How to Install KDE Plasma in Linux Desktop

KDE is a well-known desktop environment for Unix-like systems designed for users who wants to have a nice desktop environment for their machines, It is one of the most used desktop interfaces out there.

[ You might also like: 10 Best and Most Popular Linux Desktop Environments of All Time ]

In the past few years, a lot of work has been geared towards improving the KDE desktop, with the latest stable release KDE Plasma 5 desktop series comes with some amazing features and bringing many improvements to the original task-manager, KRunner, including Wayland support which came around in Plasma 5 and activities as well, plus a more refined look and feel.

KDE Plasma 5 Features

There is a lot of new features in KDE Plasma 5, here’s a list of the most important new features.

  1. KDE 5 applications were rewritten using Qt 5; the next generation of the famous Qt library to design graphical interfaces, which means that KDE 5 apps will be faster than KDE 4 besides a better usage of GPU from KDE 5 applications.
  2. Completely new look for KDE 5 Plasma, with the new slicker plasma theme, KDE 5 Plasma is much more beautiful than KDE 4.x with the new flat design, besides the nice look, the “slicker” theme is lighter than the default theme for KDE.
  3. The Start menu for KDE 5 Plasma has been redesigned and the notifications area has also been redesigned, with fewer popup windows providing a better user experience to access the notifications.
  4. The lock screen window is also redesigned with a better login interface.
  5. Smoother performance, KDE 5 Plasma applications are rendered upon the top of the OpenGL scenegraph which means that KDE 5 programs have the priority when being rendered beside other processes.
  6. Hardware-acceleration migration is now complete, this means that Plasma 5 rendering will be faster now because of the fully-usage of the GPU.
  7. A nice set of new wallpapers will look perfect on the default theme.
  8. Many other features that you will explore on your own.

On 27 July 2021, the makers of KDE released yet another Plasma feature update, Plasma 5.22.4. It ships in with several exciting new features and improvements, bringing a classic feel to your desktop. For more details, see the release notes.

Installation of KDE Plasma in Linux

To install KDE Plasma on Ubuntu 20.04 and Linux Mint 20, you have to use the default repository using the following apt commands.

Install KDE Plasma On Ubuntu 20.04

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop
Install KDE Plasma Desktop in Ubuntu 20.04
Install KDE Plasma Desktop in Ubuntu 20.04

Please note during installation, it will ask you to configure the sddm login manager, click OK, and select the ‘sddm’ login manager as default.

Choose SDDM Login Manager
Choose SDDM Login Manager

Once the installation process is completed, make sure to restart your system and select Plasma Desktop and enter the password to login to the KDE Plasma desktop environment.

Choose KDE Plasma Desktop in Ubuntu
Choose KDE Plasma Desktop in Ubuntu
Running KDE Plasma Desktop in Ubuntu
Running KDE Plasma Desktop in Ubuntu

Install KDE Plasma On Linux Mint 20

The KDE Plasma desktop packages are already in the official repository of Linux Mint and you can install them using the following commands.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop
Install KDE Plasma Desktop in Linux Mint
Install KDE Plasma Desktop in Linux Mint

Choose sddm login manager.

Choose SDDM in Linux Mint
Choose SDDM in Linux Mint

After installation finishes, choose Plasma desktop from login.

Choose Plasma in Linux Mint
Choose Plasma in Linux Mint
Running KDE Plasma in Linux Mint
Running KDE Plasma in Linux Mint

Install KDE Plasma on Debian 11/10

$ sudo apt install tasksel
$ sudo tasksel install kde-desktop
OR
$ sudo tasksel  
Install KDE Plasma in Debian10
Install KDE Plasma in Debian10

Install KDE Plasma On OpenSUSE

For OpenSUSE, the latest version of KDE Plasma is available from the default repository for your system and you can install it using the zypper command as root.

$ sudo zypper in -t pattern kde kde_plasma

Install KDE Plasma On Fedora 34

For Fedora systems, new KDE plasma updates are available from the default repositories, make sure to keep your Fedora installation up-to-date, in order to install the most recent version of KDE Plasma using the following dnf commands.

$ sudo dnf update
$ sudo dnf install @kde-desktop

Install KDE Plasma On RHEL/CentOS and Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

# yum groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces"

For Arch Linux, packages are available to download from the official extra repository, activate it, and enjoy it.

KDE Plasma 5.22 Screenshot Tour

KDE Plasma Desktop View
KDE Plasma Desktop View
KDE Plasma System Settings
KDE Plasma System Settings
KDE Plasma Notifications Window
KDE Plasma Notifications Window
KDE Plasma System Monitor Window
KDE Plasma System Monitor Window

I hope that everything has worked fine, you can now enjoy KDE Plasma on your desktop.

