Removing KDE

[a...@it-minds.dk]

Hello everybody!

I wanted to try out KDE with Qubes 4, but found that it was simply too much compared to my needs.

Unfortunately, removing KDE again isn't as simple as installing it. My biggest issues is that it hijacked some core components across the system, even though I am not using KDE (such as the notification frontend among other things).

I found an old thread where Marmarek suggested using `dnf mark install` on the packages that dnf wrongly tries to remove, but dnf remains way too aggressive in what it wants to remove.

Basically dnf wants to remove everything X related, not only the KDE stuff installed.

If anybody knows any way of reverting and purging KDE completely, I would be eternally grateful!

Otherwise I might just have to backup all my stuff and go for a reinstall :(

Thanks in advance!

PS: Lesson has been learned.. don't mindlessly install unncessary things. Thanks.

[a...@it-minds.dk]

So..

I ended up deleting most of the packages (if not all) by hand. Unfortunately, my system is in a limbo mode right now. The notification front end still looks weird (in dom0), and my lightdm is presented with a black background. Other than that, my system works fine.
Kind of annoying in this state, but works. My OCD is just getting the best of me :)

It would be nice with some comments in the documentation on the website about KDE being hard to revert from, or at least some specific instructions on how to revert. I would be more than happy to contribute with that, but I am going to need some help with the steps needed.

Hope someone will chime in!

[unman]

The simplest way to remove (most of) KDE is, I think:
dnf remove kdelibs,plasma-workspace

Removing those packages pulls out those that depend on them while
leaving Xfce (and X) untouched.

Though why you would want to remove Plasma? So easy to configure and
customize, and really enhances Qubes experience.

unman

[a...@it-minds.dk]

Honestly I completely agree. If I was to use a DE I would definitely prefer KDE or GNOME over XFCE (I sincerely hate XFCE, loose opinion held strongly).

I am however an avid user of i3, and since most of my stuff is opened and configured through templatevm/standalonevm, I don't really have a particular need for a heavy dom0 DE.

My machine only has 8 gb of RAM, and so far that is more enough for my usage, but I fear if I bloat dom0 too much, that I might end up having some issues..

My biggest issue right now is, that after I installed KDE and logged in to Plasma, it didn't correctly override all the XFCE/gtk stuff. So my machine was in a state where it started up some things from kde and some stuff from xfce. That was obviously completely unwanted behavior..

If you have some guidelines though, as to how I can switch off xfce stuff and turn completely to the dark side, I mean KDE, then I would appreciate your time.

Thank you!

Regards!

[donoban]

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On 11/12/18 1:03 AM, unman wrote:> Though why you would want to remove

Plasma? So easy to configure and
> customize, and really enhances Qubes experience.
>
> unman

Yeah! I hope someday KDE will be default desktop again. Unfortunately
there are some bugs with tasks tray and domains/devices widget.
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[Achim Patzner]

On 20181112 at 00:28 -0800 aaq via qubes-users wrote:
> Honestly I completely agree. If I was to use a DE I would definitely prefer KDE or GNOME over XFCE (I sincerely hate XFCE, loose opinion held strongly)

Seconded. My ass is still in pain over getting it to run at 286 dpi,
especially if disp VMsneed to get everything, too. And I'm still trying
to get a handle on the nome-tools menu bar sizes. Getting KDE to agree
on a different resolution is definitely easier (although i fell in love
with Mint - you don't have to do anything, it's like MacOS on this
machine.)

> My machine only has 8 gb of RAM, and so far that is more enough for my usage, but I fear if I bloat dom0 too much, that I might end up having some issues..

Right now it's CPU cores we're lacking, not RAM -- that can be added,
mobile CPUs are limited. But maybe that's because I once had a Sun
Tadpole, the only mobile computer thatever felt like having enough
horsepower.


Achim

[Stuart Perkins]

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On Mon, 12 Nov 2018 14:49:51 +0100
donoban <don...@riseup.net> wrote:

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>On 11/12/18 1:03 AM, unman wrote:> Though why you would want to remove
>Plasma? So easy to configure and
>> customize, and really enhances Qubes experience.
>>
>> unman
>
>Yeah! I hope someday KDE will be default desktop again. Unfortunately
>there are some bugs with tasks tray and domains/devices widget.
>

I hope it stays with XFCE. I despise the bloat of KDE. :P

Stuart
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[unman]

I hope it continues to support both.

As to the bloat, not sure what you mean in the context of Qubes.
In my wholly unscientific comparisons, the difference between XFCE and
KDE is around 180MB - That's slightly more than I've seen reported
elsewhere.
Even Plasma in all its glory accounts for less than 400MB, and that's
perfectly acceptable to me on a desktop, given the way that Plasma can
be tuned so well with Qubes.

Even on a laptop with 12GB RAM, Qubes and Plasma work well together with
little or no noticeable effect on performance. So that's the setup I
promote.

To be clear, I was a long term user of XFCE. I happen to think that it
doesn't perform as well with Qubes.

Horses for courses.
To each their own.

unman

[Ahmed Al Aqtash]

Even Plasma in all its glory accounts for less than 400MB, and that's
perfectly acceptable to me on a desktop, given the way that Plasma can
be tuned so well with Qubes.

I didn't really intend for this to become a "I like this more than that" discussion, but really..

If you chose to use Qubes, you also accepted that minimalism isn't really an option.

So I agree.. why not just pick the best DE out there then!

I am a long time Arch Linux user (what ever long time can mean).. everything in my body and brain triggered at the amount of stuff in Qubes that was by default.

It is what it is!