I use Kontact, begrudgingly, and was really rooting for Kube years ago. However, with the proliferation of Linux and KDE making inroads - both in the private as well as public sectors, I would hope that the importance of good 365 / Exchange / Google / Gmail alternatives are becoming increasingly apparent.

In short, getting Kontact in a modern and usable state across all common use-cases while being easy to deploy for simple use cases would go a LONG way to make the switch to open source and KDE much easier.

Perhaps Kontact should take the approach of projects like KDEnlive, Krita. and other stellar KDE projects, and make a conscientious effort for fundraising outside of the general KDE/Ev income streams? Recent brief analysis of the last few years worth of sprints show that progress hasn't been exactly setting the world on fire: https://planet.kde.org/page/47/#10

Or maybe fork and resurrect Kube / Sink? I'm also aware of Merkuro, but that seems years away and, frankly, just looks like web mail or wrapper for a web page to me. The UI just seems too simplistic. I'll reserve judgement, but would likely just use webmail if I had to choose.

Interestingly, Nate wrote a nice post about this topic here: https://pointieststick.com/2026/04/23/kde-email-part-two-use-an-email-client/

When booting my cachyos laptop with an external monitor in the login screen it rapidly switches primary status between my built in and external displays and chooses which is primary randomly whenever I make an action. Is there a solution to this to permenantly have my built in monitor as my primary?

I'm the author. Cygnus is an application installer and manager for CachyOS / KDE Plasma (Python, PySide6, GPL-3.0).

The idea: one app that handles Flatpak (Flathub), AppImages, AUR, repo packages, and Debian/Fedora apps — including converting .deb/.rpm files when it's safe to. You pick which drive each app installs to (handy if you split SSD/HDD), it resolves runtimes and dependencies, verifies signatures where possible, and can roll back what it started. Nothing touches your system without showing you exactly what it'll do and asking first.

It's public beta 0.2.0 — it works and I use it daily, but it's been tested on one setup (mine) and there's no independent security review yet (security model + audit guide are in the repo). Free during the beta, or build from source.

• Repo + screenshots: https://github.com/AbdulazizOmran/Cygnus
• Launch video: https://youtu.be/c-ShWA-0TWE

Happy to answer questions — and bug reports welcome on GitHub issues.

Ive recently made a custom control center and wanted some opinions :)

Im planning on uploading it to my github soon!

On kwin if you have two graphics cards connected to two displays it will always render the entire desktop(both displays) on the main GPU. This means you must always run on the main GPU must be the integrated graphics on laptops if you want to be able to turn the discrete GPU off. This means you forever get IGPU performance except for applications that are compatible with direct scanhout when they're full-screen. And this also involves expensive copies to move the rendered frames from the main GPU to the secondary GPU, slower your system down even more.

From my programming experience this will not be able fixed easily, this a architectural problem. They are putting band-aids on the problem but it will not fix it. They need to redesign their architecture pertaining to this because otherwise Linux will always stay in 2018.

I don't get how this even came to be, you would expect them to make a really good architecture that encompasses all. That is what normally happens when programming nerds have the chance to rewrite a system. They really dropped the ball. I mean even windows does this properly even though it's the devils garbage.

But anyway my question is: are they working on addressing the root problem rather than applying band-aid fixes? Give me some hope PLEASE!

EDIT: This might already be worked on: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/9668

I feel that kde wallet is way behind other counterparts, i think it would be great to have kde wallet to get bit of ui lifting,

some kind of sync between linked devices

ability to generate passwords in the app with some degree of customization of generation pattern

lastly ability to include some metadata like url associated with password

Every time I upgrade KDE Frameworks lately, it breaks two tray widgets, audio and network.

It's not just me. I see this on EndeavorOS, CachyOS and other forums.

I have to run the following which fixes it until the next update. I haven't filed a bug because it has one already.

Anyone from the KDE dev team that sees this, what's up?

The lines I use to fix this are ... and it works until the next frameworks update.

 rm -rf ~/.cache/plasmashell/*
 rm -rf ~/.cache/qmlcache
 rm -rf ~/.cache/systemsettings/*
 sudo find /usr/lib/qt6/qml/org/kde/kirigami/ -type f -name "qmldir" -exec sed -i 's/^prefer :/#prefer :/g' {} +
 find ~/.cache -name "*qmlcache*" -type d -exec rm -rf {} + | kbuildsycoca6 --noincremental
 systemctl --user restart plasma-plasmashell
 rm -rf ~/.cache/plasmashell/*
 rm -rf ~/.cache/qmlcache
 rm -rf ~/.cache/systemsettings/*
 sudo find /usr/lib/qt6/qml/org/kde/kirigami/ -type f -name "qmldir" -exec sed -i 's/^prefer :/#prefer :/g' {} +
 find ~/.cache -name "*qmlcache*" -type d -exec rm -rf {} + | kbuildsycoca6 --noincremental
 systemctl --user restart plasma-plasmashell

The video shows a Arch + niri laptop using a Samsung tablet as a second screen.

