The quest for a pure KDE computer

[SteveRiley]

I'm beginning to think that you have, at some point in time, partially removed the KDE/Plasma Desktop environment. That would (in part) explain why your Konsole window decorations appear to be Gnome.

Me thinks it's time to do a complete (re)installation of the KDE/Plasma environment. What do you thing SR?

In fact, given the title of this thread, how many apps has whatthefunk removed in the quest for a 'pure KDE computer'?

I do believe you're right, Mr. Hog. Mr. Funk's computer has been on the operation table for too long.

Mr. Funk: a basic suggestion, if I may. Download the Ubuntu (not K) alternate install CD. Perform a command line install. The installer will prompt you through several steps. If one of these steps happens to include a package that shows any kind of desktop environment, deselect that. Carry on with the remainder until it's done.

When the computer boots, you'll be in pure console mode. Do an update and dist-upgrade, reboot if necessary, and then:

sudo apt-get install kde-plasma-desktop

That'll give you a basic KDE. From there, you can install and customize all you want.

[whatthefunk]

I do believe you're right, Mr. Hog. Mr. Funk's computer has been on the operation table for too long.

Mr. Funk: a basic suggestion, if I may. Download the Ubuntu (not K) alternate install CD. Perform a command line install. The installer will prompt you through several steps. If one of these steps happens to include a package that shows any kind of desktop environment, deselect that. Carry on with the remainder until it's done.

When the computer boots, you'll be in pure console mode. Do an update and dist-upgrade, reboot if necessary, and then:

sudo apt-get install kde-plasma-desktop

That'll give you a basic KDE. From there, you can install and customize all you want.

Thats an interesting idea. Might have to go that route. If I do this, will it come with Ubuntu default packages, or will I get a bare-bones install?

[SteveRiley]

Thats an interesting idea. Might have to go that route. If I do this, will it come with Ubuntu default packages, or will I get a bare-bones install?

The CLI install gives you no GUI whatsoever. It's a minimal operating system. kde-plasma-destkop is a bare-bones DE: it'll bring in X, KDM, Plasma, and a minimal set of basic applications.

[whatthefunk]

The CLI install gives you no GUI whatsoever. It's a minimal operating system. kde-plasma-destkop is a bare-bones DE: it'll bring in X, KDM, Plasma, and a minimal set of basic applications.

That sounds perfect. Thanks for the tips! Ill get back to this thread when I get around to doing this.

[SteveRiley]

Well, I had heard some rumblings, but didn't pay much attention. The alternate install CD is history. As of Quantal beta 2, it is no longer being produced. The closest approximation I can come up with so far is to use the server install CD, which uses the same text-mode Debian installer as the alternate CD did. Then, once it's finished, you can un-server-ize the computer with:

sudo tasksel remove server
sudo apt-get purge linux-server

Oh, and in playing around with this idea a bit in a VM, I've discovered that my initial suggestion needs a bit of a modification. Both LightDM and KDM will install, and then debconf will bug you about which one you want. You can avoid that by specifically including kdm on the command line. You'll also want to get Rekonq and remove Konqueror.

sudo apt-get install kde-plasma-desktop kdm rekonq
sudo apt-get purge konqueror

I didn't play around with this enough to see what else might be necessary, if anything, to get stuff like sound and webcams to work. To assist, you might examine what's included in kubuntu-desktop. After you finish the initial install, use your favorite package manager (*) to see what items in kubuntu-desktop are missing. Grab the important stuff, like ALSA, ACPI, WLAN, etc. This will be a good learning experience for you.

Oh, and the lack of an alternate installer CD presents a small barrier to getting a command line install working on a UEFI system. You might want to follow the question I just posted to Ubuntu Forums about this.

(*) My favorite package manager for these kinds of activities is Aptitude. Once you get the hang of its shortcut keys, navigating up and down dependency trees is a snap. No GUI package manager comes close.

[whatthefunk]

Just downloaded the mini.iso for 12.04. Seems like that should do the trick. Backing everything up as we speak and then its doomsday for this install.

[SteveRiley]

Remember, there's no UEFI support in that one.

[whatthefunk]

Finally, I have a pure KDE computer! With nothing on it! Really is minimal...interesting. Im taking notes so I think Ill eventually make a HowTo about this. Got most things up and running, but am having a few problems. I installed gdebi-kde to open .deb packages with, but its broken for some reason. When I click on a .deb package, the GUI opens up and gives info about the package, but when I click "Install" nothing happens. Im guessing that it is missing something, maybe the package that gives it sudo access?