In case of any queries or additional information you want to provide to us, you can use the comment section below to give us feedback. Have you tested KDE Plasma 5 on your Linux system? How did you find it?. Please post your thoughts about the KDE desktop using our comment section below.

Aaron Kili
Aaron Kili is a Linux and F.O.S.S enthusiast, an upcoming Linux SysAdmin, web developer, and currently a content creator for TecMint who loves working with computers and strongly believes in sharing knowledge.

Each tutorial at TecMint is created by a team of experienced Linux system administrators so that it meets our high-quality standards.

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165 thoughts on “How to Install KDE Plasma in Linux Desktop”

  1. I have two 3GB and 16 GB thumb drives without an external write-protect switch. Both of them have been locked with an internal command or script by Ubuntu 20.04 and Zorin 16 pro QS. I used Rufus 15.0 to write the contents of both ISO images to each thumb drive per OS.

    After installation of the separate OS Ubuntu and Zorin on my SSD and HDD drives, I wanted to remove the files from both thumb drives but couldn’t because the thumb drives became write-protected by Ubuntu and Zorin after I used them to install both OS’s.

    I can’t format or remove the partition from each thumb drive using Windows Disk Manager or a third-party partitioning program called Macrorit Pro. I get I/O error messages or “Cannot write to the device it is write protected” How can I remove this write protect using the Linux terminal command using Kubuntu 21.04 or terminal ubuntu 22.04? Is there a sudo command to use?

    Reply
  2. Linux programmers need to give us the option of no display manager. Like in the old neckbeard days. A RAW command-line login. No fancy candy.

    Reply
    • Hi,

      It’s a long time since you posted, but it does exist. It is called runlevel 3, or multi-user. Used 90% of the time on servers.

      You can switch to it with SystemCtl, or by other ways – the Internet is your friend ;)

      Reply
  3. Can you please let me know if this guide works with Peppermint OS? And if not, could you update the tutorial and include it? Peppermint is based on Ubuntu and Linux mint so could It work?

    Reply
  4. Hi on executing `sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop` I get this error on the terminal :

    Errors were encountered while processing:
    /var/cache/apt/archives/libreoffice-common_1%3a5.1.6~rc2-0ubuntu1~xenial2_all.deb
    /var/cache/apt/archives/kaccounts-providers_4%3a16.04.3-0ubuntu1~ubuntu16.04~ppa61_amd64.deb

    I have open-office installed in Ubuntu instead of libre-office. So, I think that may be the problem.

    But I wonder if the kubuntu installation is successful or not. If not, what should I do to resolve this error and make it successful

    Reply
  5. what a click bait article. Absolute BS “Install KDE Plasma 5.9 …” I’m not interested as to the fact its not properly released just yet I am interested in why the hell you did not change the title and subsequent vid once you realized you were not actually going to show anything to do with plasma 5.9 ? Or is it meant to be misleading click-bait ?

    Reply
  6. Ok, what am I missing? The article is called “INSTALL 5.9”, there is a demo of it, you’re talking about it, but all the instructions are for 5.8.5 via backports. Are we installing 5.8.5 or 5.9? If these are instructions for 5.8.5 then how do I install 5.9? Why not call the article, “How to install 5.8.5 via backports”?

    Reply
  7. I have been a fan of KDE for some 17-18 years going back to KDE 3.x. The idea of using GNOME send shivers down my spine. Then KDE decided to introduce KDE 4.0. They broke EVERYTHING that people liked in KDE 3.x. It was not until the release of KDE 4.6 or 4.7 did KDE 4 become usable and part of what helped in its acceptance was the release of some decent HowTos and some YouTube videos, that explained HowTo do common tasks and how to configure it.

    You would think KDE would have learned from their disaster with KDE 4, but NO!! They released KDE 5.x and the roll out is an even bigger disaster than KDE 4.0!! We are now up to KDE 5.9 and there is still NO HowTos or YouTube videos out there.

    If so I have not found them and I have looked periodically for them. If they are out there could you please post some URL’s. This is the FIRST attempt at a HowTo — sort of — for KDE 5.x. A decent GUI should BUILD on the features that people like that make it usable, not force feed a new GUI on them that is poorly designed that breaks everything people are familiar with, as well as being poorly documented.

    I am still waiting for FULL HowTo for KDE 5.x. that tells me HoeTo do various tasks that I currently do in KDE 4.14. For instance In KDE 4.14 I have 10 different Virtual Desktops (VD) each VD has a separate Wallpaper, color, or texture. The last time I tried KDE 5.x this COULD NOT BE DONE. Can it NOW be done and if so HOW?

