Just in case I forget, here’s how to easily install the KDE Desktop on Fedora 40. First we download the components, then we switch over to it and make it the default. I should have taken notes last time but forgot – glad I’m getting another chance to do it again.
Installing KDE
Open up a Terminal window, become the superuser and use this:
dnf groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces"That’s it! All necessary components will be downloaded (just under 600MB). If you want to see what other group configurations are available, type in “dnf grouplist”.
Logging in with KDE
You can now sign out of GNOMSE and sign back in, but notice there’s a little gear icon at the bottom right. Click it and pick one of 4 GNOME flavours (nobody really understands which does what), and a single one called Plasma. That’s in fact KDE, so pick it and you’ll be logged in with KDE Plasma as your desktop environment.
GNOME is still there should you wish to switch back, in case KDE causes issues as it frequently does on my system. It’s what makes Linux on Desktop so much fun.
Switching to KDE permanently
If you want to switch to KDE permanently so that it appears whenever you login, we have to tell the OS about this. We can use a tool called switchdesk to do just that. It has a GUI and command line version. Why not install both?
dnf install switchdesk switchdesk-guiThe documentation suggests to “simply run it”, but neglects to tell you where to find it. We can use the GNOME search option and look for “Desktop Switcher”. Launch it and switch to “system default”, which apparently is KDE (these guys aren’t great at labelling or documenting things).
KDE is now the default, but you can switch back to GNOME anytime with the same method.
Beware of Issues
While I love KDE, I have nothing but trouble with it on my system for apparently no reason. I keep switching desktops depending on what task I want to perform. KDE feels much like Windows does, with the “start” button at the bottom right and graphics intense apps just perform better. However, I can’t properly log out of KDE or shut down the system when it runs.
I have no such trouble with GNOME, which is my go-to environment for everyday Linux hacking tasks. GNOME shuts down my system just fine, but the apps I run on Fedora don’t behave all that well, especially those that rely no Vine.