SUMMARY On regular Ubuntu (not kubuntu) 20.04, I installed kde with: $ sudo apt-get install kde-standard I got a prompt to choose a display manager, i.e. sddm, kdm3 or another one that I can't remember. I had no clue and the prompt screen was uninformative (that's an issue on its own), but after a bit of research, I seemed to understand the best choice was "sddm", so I chose that one. After installation was complete with no error message, I rebooted. I got nothing but a black screen for several minutes. I turned the laptop off and on, and again, black screen forever. My computer was BRICKED. I was able to recover from the desaster by hitting ctrl+alt+F3, logging in via the virtual console, and running: sudo dpkg-reconfigure kdm3 Prompted again to choose the display manager, this time I chose kdm3. Then I rebooted again, and this time I could get as far as the login screen. Now, after selecting the user, I clicked on the gear icon on the bottom-right which allows you to choose the desktop environment to log in to. I chose Plasma (freshly installed). After that, again a black screen. I retried several times. No way to log in to KDE Plasma. So I restarted again and logged in into Cinnamon. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Linux/KDE Plasma: Ubuntu 20.04 KDE Plasma Version: no idea KDE Frameworks Version: no idea Qt Version: no idea ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Please try: > sudo apt install plasma-desktop Or: > sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop
$ sudo apt-get install plasma-desktop [sudo] password for teo: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done plasma-desktop is already the newest version (4:5.18.5-0ubuntu0.1). plasma-desktop set to manually installed.
Created attachment 130246 [details] Plasma desktop
I forgot: after the initial report, I also tried logging out from Cinnamon and logging in again with Plasma. I attach a screenshot of the desktop I logged in to. I had to take a photo because screenshot wouldn't work. The garbage on screen would randomly change every once in a while
1. Do you see any error message in dmesg? 2. What GPU are you using? 3. If you run Kubuntu and/or KDE neon Live CDs, is the graphics issue still present?
Sounds like you should consult an ubuntu-specific forum. None of these issues are caused by KDE software itself but rather pertain to packaging and installation topics. I don't think that installing Kubuntu on top of regular ubuntu is something that the Ubuntu folks specifically support. It's possible, but tricky--as you're discovering. :) You might want to re-install with Kubuntu itself if you want to get things up and running fastest.
> I don't think that installing Kubuntu on top of regular ubuntu is something that the > Ubuntu folks specifically support That's why at first I installed kde-standard. That bricked my computer, and 2wxsy58236r3@opayq.com suggested: > Please try: > sudo apt install plasma-desktop > Or: > sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop The first did nothing, as it was a subset of what I had already installed. The second actually work. That is, installing kubuntu on top of regular ubuntu was the one thing that worked.
Right, that's the correct way to do it. I have no idea what the "kde-standard" package in Ubuntu contains so I'm not super surprised that installing it broke stuff.
> Right, that's the correct way to do it. Well, then that's an issue on its own. I only wanted to try out a minimal KDE Plasma desktop environment, just like I'm trying out Cinnamon. That is, at the login screen, to be able to select KDE Plasma to log in with. I didn't want to "transform" my Ubuntu into Kubuntu, or to install a huge lot of bloated packages, and I certainly didn't want to change my boot splash screen. If there is no way to install a reasonably minimal installation of the desktop environment, then that's an issue. This is where I got the idea that installing kde-standard seemed to be what I needed: https://itsfoss.com/install-kde-on-ubuntu/ > I have no idea what the "kde-standard" package in Ubuntu contains so I'm not super > surprised that installing it broke stuff. I am not "super surprised" either because I wouldn't be super surprised if a fresh install of Ubuntu on a brand-new laptop out of the top of the list of suggested hardware crashed at boot. However, surprising or not, it is definitely not ok that merely installing a package would brick your computer without warning.