How to Customize KDE - KDE Customization - Chris Titus Tech
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Date: 2022-03-20
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Comments and reviews: 10
Peter
I don't know if most viewers understand how powerful KRun (alt+space or alt+F2 by default) is. Not only does it load any program or GUI-part, also it can find any document in your home folder. You've got a PDF with a certain title or an a folder which contains all the songs in an album (music), just enter the beginning of the title and you can load it. You want to do a simple calculation or convert units, you can do it. You can search with it on the internet. In short, you can do a lot in it without leaving the window which you are working in.
On the removal of the titlebar and buttons, the way that Chris did it might cause the titlebar and buttons to come back after an update. I've had that happen because KDE overwrites -kwinrc-. Time will tell if that still is a problem. I haven't figured out yet whether or not you can enforce it after updates by editing more than this one file (better put, if you can find all the files which you need to change).
If it gets overwritten after an update then you might try this method. On System settings open Workspace => Window Management => Window Rules
Make a new window rule with -.-- because you want to applie it to all windows. Use a regular expression under Window class (application). Now under the tab Appearance and Fixes check the no titlebar and frame box, choose for force and check the yes-box. Now the titlebar and buttons will disappear.
If you are like me then you will get bothered by the ridiculously big OSD which gets on your display for 1.8 second each time when you change your volume. You can disable that by editing a file which is in one of the subfolders (which one depends on the chosen theme) in the path /usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel
Look in the folder contents and in one of the subfolders of /usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel you will find a folder with the name -OSD-. Open that folder, then open the file Osd.qml with a text-editor.
Now you simply change 1800 to 0 in these two lines:L
// OSD Timeout in msecs - how long it will stay on the screen
property int timeout: 0
One final note. Given that the last file is in root you will need to be root to edit the file. Fortunately Kate will do it if you enter your password but not all text editors will. If this happens to you on any desktop, go to the terminal, use sudo nano and you will be able to edit it and save it. Nano is a text editor which is on almost any Linux distro and the letters on the bottom have to be used in combination with the ctrl-key to execute the action. It is self-explanatory if you keep this in mind.
reply
I don't know if most viewers understand how powerful KRun (alt+space or alt+F2 by default) is. Not only does it load any program or GUI-part, also it can find any document in your home folder. You've got a PDF with a certain title or an a folder which contains all the songs in an album (music), just enter the beginning of the title and you can load it. You want to do a simple calculation or convert units, you can do it. You can search with it on the internet. In short, you can do a lot in it without leaving the window which you are working in.
On the removal of the titlebar and buttons, the way that Chris did it might cause the titlebar and buttons to come back after an update. I've had that happen because KDE overwrites -kwinrc-. Time will tell if that still is a problem. I haven't figured out yet whether or not you can enforce it after updates by editing more than this one file (better put, if you can find all the files which you need to change).
If it gets overwritten after an update then you might try this method. On System settings open Workspace => Window Management => Window Rules
Make a new window rule with -.-- because you want to applie it to all windows. Use a regular expression under Window class (application). Now under the tab Appearance and Fixes check the no titlebar and frame box, choose for force and check the yes-box. Now the titlebar and buttons will disappear.
If you are like me then you will get bothered by the ridiculously big OSD which gets on your display for 1.8 second each time when you change your volume. You can disable that by editing a file which is in one of the subfolders (which one depends on the chosen theme) in the path /usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel
Look in the folder contents and in one of the subfolders of /usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel you will find a folder with the name -OSD-. Open that folder, then open the file Osd.qml with a text-editor.
Now you simply change 1800 to 0 in these two lines:L
// OSD Timeout in msecs - how long it will stay on the screen
property int timeout: 0
One final note. Given that the last file is in root you will need to be root to edit the file. Fortunately Kate will do it if you enter your password but not all text editors will. If this happens to you on any desktop, go to the terminal, use sudo nano and you will be able to edit it and save it. Nano is a text editor which is on almost any Linux distro and the letters on the bottom have to be used in combination with the ctrl-key to execute the action. It is self-explanatory if you keep this in mind.
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Cosmonauth
Great video as always! As a long time KDE user on different distros, I would like to add some lines:
1 Default window placement is annoying: go to Settings - Window Management - Additional tab (the last one) - Placement - is set to -smart- (lol) - Set it to -center-
2 Unable to set desktop gamma in settings: Some distributions doesn't ship KDE Plasma with all of its packages (hello Fedora): - install Kgamma package
3 Sometimes when u connect HDMI device (TV), you can't set sound output to it and it doesn't set automatically: - install pavucontrol package instead of Kmix
4 Black Screen Update Disaster - I've said it before, go to tty (no GUI anyway) and remove your /home/username/.kde4 folder and relog/reboot - don't worry, It's safe to do this
5 You can set desktop wallpaper by simply drag-n-drop an image, try it once, you'll love it.
6 KDE Wallet annoys you when you're connecting to familiar Wi-Fi network? Go to network settings, choose your Wi-Fi network and go to Security Tab (dunno exact name, my UI is in Ukrainian) - and set the option to save Wi-Fi password unencrypted. Can't really say if its safe or not, but I'm not that paranoid to care. I'm paranoid about networks I connect, not their passwords.
