Plasma/Plasma 6

Plasma 6 is built on top of Qt 6 and is tentatively planned to be released in late 2023 or early 2024. This page outlines important information and major changes coming in Plasma 6.

Known issues

On the KDE side:

• List of issues
• In a built-from-source dev session on top of a distro-provided session, KWin effect IDs have changed, so they appear duplicated in the Effects KCM and you need to disable one of each, or else both play at the same thing and there are weird visual glitches.
• In a built-from-source dev session on top of a distro-provided session, Qt5-using QML apps don't launch because they'll try to use the KF6 Kirigami. Workaround: For those apps, create custom .desktop files with QML2_IMPORT_PATH set to the built-from-source KF5 location in the "Environment Variables" field, and an absolute path to to the built-from-source executable in the "Program" field. See also https://phabricator.kde.org/T16483.

On the Qt side:

• System Settings crashes nearly constantly when switching pages
  • https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-112306
  • Fixed in Qt 6.5.3

• On Wayland, with scaling, QML windows have content drawn at the wrong scale until manually resized
  • https://codereview.qt-project.org/c/qt/qtdeclarative/+/447075
  • Fixed in Qt 6.5.3

How to use/test it

Developers and adventurous users are encouraged to test or even live on Plasma 6, to help get it into a releasable state faster. Options for getting it include the following:

• Build from source: https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved/development/More#kdesrc-build,_Qt6_and_KDE_Frameworks_6
• KaOS ISO: https://forum.kaosx.us/d/3072-plasma-6-test-iso
• KaOS Install: https://forum.kaosx.us/d/3062-instructions-how-to-convert-a-plasma-5-install-to-plasma-6
• KDE Neon Unstable ISO: https://blog.neon.kde.org/2023/05/22/neon-unstable-now-qt6-builds-of-frameworks-and-plasma/
• Fedora KDE: https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/g/kdesig/kde-nightly-qt6/ - Discussion in #kde:fedoraproject.org on Matrix

If you're a distro packager reading this and your distro offers a Plasma 6 ISO/repo/etc, please add it to this list in alphabetical order!

Before starting, remember the rules of Plasma 6:

• Only use in production for purposes of developing Plasma 6. Maintain regular backups!
• When you encounter an issue in Plasma 6 that was not present in Plasma 5, check the list of issues to see if it's already been reported. If you don't find anything, submit a bug report and add the "qt6" keyword to it.
• If you are technically able, try to fix issues you encounter yourself.

Developer-facing changes

• Widget API has changed and all widgets need to be ported. See the Plasma 6 widget porting guide to learn how.
• On Wayland, Plasma panels, sidebars, KRunner, and Yakuake are now positioned using the layer-shell protocol.

User-facing changes

Additions

• Basic opt-in HDR support. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/4044.
• More types of default apps can be chosen. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/1207.
• Islamic calendar support. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/merge_requests/317.
• Conversion between time zones in KRunner. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/merge_requests/264.

Changes to default settings

• "Thumbnail Grid" is the new default Task Switcher style. Plasma 5's default "Breeze" Task Switcher has been renamed to "Sidebar." See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/53.
• Use "Clicking in scrollbar track: Scrolls to the clicked location" setting by default. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/92
• Scrolling on the desktop no longer switches virtual desktops. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/55

Removals

• KHotKeys (which provides the "Custom Shortcuts" page in System Settings) has been removed because it was unmaintained for over 7 years and its core functionality overlapped the newer, maintained, and better supported KGlobalAccel system. See https://phabricator.kde.org/T2050.
• The "Windowed widgets KRunner runner has been removed as it was confusing users into thinking that widgets (which are intentionally very small and limited) were apps. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/67.
• The "Grid", "Informative", "Small Icons", "Text Only", and "Thumbnails" Task Switchers have been removed as they were worse than other existing ones. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/63
• The "Force Font DPI" setting has been removed on Wayland as the per-screen scaling system is now considered the only supported method of doing systemwide scaling. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/62.
• Per-Activity power setting have been removed as they were largely broken, increased code complexity of a fragile part of the system, and were and mostly possible to approximate using other settings. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/60.
• The Air theme that was previously shipped by default has been removed as it was unmaintained and somewhat broken. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/57

Work that's been decided on but not implemented yet

• Make double-click the default setting. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/72.
• Bring SDDM into KDE. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/91.
• Make the Wayland session the default one. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/2188.
• Make window titlebars (slightly) accent colored by default. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/78.
• Use Floating panel by default. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/73.
• Consolidate desktop folder layouts. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/68.
• Change the release schedule to two per year. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/52.
• Remove the concept of icons in Plasma themes. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/82.
• Remove the ability to configure (some) icon sizes systemwide. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/58.
• Remove the "Disable (Some Plasma) Tooltips" setting. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/83.
• Remove System Settings Icon view. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/65.
• Remove some redundant and confusing Notification settings. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/64.