Plasma - ArchWiki

# Plasma

Related articles

- Desktop environment
- KDE
- Qt
- Uniform Look for Qt and GTK Applications

This article or section is a candidate for merging with KDE.

Notes: Perhaps this page made sense in 2009 but currently there seems no point to having a separate page. It duplicates and complicates the KDE plasma section. (Discuss)

Plasma is the component of the KDE project that actually displays the desktop (i.e. wallpapers, panels, etc) using 'containments'. The containments are capable of containing other widgets called plasmoids.

## Installation

Note: Plasma 5 is not coinstallable with KDE 4 Workspace. If you install it you will be prompted to remove kdebase-workspace. It's a good idea to remove it first and then install plasma-meta or plasma.

The Plasma 5 Desktop workspace is available in the official repositories as plasma-meta or plasma group.

## Starting Plasma

Starting Plasma depends on your preferences. Basically there are two ways of starting Plasma. Using a display manager or xinitrc.

### Using a Display Manager

A display manager, or login manager, is typically a graphical user interface that is displayed at the end of the boot process in place of the default shell. It allows easily logging in straight to Plasma. Using SDDM as DM is recommended, as it provides better integration with the Plasma 5 theme.

To launch a Plasma 5 session, choose "Plasma" in your display manager menu.

Note: To better integrate SDDM with Plasma, it is recommended to edit /etc/sddm.conf to use the breeze theme, which is automatically installed with plasma-meta or plasma. Refer to SDDM#Theme_settings for instructions.

### Using xinitrc

See the xinitrc page for more information.

Add this line to your `.xinitrc` file:

    ~/.xinitrc

    exec startkde

Execute startx or xinit to start Plasma.

Note: If you want to start Xorg at boot, please read the Start X at login article.

## Configuration

Plasma is a desktop integration technology that provides many functions like displaying the wallpaper, adding widgets to the desktop, and handling the panel(s), or "taskbar(s)".

### Themes

Plasma themes define the look of panels and plasmoids. For easy system-wide installation, some such themes are available in both the official repositories and the AUR.

The easiest way to install themes is by going through the Desktop Settings control panel:

     Workspace Theme > Desktop Theme > Get new Themes

This will present a nice frontend for kde-look.org that allows you to install, uninstall, or update third-party plasmoid scripts with literally just one click.

### Plasmoids

The easiest way to install plasmoid scripts is by right-clicking onto a panel or the desktop:

     Add Widgets > Get new Widgets > Download Widgets

This will present a nice frontend for kde-look.org that allows you to install, uninstall, or update third-party plasmoid scripts with literally just one click.

## Tips and tricks

This article or section is being considered for deletion.

Reason: Completely unrelated to Qt5 or Plasma5 (Discuss)

### Changing Style of "old" Qt4-Applications

If the design of all Qt4-based applications is not Breeze, then you can use `qtconfig-qt4` to fix it

### Changing Icons in "old" Qt4-Applications

If icons of Qt4-based applications are still previous icons from KDE4, then you can use `kcmshell4 icons` to fix it. You might have to unselect Breeze and back to apply.

Category:

- KDE