EDIT: Stupid me...it needed kdesudo. Thought that would have come with the plasma desktop.

EDIT #2: Figured out my Konsole/Yakuake problems! The issue was that the oxygen-transparent style transparency was messing up the Konsole transparency. If anybody else has this problem, you can run "oxygen-transparent-settings" in a terminal and under the General tab in the GUI, make an exception for Yakuake and Konsole.

[SteveRiley]

Some time ago, I documented my step-by-step hand-built KDE. It's likely to be a bit out of date at this point. Perhaps it'll be a useful reference for you.

Regarding oxygen-transparent... it looks very nice, but it's quirky enough that I stopped using it. It would tend to forget about icons in some programs, like KolourPaint, and replace them all with the square-box-question-mark thing.

[Snowhog]

I use the Oxygen Theme, which is one of the three default themes. I like 'dark' and it's panel transparency is nice. No conflicts with transparency settings elsewhere.

[whatthefunk]

Some time ago, I documented my step-by-step hand-built KDE. It's likely to be a bit out of date at this point. Perhaps it'll be a useful reference for you.

Very helpful! Thanks again.

[whatthefunk]

Having some issues adding language support. The normal language selector found in System Settings > Locale is missing. Any idea what program is missing?

[SteveRiley]

Hm... didn't see anything obvious. So let's compare something. Open KRunner and enter

kcmshell4 language

Leave that window open. Go to a console and type

lsof | awk '/kcmshell4/ {print $9}'

Paste the output here. I'll compare it with my standard Kubuntu install, and perhaps we can find out what additional files are present, figure out which packages are necessary, and then install them.

There might be a more elegant way to figure this out, but it doesn't occur to me at the moment.

[SteveRiley]

Wait. Does it work if you run

kdesudo kcmshell4 language

If so, then you might need to install policykit-desktop-privileges. Also check for polkit-kde-1, but I suspect you'll already have that one.

[whatthefunk]

I borked something up. Desktop was completely frozen and after hours of messing around in the command line trying to figure out what I had done wqrong, I gave up and started over. So here I am with my very minimal install again. Im going to follow the guide you posted earlier about installing basic KDE packages because my guess is that the lack of one of those packages led to my problems.

EDIT:
Okay, just installed most things from the guide you made earlier in the year. No problems so far. One weird thing though....something brought konqueror back in.


