Setting up KDE Neon

4 min read 6.4.2020

Setting up KDE Neon

Introduction

Over years I tried Gnome, KDE, XFCE, and Unity for the graphical user interface. In the end, KDE won this intense battle for me. And now I am trying to have only Qt-based software for everyday use cases. And here comes KDE Neon, Linux distribution from KDE developers with LTS version of Ubuntu as a base and latest KDE builds as updates.

Here are steps on how I usually configure freshly installed Neon. This is just notes for the future myself. Maybe someone will find it helpful.

Website of KDE Neon: https://neon.kde.org/.

You need 4 GB flash drive and image writer software. Use the one you are comfortable with. Installation is straight forward if you have installed any Linux distribution before.

Software

Open Discover and update your system.

Discover

Then install the following software:

  • Kontact
  • KeepassX
  • KDE Partition Manager
  • Gimp
  • Calibre
  • Zoom
  • Slack
  • Atom
  • Telegram
  • Chromium
  • LibreOffice
  • LibreOffice Writer
  • LibreOffice Calc
  • LibreOffice Math
  • LibreOffice Base
  • LibreOffice Base - LibreOffice KDE Integration
  • Elisa

Postman

Postman is a collaboration platform for API Development.

Go to the Downloads page and choose the appropriate version.

tar -xzf Postman-linux-x64-7.26.0.tar.gz
rm -rf /opt/Postman
sudo mv Postman /opt/Postman
sudo ln -s /opt/Postman/Postman /usr/bin/postman

cat > ~/.local/share/applications/postman.desktop <<EOL
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Postman
Exec=postman
# Before v6.1.2
# Icon=/opt/Postman/resources/app/assets/icon.png
Icon=/opt/Postman/app/resources/app/assets/icon.png 
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Development;
EOL

rm Postman-linux-x64-7.26.0.tar.gz

Note: Postman data, including collections and other settings, is located at:

~/.config/Postman

Syncthing

I use a stable version of syncing. To install it run:

curl -s https://syncthing.net/release-key.txt | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://apt.syncthing.net/ syncthing stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/syncthing.list

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install syncthing

Terminator

Terminator is a console emulator where you can arrange terminals in grid-like structure and tabs. Utility supports plugins.

To install it run:

sudo apt-get install terminator

Next, let's set up a theme. I use a theme called Misterioso.

Create a file named config in the home directory with the content:

[global_config]
  enabled_plugins = TerminatorThemes, LaunchpadCodeURLHandler, APTURLHandler, LaunchpadBugURLHandler
  suppress_multiple_term_dialog = True
[keybindings]
[layouts]
  [[default]]
    [[[child1]]]
      parent = window0
      profile = default
      type = Terminal
    [[[window0]]]
      parent = ""
      type = Window
[plugins]
[profiles]
  [[default]]
    background_color = "#2d3743"
    cursor_color = "#000000"
    foreground_color = "#e1e1e0"
    palette = "#000000:#ff4242:#74af68:#ffad29:#338f86:#9414e6:#23d7d7:#e1e1e0:#555555:#ff3242:#74cd68:#ffb929:#23d7d7:#ff37ff:#00ede1:#ffffff"

And copy this file to the Terminator configuration directory by command:

mkdir -p .config/terminator && mv config .config/terminator

Now if you reopen Terminator you must see a new theme.

Terminator with Misterioso theme

Calibre

I use Calibre to manage my eBooks and finalized documents. It has a functionally rich interface to manipulate PDFs or any other document format.

sudo -v && wget -nv -O- https://download.calibre-ebook.com/linux-installer.sh | sudo sh /dev/stdin

After that open Konsole and run the following commands:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server
sudo apt-get install net-tools
sudo apt-get install redshift
sudo apt-get install nmap
sudo apt-get install openvpn
sudo apt-get install traceroute
sudo apt install kazam

Redshift is used to reduce eyestrain. After package installation, you need to install the Redshift Control widget from KDE Store.

Update 28.04.2020

KDE Neon now comes with a built-in Night Color package. You can configure it by opening Night Color. Since it's fresh addition you may experience a small bug as did I. Instead of switching to night mode software starts flickering modes on and off. But the solution is pretty simple, you need to open ~/.config/kwinrc and delete the whole [Night Color] section. After that reboot your machine and now it should work fine. I am sure this small bug will be solved very soon.

Also, install Event Calendar widget.

Configuration

  • Add language layouts
  • Configure Dolphin: Press Togler Button on the right side and choose Configure Dolphin.. or use 'Ctrl + Shift + ,'. Choose Delete service from services and press apply.

Theme and Look

  • Go to Settings -> Appearance -> Global Theme and choose Breeze Dark
  • Go to Settings -> Appearance -> Plasma Style and press Get New Plasma Styles, Search for Adapta. Install and choose it.

Kontact Data Migration

Copy ~/.local/share/local-mail and press check email before adding identities and emails to sync emails with Akonadi. Spoiler: Resources will be used a lot depending on your total mailbox size.
and then add identities and Emails again.

Contact - Export to vCards 4 and then import on the new host machine. This step gives you syncronization of Calendar, To-do List and Journal data.

No Batteries Available

Update 14.06.2020

On my fresh installation, I encountered a small bug. There are no batteries displayed in the KDE Battery widget. To fix it the quickest way is to run:

mv ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc.bak

And reboot your machine.

Warning: this will reset some of your plasma settings and you need to set up your widgets from scratch. If it doesn't fix your problem with the battery widget, just rename the config file back to its original name and reboot again.

Disable pipewire-media-session

Pipewire is a new multimedia framework by Gnome. For the last few weeks I regularly find pipewire-media-session eating 25% CPU. You can check the status of this software by running:

sudo systemctl --user status pipewire.socket
sudo systemctl --user status pipewire.service

I prefer to not overheat my machine randomly for unused software so I disabled it by:

sudo systemctl --user stop pipewire.socket
sudo systemctl --user disable pipewire.socket
sudo systemctl --user stop pipewire.service
sudo systemctl --user disable pipewire.service

If after using user flag problem persists, you can disable the service globally:

sudo systemctl disable --global pipewire
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