KDE is modular, and in DIY distributions like Arch Linux, numerous packages are required to achieve the full experience offered by OOT distributions (Kubuntu, KDE Neon, etc.). However, even those don’t include all KDE components. This list is useful for DIY distribution users but also for anyone interested in KDE software.
This page covers nearly every component and package required to achieve various functionalities in KDE and its applications. It also includes AUR packages, scripts, effects, and community-created applications designed to further enhance the KDE Plasma experience.
Update: Wiki is now available. Please familiarize yourself with it here
- install scripts for core components (like thumbnail plugins)
- open an issue and tell me
The package names listed here are for Arch-based distributions. If your distribution uses different package names for the same applications, you’ll have to find the equivalents yourself. This page will not list packages that are included in the plasma
package group or in the plasma-desktop
meta package.
Over time, this repository will include scripts and instructions for various tasks (install scripts, how-to guides and more) — consider it an all-in-one resource.
Each package will have a link leading to its source code.
An indented bullet list under a package shows optional dependencies. Installing them is not mandatory, but recommended for a complete KDE Plasma experience.
- If you’d like to contribute, feel free to submit a PR with your application
- If you want to support me, just become a follower on GitHub. If you want to support me financially, open an issue
- The Simple Way
- Core components
- KDE PIM
- Administration
- Multimedia
- Office
- Programming
- Misc
- Third Party Apps
To avoid installing the packages found here selectively and manually, you can use the group of packages that Arch Linux provides. To get the entire list of package groups for KDE, you can enter this command:
curl -s https://archlinux.org/groups/ | grep -oP 'kde-[^/"]+|kf[5,6]|kdevelop' | sed 's/<$//' | jq -R . | sed 's/\"//g' | uniq
and select the package groups you want.
Or, if you are crazy and want literally every component:
sudo pacman -S --needed $(curl -s https://archlinux.org/groups/ | grep -oP 'kde-[^/"]+|kf[5,6]|kdevelop' | sed 's/<$//' | jq -R . | sed 's/\"//g' | uniq)
A list of KDE components that work invisibly to the user, but do important work, extending the functionality of DE.
- svgpart - allows some KDE applications to render .svg without third-party apps
- markdownpart - allows some KDE applications to render .md without third-party apps
- baloo-widgets - extra metadata in Dolphin's Information Panel (requires Baloo indexing)
- kde-inotify-survey - diagnostic tool to check inotify limits, a kernel feature for monitoring filesystem events
- kdenetwork-filesharing - provides easy file sharing over the network. Note: still in development
- kio-extras - additional components to increase the functionality of KIO
- kio-fuse - allows you to mount remote directories
- kio-gdrive - allows you to connect to cloud storage
- kio-admin - allows you manage files as administrator
- xwaylandvideobridge - utility to stream Wayland windows to X apps
- iio-sensor-proxy - automatic screen rotation
- libappindicator-gtk3 - tray icon support for GTK3 apps (deprecated, use libayatana-appindicator)
- maliit-keyboard - on-screen keyboard. Not available on desktops even if installed
- power-profiles-daemon - enables the power management in Plasma. Please read the note below
- tuned & tuned-ppd - enables the power management in Plasma. Please read the note below
- orca - screen reader
- cryfs & encfs & gocryptfs - filesystems for Plasma Vault
- ufw - firewall daemon. Please read the note below
- firewalld - firewall daemon. Please read the note below
- fwupd - provides ability to update PC firmware from Discover
- quota-tools - applet for Disk Quota. You don't really need this
- ripgrep{-all} - Dolphin's search backend
blog
when baloo is off - hunspell & hunspell-$LANG - spell cheking and dictionaries
- krfb - remote desktop support
- symmy-git - encrypt and decrypt local files from Dolphin's context menu
- kdeconnect - seamlessly integrates your phone and devices with Plasma
sshfs
- Allows to browse phone's filesystemqt6-tools
- Runcommand plugin settingskrfb
- Use remote device as virtual monitor
- kcm-grub2-git - configure and manage the GRUB bootloader in Plasma. Note:
packagekit-qt6
is required! - kcron - configure and schedule cron tasks
- kwalletmanager - kwallet KCM module
- kup - manage backups in System Settings
bup
- git packfile supportrsync
- you know what is this
- ffmpegthumbs - video thumbnails across KDE apps
- kdegraphics-thumbnailers - a collection of plugins for generating file thumbnails
- kimageformats - a KDE library adding support for various image formats, enabling viewing and processing in KDE apps. More info here
- icoutils - thumbnails for Windows executables in KDE apps. Note: not all *.exe support thumbnail preview
- qt{5,6}-imageformats - supports formats like
.png
,.jpeg
,.gif
and more in Qt apps - dolphin-plugins - provides a variety of useful plugins for Dolphin, including ISO mounting
- pulseaudio-qt - Qt bindings for libpulse. You might want to install this
Warning
Do not install both ufw
and firewalld
!