All these from my personal experience as a user. Hope some of this could be useful.
reply
Great video as always! As a long time KDE user on different distros, I would like to add some lines:
1 Default window placement is annoying: go to Settings - Window Management - Additional tab (the last one) - Placement - is set to -smart- (lol) - Set it to -center-
2 Unable to set desktop gamma in settings: Some distributions doesn't ship KDE Plasma with all of its packages (hello Fedora): - install Kgamma package
3 Sometimes when u connect HDMI device (TV), you can't set sound output to it and it doesn't set automatically: - install pavucontrol package instead of Kmix
4 Black Screen Update Disaster - I've said it before, go to tty (no GUI anyway) and remove your /home/username/.kde4 folder and relog/reboot - don't worry, It's safe to do this
5 You can set desktop wallpaper by simply drag-n-drop an image, try it once, you'll love it.
6 KDE Wallet annoys you when you're connecting to familiar Wi-Fi network? Go to network settings, choose your Wi-Fi network and go to Security Tab (dunno exact name, my UI is in Ukrainian) - and set the option to save Wi-Fi password unencrypted. Can't really say if its safe or not, but I'm not that paranoid to care. I'm paranoid about networks I connect, not their passwords.
All these from my personal experience as a user. Hope some of this could be useful.
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itech
I was hoping to learn how to change the spacing between icons on the desktop, how to change transparencies, how to stretch the main menu or, Especially, the fonts (that look to me like they are out of focus or something..). I tried infinality in my Manjaro.. looks a bit better, but I can still see the kind of -out of focus- effect (and I don't like the forced Italic on the shortcuts, but I am yet to find the setting in the gui to disable it).I tried all the AA options, dpi to 100, 96, 90 and 80 (the -restart your app to see the result- popup is annoying) but they look the same with any setting. Then I installed windows fonts and changed it to Arial and all hell broke loose (text going over buttons and menus). So now I'm back to Noto, but it is so Ugly.
I understand this will be very useful to a new install, but would you consider revisiting this topic with a little bit more customization tips for those who already installed KDE.. Please.. please :)You still get a like from me.. always! Thank you
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I was hoping to learn how to change the spacing between icons on the desktop, how to change transparencies, how to stretch the main menu or, Especially, the fonts (that look to me like they are out of focus or something..). I tried infinality in my Manjaro.. looks a bit better, but I can still see the kind of -out of focus- effect (and I don't like the forced Italic on the shortcuts, but I am yet to find the setting in the gui to disable it).I tried all the AA options, dpi to 100, 96, 90 and 80 (the -restart your app to see the result- popup is annoying) but they look the same with any setting. Then I installed windows fonts and changed it to Arial and all hell broke loose (text going over buttons and menus). So now I'm back to Noto, but it is so Ugly.
I understand this will be very useful to a new install, but would you consider revisiting this topic with a little bit more customization tips for those who already installed KDE.. Please.. please :)You still get a like from me.. always! Thank you
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MegaManNeo
I love Plasma!
Combined with Arc Dark and having window decoration removed on maximized programs makes it look amazing too!
That said, thanks for showing that trick with the config file, I used to set every program individually to hide it and that's always work to be done that isn't necessary.
In terms of the ThinkPad next to my PC, I actually made Plasma look a little like Unity too by having a top bar for menus and the side bar for lauching programs.
It's just so much fun to tinker around with it.
Otherwise I actually made Plasma adapt Windows10 shortcuts for such that I use the most.
Not the worst thing to do either, it helps when working in both systems.
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I love Plasma!
Combined with Arc Dark and having window decoration removed on maximized programs makes it look amazing too!
That said, thanks for showing that trick with the config file, I used to set every program individually to hide it and that's always work to be done that isn't necessary.
In terms of the ThinkPad next to my PC, I actually made Plasma look a little like Unity too by having a top bar for menus and the side bar for lauching programs.
It's just so much fun to tinker around with it.
Otherwise I actually made Plasma adapt Windows10 shortcuts for such that I use the most.
Not the worst thing to do either, it helps when working in both systems.
reply
Will
I was looking for a more advanced description of how you can edit parts of a theme (make the taskbar blue or change the transparency of something). There might be custom themes that have already thought of those tweaks.
