The intermediate feature that lets windows stick to a virtual desktop is more in line with what GNOME has had for a while. I got used to it as part of my workflow there, and it would make it easier for me (and I’m sure others too) to migrate to KDE. I’m kinda excited now that 6.6 is out… I’ll have to try it out!
I also pledged like 1000 euros for the per-screen thing and I see someone did some progress, I don’t wanna welch on my donation, just forgot to check this thread. Whoever claims it, we’ll have to know where to donate!
Hi. I am the author of MR 8602 (per-output virtual desktops).
If anyone is interested in trying out the functionality, I prepared AUR packages which backport the changes to Plasma 6.6. The instructions are here. Make sure to read them carefully. Two main points:
- There is a very good chance that you’ll break your graphical session if you do a system update incorrectly. I recommend using a VM.
- I’m not a member of the KDE team. Verify the packages yourself.
The TLDR of the functionality is basically this: If you just wanted to switch Plasma’s desktops on each screen independently, it should be for you. If you instead wanted [SPECIFIC BEHAVIOR AS IMPLEMENTED BY ANOTHER ENVIRONMENT], then it may not be for you (but it probably removes some obstacles to implementing it as a plugin or something).
As for the greatquux’s question about the donations: We’re not there yet. If the MR is accepted, I’ll post the payment info once the relevant Plasma version is released.
There is no such think as a “KDE team”.
There are KDE contributors (of which you are part of) and more seasoned/regular ones.
Each time I see “KDE team”, I wonder where it comes from, it has been invented. Contrary to a team, there are no captain, no barrier to entry, “no side” (we only want to push forward FOSS according to our manifesto).
I guess, just like people refer to KDE as a desktop which hasn’t been true for 10+years, KDE is a community; they hallucinated this, pun intented.
KDE Community is a do-ocraty mostly, the contributors that are more active get more heft.
I can recommend this reading too:
Nice of you to have prepared this.
MR virtualdesktops: Add per-output desktops was merged a few hours ago! Great work by schlndh!
The per-screen desktops are now in the latest build of KDE Linux. So if anyone is eager to try it, that’s probably the easiest option right now. Otherwise, you can look forward to the release of Plasma 6.7 which is scheduled for Tue 2026-06-16.
@schlndh if you want you can suggest people who wanted to sponsor this feature to make donations to you (provide some paypal account…). I don’t think you did this for the bounty, still that wasn’t negligible work for a new contributor and some donators might want to give you appreciations.
I’d encourage those who would donate to you to also make some donation to KDE ev. No KDE contributors ever does anything on their own and depend on others or others infrastructure to pull through.
Donators can also wait for Plasma 6.7 release in June to see the feature in action first.
As the author of the per-output desktops MR, I’d like to claim the bounty (I wanted to wait until release, but people keep asking so here we go).
If you pledged money, please first make sure to actually try it for yourself and check to what degree it meets your needs. Some people explicitly mentioned that they want it to work like hyprland/sway/i3, Mac OS, …, which is not the case.
I will not issue refunds, so I’d rather you wait until Plasma 6.7 is available in your distro (as long as it’s not Debian Stable or similar). Archlinux should have it probably within a few days of release (Tue 2026-06-16). I assume that Ubuntu and Fedora should have it in their October releases.
Once you’ve tried it for yourself, please follow these instructions:
- Send 20% of the donation to KDE, the rest to me.
- If you’re paying in EUR (and don’t have a bank with high fees), you can send the money via SEPA bank transfer. IBAN: CZ87 2010 0000 0024 0348 7027, BIC: FIOBCZPPXXX, Name: Hynek Schlindenbuch.
- Otherwise, you can send the money via PayPal: PayPal.Me
- If you can’t use either of these, or you’re having issues etc, please DM me here or on matrix: schlndh:matrix.org.
- Once you’ve sent the money, or if you decide not to send it, please DM me as well so I can keep track of things.
For now, I’ll just leave this here. I’m aware that the people who pledged the money may not be notified. I’ll remind them once Plasma 6.7 is released, and again (if necessary) once it makes it to both Fedora and Ubuntu.
I just made a post suggesting the implementation of an official requested feature sponsorship framework, and mentioned this feature, as I believe it might have been completed a lot more quickly, and the contributors provided with more remuneration, with such improvements.
If you have any thoughts on please head over there 
I’m ready to donate, but I’m waiting for Plasma 6.7 to come to CachyOS. Does anyone happen to have a guide for how to update/upgrade? Excited to try this out!
Your best bet is probably to wait a month and you’ll get it then. If you really want to try it out now, you can try the AUR packages I mentioned earlier in the thread. I assume it should work on CachyOS, but I haven’t tried it.
Alternatively, ArchLinux has the 6.7 Beta in KDE-unstable repo. I found some reports of people using it on CachyOS for previous versions (1, 2), but I haven’t tried it. If you want to try it, make sure to carefully read the arch wiki (especially the red box: apparently you also need to enable core-testing and extra-testing in the correct order). I don’t recommend this, unless you’re able to fix your system if it breaks.
Plasma 6.7 was released 2 days ago. It is now available in ArchLinux and derivatives like EndeavourOS and CachyOS, and apparently also Fedora. If you want to try out the per-output desktops, remember that they’re not enabled by default. You need to enable “Switch desktops independently for each screen” in virtual desktops settings.
