As suggested here https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/kde-not-install-dependency-kdeplasma-addons/27972 and by @joekamprad this topic is intended to scope and draft a Wiki entry that covers KDE issues specific to EndeavourOS (i.e. not to replicate information in the Arch wiki or elsewhere). I’ve searched the forum and subreddit for common KDE issues and suggestions people have made.
The absence of kdeplasma-addons
in the default KDE Plasma install has been mentioned a number of times https://forum.endeavouros.com/search?q=kdeplasma-addons, and one key difference to a standard Arch install of KDE Plasma is that EndeavourOS does not include plasma-meta
out of the box.
Having installed the latest Apollo ISO in a Virtual Machine (selecting only the default options of Base + Common, Firefox, and KDE-Desktop), the following packages are selected for installation when running pacman -S plasma-meta
:
archlinux-appstream-data
bluedevil
bolt
boost-libs
discover
drkonqi
gdb
gdb-common
kdeplasma-addons
kgamma5
ksshaskpass
kwayland-integration
kwrited
oxygen
plasma-browser-integration
plasma-firewall
plasma-systemmonitor
plasma-thunderbolt
plasma-vault
plasma-workspace-wallpapers
source-highlight
xdg-desktop-portal-kde
So, my proposed elements for an EndeavourOS specific guide to KDE are:
-
A brief description of KDE Plasma and signposting to the Arch Wiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/KDE
-
A brief explanation of the ethos of EndeavourOS and its intention to provide a minimal base of packages that users can add to.
-
Some packages that are not installed by default include
kdeplasma-addons
anddiscover
(more details below). -
kdeplasma-addons
includes additional launchers, widgets, wallpaper options, task switchers and system tray applets. -
Discover (should be included here as on first boot after installation it is a blank icon in the Task Manager) – Discover is not installed by default in EndeavourOS and is not recommended for package management in Arch Linux, as it obscures any messages that manual intervention is needed. It can be used to manage Plasma addons, and also firmware and Flatpaks (by installing
fwupd
andflatpak
). -
Thumbnails – by default EndeavourOS includes the
ffmpegthumbnailer
package. This does not provide thumbnails for audio files in Arch (this used to be the case – is it still true?). It can be replaced by the KDE packagesffmpegthumbs
andkdegraphics-thumbnailers
. -
Wayland is not yet the default display server protocol for KDE Plasma. Outstanding bugs and issues can be found here – https://community.kde.org/Plasma/Wayland_Showstoppers. Yad is not fully working with Wayland, and this affects Welcome in particular (e.g. on KDE/Wayland) (link to Wiki entry for Welcome).
-
Cursors – for your chosen cursor theme to be used in SDDM and also the EOS apps under Wayland, you need to edit
~/.icons/default/index.theme
- see here KDE Wayland issues with the EndeavourOS apps - #6 by joekamprad -
Other packages – looking at the
plasma-meta
list above:bluedevil
is included in the Bluetooth Wiki entry (could be mentioned and linked here);plasma-systemmonitor
is easily found;plasma-browser-integration
is also easily available as an addon/extension for browsers; EndeavourOS comes withfirewalld
installed by default, although personally I have uninstalled it and replaced it withufw
as it integrates better withplasma-firewall
(views welcome on this in KDE) ?? -
Akonadi – I don’t use this or any of its related apps. Are there any EndeavourOS specific issues ??
-
pavucontrol
is installed by default, but all its functions are covered by the Plasma Audio Volume applet. It could be recommended to either uninstall this or replace it withpavucontrol-qt
??
Hope the above makes sense This is very much intended to be a first draft of the elements to be included, rather than a final draft of the Wiki entry. Let me know what’s right/wrong, missing/unnecessary.
I look forward to your input