KDE is a free and more customizable graphical desktop environment for Unix systems. Plasma is a widgets based desktop environment. KDE Plasma Desktop is the default desktop environment on many Linux distributions, such as openSUSE, Mageia, Chakra, Kubuntu, Manjaro Linux, and PCLinuxOS.
How to install KDE desktop on Linux Mint
To install KDE desktop on Linux Mint, you need to add author’s personal repository. Open terminal and run the below command. To open terminal in linux mint mate, click the Main Linux Mint Menu, then go to system tools and select Terminal or type terminal in the search field or click the Terminal icon in taskbar.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
Then type your Linux Mint password.And hit enter key confirm the installation.
Then type the below command and hit enter.
sudo apt-get update
Then you must fully upgrade the system via terminal using the below code.
sudo apt full-upgrade
After that if you want to install the latest KDE with all the feature just run the below code in terminal. This will install the full KDE desktop with all KDE softwares.
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
If you want just the minimal package set necessary to run KDE as a desktop environment, then run the below code in terminal.
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends kubuntu-desktop
Type your Linux mint password and Type Y and press enter to confirm the installation.After the sucessful installation of KDE, logout and then select Plasma Desktop to login again using the same linux mint password.
Hi, I just installed KDE on Mint 18.3 Cinnamon. Smashing success. I selected the minimal install program line above
However, I next need to install it on a separate installation on my PC, i.e. Mint 18.3 Sylvia, which seemed to include elements of the new Mate and Cinnamon. This install is crucial, because this is my working install where I have all my apps, programs, and files, including my personally configured Firefox and Thunderbird which are mission critical.
My current Sylvia install works, with a few limitations and snafus, e.g. no panel launcher creation. I would rather continue with the buggy install then mess it up.
Also, when I ran the new Mint 18.3 KDE on a live disk from the ISO on Mint’s site, I got a really zippy version of KDE with different menu launchers and some other cool stuff. Where did that come from?
Thanks for any thoughts/suggestions, I clearly am not a pro but have long individual PC experience with Windows [now in its death spiral for individual users] and Linux in many phases.