    Likewise in KDE 4.14 each VD has its own set of “Widgets” that are grouped together by function ie Office “widgets” that are commonly used are in one VD; Internet widgets in another VD; and so on. The last time I tried to do this in KDE 5.x The “widgets” placed in one VD showed up in ALL VD. Can you NOW create separate VD each with its own set of “widgets”, and if so HOW?

    On the Task Bar where I have icons that start some app that is used infrequently but which I don’t want to have to search through the drop down menu to find. Likewise I hop-skip-and- jump between my VD from my Task Bar. Now I not sure what is on the Task Bar in KDE 5.x.

    PLEASE for God’s sake spend some time creating some decent and functional HowTos and YouTube Videos that both illustrate HOW people can configure it ie. HowTo create VD and assign each a different Wallpaper; HowTo put separate “Widgets” to ONE VD yet does NOT get replicated on EVERY VD; and so on.

    Thanks for your help.

    Reply
    • You are talking about a free (as in beer), open-sourced piece of software that is being provided to you by people who largely don’t get paid much, if anything, for their work. Stop crying because in addition to GIVING this software to you, they didn’t hold your hand and tell you every detail of how to use it in a Hollywood produced video.

      RTFM! There is an insane amount of documentation. If you are upset because there are no videos on YouTube, here’s a shocking idea–MAKE ONE YOURSELF! Instead of leaching off of the community and then complaining when it’s not good enough, do a little research and contribute a little bit yourself.

      Reply
  8. 12 April update: KDE Plasma 5.9 is STILL not available in the “Kubuntu Backports” and “Kubuntu Backports Landing: PPAs for Ubuntu 16.04 or 16.10. Plasma 5.8.5 is still the latest you can install on those Ubuntu versions.

    The “Kubuntu Backports Staging” PPA has v5.9.4 but only for Zesty (17.04). (and the official Kubuntu Zesty repository has a never version available anyway).

    Reply
  9. Totally misleading article.

    “KDE Plasma 5.9 is not yet packaged in repositories of the main stream Linux distributions, therefore, we will show you how to install or upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.8.5.”

    … “I hope that everything has worked fine, you can now enjoy KDE Plasma 5.8.5 on your desktop.”

    … uhh, thanks, I guess?

    Reply
  10. Hi, I try to install xrdp in ubuntu 16.04 with Plasma, but without luck. I used xfce4 with 14.04 ever, and xrdp works for me. Now when connecting with rdp in windows to ubutnu16.04 with Plasma, I can only get a white/black screen. Can you help with this, or give me some advise? Thanks

    Reply
    • It worked for me on Mint Cinnamon 18.1 x64. Pay attention to the output of the commands at each step. If any packages fail to be retrieved, repeat the command until successful before moving to next command. With Mint Cinnamon 18.1, you won’t have to configure sddm.

      Make sure you aren’t set to auto-login. Reboot. At the login prompt, in the upper right corner of the login box, you can then select either Cinnamon or Plasma before entering your password.

      Reply
      • @Robert

        Many thanks for the useful feedback, i hope other users of Linux Min 18t, facing the same issue will look up to your solution.

        Reply
  11. Didn’t worked for me on Mint 18 Cinnamon 64 bit.

    Did everything like you said in the tutorial, but i didn’t got the configure program for the login manager. After restarting i have no selection of the Desktop Environment and boot still up on Cinnamon.

    Reply
    • @Drakon

      Let me try to figure out what the problem could really be, possibly by running a separate installation on Linux Mint 18. However, try to cross check to see that you did not miss any of the steps above.

      Reply
    • Drakon, same OS here and same thing happened – booted into something, a mixture of KDE and Cinnamon. Logs just showed “sddm-theme-breeze” and no lightdm. If you search for them your lucky to find lightdm as sddm is now the preferred display manager.

      Rebooted but took some time at the log in screen and found it; In the upper right hand corner of the password tab is a very small Ci. If you click on it you will have the option of 4 different settings, one is Plasma, two Cinnamon and one other.

      I thank you Aaron Kili this was appreciated.

      Reply
      • Edit to my comment above…

        It is working now. The instruction Aaron Kili gave were not specific enough about how to access the list to choose the desktop from at Startup. If using Mint Cinnamon, at the Users sign in screen to enter your password, in the top right corner of the sign in box are tiny icons for keyboard (keyboard icon), language (flag icon) and desktop (Ci icon). Click the little Ci icon to access the menu to choose Plasma.

        Reply
  12. Hi i followed your instructions its awesome working. One thing i am curious. When i am shutting down my system, It shows Kubuntu. Does it mean my laptop now has 2 distros? Ubuntu and Kubuntu?

    Reply
    • @Raheel

      Nope, the K is probably added from combination of KDE+Ubuntu=Kubuntu. The first time i installed KDE 4, i noticed that too. This may not be the solid reason for that but it could be as a result of what i have just explained here.