When choosing a power management utility, consider the differences between tuned and power-profiles-daemon (ppd).
power-profiles-daemon
is a simple tool that works via D-Bus and relies on the pstate driver, making it incompatible with some systems.tuned
is a more flexible and powerful tool, even used on servers. With tuned-ppd, it can emulate ppd's D-Bus API.
If ppd doesn’t allow performance adjustments in KDE, try tuned (optionally tuned-ppd) and enable the service.
If you don’t need power management in KDE, you don’t have to install either.
sudo pacman -S tuned tuned-ppd
sudo systemctl enable --now tuned tuned-ppd
Note: All of the packages listed below are supported by the KDE team.
KDE PIM (Personal Information Manager) helps manage personal data like contacts, phone numbers, addresses, emails, and more. If you haven't missed it, you probably don't need it.
To install the entire set of required programs at once, use the kde-pim
package group, or the kde-pim-meta
meta package.
- kontact - email, calendar, contacts and other personal data management
- kmail - mail client
- korganizer - ersonal calender, tasks management and more
- kaddressbook - personal data such as family members, friends, phone number and much more
- akregator - RSS reader
- zanshin - day to day actions management
- ktimetracker - time management. Not part of PIM, but included here anyway
- kleopatra - certificate management
- kmymoney - self-explanatory
- kdepim-addons - a set of PIM plugins
- kwalletmanager - password manager
For detailed further instructions, please refer to ArchWiki.
- filelight - disk usage visualizer
- isoimagewriter - disk image writer. Also try Ventoy
- kdiskfree - view disk usage
- kfind - simple but fast file searching
mlocate
- search using mlocate index
- kgpg - frontend for GPG keys management
- kjournald - view and manage journalctl logs
- ksystemlog - view and manage kernel, Xorg, and other system logs
- krusader - twin-pannel file manager
keditbookmarks
- bookmarks managementkde-cli-tools
- file associations & root modekdiff3
- file contents comparisonkrename
- advanced file renamekonsolepart
- terminal supportktexteditor
- file editing support
- partitionmanager - "GParted by KDE"
- Opt deps: the same as opt deps for GParted (
pacman -Qi gparted
)
- Opt deps: the same as opt deps for GParted (
- sweeper - cache cleaner
- systemdgenie - control systemd services from GUI frontend
- yakuake - drop-down terminal
- amarok - music player
- audiotube - YouTube music player
- kaffeine - media player
- dragon - media player
- elisa - music player, supports radio streaming
- haruna - mpv on steroids
yt-dlp
- YouTube streaming support
- juk - music player
- kid3 - audio tag editor
- kget - universal download manager
libktorrent
- torrent support
- ktorrent - torrent client
kplotting
- statistics plugin for KTorrent
- plasmatube - YouTube frontend
- vvave - music player
- arianna - simple ebook reader
- calligra - all-in-one office suite
libetonyek
- Apple Keynote import filterlibvisio
- Microsoft Visio import filterlibwpg
- Corel WordPerfect Graphics image importerlibwps
- Microsoft Works file importerpoppler
- PDF to SVG filterpstoedit
- EPS to SVG filterqt6-webengine
- Braindump web shape
- francis - pomodoro timer
- ghostwriter - markdown editor / note-taking app
cmark
- CommonMark supportmathjax
- MathJax rendering in live previewpandoc
- Pandoc support
- gwenview - fast image viewer with editing features
kamera
- import images from cameraskimageformats
- mentioned aboveqt6-imageformats
- mentioned above
- kalk - calculator
- kcalc - calculator
- kcolorchooser - simple color picker
- karp - PDF editor. Note: still in development
- kdenlive - powerful video editor
bigsh0t
- VR360 effectsdvgrab
- firewire capturekimageformats
- mentioned abovemediainfo
- technical clip informationnoise-suppression-for-voice
- self-explanatoryopencv
- motion trackingopentimelineio
- timeline import & exportpython-openai-whisper
&python-srt_equalizer
- OpenAI's stt modelpython-vosk
- VOSK stt modelrecordmydesktop
- screen capture
- kile - LaTex editor
- klevernotes - note-taking app
- kolourpaint - simple paint app, similar to "Paint" in Windows
- kphotoalbum - photo management tool (tags, collections, and more)
- okular - PDF reader on steroids
ebook-tools
- mobi and epub supportkdegraphics-mobipocket
