How To Install KDE Plasma Desktop on Fedora 38

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install KDE Plasma Desktop on Fedora 38. For those of you who didn’t know, KDE Plasma is a powerful, customizable, and user-friendly desktop environment that offers a seamless computing experience. By opting for the CLI installation method, you gain greater control over the process and ensure a clean installation.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of KDE Plasma Desktop on a Fedora 38.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Fedora 38.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• An active internet connection. You’ll need an internet connection to download the necessary packages and dependencies for KDE Plasma Desktop.
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install KDE Plasma Desktop on Fedora 38

Step 1. Before we can install KDE Plasma on Fedora 38, it’s important to ensure that our system is up-to-date with the latest packages. This will ensure that we have access to the latest features and bug fixes and that we can install KDE Plasma without any issues:

sudo dnf update

Step 2. Adding RPM Fusion Repository.

RPM Fusion provides essential packages that are not included in Fedora’s official repositories. Add RPM Fusion by running the following commands:

sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-38.noarch.rpm
sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-38.noarch.rpm

Step 3. Installing KDE Plasma on Fedora 38.

Once the system is updated, you can install KDE Plasma by running the following command:

sudo dnf group install "KDE Plasma Workspaces"

During the installation, your system may encounter dependency issues. To address them, use the following command:

sudo dnf install @kde-desktop-environment

Finally, you can reboot the system to apply the changes and start using KDE Plasma. You can do this by running the following command:

sudo reboot

Step 4. Setting KDE Plasma as the Default Desktop Environment.

With KDE Plasma installed, it’s time to set it as the default desktop environment. Log out of your current session, and on the login screen, click on the gear icon to select “Plasma” as your desktop environment.

Step 5. Troubleshooting Common Issues.

Despite the smooth installation process, you might encounter some common issues. Here are some troubleshooting tips:

• Addressing Installation Errors

If you face errors during installation, double-check that your system meets the requirements and the RPM Fusion repositories are added correctly. Resolve any conflicting packages or dependencies.

• Fixing Dependency Conflicts

Dependency conflicts can occur when installing third-party packages. Use the package manager to remove conflicting packages or find compatible alternatives.

• Dealing with Incompatibility Problems

Incompatibility issues might arise due to hardware or graphics driver problems. Verify that your graphics card driver is up to date and compatible with KDE Plasma.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed KDE Plasma. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing KDE Plasma Desktop on your Fedora 38 system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official KDE Plasma website.