Install: libswscale2:amd64 (0.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1, automatic), libokularcore1abi1:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1, automatic), kipi-plugins:amd64 (2.5.0-1ubuntu2), libkvkontakte1:amd64 (1.0~digikam2.5.0-1ubuntu2, automatic), libboost-filesystem1.46.1:amd64 (1.46.1-7ubuntu3, automatic), libgraphicsmagick3:amd64 (1.3.12-1.1build1, automatic), libksane0:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.2, automatic), libavutil51:amd64 (0.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1, automatic), libwxbase2.8-0:amd64 (2.8.12.1-6ubuntu2, automatic), libgphoto2-l10n:amd64 (2.4.13-1ubuntu1.2, automatic), kipi-plugins-common:amd64 (2.5.0-1ubuntu2, automatic), svgpart:amd64 (4.8.2-0ubuntu1), libcupsimage2:amd64 (1.5.3-0ubuntu4, automatic), libgphoto2-port0:amd64 (2.4.13-1ubuntu1.2, automatic), libopencv-legacy2.3:amd64 (2.3.1-7, automatic), enblend:amd64 (4.0+dfsg-4ubuntu1, automatic), kdegraphics-thumbnailers:amd64 (4.8.2-0ubuntu1), libwmf0.2-7:amd64 (0.2.8.4-10ubuntu1, automatic), libopencv-imgproc2.3:amd64 (2.3.1-7, automatic), ksnapshot:amd64 (4.8.2-0ubuntu1), libkexiv2-data:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1, automatic), libkipi8:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1, automatic), libkipi-data:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1, automatic), libspectre1:amd64 (0.2.6-1build1, automatic), enfuse:amd64 (4.0+dfsg-4ubuntu1, automatic), libjbig2dec0:amd64 (0.11-1ubuntu1, automatic), libsane:amd64 (1.0.22-7ubuntu1, automatic), libopencv-objdetect2.3:amd64 (2.3.1-7, automatic), libopencv-calib3d2.3:amd64 (2.3.1-7, automatic), libglew1.5:amd64 (1.5.7.is.1.5.2-1ubuntu4, automatic), liblcms2-2:amd64 (2.2+git20110628-2ubuntu3, automatic), libboost-system1.46.1:amd64 (1.46.1-7ubuntu3, automatic), libmarblewidget13:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1, automatic), libopencv-features2d2.3:amd64 (2.3.1-7, automatic), libplot2c2:amd64 (2.6-2ubuntu1, automatic), libboost-signals1.46.1:amd64 (1.46.1-7ubuntu3, automatic), libpoppler-qt4-3:amd64 (0.18.4-1ubuntu2, automatic), libgs9-common:amd64 (9.05~dfsg-0ubuntu4.2, automatic), libpano13-bin:amd64 (2.9.18+dfsg-3build1, automatic), libopencv-video2.3:amd64 (2.3.1-7, automatic), libavcodec53:amd64 (0.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1, automatic), libkdcraw-data:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1, automatic), marble-plugins:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1, automatic), libopencv-core2.3:amd64 (2.3.1-7, automatic), libqjson0:amd64 (0.7.1-6, automatic), acl:amd64 (2.2.51-5ubuntu1, automatic), hugin-data:amd64 (2011.4.0+dfsg-1, automatic), kdegraphics-strigi-analyzer:amd64 (4.8.3-0ubuntu0.1), libopencv-flann2.3:amd64 (2.3.1-7, automatic), libijs-0.35:amd64 (0.35-8, automatic), hugin:amd64 (2011.4.0+dfsg-1, automatic), libwxgtk2.8-0:amd64 (2.8.12.1-6ubuntu2, automatic), libvpx1:amd64 (1.0.0-1, automatic), kcolorchooser:amd64 (4.8.2-0ubuntu1), kdegraphics-mobipocket:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1), cmap-adobe-japan1:amd64 (0+20090930-2, automatic), libieee1284-3:amd64 (0.2.11-10build1, automatic), libgpod4-nogtk:amd64 (0.8.2-4, automatic), libdjvulibre21:amd64 (3.5.24-9, automatic), kgamma:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1), libsane-common:amd64 (1.0.22-7ubuntu1, automatic), libboost-thread1.46.1:amd64 (1.46.1-7ubuntu3, automatic), libpano13-2:amd64 (2.9.18+dfsg-3build1, automatic), gs-cjk-resource:amd64 (1.20100103-3, automatic), libgsm1:amd64 (1.0.13-3, automatic), konqueror:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1, automatic), libkexiv2-10:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1, automatic), libzip2:amd64 (0.10-1ubuntu1, automatic), libschroedinger-1.0-0:amd64 (1.0.11-1, automatic), libgd2-xpm:amd64 (2.0.36~rc1~dfsg-6ubuntu2, automatic), libgs9:amd64 (9.05~dfsg-0ubuntu4.2, automatic), libavformat53:amd64 (0.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1, automatic), kolourpaint4:amd64 (4.8.4-0ubuntu0.1), libdc1394-22:amd64 (2.2.0-2, automatic), ghostscript:amd64 (9.05~dfsg-0ubuntu4.2, automatic), libksane-data:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.2, automatic), libepub0:amd64 (0.2.1-2build1, automatic), libkdcraw20:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1, automatic), libva1:amd64 (1.0.15-4, automatic), libexif12:amd64 (0.6.20-2ubuntu0.1, automatic), libdjvulibre-text:amd64 (3.5.24-9, automatic), libpaper-utils:amd64 (1.1.24+nmu1build1, automatic), libkgeomap-data:amd64 (1.0~digikam2.5.0-1ubuntu2, automatic), marble-data:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1, automatic), libkgeomap1:amd64 (1.0~digikam2.5.0-1ubuntu2, automatic), libboost-regex1.46.1:amd64 (1.46.1-7ubuntu3, automatic), libopencv-highgui2.3:amd64 (2.3.1-7, automatic), libpoppler19:amd64 (0.18.4-1ubuntu2, automatic), freeglut3:amd64 (2.6.0-1ubuntu3, automatic), okular:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1), libimage-exiftool-perl:amd64 (8.60-2, automatic), graphicsmagick:amd64 (1.3.12-1.1build1, automatic), gsfonts:amd64 (8.11+urwcyr1.0.7~pre44-4.2ubuntu1, automatic), graphicsmagick-imagemagick-compat:amd64 (1.3.12-1.1build1, automatic), libpaper1:amd64 (1.1.24+nmu1build1, automatic), libzthread-2.3-2:amd64 (2.3.2-4, automatic), okular-extra-backends:amd64 (4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1), hugin-tools:amd64 (2011.4.0+dfsg-1, automatic), libgphoto2-2:amd64 (2.4.13-1ubuntu1.2, automatic)