Working with KDE

Before switching to Arch Linux I used Fedora/Gnome. Since then I tried other window manager such as sway or hyprland. But they were to complicate to get running properly.

For gaming I am using a Steam Deck that runs Arch/KDE. I decided to give KDE a try on my Arch machine.

The nice thing about window managers on Linux: You can have multiples! So if something does not work as expected or you don’t know your way around yet, you can simply logout.

Installing KDE is very simple. First make sure all packages are up to date.

sudo pacman -Syu

Then install KDE Plasma and applications.

sudo pacman -S plasma kde-applications

Once the installation of the packages is finished, logout of the account, select KDE Wayland in the login options and login. You should see the KDE desktop.

In my case I had a few issues:

• The screenshoot tool Gradia no longer works
• A notification got stuck to another notification service
• EurKey keyboard layout / compose key not working

However, making this seamless switch to KDE came with very little problems. Most of the stuff such as wifi, bluetooth, screen, autostart, services, keybindings, file manager, power management or updates simply worked. Kudos to the KDE project!