TL;DR: Update on Monitorize, a Linux virtual display manager with built-in streaming via Sunshine. Now supports more desktop environments and binary packages for major distros.

I posted here about a month ago about my project Monitorize, which received a lot of love and support from you guys.

Since then, the project has evolved quite a bit. Huge thanks to u/TrippleTree for introducing me to fauxput, which uses recent upstream VKMS developments to create virtual displays. I used fauxput as a reference to develop a standalone VKMS-based virtual display tool for Monitorize called monitorize-vkms which added support to niri and cinnamon x11.

What's changed:

• More desktop environments: With monitorize-vkms, Monitorize now supports Niri and Cinnamon X11, alongside KDE, GNOME and Hyprland.
• Redesigned UI.
• Binary packages: I haven't been able to register on the AUR(It's still closed), so I made Arch packages instead. Binary packages are now available for Arch Linux, Fedora 44, Ubuntu 24.04/26.04 and openSUSE Tumbleweed.

Current desktop support:

For desktops without native virtual display support, monitorize-vkms provides virtual DRM/KMS monitors with configurable resolutions and refresh rates. It can also be used independently through its CLI.

The goal is to have one application for managing virtual monitors across different Linux desktop environments, rather than relying on separate scripts and workarounds for each compositor.

Project: https://github.com/vinnavannewton/project-monitorize

VKMS backend: https://github.com/vinnavannewton/monitorize-vkms

It's still an ongoing open-source project, and I'm continuing to improve compatibility across different distributions and desktop environments.

I'd appreciate feedback, especially from Niri and Cinnamon users. If something breaks on your setup, feel free to open an issue or contribute a fix!

And if you like the project, consider leaving a ⭐ on GitHub! If you really like it and want to support its development, you can leave a tip!. It would really mean a lot to me!

Installed KDE Neon bigscreen. Plasma desktop env opens in a black screen with just the mouse. Same case with a few apps when in the bigscreen desktop env (chromium, and paramount plus Web app) I'm new to neon. I've tried it on both he latest testing version and user version, looking for solution or for bug to be fixed.

Been working on a small KDE Plasma 6 widget called Audio HUD.

It provides a compact, live overview of your audio output directly on the desktop, including:

• Output device and reported codec
• Sample rate and PCM bit depth
• Active playback applications and their audio formats
• Volume and mute status
• Sample-rate matching between active streams and the output

One of the bigger improvements in this release is routing-aware monitoring, which allows the widget to follow playback streams through processing chains such as EasyEffects.

I've also worked on making the interface more compact and adaptable, with native Plasma backgrounds and support for light and dark colour schemes.

It's open source and designed specifically for Plasma 6.

GitHub: https://github.com/noisetta/audio-hud

Latest release: https://github.com/noisetta/audio-hud/releases/tag/v1.2.0

I'd be interested to hear what other KDE users think, especially any suggestions for improving the interface or usability!

Any good ideas for improving it ?

Title.

I must be doing something wrong? Or else this program is completely broken.

The preview looks right. When I set "Scan Area Size" to "A4", the selection looks right, but then when I press scan, it auto highlights a random auto-detected red area on the page instead and scans just that? How do I scan a full page???

Kind of unbelievable I can't get it to do this most basic of functions. I also can't find any way to disable the whole auto detection thing in the settings.

How do you use this thing?

Edit: Okay, I figured it out. I don't know if this is intended. If it is, I must say this is bad design. If it is not, well something is wrong.

The flow I expect to work:

1. Press Preview and get preview
2. Select A4 from the dropdown and see in preview how the A4 area is now selected
3. Press scan, get a scan of the selected area

Instead, the above flow scans (seemingly at random) one of the red auto detected areas (not the actual selected area)

To get it to respect the actual selection, you have to press the "Clear Selections" button to manually get rid of the red areas first, before making your real selection.

We continue with the 7-day marathon of KDE versions with the sixth and latest major release of the KDE desktop environment at the time of this post, KDE Plasma 6.0.0, released on February 28, 2024, demonstrated in an OpenMandriva Cooker build, although it was compiled on the same day as the first maintenance release of the KDE Plasma 6.x version series, 6.0.1, i.e., March 5, 2024, it was delivered with 6.0.0. Fun fact: The only downloadable bootable ISO files of Linux distributions that included Plasma 6.0.0 that I found at the time would have remained lost media if I had never located any of them, which is something I ironically did with KDE 4.0.0 (January 11, 2008), GNOME 3.0.0 (April 6, 2011), KDE Plasma 5.0.0 (2014), and GNOME 40.0 (March 24, 2021) because I was not an adult at the time these versions were released, having been born on May 14, 2003, and turning 18 on May 14, 2021 (GNOME 40.1, the first minor release of the GNOME 40.x series, was the latest version of GNOME at the time, if I recall correctly).

I have some events in an ICS file which I've added to KOrganizer. They show up correctly in that app, but do not show up at all in the Digital Clock calendar widget.

I have installed kdepim-runtime and kdepim-addons, enabled Calendar Events in the Digital Clock widget settings, and selected the relevant calendar under the "Calendar Events" tab. I have also tried rebooting my computer.

