MX-14: Advanced: KDE

MX-14
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See also the detailed video MX-14 with KDE

Installation

The basic installation is very simple.
  1. Install MX-14 -- bare bones with nothing added.
  2. After rebooting from the HDD, open the MX Package Installer application.
  3. Select KDE_Standard; if you want more control, install KDE Light.
  4. Wait for all of the packages to be downloaded and installed. Time required will depend on Internet speeds.
  5. Reboot, and a KDE option will appear on the log-in screen.
  6. Run the MX-14 system tools, like disk-manager, MX codecs installer, and MX flash installer.
  7. Install the appropriate video driver using smxi or whatever method you prefer.
  8. Network Manager is present, but not visible in the KDE System Tray. This is resolved by installing plasma-widget-networkmanager.
  9. Go through the inventory of installed applications and install the ones that are missing (there may be quite a few of them).

Almost all the tweaking will consist of things always done to a new installation anyway, like setting up the panel, installing a different mouse cursor arrow, and setting up compositing features and changing window appearances in System Settings. The resulting KDE desktop will be very generic, featuring plain grey KDE wallpaper with stripes running diagonally. Also, the KDE version installed by the meta-installer is a couple of versions older than the current version of KDE.

Customization

There are many items provided by a standard KDE installation that have to be done manually.

One final strong recommendation. People who use the plain-vanilla KDE can simply do a fresh installation from the Live Media when things go sideways on their systems, but that isn't an option here. Since installing MX-14/KDE is a two-step process, it's highly recommended to make back-up partition images of / and /home when you're finished.

Help

For other information about using KDE on MX-14, there is a special KDE subforum where you can post questions or browse through topics.