Debian – Remove components from standard installation of KDE Plasma on Debian 10

debiankdeplasma5

I recently Installed Debian 10 with KDE Plasma desktop environment. I chose this desktop environment because it is modern and looks great. The customization is also over the top making it the best flavor out there for me.

I noticed that it comes with a lot of bloatware which I can't seem to uninstall. The reason for this is that removing those packages will also remove other important packages.

I will put a list here with all the packages I am willing to remove, and what other packages will automatically be removed with them.

Okular(document viewer) – kde-standard, task-kde-desktop
Gwenview(image viewer) – kde-standard, task-kde-desktop
Kaddressbook – kde-standard, task-kde-desktop
Akregator(feed reader) – kde-standard, task-kde-desktop
Kopete(messenger) – kde-standard, task-kde-desktop
kmail – kde-standard, task-kde-desktop
konqueror – kde-baseapps kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard konq-plugins task-kde-desktop
juk(music player) – kde-standard, task-kde-desktop
Dragon player(video player) – kde-standard, task-kde-desktop

The list goes on like this. I do not want to write all of them down, you probably get the idea.

If possible I want to remove all programs, but of course keep using KDE. Is there a way to remove these programs safely? And if not, is there a way to hide them from my program menu? I do not need any of them and it is bothering me a lot that they are there.

Best Answer

Installing the kde-standard package is not what you would like to install in the first place as a user who wants to have fine grained control over the packages on your system. Given the large list of things that you do not want, I would recommend removing kde-standard and install plasma-kde-desktop. The latter is like a minimal kde.

However, we can also impose to the package manager that we installed actually all of the kde-standard dependencies and recommends manually and not as a dependency. For this high-level tasks it is always more comfortable to use aptitude as your interface to the package manager (apt-get install aptitude - https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude ). Then the magic is done with:

aptitude  unmarkauto "?reverse-depends(kde-standard) | ?reverse-recommends(kde-standard)

Note: Before running such commands I always recommend to run aptitutde in a first dry-run pass with the -s flag, that simulates the to be performed actions.

After this, you can remove the kde-standard package (aptitude remove kde-standard), and then proceed to removing the undesired packages. Depending on the way you installed kde, aptitude may recommend to remove also the task-kde-desktop, which can be safely acknowledged.

Related Solutions

In application menu bar in KDE Plasma 5.12

My personal opinion, based on some reverse engineering I've just finished on this subject, is that, with all due respect, KDE developers did a big mess here.

In a fit of oversimplification, the option you mention is no longer available. The global menu is now automatically enabled when you place a global menu applet in a panel or add the menu button to the window decoration in Buttons tab of the Window Decorations module.

Otherwise the global menu should be automatically disabled, and the classic "In Application" Menu Bar used instead.

With some exceptions.

KCalc for example, behaves ad described. Just remove any global menu applet and the application menu button from the window decoration, to get back KCalc "in application" menu.
But other applications, such as Ark, KMenuEdit, Muon, Okteta, KHelpCenter, just to mention a few, when you use the application menu button or the global menu applet at least one time, remain in this state even after you remove the application menu button or the global menu applet, with no access to the menu whatsoever. It seems a bug to me. For such kind of application, you have to manually edit their configuration file (when the application itself is closed, of course). You'll find them in the ~/.config folder. Search by the application name. For Ark, the configuration file is:

~/.config/arkrc

There change

MenuBar=Disabled

with

MenuBar=Enabled

This restores "in application" menu (but remember to remove any global menu applet and the application menu button from the window decoration before!)

In addition to the rules above, other applications implement a further mechanism to switch on and off "in app" application menu, using CTRL+M hotkey (given that you have restored the "in application" menu as described in the point 1). For example Dolphin and Gwenview support CTRL+M as described. Kate supports CTRL+M but kindly emits a warning before hiding the menu. Konsole terminal instead, which acts it's too cool for all the other applications, wants CTRL+SHIFT+M to switch the menu on and off. The selected state is persistent after system reboot.
And it's not over. Other plasmoids designed as a replacement of the global application menu, such as "Active Window Control" will disable your "in application" menu, despite any other contrary directive you may have set. So, I suggest you to make your tests in a clean KDE plasma environment.

Linux – Suspend linux from KDE Plasma 5 lockscreen

thanks for the patch, it works like a charm!

same to handle the physical power key:

      Keys.onPressed: {
+            if (event.key == 16777399) performOperation("suspendToRam")

confirmed to work on kded5 5.67.0 and plasmashell 5.17.5 (Gentoo).

UPDATE 2020-06: refreshed patch for kde-plasma/plasma-workspace-5.18.5

--- /usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel/org.kde.breeze.desktop/contents/lockscreen/LockScreenUi.qml.orig    2020-06-25 00:50:49.181771074 +0300
+++ /usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel/org.kde.breeze.desktop/contents/lockscreen/LockScreenUi.qml 2020-06-25 00:56:23.750323655 +0300
@@ -38,6 +38,18 @@
 
     colorGroup: PlasmaCore.Theme.ComplementaryColorGroup
 
+    function performOperation(what) {
+        var service = dataEngine.serviceForSource("PowerDevil");
+        var operation = service.operationDescription(what);
+        service.startOperationCall(operation);
+    }
+
+    PlasmaCore.DataSource {
+      id: dataEngine
+      engine: "powermanagement"
+      connectedSources: ["PowerDevil"]
+    }
+
     Connections {
         target: authenticator
         onFailed: {
@@ -125,6 +137,8 @@
             }
         }
         Keys.onPressed: {
+            if (event.key == 16908292) performOperation("suspendToRam")
+            if (event.key == 16777399) performOperation("suspendToRam")
             uiVisible = true;
             event.accepted = false;
         }
@@ -279,6 +293,11 @@
                         anchors{
                             verticalCenter: parent.top
                         }
+                    },
+                    ActionButton {
+                        text: i18nd("plasma_lookandfeel_org.kde.lookandfeel", "Suspend")
+                        iconSource: "system-suspend"
+                        onClicked: performOperation("suspendToRam")
                     }
                 ]

Best Answer

Related Solutions

In application menu bar in KDE Plasma 5.12

Linux – Suspend linux from KDE Plasma 5 lockscreen

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