KDE

Profile[edit | edit source]

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:

  ...
  [1]   default/linux/amd64/17.1 (stable)
  [2]   default/linux/amd64/17.1/selinux (stable)
  [3]   default/linux/amd64/17.1/hardened (stable)
  [4]   default/linux/amd64/17.1/hardened/selinux (stable)
  [5]   default/linux/amd64/17.1/desktop (stable)
  [6]   default/linux/amd64/17.1/desktop/gnome (stable)
  [7]   default/linux/amd64/17.1/desktop/gnome/systemd (stable)
  [8]   default/linux/amd64/17.1/desktop/plasma (stable)
  [9]   default/linux/amd64/17.1/desktop/plasma/systemd (stable)
  ...

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

For Plasma 5 desktop environment choose desktop/plasma with OpenRC or desktop/plasma/systemd 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[edit | edit source]

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 Release Service via emerge ‑‑oneshot so that Portage will take them into account. Follow the links for information how to set up these services.

X server[edit | edit source]

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

Available versions[edit | edit source]

Installation[edit | edit source]

The kde-plasma/plasma-meta package provides the full Plasma 5 desktop, configurable by a wealth of USE flags:

Alternatively, kde-plasma/plasma-desktop 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.

Starting Plasma[edit | edit source]

#!/bin/sh
exec dbus-launch --exit-with-session startplasma-x11

Widgets[edit | edit source]

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

System tray[edit | edit source]

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.

Legacy support is enabled by activating legacy-systray for kde-plasma/plasma-meta, which is pulling in kde-plasma/xembed-sni-proxy.

# xembed system tray support for legacy applications
kde-plasma/plasma-meta legacy-systray

KWallet[edit | edit source]

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:

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

[Wallet]
Enabled=false

SSH/GPG Agent startup/shutdown scripts[edit | edit source]

ssh-agent scripts are located in /etc/xdg/plasma-workspace/env and /etc/xdg/plasma-workspace/shutdown. Shutdown scripts require executable bit set because they are not sourced. The Keychain article provides more information about this.

Non-root user authentication for dialogs[edit | edit source]

Some KDE dialogs such as printers, adding wireless networks and adding users require administrator authentication. This is handled through sys-auth/polkit and operates independently from app-admin/sudo. By default in Gentoo, the root account is the only administrator, and so even if a user account can run root commands through sudo, authentication in these KDE dialogs will fail.

Adding wireless networks using net-misc/networkmanager is allowed by a polkit rule which is part of the Gentoo package and already allows access for every user in the group plugdev. For other dialogs you need to configure the behavior manually: If you would like all users of the group wheel to be administrators, create a copy of /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/50-default.rules starting with a number lower than 50, and edit the line return ["unix-user:0"] to the following:

polkit.addAdminRule(function(action, subject) {
    return ["unix-group:wheel"];
});

The Polkit wiki page provides more details on rules configuration.

Run GUI applications with root privileges[edit | edit source]

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. This requires Xorg, and only works within X.

# Build graphical frontend for kde-frameworks/kdesu (requires X)
kde-plasma/kde-cli-tools kdesu X

Remember to rebuild the package to pick up the changes:

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

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

Available versions[edit | edit source]

Installation[edit | edit source]

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

Localization[edit | edit source]

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

KDE PIM[edit | edit source]

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: app-antivirus/clamav
• Spam filtering: mail-filter/bogofilter or mail-filter/spamassassin

Available versions[edit | edit source]