Really wanted to switch to KDE, but

Desktop Environments Plasma
1

The simplest things still don’t work or crash. For example, I have an Arch KDE VM that, after a few minor updates, works great - no KWin crashes, no issues with any apps, theming changes are flawless. However, on my real hardware (currently using EOS XFCE) I can’t get any new themes without either the System app crashing, KWin closing, or the theme refusing to apply (tried 4 different ones, all of which work on my 3 other KDE-based VMs).

Here’s my system info, in case someone thinks this is hardware-related:

$ inxi -Faz
System:    Kernel: 5.10.74-1-lts x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0 
           parameters: initrd=\EndeavourOS\amd-ucode.img 
           initrd=\EndeavourOS\initramfs-linux-lts.img 
           root=UUID=b6626456-c5e2-4f64-8185-bce57f2bfbc5 rw rootflags=subvol=@ loglevel=3 
           nowatchdog resume=UUID=f0eef397-b328-4c1e-997b-546af5354ed6 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.29 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.16.1 
           dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: EndeavourOS base: Arch Linux 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME X470-PRO v: Rev X.0x serial: <filter> 
           UEFI: American Megatrends v: 5854 date: 07/13/2021 
CPU:       Info: 8-Core model: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X socket: AM4 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen+ 
           family: 17 (23) model-id: 8 stepping: 2 microcode: 800820D cache: L1: 768 KiB 
           L2: 4 MiB L3: 16 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
           bogomips: 118397 
           Speed: 4043 MHz min/max: 2200/3700 MHz base/boost: 3700/4350 boost: enabled 
           volts: 1.2 V ext-clock: 100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 4043 2: 2030 3: 4049 4: 4014 
           5: 4058 6: 4059 7: 4053 8: 4056 9: 4039 10: 4052 11: 4058 12: 4056 13: 4058 14: 4065 
           15: 4064 16: 2034 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
           Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 
           mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070] driver: nvidia v: 470.74 
           alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus-ID: 08:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1b81 class-ID: 0300 
           Display: server: X.org 1.20.13 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.16.1 driver: loaded: nvidia 
           unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa alternate: nouveau,nv 
           resolution: <missing: xdpyinfo> 
           OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.74 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 08:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:10f0 class-ID: 0403 
           Device-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 0a:00.3 chip-ID: 1022:1457 class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.74-1-lts running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no 
           Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes 
           Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.38 running: no 
Network:   Device-1: Intel I211 Gigabit Network vendor: ASUSTeK driver: igb v: kernel port: e000 
           bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:1539 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: vmnet8 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) type: USB driver: btusb 
           v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-5:2 chip-ID: 0a12:0001 class-ID: e001 
           Report: bt-adapter ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 5.92 TiB used: 1.33 TiB (22.5%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: SanDisk model: SDSSDH3512G size: 476.94 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B sata: 3.3 speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD 
           serial: <filter> rev: 7000 temp: 26 C scheme: GPT 
           SMART: yes state: enabled health: PASSED on: 2y 34d 23h cycles: 710 read: 11.5 MiB 
           written: 7.3 MiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: SanDisk model: SDSSDH3 2T00 
           family: Marvell based SSDs size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B 
           sata: 3.3 speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 30RL temp: 32 C scheme: GPT 
           SMART: yes state: enabled health: PASSED on: 1y 214d 11h cycles: 437 
           ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 type: USB vendor: Western Digital model: WD My Book 25DA 
           drive model: WD40EZRZ-00GXCB0 family: Blue size: 3.64 TiB block-size: 
           physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B sata: 3.1 speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5400 
           serial: <filter> drive serial: <filter> rev: 3002 drive rev: 80.00A80 temp: 37 C 
           scheme: GPT 
           SMART: yes state: enabled health: PASSED on: 204d 22h cycles: 697 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 100 GiB size: 100 GiB (100.00%) used: 23.69 GiB (23.7%) fs: btrfs 
           block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17 
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 16 GiB size: 15.99 GiB (99.93%) used: 854.5 MiB (5.2%) 
           fs: vfat block-size: 512 B dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 
           ID-3: /home raw-size: 500 GiB size: 500 GiB (100.00%) used: 25.64 GiB (5.1%) 
           fs: btrfs block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sdb3 maj-min: 8:19 
           ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 100 GiB size: 100 GiB (100.00%) used: 23.69 GiB (23.7%) 
           fs: btrfs block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 32 GiB used: 1024 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/sdb2 maj-min: 8:18 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 48.8 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 50 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 33% 
Info:      Processes: 432 Uptime: 31m wakeups: 0 Memory: 31.33 GiB used: 4.04 GiB (12.9%) 
           Init: systemd v: 249 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 Packages: pacman: 1259 
           lib: 330 Shell: fish (sudo) v: 3.3.1 default: Bash v: 5.1.8 
           running-in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.06

This is my 3rd attempt to try out KDE; the first 2 (openSUSE and Debian 10) were also failures.

2

Which themes are you trying to apply?

3

I’m shocked by that. Debian 10 could run on a toaster I think.

I cannot even fathom what makes KDE so special to your computer it doesn’t work on it while other DEs are good to go.

4

How did you install the DE? Is it a clean install?

5

In this case no, I just added it afterwards: yay -S plasma-meta kde-applications-meta

6

Could not agree more. Again, my 3 VMs - Debian 9, Arch, and openSUSE - all work great and suffer none of the errors in my OP.

7

One in particular is Fancy-Global, but I also tried a couple of others with no luck. I should probably try a clean install, but that’s a project for another day.

8

I just installed fancy-global with no issues.

Edit:

Screenshot_20211020_124333

9

I must be KDE-cursed, then.

10

I love KDE, but everything that depends on downloads from their store seems to be a desaster. Whenever I try to download a theme or splashscreen or whatever it takes forever and I’m just not able to figure out if the download already started or what the problem is. Sometimes I get a message telling me that the file couldn’t be found…

1 Like
11

Yep, had the same problem on Arch. I waited over 5 minutes for a simple SDDM theme to download/install, with no indications as to what was going on.

12

It’s better to stay away from those things that don’t work. I just stick to known good. I have no issues.

Edit:

So i just removed fancy-global but not all things remove that easily in one action. Somethings have to be removed in other locations.

13

I figured it was time to try it on real hardware after my Arch VM became stable. In the beginning, I was crashing KWin regularly when making almost any settings changes via the Settings app. This seemed to be resolved, so I’ll try again with a fresh install.

14

You installed kde-applications-meta? You must really like k* apps.

That being said, I don’t think that is your issue.

However, installing plasma over whatever your prior DE was might be your issue.

Try creating a new clean user account and see if the issues persist there.

2 Likes
15

Thanks to everyone for the great input. I think I will plan on installing EOS w/KDE fresh in the near future; just gotta get a list of all the apps I’ve installed.

1 Like
16

I have it book marked on my computer, but I’m sure someone will post it. But you can save your installed programs to a text file and just download them via the file nice and easily.

17 
pacman -Qqe > mypackages
2 Likes
18

The current semi-official list of plasma packages in EOS is here:

So if you want to install KDE packages manually, this is a good starting point.

1 Like