When I read KDE's documentation, it said you have a theme folder under .kde/share/apps/, but I don't see one for my user account (I haven't applied something besides the default theme yet). There is something under maybe /usr/share/kde4 and /usr/share/plasma that looks like folders for each installed theme. I just don't know how to edit the colors text file.
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I was looking for a more advanced description of how you can edit parts of a theme (make the taskbar blue or change the transparency of something). There might be custom themes that have already thought of those tweaks.
When I read KDE's documentation, it said you have a theme folder under .kde/share/apps/, but I don't see one for my user account (I haven't applied something besides the default theme yet). There is something under maybe /usr/share/kde4 and /usr/share/plasma that looks like folders for each installed theme. I just don't know how to edit the colors text file.
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RipCityBassWorks
As much as I want to like KDE, I just can't get used to it no matter how much I try. Though this video did help with some of the issues I have been having, I still find KDE much too complicated to theme and customize to look the way I want. It doesn't help that I find many of the KDE apps to be either redundant, unstable, or outdated. I feel like KDE is designed for someone who prefers the older design philosophy, appreciates the endless customization options, and uses the default KDE apps, which doesn't leave much wiggle room for users with different expectations.
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As much as I want to like KDE, I just can't get used to it no matter how much I try. Though this video did help with some of the issues I have been having, I still find KDE much too complicated to theme and customize to look the way I want. It doesn't help that I find many of the KDE apps to be either redundant, unstable, or outdated. I feel like KDE is designed for someone who prefers the older design philosophy, appreciates the endless customization options, and uses the default KDE apps, which doesn't leave much wiggle room for users with different expectations.
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Kre-imir
KDE has fantastic default programs. Dolphin is amazing (I like it better than Nautilus, Dolphin has Terminal by default, too, just hit F4), and Kate is my favourite text editor.
On Windows, I used to use Atom for most of my coding and Notepad++ for everything else, and when I switched to Linux, I used Atom for months, and cried that Notepad++ is not properly implemented, not even thinking about giving Kate a chance. Then I discovered how awesome and powerful Kate is and now it is pretty much my only text editor. It leaves both Atom and Notepad++ in the dust.
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KDE has fantastic default programs. Dolphin is amazing (I like it better than Nautilus, Dolphin has Terminal by default, too, just hit F4), and Kate is my favourite text editor.
On Windows, I used to use Atom for most of my coding and Notepad++ for everything else, and when I switched to Linux, I used Atom for months, and cried that Notepad++ is not properly implemented, not even thinking about giving Kate a chance. Then I discovered how awesome and powerful Kate is and now it is pretty much my only text editor. It leaves both Atom and Notepad++ in the dust.
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James
I could never get a handle on KDE. It used to be to heavy for any machine I had. So many options, so much special K software. You could spend hours trying to figure things out. I have become frustrated with the -search- since XP. It never finds what you want. Ubuntu Unity had to be the worst with its -search.- Maybe Google we teach an OS how to do -search- some day. As far as -Chrome,- nothing is better, I use it too. Chromium doesn't work. Downloading though I stick with Firefox.
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I could never get a handle on KDE. It used to be to heavy for any machine I had. So many options, so much special K software. You could spend hours trying to figure things out. I have become frustrated with the -search- since XP. It never finds what you want. Ubuntu Unity had to be the worst with its -search.- Maybe Google we teach an OS how to do -search- some day. As far as -Chrome,- nothing is better, I use it too. Chromium doesn't work. Downloading though I stick with Firefox.
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starving030
I have a problem with themes. The themes that have the translucent applications/start menu and translucent panels aren't translucent. Instead, they have a salt n pepper look. Like the desktop doesn't know how to render it. I have tried many different themes with the same result. Solid colors work fine though.I can't find anything online about it because i'm not sure what that effect is called.
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I have a problem with themes. The themes that have the translucent applications/start menu and translucent panels aren't translucent. Instead, they have a salt n pepper look. Like the desktop doesn't know how to render it. I have tried many different themes with the same result. Solid colors work fine though.I can't find anything online about it because i'm not sure what that effect is called.
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Booming
The solarized theme looks awesome in Konsole, just set a bit of transparency and blur to enhance it: Boom, your terminal looks awesome!
Also I like to install themes over the package managers. I head some headaches going on with discover showing themes installed but would not appear in the settings or were not clickable. Using pacman solved this.
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The solarized theme looks awesome in Konsole, just set a bit of transparency and blur to enhance it: Boom, your terminal looks awesome!
Also I like to install themes over the package managers. I head some headaches going on with discover showing themes installed but would not appear in the settings or were not clickable. Using pacman solved this.
reply
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