Has anyone else run into this issue? I only found this post that had the same problem, but the person there didn't have the kdepim apps installed.

I'm running KDE Plasma 6.6.6 on NixOS 26.05.

When inserting an audio CD, KDE creates various folders of conversions of the audio files. This is a cool feature but it's slow and there's no system setting to turn it off, it seems.
There are system settings for changing the conversion settings but no setting to turn it off?

Hi,

Under Wayland one remote desktop app cannot cover every compositor, so this needs work in each one, including KWin.

We are investing in a draft called RemoteDesktop1 with GNOME and KDE, working toward wlroots too, aimed at headless multi user sessions (no monitor, no portal click, many users on one host). On the KDE side we fund a KWin implementation. Attach to an existing local Wayland session is in better shape already (TigerVNC 1.16 w0vncserver).

We shared this on r/wayland a few days ago and got good questions there: https://www.reddit.com/r/wayland/comments/1wvsql0/bringing_headless_remote_desktop_to_wayland/

Full writeup on our community, including the KDE work and the session startup proposal:

https://community.thinlinc.com/t/bringing-headless-remote-desktop-to-wayland/2084

Happy to answer questions. (We are Cendio, we make ThinLinc and maintain TigerVNC / noVNC.)

During my experience whit KDE plasma, I always wanted to make a custom task switcher. I have looked through the tutorial on KDE.org, and sailed the web in search of a more in depth explanation for it, or something that is close to what I would want, but at the end it was only time lost.

Are custom task switchers unpopular?
Is there a more in depth tutorial online?

Thank you for your support.

Logitech has no Options+ for Linux, so I ended up with my own app for my MX Master 4.

Up front: I didn't write the code. Claude (Anthropic's AI, in Claude Code) wrote all of it. I told it what I wanted and tested every build on my mouse. It is built for Plasma 6 on Wayland.

What it does:

- **Actions Ring.** A menu around the cursor (bubbles, pie or tiles), drawn with layer-shell. A bubble runs an action, opens its own sub-ring, or works as a dial you turn with the wheel: volume, tabs, zoom, undo, Krohnkite layouts.

- **Gestures.** Hold a button and swipe. A live compass shows how the swipe was read, and you can tune the distances, the diagonal dead zone and when it fires.

- **Buttons.** About 70 ready actions, a third of them KWin and Plasma global shortcuts (Overview, desktop grid, window tiling, Spectacle), plus key combos, commands, scripts and macros.

- **The rest.** Wheel and SmartShift, pointer speed, haptic patterns, Easy-Switch, battery in the tray.

- It runs as a systemd user service and has a D-Bus API for scripts.

Limits: tested on exactly one setup (MX Master 4, Bolt receiver, Plasma 6 Wayland, Arch-based). Other MX mice may work; I can't check. The ring needs layer-shell, so it does not work on X11.

Code, screenshots and an Arch package: https://github.com/nictonus/mxoptions

If you have an MX mouse and try it, I'd like to hear what breaks.

**UPD:** 0.10.0 is out: https://github.com/nictonus/mxoptions/releases/tag/v0.10.0

What's new since the post:

- **Flow.** One mouse on two or three computers: push the pointer past the screen edge and the mouse switches to the other machine, taking the clipboard with it (text, pictures, files). It's my own implementation, so it works between computers running MX Options, not with Logi Options+.

- **Windows build.** Installer and zip are in the release. Flow works between Linux and Windows. You have to remove or stop Logi Options+ first, otherwise the two fight over the mouse.

- **Not KDE-only anymore.** Actions, the ring and Flow now have code paths for GNOME, sway, Hyprland and X11 desktops. Honest note: I only run KDE Plasma, so those are untested on real setups. Reports welcome.

- **Game rumble** (asked in the comments): controller vibration from games is played on the mouse's haptic motor. On Windows it needs the ViGEmBus driver.

- **Other mice** (also asked): MX Master 3/3S/2S and other HID++ mice are picked up with whatever they report. I only own an MX Master 4, so again untested. The wrong mouse picture on non-MX mice is fixed.

- Shape gestures, tray icon styles, and `mxoptions --call ...` for scripts.

Tested by hand on KDE Plasma 6 (Wayland) and Windows 11 with an MX Master 4. Everything else is "should work, tell me if it doesn't".

I've released KDynamicWallpaperTools 1.0.0, a toolset for creating and building dynamic wallpapers for KDE Plasma 6.

It includes a graphical interface for:

• Converting GNOME dynamic wallpaper definitions, such as from this collection.
• Building animated AVIF wallpapers for use with this dynamic wallpaper plugin for KDE.
• Creating native KDE Plasma day/night wallpaper packages.
• Editing existing wallpaper sequences, including solar timing and automatic sunrise/sunset calculations.

The project provides DEB and RPM packages, along with the source code.

Project and downloads:
https://gitlab.com/deusrex/kdynamicwallpapertools/

Feedback, bug reports and suggestions are welcome.

Before the latest update I was able to set the exact threshold limit for maximum battery charge, now I only have the option to limit it?