KDE & Plasma users

Add per-application color overlays to your Plasma 6 task manager and instantly spot any running app at a glance. Works alongside your existing task manager, no replacement needed.

Akademy is the annual event of the KDE community, and this year we are celebrating its 23rd edition. Akademy is a free, non-commercial event for developers, translators, designers, and other contributors meet in one place for talks program, meetings, and coding on the different projects that are part of KDE. Our attendees numbers keep growing year over year.

During 2020 and 2021, Akademy moved to an online model which saw an increase in online engagement during the conference. In 2022 and 2023, we adopted a hybrid model combining online and in-person participation to reach hundreds of attendees worldwide. This approach continued in 2024, setting the stage for an even larger event in 2026. The same model will apply during Akademy 2026, and we expect attendance to grow, making Akademy 2026 a year for collaboration and innovation. This year Akademy promises to be unforgettable!

Who is organizing Akademy? KDE e.V., the organization supporting the KDE community, is organising Akademy. KDE is a diverse, worldwide Free Software Community dedicated to creating an open and user- friendly computing experience. From file managers, email clients, and text editors to multimedia players and digital graphics tools, KDE applications help users control their digital lives regardless of their background and skills. Always ahead of the curve, KDE is expanding its presence on mobile devices with Plasma Mobile and Kirigami. The KDE Community has also developed a wide range of Android apps, such as Minuet, Marble, KDE Connect, KStars and many more. These apps provide users with a seamless operational experience on smartphones and tablets.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/62296258

I find it sad and very anti-democratic that they blocked my post, which is polite and respectful. The reply of the moderator was moreover rude: "Instead of starting useless drama here, seemingly in search of magic validation points" and "Go and protest somewhere else, to the people that can actually do something about it."

Here's my polite open letter:

---

I have been happily using KDE software, and especially the Kubuntu Linux distro, Plasma, and Dolphin, for almost a decade, on several devices. Of course I’m also a regular donor and affectionate follower.

It seems that more and more software developers in the Linux and FOSS ecosystem want to implement changes to comply with various age-verification laws. I understand that for the KDE developers and maintainers it might be a difficult decision whether to make this kind of changes or not. They have to consider “legal” aspects, collaboration with other developers, and, possibly, also what their user base think. What to weigh in, and how much weight to give to what, is of course up to the maintainers and developers.

I respect the choice that will be made by KDE. But I also want to make clear, in a respectful and polite way, that if such changes are implemented in KDE software and the Kubuntu distro, then I’ll move away from them, to other software and distros that do not comply (there already are some and I’m sure there’ll be plenty more).

“Well, who cares?” might the KDE people justly say. Partly I’m writing this open letter out of a feeling of friendship. It’s somehow like when you discover that a dear friend might have values very different from yours, so you have to break your no-longer-meaningful friendship, but you also feel you have to explain to your friend why, rather than going away silently. I also believe that many other KDE users think like I do, so this message does not come from me alone.

For me GNU Linux and FOSS is not only a choice about software: it’s also a choice about human values, human rights, and moral stances. These laws, besides being pointless, cross a threshold about human rights and values that I personally do not and will not allow (if this makes me a “criminal” in the egregious company of “criminals” like Claudette Colvin or King or Mandela, so be it). I want therefore to use software that also makes a similar choice, based not only on what’s “legal” but also on what’s “moral”. Besides appeals to politicians, marches of protests, strikes, and similar, also software choice is a form of protest and non-compliance; a stance.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/44944279

Krita 5.3/6.0 is the result of many years of work by the Krita developers. Some features have been rewritten from the ground up, others make their first appearance.

Enjoy the completely new text feature: on canvas editing, full opentype support, text flowing into shapes. It is now easier than ever to create vector-based panels for comic pages. Tools got extended: for instance, the fill tool now can close gaps. The liquify mode of the transform tool is much faster. There are new filters: a propagate colors filter and a reset transparent filter. Support for HDR painting has been improved. The recorder docker can now work in real time. There is improved support for file formats, like support for text objects in PSD files. And much, much, much more!

Depending which version of Qt and KDE Frameworks you build, the same source will result in one of the other. Both versions are almost functionally identical, with 6.0.0 having more Wayland functionality. But note that since Krita 6 is still considered rather experimental.

In KDE Plasma 6.6 Spectacle can read texts from screenshots, a new on-screen keybord is available for testing, a first-time wizard was added, current theme can be saved as a new global theme, emoji selector got a new easier skin tone selection, you can now connect to a Wi-Fi network via a QR code, application sound volume can be changed by scrolling over a taskbar button via mouse, and there is much more.

I had the sneaky suspicion that there would be a way to click on the vertical scroll bar and get Page Up/Down, like in Windows, in addition to the very useful Linux way. I found that in Firefox, Thunderbird and other applications right-clicking achieves that. But in KDE Plasma applications I get a menu with more options, which is powerful but less efficient when you only want to move up/down. In fact, the menu doesn't add much because you can easily jump to the top/bottom or scroll up/down easily anyway.

