pickers, etc.
kde-apps/kdemultimedia-meta	Audio and video playback applications and services.
kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta	Network applications and VNC services.
kde-apps/kdepim-meta	PIM applications such as emailer, addressbook, organizer, etc.
kde-apps/kdesdk-meta	Various development tools.
kde-apps/kdeutils-meta	Standard desktop utilities such as a archiver, a calculator, etc.

Installation

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

root #emerge --ask kde-apps/kde-apps-meta

Localization

Plasma-5 and Applications-17.12 are shipping their localization per-package. Enable your localization in systemsettings.

Note
When upgrading to KDE Applications 17.12, a previously installed kde-apps/kde4-l10n may be blocking. This legacy package needs to be removed to continue.

Only legacy kde-apps 17.08.3 packages in slot 4 continue to rely on the separate localization tarball. The nls USE flag is enabled by default for linux profiles, and it is used by KDE Applications meta packages to pull in the necessary dependencies. To reduce the set of installed languages, set the L10N variable in /etc/portage/make.conf. If only individual packages are installed - not relying on meta ebuilds - that localization can be manually emerged via kde-apps/kde4-l10n.

KDE PIM

The codebase has been ported to dev-qt/qtwebengine which is based on Chromium's Blink. By default, this package sets and uses the system-ffmpeg USE flag, which comes down to a media-video/ffmpeg package dependency, so users preferring media-video/libav for the rest of their system will need to switch off that USE flag.

Unfortunately, not all of the KDE Applications are compatible yet, with some packages still depending on Qt 4/KDElibs 4 based parts that can not be installed with modern KDE PIM at the same time. That includes kde-apps/kopete, kde-apps/klinkstatus, and possibly other packages outside of the kde-apps category. By default, these packages are no longer installed by kde-apps/kde-apps-meta.

The following commands will deselect any packages from world that would still depend on these conflicting packages:

root #

equery -q d kde-apps/kdepim-common-libs | sed -e "s/-[0-9].*//" | xargs emerge --deselect

root #

equery -q d kde-apps/kdepimlibs | sed -e "s/-[0-9].*//" | xargs emerge --deselect

root #emerge --deselect kdepim-l10n kde-l10n

Note
This requires app-portage/gentoolkit to be installed. The Gentoolkit article provides more information about this useful utility.

With all that prepared, KDE PIM is ready to be installed:

root #emerge --ask kde-apps/kdepim-meta

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.

Available versions

KDE	Gentoo	Ebuild repository	Status
KDE Frameworks 5.40.0	kde-frameworks/*-5.40.0	gentoo	Stable for amd64 and x86, Testing for arm
KDE Frameworks 5.41.0	kde-frameworks/*-5.41.0	gentoo	Testing for amd64, arm and x86
KDE Frameworks master branch	kde-frameworks/*-9999	KDE	Live version

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.

External links

References

[1] ttp://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2014/03/system-tray-in-plasma-next/

[2] ttp://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2014/06/where-are-my-systray-icons/

[1]

[2]

KDE

Contents

Prerequisites

Profile

Services

Device manager

Session tracker

X server

Plasma

Available versions

Installation

Widgets

Display manager

No display manager

System tray

Pidgin

KWallet

KWallet auto-unlocking

Disabling KWallet

SSH/GPG Agent startup/shutdown scripts

Run GUI applications with root privileges

Applications

Available versions

Installation

Localization

KDE PIM

Frameworks

Available versions

More KDE software

Troubleshooting

See also

External links

References