      Reply
  13. I followed the instructions for ubuntu, every thing went great except when I log in to plasma I get dark desktop with no icons and no functionality. Is there any solution? My Ubuntu version is 15.04

    Reply
      • Can’t, The following packages have unmet dependencies:
        kde-telepathy-minimal : Depends: kde-config-telepathy-accounts (>= 15.04.0) but it is not installed
        E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

        Reply
        • @Evan

          Try to uninstall kde-telepathy-minimal with its dependencies and config files as follows:

          sudo apt purge – -auto-remove kde-telepathy-minimal

          Reply
  14. I’m using Linux Mint after the latest round of updates to Kubuntu broke my system. I thought about going back to KDE when I discovered that in Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon there’s no simple user-friendly way to create a desktop shortcut to a folder. The create link option has literally been removed. That seriously has to be the dumbest and most annoying usability failure I’ve seen for a long time. And Mint is number 1 on Distrowatch? Am I going to go back though? Not after reading the comments here I’m not. I’m well and truly over crap that’s going to break my system and ruin my day and the comments here are enough to put me right off. I’m just completely over it these days. I don’t want to be endlessly screwing about with something that’s missing basic features or has broken my system. I just want it to work so I can get on with my life.

    Reply
    • @Jeremy

      First of all, i would like to say sorry for all the issues you have faced in the past with the broken systems. Otherwise, thanks for sharing your experience with us.

      Reply
  15. Thanks for this job!
    It reported an error… ”E: sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) and a black screen when testing it
    Tried a lot of tips;
    sudo apt-get -f install ,
    sudo apt-get -f update ,
    sudo apt-get -f dist-upgrade,
    sudo dpkg –configure -a, but none of these resulted.
    Finnaly one more TIP:
    # sudo dpkg -i –force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/kde-config-telepathy-accounts_4%3a15.12.3-0ubuntu1
    for the present case
    It WORKED!

    Reply
    • @A. Pereira

      Thanks for sharing this solution with us, i hope it will prove useful to many other users who might encounter similar issues.

      Reply
  16. I’m trying to wonder what is the point promoting something that still don’t exist. There is no Plasma 5.7.0 in Kubuntu Backports PPA. The last version available over there is Plasma 5.6.5. This will only add confusion to the people trying to understand a lot of things.

    Reply
    • @MyXelf

      We understand your concern, and thanks for the feedback, this article was initially meant for upgrades to Plasma 5.6.5. With the quick release of Plasma 5.7 during the same week of writing, we had to add alter it to cater for Plasma 5.7 upgrade since some users had requested for it, thinking it would be available.

      But after trying out several times, we realized that it is not available for now, therefore we shall consider updating the article to meet the status core.

      But keep us updated in case of any additional info that we should know.

      Reply
          • You guys still hasn’t done so 6 days later. Stop talking like you’re going to do something and actually change the headline and stop misleading people.

          • @Gooball and @Ryan J

            We have successfully updated the article to indicate KDE Plasma 5.6 installation guide, thanks so much for your concerns. This shows your commitment in following what we do, therefore we respect the views of our followers and readers.

            In case KDE Plasma 5.7 is gets in Kubuntu Backports PPA, you can let us know, as we are also watching closely.

            Once again, thanks for you feedback.

  17. It broke my ubuntu!
    The KDE is not working and my ubuntu isn’t installing nothing else and shows a problem message.

    The problem wen I try to install software is:

    The following packages have unmet dependencies:
    kde-telepathy-minimal : Depends: kde-config-telepathy-accounts (>= 15.04.0) but it is not going to be installed
    E: Unmet dependencies. Try ‘apt-get -f install’ with no packages (or specify a solution).

    Anybody had an idea about how I can fix it?

    Reply
    • @Diogo Roberto Olsen

      Try to remove telepathy and its plugins. This is what joe did below, he provided this solution, may be it can help solve the issue.

      @joe
      July 12, 2016 at 2:38 am

      After getting the black screen I had to uninstall telepathy and its plugins. Look for broken packages, for example in synaptic. . Now Plasma 5.7 works nice. (ubuntu 16.04)

      Reply
  18. It might be a bit early to say that kubuntu backports has 5.7. I’ve been using backports for a while on kubuntu 16.04 and it currently only has 5.6.

    Reply
    • @Brett,

      I do agree with your point that its too early to look for Plasma 5.7 from Kubuntu backports, but the official Plasma docs says, it is available from Kubuntu backports. Let me give a try and get back to you..

      Reply
      • Using this method Plasma updates from 5.5.3 to 5.6.5 when on Kubuntu 16.04 LTS. So version 5.7 is not available yet using backports. Just tried it today.

        Reply
        • @Hendrik

          Thanks for that info, many users have mentioned that too, we shall try to do a serious checking and find out more about Plasma 5.7 in backports.