For consistency, is there a way to make all applications work like Firefox? That menu could be shown with middle-click (but I wouldn't mind losing it). Failing that, middle-click on the scroll bar of KDE Plasma applications could do a Page up/down.

I see in settings I can make KDE Plasma applications do Page Up/Down with left-click and jump to location with middle-click, but then that's different from Firefox etc and muscle memory gets messed up.

Edit: It really was an issue with my mouse, I put it to pasture.

Constantly when I try drag & drop on Dolphin & Firefox, the dragging stops mid-way before I stop holding left click, it’s a showstopper for me using KDE. I found others have this issue as well but is there anything I can about it? I’m using Wayland, NixOS, and a Logitech G604 mouse.

Today, I found out the color schemes can adapt the wallpaper color, BUT the default Breeze/Breeze dark themes can't do that. If you try to, you can only save a copy of the scheme.

On the other hand, the Breeze global theme can adapt to colors and switch light / dark.

So, I end up in a situation where full color adaptation and light/dark switching together is not possible. I can either pick some other global themes which don't do dark/light and color adaptation, but I can have an adaptive color scheme, or I am stuck with the default Breeze light/dark.

There must be a way.... help??

So I use Fedora with ffmpeg-free and the AMD drivers swapped out with the RPM fusion versions. My default mp4-player is Firefox so I never had any issues but for academic reasons I decided to test Elisa.

No sound plays.

I enable my built-in speakers, the sound plays through them.

I try Dragon Player, same issue.

I google it, no solution.

I ask AI, still no solution.

I uninstall both of them and swap to Firefox, problem solved.

Installed mpv (flatpak) just to check, works fine (other than the media controls being tiny and there being no settings menu).

So my question is, is this a normal thing for KDE or is this a Fedora thing? I tried various steps but nothing seemed to work. Apparently others have solved this with different media players (like I have), and apparently in the past Fedora lacked mp3 support (but not currently).

I need to know if I can blame KDE for this and thus recommend Fedora, or whether this is a Fedora issue.

EDIT: I reinstalled them as flatpaks and they're fixed. I would still ideally like to know why they refuse to use the selected bluetooth headphones and instead use the speakers.

EDIT 2: I installed Elisa on my CachyOS desktop that doesn't have built-in speakers and it played through Bluetooth properly. Next I'll need to liveboot into Kubuntu or something and see if the issue persists.

Hello!

Two years ago, I published a post explaining how to hide the desktop preview banner (https://lemmy.ml/post/8802064). Since then, that flag has been renamed, so I think it's a good time to remind everyone of its existence.

Currently, the setting flag has been renamed from HideDesktopPreviewBanner=true to ShowDesktopPreviewBanner=false in the ~/.config/kdeglobals file, under the [General] section.

~/.config/kdeglobals

[General]
ShowDesktopPreviewBanner=false

⛲ Source: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/blob/92bcd0dfd0cb0c574006363eb287178e563b7c7e/shell/desktopview.cpp#L97

Have a good day!

What does everyone think about changing the authentication system in to support modern authentication methods such as FIDO and multi-step MFA?

Is there any way to get 3 finger gestures identical to Gnome in KDE Plasma?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/37847733

How do you make a great desktop into a fantastic desktop? Easy — chip away at the rough bits, polish the good stuff, and add awesomeness. After 29 years of development, KDE’s got the foundation nailed down. Plasma 6.5 is all about fine-tuning, fresh features, and a making everything smooth and sleek for everyone.

Ready to see what’s new? Let’s dive into Plasma 6.5!

Highlights:

• Automatic Theme Transitions: Configure when your theme will transition from light to dark and back.
• Caret Text Navigation: Zoom now swoops in to where you type
• KRunner Fuzzy Search: Even if you type it wrong, KRunner will find it!

This week is KDE’s 29th anniversary. It may not be a nice round number like 25 or 30, but whenever another birthday rolls around for an independent project the size and scope of KDE — powered by the goodwill of its contributors and users — that’s really quite something!

This year KDE are celebrating by kicking off their yearly fundraiser. Let’s raise at least €50,000 before the end of the year!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/37357158

As a community-driven flavor of Ubuntu, Kubuntu continues its mission to deliver the cutting-edge KDE software ecosystem on top of Ubuntu’s rock-solid foundation. This interim release, aligned with Ubuntu’s six-month cycle, packs in the freshest updates to Plasma, Frameworks, and applications, ensuring a smooth, performant desktop experience for millions of users worldwide.

Building on the Ubuntu 25.10 base released today by Canonical, Kubuntu 25.10 introduces Plasma 6.4 as the flagship update, alongside Qt 6.9, KDE Frameworks 6.17.0, and the latest KDE Gear 25.08 suite.

We’ve also upgraded to Linux kernel 6.17 for enhanced hardware support and efficiency. Whether you’re a developer, creator, or everyday user, this release emphasizes Wayland adoption, modern security, and seamless integration with the open source world.

