I am testing out qubes 4.2rc and I’d love some insight into the changes with kde in that new version. I have for the past year used KDE with qubes 4.1, because it seemed so much more intuitive and feature-rich to me than the default xfce options.
Since I upgraded to 4.2, I have noticed that the plasma version seems different as well? Some things have changed, but most notably, of course, the new Valentina menu system replaced my normal kde menu. I really like the new Valentina menu, but I can’t seem to customize it really at all, and it almost seems to work better with the xfce environment than it does with kde (partly visually and partly positionally on screen…hard to describe). I wonder if any other users have some practice with the new menu and what everyone else is doing with the 4.2 update and kde?
To add to this a bit, because I feel similarly that KDE feels almost like a thin veneer over qubes sometimes: I believe this may be caused for me by the fact that all of the theming and wallpaper downloads just run into errors (I understand that is because dom0 doesn’t want them to be enabled), and also I constantly feel that if I make a customization or change a setting such as visual changes, it may not apply to dom0 or to my VMs. It leaves me feeling a bit like I have a tenuous curtain that could fall away at any time :-). I know that sounds dramatic, and I’ve learned how to deal with that largely, but I definitely understand why it doesn’t seem like a polished and fully integrated experience.
I feel pretty much the same way using XFCE with qubes. It’s just clear that not everything works as the creator of the desktop environment envisioned sometimes.
Hi, I would like my KDE session work on Wayland.
But there are some miss-match, missing network icon, not showing appVM in qubes, updates works fine .
Any way to fix it ? I could use X11 but smoothness is compelling, compare to Wayland.
Switching to 4.2 (clean install) and going to KDE. I chose to use plasma X11 and the XDG_ environment variable changed again; once I fixed that the menu works properly.
(It should be noted that if you actually deal with the menu links in ~/.config/menus/applications-merged or ~/.local.share/applications the naming convention has changed, for example user-qubes-vm-directory-sys-net now ends in directory_sys_dnet; org,qubes-os.vm.sys_net.debian-xterm.desktop now ends in …vm._sys_dnet.debian-xterm.desktop. I do deal with these since I wrote a script to build my menu [quite a timesaver!])
However, in spite of ensuring that “breeze” is selected in all sub-entries of “Appearance” I no longer have the colored window decorations. All are gray (however the icon in the upper left of the title bar does change color to match the label on the gube). Is there a way to get it back? (This is literally my last remaining issue with 4.2.)
Trying to use wayland instead of X11 leads to no system tray, hence no domains gui (qui-domains). Also, domU terminals don’t appear on screen when called up, so I can’t check to see if the border colors appear in Wayland. (Switching back to X11, all those terminals I called up on Wayland trying to test it, finally do appear.) I’m thinking either I did something wrong, or wayland/qubes/KDE is a combination that just doesn’t work yet.
I Wrote that my version of /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/55xfce-qubes.sh, witch works on my qubes 5th time every time perfectly well.
In the comment unman pointed that my Edit is wrong.
Yet, when I was trying to use his advise, Edit application is not working.
What is the right way ?
#!/usr/bin/sh
# Use Qubes provided menu instead of default XFCE one
if [ "$XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP" = "KDE" ]; then
XDG_MENU_PREFIX="kf5-"
else
XDG_MENU_PREFIX="qubes-"
fi
export XDG_MENU_PREFIX
I know that for some peculiar reason, whenever I install KDE (two different computers, two different versions of Qubes), $XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP is not set to “KDE”. So the check shown there is wrong for me. (This seems to have surprised unman when it first happened.) It may be wrong for you too in which case it’s fairly quick to diagnose.
Do an echo $XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP and it will tell you what to put in place of “KDE” in that if statement. In my case it’s “plasmaX11”. So the if-check for me needs to read:
This is what I use In every computer with KDE:
And is working well.
#!/usr/bin/sh
# Use Qubes provided menu instead of default XFCE one
if [ "$XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP" = "KDE" ] || [ "$XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP" = "plasma" ];
then
XDG_MENU_PREFIX="kf5-"
else
XDG_MENU_PREFIX="qubes-"
if
export XDG_MENU_PREFIX
And is Unman Version :
#!/usr/bin/sh
if [ “$XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP” = “KDE” ]; then
XDG_MENU_PREFIX=“kf5-”
else
XDG_MENU_PREFIX=“qubes-”
fi
export XDG_MENU_PREFIX
Is any of this any wrong ?
“Do an echo $XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP” - I did and It shown me PlasmaX11
Yes - your script is broken. You cant have a hanging if-else without a
closing fi
What you describe as “my version” is old. In the KDE thread I proposed
exactly the use of alternatives you have used.
Under 4.2, KDE seems to consistently use a value of plasmax11 for XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP
So the file under 4.2 at /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/55xfce-qubes.sh
should be altered to:
#!/usr/bin/sh
# Use Qubes provided menu instead of default XFCE one
if [ "$XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP" = "KDE" ] || [ "$XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP" = "plasmax11" ];
then
XDG_MENU_PREFIX="kf5-"
else
XDG_MENU_PREFIX="qubes-"
fi
export XDG_MENU_PREFIX
If you are on 4.2, and this doesnt work, then it’s always worth
checking the value of $XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP - if you have some other
value under KDE just edit the config file above to include that.
but, speaking of 4.2, @unman, I can’t seem to find a theme that preserve the colored window borders. I get a colored icon in the upper left but no solid colored border. Of course all I have are Breeze (and on some of the tabs under appearances there are multiple variants thereof) and here and there fedora 37 and Plastik.
Settings->Appearance->Window Decorations->Theme
At bottom is Window border size which can be set as you like.
I use Breeze with heavy borders.
It works for me, and is persistent.
I have not seen KDE with plasmashell 5.27.8 , KDE framework 5.108.0 -
only plasmaX11
I kept the KDE entry because it is standard XDG session value and I thought it
possible it might be used. Also, for an in place upgrade or config
reset, it is carried over from 4.1
Whoops, I guess I wasn’t clear. I am seeing borders (and used that setting to get them). They’re just not colored. Neither is the title bar with the decorations.
This skipped over a lot of things (brought down by kde-desktop-qubes) but also installed (IIRC) over 100 other things.
Followed (again as suggested somewhere I can’t find now) by reissuing the same command again only with --action=reinstall between “update” and “breeze-icon-theme”
Not sure how to tell what got installed solely as a result of this, which I think you were also asking for.