          Your feedback is highly appreciated, in case of any additional info we should know, you can drop it here.

          Reply
      • @Brett,

        Even me too big fan of KDE Plasma desktop, but never had hands on this yet, because every time I installed successfully, but failed to load it properly..

        Reply
  19. Hi,
    Doesn’t work for me (Ubuntu 16.04), just get a blank screen, no icons, nothing (otherwise all install steps as listed above worked fine, and reboot).
    Maybe still some compatibility issues ?

    Reply
    • @Mathew smith

      It could be compatibility issues probably, but KDE Plasma 5.7 is out, we shall organize a guide on its installation and may be you can try it out.

      Reply
  20. I get black screen but can see white mouse cursor when i follow these steps.
    Fresh Ubuntu 16.04 install. Is there something further that needs configuring or is it broken?

    Reply
    • @Confuzed

      As i already pointed out to @Mathew smith, this could be a compatibility issue or probably a broken package, we can not tell exactly, therefore, since KDE Plasma 5.7 has been released, yo can wait to install it instead. I will try out Plasma 5.7 and prepare an installation guide.

      Reply
    • After getting the black screen I had to uninstall telepathy and its plugins. Look for broken packages, for example in synaptic. . Now Plasma 5.7 works nice. (ubuntu 16.04)

      Reply
  21. I’m trying to uninstall the plasma desktop using the command:
    sudo apt-get remove kubuntu-desktop.
    Nothing happens. Is there anything else I should do?

    Reply
    • @Heyyoo,

      Try these commands to remove KDE Plasam from Ubuntu system and then logout and login back to get old default Desktop.

      $ sudo apt-get remove kubuntu-desktop
      $ sudo apt-get autoremove
      
      Reply
      • Thanks. I had tried that but there were some other installation problems that didn’t let me uninstall kubuntu. It’s all good now.

        Reply
        • @heyyoo

          Good to know that @Ravi’s solution has helped you, i hope this will also prove helpful to other users with the similar issues.

          Reply
  22. great article, except the fact that Plasma 5 is not supported in Mint 17.x. You should really edit that part out of the article. It is not possible to install plasma 5 in mint at this time. I repeat…it is NOT possible to install plasma 5 in mint. Install Kubuntu or wait until the next major rel of Mint.

    Reply
    • @MintDev,

      Yes I do agree with you, even I tried numerous times to install KDE Plasma 5 on my Mint box, but failed each time, will update this article soon..

      Reply
  23. So??
    What’s the solution? I’ve read the comments, it’s like half year since posting this tutorial and first comments that pointed it sucks. You said that you will find a solution…

    Reply
  24. Great to hear I’m not the only failing to use these instructions. In short Mint 17.2 using these instructions will give you KDE4. Just like the others here, I’ve tried everything. But I have also found this which seems to suggest that it is not possible to do this on 14.04:

    http://askubuntu.com/questions/691331/ended-up-having-kde-4-x-plasma-4-instead-of-plasma-5-4-from-ubuntun-14-04

    So I don’t think there is any way this can be done on Mint 17.x at the moment.

    Reply
  25. Please help!!

    installing following your procedure totally break my linux mint 17.3 cinnamon edition

    i have now endless loop login screen , cannot use my system anymore pls help!!!!!

    Reply
    • @Ludo,

      I am really so sorry for that, better login into single user mode using the steps as described here..

      1. Reboot the system at booting press and hold “Shift” key, you will get boot splash screen select the recovery kernel option and press Enter.

      2. Next you will get menu, where you can select remount option and then select the dpkg option to repair broken packages.

      I hope this will fix your login error, if not just try to remove the KDE Plasma..

      Reply
  26. I installed it but then I have problems with the wifi, I have no sound and I see my installed app…
    what a mistake, anyway, I wanna uninstall it, how do I do that?

    Reply
    • @Alejandro,

      To remove completely KDE Plasma from system use:

      $ sudo apt-get remove kubuntu-desktop
      $ sudo apt-get purge kubuntu-desktop
      $ sudo apt-get autoremove
      

      Logout and Login back again..

      Reply
      • Hi Ravi, I just removed it after reading all the unsuccessful stories of people running Mint 17.x, like me (17.3 Cinnamon) I use the computer for work and can’t afford endless loops, my wife is away and the other computer too, I would be cut out of the internet.
        Why can’t just a red line be written, saying “if you have Linux Mint 17.x don’t try this!” Just put it at the beginning of the article to warn people. I discovered the comments juSt after performing ALL the operations, and I was quite upset last night.
        Another question: the computer installed 300 or more Mb, and now just removed 170Kb: how to remove everything?

