KDE Plasma "hidden" features discussion

Desktop Environments Plasma
1

Recently I discovered thanks to a miss click that there is Meta + T to edit a window mosaic distribution but I didn’t knew how to use that feature.

After searching for some time I found some guy on Reddit explaining that moving a window with Shift pressed will allow you to use those mosaic areas and OMG IT’S AMAZING.

I don’t know why this is not documented, why there is no tab on the KDE Plasma settings with a ? button with some explanation on how to use it but this created a new discussion topic:

  1. How do we save/manage new mosaic presets? There is a button to load a preset but I found no button to save or delete a new one.
  2. Which other cool “hidden” features Plasma has but not well documented or not even mentioned anywhere?
  3. Is there any website/forum/youtube channel with tips and updates about Plasma and so on?

Sorry if this is not the correct category for this topic but I didn’t knew where to post it :rofl:

2 Likes
2

I have a little function for the wayland-compatible window/process killer that mimics the classic xkill…

Whether it should be pkill, wkill, or kkill I suppose is best as its really a kwin feature;

kkill() {
	qdbus6 org.kde.KWin /KWin killWindow
}

To test it out you can just execute the bit between the curly brackets. It should produce a ‘killer’ icon over the cursor - anything you click will be killed. Esc can be used to cancel the invocation.

Imgur

Not that I can recall using it really. But its there. :innocent:

4 Likes
3

WoW that looks cool. I’ll tray it for sure :heart:

4

Does this do anything different from Ctrl+Meta+Esc?

5

No its the same .. or I think so anyways.

6

Hi, does anyone know how to enable day/night wallpaper feature? I don’t see the option in my wallpaper manager.

7

Its not an ‘option’ .. its a format.

To set it up you need a structure like this;

$Title
├── metadata.json
└── contents
    ├── images_dark
    │   ├── 5120x2880.png
    │   ├── 440x248.png
    │   ├── 3840x2160.png
    │   ├── 3200x2000.png
    │   ├── 3200x1800.png
    │   ├── 2560x1600.png
    │   ├── 2560x1440.png
    │   ├── 2240x1400.png
    │   ├── 1920x1200.png
    │   ├── 1920x1080.png
    │   ├── 1680x1050.png
    │   ├── 1600x900.png
    │   ├── 1440x900.png
    │   ├── 1366x768.png
    │   └── 1280x800.png
    └── images
        ├── 5120x2880.png
        ├── 440x248.png
        ├── 3840x2160.png
        ├── 3200x2000.png
        ├── 3200x1800.png
        ├── 2560x1600.png
        ├── 2560x1440.png
        ├── 2240x1400.png
        ├── 1920x1200.png
        ├── 1920x1080.png
        ├── 1680x1050.png
        ├── 1600x900.png
        ├── 1440x900.png
        ├── 1366x768.png
        └── 1280x800.png

And that metadata.json having a format like

{
  "KPlugin": {
    "Authors": [
      {
        "Email": "cscs@totallylegitemailaddress.com",
        "Name": "cscs"
      }
    ],
    "Id": "$Title",
    "License": "CC BY-SA",
    "Name": "$Title"
  }
}
1 Like
8

I’m sorry, my question is not clear. I’m looking for the option shown in this screenshot.

Screenshot_2025-06-24-11-02-23-386_com.android.chrome
Screenshot_2025-06-24-11-02-23-386_com.android.chrome1080×2400 144 KB

1 Like
9

@anon91115920 you can refer to @cscs answer if you want to create day/night wallpaper :blush:

1 Like
10

Maybe there was a misinterpretation of the 6.4 This Week In Plasma blog post? Nate says that in addition to the new Plasma 6.4 release, they have completed the new day/night wallpaper feature for the next release too - which might mean “not this release.”

dynamic_01
dynamic_011310×829 231 KB

Also, it’s shown as a milestone for the 6.5 release:

dynamic_02
dynamic_021466×476 50.9 KB

5 Likes
11

Thanks for the clarification.
Now if we could simplify that monstrous structure above by allowing SVG files then ..

( Yes, I checked, it does not work. :crying_cat: )

4 Likes
12

I’m not sure that it is a clarification, though. I certainly don’t have the day/night settings available, but I just saw that I do seem to have some default day/night dynamic wallpapers installed (they are represented in the settings by having the thumbnail image half darkened). So I dunno. Maybe the feature has been shipped, and there’s some hidden setting somewhere that needs to be activated. :man_shrugging:

1 Like
13

Ive seen the delineation since at least Plasma 6.0 (though appearing slightly different than in the release note scrots) .. I was sorta under the impression it was already working.

Imgur

So still not crystal-clear I suppose, but its at least less mysterious that those particular checkboxes may be missing at the moment.

2 Likes
14

At least I know that I’m not alone on this :blush:

1 Like
15

If I select one of the dynamic wallpapers (Kay, for example), it’s showing the dark version, so it appears to be working as it’s nighttime here. But the controls shown in the blog post don’t exist for me.

elmo_shrug

16

same here, it shows as night version and never change to day version.

1 Like
17

Well, either Plasma is missing something or we’re missing something :laughing:.

1 Like
18

I believe those dynamic wallpapers show the dark version when a dark theme is chosen and the light version when alternatively using the light theme

3 Likes
19

Correct you are.
And I knew that too.
Well .. another day, another confirmation of not being a robot.
Or maybe just a really poorly designed one. :sweat_smile:

2 Likes
20

I agree that it will be a neat feature once integrated (probably) in version 6.5

Plasma 6.4 has been great so far though and the .1 fix has been released upstream and will come soon enough to make it even better