How to Install KDE Desktop on Arch Linux

KDE Plasma is a widget-based graphical desktop environment for the Linux operating systems. It is fast, beautiful, user-friendly, and offers more integrated features.

KDE Plasma 5 is built using Qt 5 and KDE Frameworks 5. It is the default desktop environment (or one of the defaults) on many Linux distributions, such as Kubuntu, MX Linux, Fedora (KDE Edition), etc.

Here, we will see how to install KDE Desktop on Arch Linux.

Create User Account

For security reasons, logging in as a regular user is recommended instead of the privileged user (root). So, create a regular user and then enable sudo access for that user.

useradd -m regular_user

passwd regular_user

usermod -aG wheel regular_user

echo "%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" | tee -a /etc/sudoers.d/regular_user

Update Arch Linux

After creating a regular user, update the system packages to the latest version. Do not proceed with KDE desktop installation without updating Arch Linux.

pacman -Syu

Then, reboot the system.

reboot

Install KDE Desktop on Arch Linux

The KDE Plasma Desktop packages are is available as a group in Arch Linux for easy installation. Also, you will need to install Xorg, KDE applications, and SDDM packages to have a whole desktop experience.

x11 session:

pacman -Sy xorg plasma kde-applications sddm

Wayland session:

pacman -Sy xorg plasma kde-applications plasma-wayland-session sddm

Wayland session (NVIDIA Graphics):

pacman -Sy xorg plasma kde-applications plasma-wayland-session egl-wayland sddm

Select all to install all the packages from the above package groups when the command prompts you.

After installing packages, enable SDDM (Simple Desktop Display Manager) to start automatically at the system startup.

systemctl enable sddm

Finally, reboot your system.

reboot

Use KDE Plasma Desktop on Arch Linux

Now, log in as a regular user on the KDE desktop.

Select Plasma (Wayland) or Plasma (X11) to log in to the KDE Plasma Desktop environment in the login screen if you have installed both window systems.

KDE Desktop Login Screen on Arch Linux

You will get the KDE Desktop upon successful login.

KDE Desktop on Arch Linux Remove KDE Plasma Desktop on Arch Linux

You want to remove KDE Plasma Desktop from your system for any reason. Run the following command.

pacman -Rsu xorg plasma kde-applications sddm

Conclusion

That’s All. I hope you have learned how to install KDE Desktop on Arch Linux. You can now head to Arch Wiki for more information. You can also visit the Hints and Tips page for valuable tips for using Plasma Desktop.