        Reply
        • @Luca,

          I am extremely sorry for the trouble, I do agree what you suggested, but believe me I am in process of updating this article with new instructions. If you want to remove everything which is downloaded, just run

          # sudo apt-get autoremove
          
          Reply
          • Hi Ravi, thanks a lot for the quick reply.
            Although I removed everything as suggested to Alejandro in the comment above, I had to restart the computer and it booted in KDE.
            I am cool with that, well the thing works, it’s sleek and everything, but it requires tweaking like all new systems
            Just, how to restart in Mint, please? I just have the login for KDE in the splash screen at boot up…
            It works, and apart from not giving the chance to select Mint/Cinnamon I like it, I am not planning to remove it anymore. But I do need to start Mint/Cinnamon, please.
            Thanks in advance,
            Luca

          • Nevermind, I managed to log into cinnamon.

            I have a question however. I noticed that in KDE now some things don’t work, probably because of my attempt of removing it last night. Should I try to reinstall it, as it clearly works on my Mint 17.3?

            Thanks in advance!
            Luca.

          • @Luca,

            I think its still in development and might have some bugs, I recommend don’t re-install again until Linux Mint 18 released..

  27. Well I manage to install (I believe) plasma on Linux Mint 17.3, with this method, but not the plasma5 version, actually it was the plasma4 version, what am doing wrong? this is the 5th attempt lol

    Reply
    • @JJMP,

      Does you’ve installed Plasma 5 on a fresh Linux Mint 17.3 installation? or you’ve just upgraded older plasma to newest? If yes, do note that you can’t install latest version of Plasma on older version, you have to uninstall older versions before installing newer..

      Reply
      • Hello Ravi,

        Thanks for the article, it’s very interesting. However, as JJMP was pointing out, using this method on a fresh Linux Mint installation will not install KDE Plasma 5. I followed the same instructions and it installed KDE Plasma 4 (I had no KDE installed before attempting this). What would you recommend doing?

        Reply
  28. Trying to install this on Linux Mint Cinnamon 32-bit 2.2.16
    I get to this step:

    sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

    And it returns this:

    Reading package lists… Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information… Done
    Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
    requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
    distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
    or been moved out of Incoming.
    The following information may help resolve the situation:

    The following packages have unmet dependencies:
    kubuntu-desktop : Depends: software-properties-kde but it is not going to be installed
    E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

    Where do I go from here?

    Reply
  29. linux mint 17.2 kde version this install method does not work at all and no one seems to know how to install the latest plasma 5 on mint everyone method ive tried (including this one) short of compiling the damn source myself fails miserably!!
    this version returns:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
    You are about to add the following PPA to your system:
    Backports of new versions of KDE Platform, Plasma and Applcations as well as major KDE apps for Kubuntu.
    More info: https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-ppa/+archive/ubuntu/backports
    Press [ENTER] to continue or ctrl-c to cancel adding it

    Executing: gpg –ignore-time-conflict –no-options –no-default-keyring –homedir /tmp/tmp.mtsXpeORnx –no-auto-check-trustdb –trust-model always –keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg –primary-keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg –keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 –recv-keys 8AC93F7A
    gpg: requesting key 8AC93F7A from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
    gpg: key 8AC93F7A: “Launchpad Kubuntu Updates” not changed
    gpg: Total number processed: 1
    gpg: unchanged: 1