Kubuntu remains completely free to download, use, and share—empowering our global community to innovate without barriers. Download it now from kubuntu.org/getkubuntu

doing a writeup for myself so why not let others in on the thing.

so the main tool is darkman. install instructions are on the github, it's in the package manager on a lot of distros. after install and starting the service, all that's needed is to create:

$ mkdir -p ~/.local/share/{light,dark}-mode.d/

not a fan of this layout, a single hook woulda been enough, but what do I know. anyhoo, we need the script to switch the theme:

$ nano ~/.local/share/light-mode.d/light.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
export WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0
export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland
export DISPLAY=:0

plasma-apply-colorscheme BreezeLight

and the inverse for dark:

$ nano ~/.local/share/dark-mode.d/dark.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
export WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0
export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland
export DISPLAY=:0

plasma-apply-colorscheme BreezeDark

make both scripts executable:

$ chmod +x .local/share/{light,dark}-mode.d/*.sh

you can optionally change wallpapers, icons, etc. in them scripts.

and that's it. works fine, you can hardcode the hours for switching, otherwise it uses your coarse location for determining sunrise/sunset. most QT and GTK apps follow the new setting instantly, some still don't, you need to restart them. you can use darkman get to return the current mode, for shell scripts and such.

Set any application as Plasma background

Missing your favorite xscreensaver hack? Have an old Windows screensaver that works under Wine? Want to have htop as your wallpaper? Or maybe you'd like to write your own screensaver in Godot? This addon lets you use any application as a Plasma wallpaper or screensaver.

https://invent.kde.org/dos/plasma-wallpaper-application

https://store.kde.org/p/2318884/

#kde #plasma #wayland #gnu #linux
@kde @kde @kde

The app I want to be transparent is a GTK app: OrcaSlicer. I want to overlay an Orca render on top of a web cam image of the actual part and align them to have identical zoom, perspective, etc. Is there a way?

Any help or suggestions appreciated!

KDE v6.3.6 / Manjaro

Feels like it should just be a setting, just like transparent windows, but everytime I've tried to make it transparent I have to install a theme and some other package, and the themes are never up to date properly. In fact I've never made it work in a satisfactory or nice looking way.

I'm looking for a desktop widget that will just display the day's agenda from google calendar (I know google is not ideal, but I need reminders on my phone for events and haven't found a better solution that works on both desktop and android.) I have the Digital Clock widget which I've configured to display a calendar that pops up and shows the dates and upcoming events, but I'd like something that just shows the events for the day on my desktop all the time. I've done a fair bit of searching around and the best I've found so far is Event Calendar, but it's not updated for Plasma 6 and the various p6 forks people have posted about either seem very bare bones/incomplete or to just not work. On android I have this widget on my home screen and something simple and easy to see like that would be ideal.

Sorry, this is going to come across as a newbie rant... mostly because I just switched a few months ago. I'm not completely unfamiliar with Linux. I had to use Unix in college for some projects. I've dual-booted with Windows before. I use a Mac at work. I'm reasonably comfortable in the console, though I'm certainly no expert. I feel like what I'm about to talk about shouldn't be so confusing/unintuitive.

I'm running Kubuntu on an older laptop. I have a burnable DVD that may or may not be blank. The disc is old, scratched, and unlabeled, but I would like to see if anything is on it.

I press the eject button on my laptop's disc drive. The tray comes out. I insert the disc and close the tray. The system gets busy trying to read the disc, but eventually stops spinning. Nothing pops up. Dolphin doesn't show my disc drive in the "Devices" panel, or that there's anything in the drive. VLC says it can't read the disc.

Ok, fine. The disc is probably either empty, or it's too scratched to read and needs to be trashed, so I would like to remove it from my system. I push the eject button again, and... nothing happens. It's the same button I used to open the tray to insert the disc, but now it's unresponsive. I open Dolphin and confirm that it doesn't show that I even have a disc drive in the "Devices" panel (presumably because nothing's in it). I open the "Discs and Devices" section in the Notification tray, and the most I can get it to show is my hard drive. It's like my computer doesn't believe the DVD drive exists.

So, what do I have to do? I can open MakeMKV, and it has an Eject button that opens the tray. I'm sure plenty of other software has similar functionality. I can also open the terminal and type "eject", and the tray pops right open. Clearly, my system knows that there's a DVD drive, and it has the ability to open the tray.

Why doesn't the eject button work? Why doesn't Dolphin just always show the DVD drive? Why do I have to google "How to eject a dvd kubuntu"? What am I missing?

System:

Ubuntu 25.04

Drive: BD-RE BU40N (Firmware: 2024-04-23 13:47)

CPU: Intel Core i7-5500U CPU @ 2.40GHz

Memory: 16GB (2x 8GB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz)

Not sure why I get the impression...

🙃

Hello,

I have a fresh install of OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with KDE Plasma 6.3.5.

Every time I open an app which needs root privileges (such as myrlyn) I’m greeted by the KDE su window to enter my password. Even if I tick “Remember my password”, this does not have any effects, and the next time I’m asked for my password again.

Any idea on how to ensure the “Remember my password” setting in KDE su is honoured?

Thanks!

There's one old game that works better by chosing "Scaled by the system"; however this make other x11 apps look slightly blurry. Is it possible to either choose "Apply scaling themselves" and exclude one app from it, or exclude every other app from "scaled by the system", so it only affect this one game?