HowTo: Install Plasma 5.2 in ArchLinux / Antergos + Tips

Ya we show them the news and improvements that Plasma 5.2 brings us, and this time I will show you how to install and configure this new version of KDE from Antergos, only with the base system. This works the same if we install ArchLinux from scratch, because Antergos uses the same repositories.

The following should be done at your own risk. We are not responsible for the loss of your data or such disasters.

Installation of Antergos

The installation process of Antergos is really simple, it is very similar to Ubuntu and everything is done graphically. The only difference is that in the step where we choose the Desktop Environment of our preference, we will select the option Base, that is, we will not install any desk.

antergos-installer

We will do it this way because if we select KDE, it will install KDE version 4.14.4 and it is not the idea.

Installing Plasma 5.2

Assuming that we already installed Antergos and we have everything ready, we will install the necessary packages to enjoy Plasma 5.2. If for any reason they have problems with the Network Ethernet (memo to me) and they use DHCP, they can activate it with the command:

$ sudo dhcpcd

Now we just have to run:

$ sudo pacman -S xorg plasma-meta konsole plasma-nm sni-qt oxygen kate

Now we install:

$ sudo pacman -S kdebase-dolphin kdemultimedia-kmix oxygen-gtk2 oxygen-gtk3 oxygen-kde4 breeze-kde4 kdegraphics-ksnapshot networkmanager

You may ask us to uninstall khelpcenter as it conflicts. We uninstall it without any problem

These are the packages necessary for everything in KDE to display correctly. We cannot forget some details:

  1. The meta-package xorg allows us to choose what we want to install. We don't all have the same video card.
  2. We must activate NetworkManager and SDDM which is now the KDE session manager.
$ sudo systemctl enable sddm.service $ sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager

We can restart now 😀

Tips for KDE 4.14.X users

With the gradual arrival of the packages of the next version of KDE to the current version, the configuration files are now hosted differently as I explained in the other post. Although for KDE4 the user settings will be kept in ~ / .kde4 /, for new applications they will be saved in ~ / .config / as the Arch Wiki.

Now within ~ / .config there is a very important file called kdeglobals which I mention because of the following: it happened to me that applications like Kate o Console They didn't take the font that I had in place for the rest of the system, so I had to put it manually. How? Easy.

In the event that this happens to you, we open the file and look for the General section that should look more or less like this:

[General] ColorScheme = Breeze Name = Breeze shadeSortColumn = true

and we leave it like this:

[General]
ColorScheme=Breeze
Name=Breeze
XftAntialias=true
XftHintStyle=hintslight
XftSubPixel=rgb
fixed=Ubuntu Mono,12,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
font=Tahoma,10,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
menuFont=Tahoma,10,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
shadeSortColumn=true
smallestReadableFont=Tahoma,8,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
toolBarFont=Tahoma,9,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
widgetStyle=Breeze

And of course, they must substitute Tahoma and Ubuntu Mono for the fonts they use for the system. It is not necessary to restart the PC or exit the session, we simply close the application with a problem and that's it.

[... constantly edited ...]


18 comments, leave yours

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  1.   mat1986 said

    I have a question:
    - Can WiFi be enabled from the base installation? Thus it would not be necessary to connect the ethernet cable.

    At the moment I use Archbang and I would like to test Plasma 5, how about stability? Thanks 🙂

    1.    dtulf said

      As root put # wifi-menu and it will open an instance to choose the network and put the pass. Then you can test the connection with # ping -c 3 http://www.google.com.ar and you will see if it is connected or not. This I did from this great post -> https://blog.desdelinux.net/guia-de-instalacion-de-arch-linux-2014/

  2.   Jose Jácome said

    When Upgrading to Plasma in Arch Kmix it does not start at boot, I have to start it Manually ... Do I have to Install it again? Because in the System tray there is no way to add the Volume Control

    1.    BD550 said

      I am testing plasma 5 in OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, and kmix starts without problem in the tray, that is if it is kmix and kmix5 and you may be using kmix.
      So far, it has not given me any hang up. It is consuming a lot of ram, plasmashell starts at 150 megabytes and already goes at 230 in about thirty minutes of use (all this, now everything ends in "shell" 😀). There is greater fluidity in the animations and the applications open faster.
      The "bad" thing is that I can't find the oxygen theme for the window decorator, I liked that one above breeze.
      From what I've seen, once all the programs have been ported to qt5, plasma 5 will be a worthy successor to version 4.

    2.    Hector said

      Hello, this is a "bug":

      https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/43626?project=1&order=dateopened&sort=desc&pagenum=1

      "Reason for request: kmix-14.12.1-1 is needed instead kmix-multimedia for proper working kmix under Plasma 5."

      In the next, hopefully only a few days, kdemultimedia-kmix will be replaced by "Kmix". You can read more comments in the link ...

      1.    elav said

        Well when it doesn't come out I start it manually and that's it 😀

      2.    josecomeb said

        Thanks @hector, it is true that I have kmix not kmix5 because it looks like Oxygen when I start it manually… And @ BD550 is a little out of RAM Plasma Next, the other day I got to Occupy 4200MB!

  3.   Hector said

    Another simple solution is to add "kmix-multimedia" in System Preferences -> Startup and shutdown. To run at startup.

    Greetings.

    1.    elav said

      I did that 😀

  4.   Daniel said

    Hello, for those who have problems with sddm, maybe it is because it is not installed.
    Install with pacman -S sddm and voila.

  5.   Pablo said

    A query I have everything installed seems fine but from what I see it is kde 4.14 with brezee the problem is that it does not apply the changes in the appearances even change the wallpaper and everything remains as it came by default, that is, with the wallpaper and icons when closing session will stay again as if it was the first time you log in

  6.   Wolf said

    I installed it yesterday in Arch and everything is more or less in its place. The change is not particularly traumatic for me; in fact some problems I had with KDE 4.14 have been fixed. Sadly, there are certain Plasma 5 icons (in the menu, the removable devices widget, or even the cashew) that look gigantic and the plasmoids are out of place for me. I don't know how to fix it or where the conflict may be,: S

  7.   shini kire said

    I have a problem xD is not a big deal but damn haha, I have to manually start the "sddm" with the "start" option since the "enable" says "fail that already exists": Do you have any suggestions to solve it? And any "theme" that you recommend? Cheers!

    1.    Harry Marcano said

      Hello shini-kire, you just have to disable the one you have installed and enable sddm, for example you disable gdm "$ sudo systemctl disable gdm.service" and enable sddm "$ sudo systemctl enable sddm.service" and that's it, restart.
      regards

  8.   jedr93 said

    Hello, I have a question right now I have an arch with kde 4 stable version, but it has been made known to me and therefore to install plasma 5 .. here is my question first that I have to uninstall first and then what to install or how is the exact procedure ? what I don't want is for nothing to be deleted from my personal files ... thanks in advance

    1.    Harry Marcano said

      Hi jedr93, Remove the one you have installed "$ sudo pacman -Rc kdebase-workspace" and install plasma "$ sudo pacman -S plasma-meta" you can guide yourself through the wiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Plasma

  9.   Maykel said

    Good, but is it stable already? I have archlinux with kde 4.14.8 and would like to install kde plasma 5.2 safely.

  10.   Davicho said

    Hello! How are you ?
    Thanks for making these guides! 😀
    You know that I did a clean installation of Arch and installed everything you indicated but the environment does not load well, after logging in and loading the KDE bar it is like the desktop does not load well, I have only a side menu of « images - video - music »and I can't do anything. Do you know what it can be?

    Greetings.