    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

    Ign http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela InRelease
    Ign http://extra.linuxmint.com rafaela InRelease
    Hit http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela Release.gpg
    Hit http://extra.linuxmint.com rafaela Release.gpg
    Ign http://dl.google.com stable InRelease
    Hit http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela Release
    Hit http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg
    Hit http://extra.linuxmint.com rafaela Release
    Hit http://dl.google.com stable Release
    Hit http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela/main amd64 Packages
    Hit http://extra.linuxmint.com rafaela/main amd64 Packages
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security InRelease
    Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty InRelease
    Ign http://archive.canonical.com trusty InRelease
    Hit http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela/upstream amd64 Packages
    Hit http://extra.linuxmint.com rafaela/main i386 Packages
    Hit http://dl.google.com stable/main amd64 Packages
    Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty InRelease
    Hit http://dl.google.com stable/main i386 Packages
    Hit http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela/import amd64 Packages
    Hit http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela/main i386 Packages
    Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates InRelease [64.4 kB]
    Hit http://archive.canonical.com trusty Release.gpg
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/main amd64 Packages
    Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty InRelease
    Hit http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela/upstream i386 Packages
    Hit http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela/import i386 Packages
    Hit http://archive.canonical.com trusty Release
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/restricted amd64 Packages
    Ign http://extra.linuxmint.com rafaela/main Translation-en_US
    Get:2 http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty InRelease [15.5 kB]
    Ign http://extra.linuxmint.com rafaela/main Translation-en
    Hit http://archive.canonical.com trusty/partner amd64 Packages
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/universe amd64 Packages
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/multiverse amd64 Packages
    Hit http://archive.canonical.com trusty/partner i386 Packages
    Ign http://dl.google.com stable/main Translation-en_US
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty Release.gpg
    Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty InRelease
    Ign http://dl.google.com stable/main Translation-en
    Hit http://archive.canonical.com trusty/partner Translation-en
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/main i386 Packages
    Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages [639 kB]
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty Release.gpg
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/restricted i386 Packages
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty Release.gpg
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/universe i386 Packages
    Ign http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela/import Translation-en_US
    Ign http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela/import Translation-en
    Get:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main Sources [19.8 kB]
    Ign http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela/main Translation-en_US
    Ign http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela/main Translation-en
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/multiverse i386 Packages
    Ign http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela/upstream Translation-en_US
    Ign http://packages.linuxmint.com rafaela/upstream Translation-en
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/main Translation-en
    Get:5 http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main amd64 Packages [14.5 kB]
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/multiverse Translation-en
    Get:6 http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main i386 Packages [14.5 kB]
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/restricted Translation-en
    Get:7 http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/restricted amd64 Packages [15.4 kB]
    Get:8 http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main Translation-en [5,040 B]
    Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/universe Translation-en
    Get:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/universe amd64 Packages [326 kB]
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty Release.gpg
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty Release
    Get:10 http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/multiverse amd64 Packages [12.0 kB]
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty Release
    Get:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/main i386 Packages [619 kB]
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty Release
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main Sources
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main amd64 Packages
    Get:12 http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/restricted i386 Packages [15.1 kB]
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main i386 Packages
    Get:13 http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/universe i386 Packages [327 kB]
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main Translation-en
    Get:14 http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/multiverse i386 Packages [12.1 kB]
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/main Translation-en
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main Sources
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/multiverse Translation-en
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main amd64 Packages
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/restricted Translation-en
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main i386 Packages
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/universe Translation-en
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main Translation-en
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty Release
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main Sources
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/main amd64 Packages
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main amd64 Packages
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/restricted amd64 Packages
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main i386 Packages
    Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main Translation-en
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/universe amd64 Packages
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/multiverse amd64 Packages
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/main i386 Packages
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/restricted i386 Packages
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/universe i386 Packages
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/multiverse i386 Packages
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/main Translation-en
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/multiverse Translation-en
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/restricted Translation-en
    Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/universe Translation-en
    Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/main Translation-en_US
    Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/multiverse Translation-en_US
    Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/restricted Translation-en_US
    Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty/universe Translation-en_US
    Fetched 2,099 kB in 6s (330 kB/s)
    Reading package lists… Done
    Reading package lists… Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information… Done
    Calculating upgrade… Done
    The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
    nvidia-340-uvm
    Use ‘apt-get autoremove’ to remove it.
    0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

    sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

    Reading package lists… Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information… Done
    kubuntu-desktop is already the newest version.
    The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
    nvidia-340-uvm
    Use ‘apt-get autoremove’ to remove it.
    0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

    not very inspiring
    :(

    Reply
  30. Its superb, i am loving the KDE Plasma. Its lot better than the Ubuntu Gnome. One thing i want to ask, every time while login i have to select GNOME and KDE. Can i disable the GNOME permanently or set KDE as default login. ??

    Reply
  31. Just tried to install it on Mint 17.2 with kernel 3.19.0-30. Everything ran fine except it did not install plasma 5. I still have 4. Really disappointing.

    Reply
  32. Hi there!

    First of all thank you very much for this tutorial! Furthermore… Unfortunately it won’t work for me. Everything seems to work fine, no error messages, everything’s added, I always got OK and successfully XY, everything installed without any errors. But after I finished the installation process, I’m still with KDE 4 Desktop… Any ideas?

    (Note: I had to update the /etc/lsb-release.txt to add the backports-repository but that as well was looking completely fine)

    Running Mint 17.2 64bit @ VirtualBox on Macbook Pro 2011

    thanks in advance!

    Reply
  33. You cannot install plasma 5 on Linux mint 17.x the way you wrote
    because Linux Mint 17.x uses 14.04 LTS Ubuntu trusty base

    Reply
  34. Info on this site is finally updated and works. I run those commands on linux mint cinnamon and got plasma but version 4… No breeze anywhere, although I saw installer mentioning it . Plasma 4 looks not so well. Now I must find out how to switch/update to plasma 5 or… uninstall it. Any ideas?

    Reply
    • It depends on the version you are using, the packages are not available for 14.04 cause it’s an old release.
      Same for everything built on it.