- mobi supportunarchiver
orunrar
- Comic Book support
- subtitlecomposer - subtitle editor
- kommit - git GUI frontend
- kate - advanced text editor
clang
- C & C++ LSP supportgit
- git-blame supportpython-lsp-server
- self-explanatoryqt6-declarative
- RBQL pluginqtkeychain-qt6
- SQL pluginrust
- rust LSP supporttexlab
- LaTeX support
- kdevelop - IDE
apr
,apr-util
,subversion
- SVN supportgdb
- GNU debuggerheaptrack
- memory profilercppcheck
- code analyzermeson
- meson integrationpurpose
- patch review pluginqt6-doc
- QT documentation integration
- kompare - diff / patch frontend
- okteta - HEX editor
- alpaka — GUI frontend for Ollama. Note: still in development
- kcharselect — unicode character picker
- kclock — simple clock app for KDE Plasma / Plasma Mobile
- kmousetool — mouse auto clicker
- kweather — weather app for KDE Plasma / Plasma Mobile
- nota — simple text editor for KDE Plasma / Plasma Mobile
- kdialog — zenity and yad alternative
- khelpcenter — offline (F1 shortcut by default) documentation for KDE apps
- optiimage — image compressor
- plasma6-applets-fokus — pomodoro timer plasmoid
- plasma6-applets-panel-colorizer — customize your panel as you want
- plasma6-applets-wallpaper-effects — various wallpaper effects
- plasma6-applets-panon — an audio visualizer widget
- plasma6-wallpapers-blurredwallpaper — blurs wallpaper when active window is present
- plasma6-wallpapers-wallpaper-engine-git — Wallpaper Engine plugin for KDE Plasma
- plasma6-applets-weather-widget-3-git — simple weather widget that live in the taskbar / tray
- plasma6-kde_controlcentre — MacOS-like control center for KDE
- kde-shader-wallaper (no AUR packages) — self-explanatory. This is worth your look
- kde-material-you-colors — Material Design 3 color palette generator for KDE
- kando-bin — a nice looking cross-platform pie menu
- kwin-effect-rounded-corners-git — rounded window corners with outlines and shadow interpolation
- kwin-effects-forceblur — self-explanatory
- kwin-effects-kinetic — kinetic kwin effects
- kwin4_effect_geometry_change (no AUR packages) — animations for windows moved or resized by programs
- kwin-scripts-krohnkite-git — a dynamic tiling extension for KWin
- kwin-scripts-mudeer — virtual screen splitting
- kwin-polonium — a tiling window manager for Plasma 6
- chatgpt-plasmoid (no AUR packages) — ChatGPT plasmoid
- ditto-menu (no AUR packages) — Windows 11-like application launcher
- krunner-translator (no AUR packages) — Google Translate plugin for krunner
- fancytasks — Plasma's "Icons-Only Task Manager" on steroids. Note: not available for Plasma 6
- ollama-control (no AUR packages) — control ollama models from the taskbar
- chat-qt (no AUR packages) — ollama chat plasmoid
- plasmoid-dockio (no AUR packages) — docker containers management
- kwin-gestures — custom kwin touchpad gestures for Plasma 6
- kde-thumbnailer-apk — you got it right; Android's .apk thumbnails
- klassy — custom window decoration, application style and global theme
- lightly-qt — a modern style for qt applications
- kdiskmark - CrystalDiskMark alternative for Linux
- bleachbit - powerful cache cleaner
- konsave - backup tool designed for KDE Plasma
- apdatifier (no arch packages) - applet for managing Arch Linux updates (including AUR)
- Depends on:
pacman-contrib
curl
jq
unzip
tar
fzf
- Depends on:
- plasma6-applets-arch-update-notifier - yet another one applet for managing Arch Linux updates
- qpwgraph - PipeWire GUI frontend
- jamesdsp - EasyEffects alternative
- qtpass - multi-platform GUI for pass, the standard unix password manager
- qownnotes - plain-text file markdown note-taking with Nextcloud / ownCloud integration
- keepassxc - cross-platform password manager
- koi - auto light / dark mode switcher
- yin-yang - auto light / dark mode switcher
- protonup-qt - install and manage GE-Proton, Steam Proton, Lutris runners and much more
- qbittorrent - you know what is this!
- media-downloader - a cross-platform app for downloading media from a popular sites
- plasma-manager (not an arch package) - Home Manager module for KDE Plasma
- mpris-discord-rpc - self-explanatory. Not a KDE component nor made for KDE, but can integrate well with Haruna, Dragon, mpv and more, providing functional Discord RPC interface
- papirus-folders - custom folder color for Papirus icon theme. Also check this