      Reply
  35. I am having problem with setting up dual monitors. The display setting just shows the lock screen option and both the screens are showing the same application. Also Plasma seems to be having problem launching software manager. Any solutions to these problems as this is my first trial with KDE desktop. Tried various forums and google search but could not find any satisfactory solution.

    Reply
      • What about KDE 4? I didn’t get plasma 5 using your recipe only older version. Is it just me or maybe plasma 5 is still not available in that way?

        As to deinstalling it, I figured I could go to Synaptic and unistall kubuntu-desktop and lightdm if needed (hopefully all kde extras will go away with it as well). As for now I leave it it be.

        By the way, making lightdm as default is not a necessary part. I did that as you instructed and didn’t like that login manager (it’s just ugly) so I switched back to default cinnamon’s manager called mdm (great looking, lot of options and it doesn’t slow down computer startup like lightdm), which also allows for changing environments.

        Reply
  36. It doesn’t work for me either. I have fresh mint 17.2 KDE install.
    In terminal after giving “sudo apt-add-repository ppa:neon/kf5” I get:
    „No JSON object could be decoded”

    Reply
  37. The same trouble: Cannot add PPA: ‘ppa:neon/kf5′
    Please check that the PPA name or format is correct.
    What should I do?

    Reply
    • @Sartacon
      On which Linux distribution are you trying? If you tell us that would help us in resolving this issue..

      Reply
  38. I tried the above command to install kde plasma 5 onto my ubuntu 14.04 system but it doesn’t work. Anyone else had any success?

    Reply
  39. is it possible to install the kde-plasma5-standard only? i really one to try it, but i don’t want to download all the desktop packages.

    Reply
  40. i found the oxygen qt5 theme . this saved kde 5 for me.
    breeze to me looks like the most simple gtk 1 theme from the stone age which is exactly what i do not want.
    if there was no oxygen for kde 5 i would have had switched to cinnamon desktop!
    I just could not stand my apps look so bad with breeze. oxygen was one of the reasons why kde made a huge comeback. I hope all distros will be sene enough to choose oxygen as default kde 5 theme . breeze will hurt kde even more then akonadi crap did.
    kde please top pushing things down our throats your users clearly do not like.
    greets

    Reply
    • Well yeah, except a lot of users DO want it. I want it.

      It was needed imo, the Windows 7 look is aging. Flat doesn’t necessarily look better in all aspects, but the panel looks better, as do the minimize/maximize/close buttons.

      Reply
    • @Agusjf,
      Use the following command to remove KDE completely from Ubuntu system

      $ sudo apt-get purge kubuntu-desktop plasma-desktop
      $ sudo apt-get autoremove
      $ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop -y
      
      Reply
  41. So far I don’t like the “breeze” look it feels limp and lifeless.
    Fortunately when Plasma5 / KF5 are ready for prime time customization will again allow me to instill life in “my” desktop.

    Beauty is subjective.

    Reply
  42. i have installed it on fedora 20 , i have no volume icon and the file manager is missing .In spite of that ,i can say that kde 5 is amazing

    Reply
  43. So, this is definitely not ready for every day use? Breeze looks amazing compared to the old Oxygen desktop. This was a much needed overhaul for KDE. I am running Linux Mint 17 KDE right now and don’t have a problem with the desktop, but visually I think this looks far superior. In a way, it sort of reminds me of Netrunner, but with the default look to the application launcher and not some custom thing like was done in Netrunner.

    Reply
    • Just realized I said Netrunner twice. Oh well. But anyway, a very polished desktop and I am really tempted to download it on to Mint for the heck of it. Even if it does have a few bugs as they will eventually be squashed.

      Reply
  44. Installed on my Linux Mint machine, and very impressed with the visual appearance! Did have some troubles however that prevent me from using as a main desktop environment for now. First was that my package manager would not load and second was the network manager tray icon was missing and I could not find a way to restore it!
    If anyone knows how to fix those two issues please let me know!! :)

    Reply
    • Hello Loz.

      As i noticed in the article, KDE Plasma 5 is still buggy right now and there are many crashes, that’s why i recommend waiting some time until it get some fixes in the next updates :)

      Thank you.

      Reply
    • Right now there is no official guide about how to install it on Fedora 20, but you can use the dvratil-kde-frameworks repository if you want.

      This may damage your system, KDE 5 is still under development, run those commands at your own responsibility:

      $ su –
      $ wget copr.fedoraproject.org/coprs/dvratil/kde-frameworks/repo/fedora-20-i386/dvratil-kde-frameworks-fedora-20-i386.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/kde-frameworks5-fedora-20.repo
      $ yum update
      $ yum install kf5-\* –exclude kf5-kactivities-runtime

      However, KDE 5 Framework will be the default in Fedora 21, you can wait until then if you want.

      Thanks.

      Reply

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