Since the per-output desktops affect a lot of things in non-obvious ways, it is quite possible that you encounter issues with your specific workflow/setup/… If you find an issue, please report it as described here. Here are issues that I’m already aware of:
- Switch to Window Left/Right/Up/Down shortcut stays on the original desktop when crossing screens (BUG 521597). There is a simple fix waiting for review. I’m hoping that it will make it to Plasma 6.7.1.
- Move Window Left/Right/Up/Down shortcuts keep the original desktop when moving a window across screens. They also don’t properly consider windows overlapping multiple screens with different desktops (this also affects smart window placement). Expand/Shrink Window Horizontally/Vertically has similar issues. There is a partial fix waiting for review, but it’s a bigger refactor and targets Plasma 6.8.
- Quick-tiling doesn’t work across outputs with different desktops (BUG 519648). There is a fix waiting for review. It’s a bit complicated, so it could take a while.
- There is a pre-existing issue where windows tiled/snapped to the edge of one screen bleed the outline and shadow to the neighboring screen (BUG 514460). This negatively affects the slide effect when changing desktops, because the outline + shadow moves across the neighboring screen as the window’s screen’s desktop changes.
- Moving a modal to another screen with a different desktop causes the parent to disappear (it changes desktop, but remains on the original screen). The same issue happens when moving the parent window (modal disappears).
If you installed my AUR packages backporting the per-output desktops to Plasma 6.6 you’ll have to uninstall them before updating to 6.7 (see instructions).
6.7 landed in Arch. Donated 20 Euro to KDE and 80 Euro to you. This is exactly what I needed to stay in KDE, thanks for your work!
I am waiting for 6.7 to be stable in Gentoo and will donate as pledged once I can try it on my system. The preview looks exactly like how I currently use multiple screens on awesome-wm, so looking forward to trying it out.
Thanks for all your hard work on this. I pledged a hefty 1000EUR and I just donated 20% of that to KDE and 80% to you (and got like 3 calls from PayPal asking if it was fraud). I don’t normally pledge or donate this much, but some of it came from my dad’s inheritance, and it was watching him program old DOS-based dBase-compatible forms designers that got me into computers, so I think it’s just kinda paying it forward. 
I have tested it, works as inteded. I have sent the pledged 100EUR through paypal, 20 to kde and 80 to @schlndh . I greatly appreciate this addition!
I have enabled the “Switch desktops independently for each screen” (System Settings:virtual desktops) .
But I’m not sure how to get the per-screen aspect to work.
I have 6 virtual desktops. When I click on them, they change and my 2nd monitor stays on whatever it was. That’s good. Seems to work.
But how can I assign two of the virtual desktops to my 2nd monitor ?
How can I change the 2nd monitor to different virtual desktops while keeping the 1st monitor constant ?
Probably a dumb question but I can’t seem to figure this out.
Thanks
B
But how can I assign two of the virtual desktops to my 2nd monitor ?
You can’t. All screens have the same set of virtual desktops.
How can I change the 2nd monitor to different virtual desktops while keeping the 1st monitor constant ?
Based on the start of your message, I assume you’re trying to use a single pager which shows all screens. The pager only shows and switches the current virtual desktop on its own screen. Use keyboard shortcuts, overview, separate pagers for each screen, …
Just donated! Thanks for your hard work! One question/possibly a bug to report; if you have two windows for the same application open on the same virtual desktop for both monitors (i.e. I have Brave open on Desktop 2 of my primary monitor, and another Brave window open on Desktop 2 of my side monitor), you’ll get yanked over to that virtual desktop if you click on a window on the other monitor. So, for example, I’m using my IDE on desktop 1 on my primary monitor, and I’ve switched my side monitor to desktop 2 to check github. I also have the same browser open on desktop 2 of my primary monitor to show a dashboard or something. If I click on the window with github open on my side monitor, my primary monitor will switch over to desktop 2 so that both my primary and secondary monitors are both on desktop 2.
Sorry if this isn’t the place to post this, if there’s a repo or somewhere where we can raise issues I’d rather post there!
Here’s a video that demonstrates the issue: https://imgur.com/Dv0Q58V
Hello schlndh,
Thank for implementing this in your way! It is a huge milestone to have it in KDE after so many years. I tested it for about 7 days in my work over mutliple trys and Settings and i even cleaned out my .config to have a fresh start…
Sadly i could not get it to work right. So this is part testing report part bug report i guess.
Laptop ist a Thinkpad P14s
It can handle two 4k Monitor, the Display is then switched off.
I set this in wayland and X11 to disable Laptop screen so it has enouth Bandwith for the 4k monitors. One Monitor is HDMI and one DP over Docking station. on X11 it worked fine 98% of the time so both monitors would come on.
How i set it up (initially naive try):
Move to desktop function - during the day i move the Windows with that function to the desktop i wanted it and then left it like this and did a normal logoff and shutdown via Menu. Hope was that it just remembers my settings on its own. I know high level but yeah.
So i got two monitors, right DP, left HDMI. This is the initial setup.
Right Monitor:
Virtual Desktop:
4 obsidian
3 keepass
2 Teams
1 Signal
Left Monitor:
1 Firefox
2 vmware
3. rdp
4. empty
Next morning after reboot:
Left:
- Vmware,
- Empty
- Empty
- Emtpy
Right:
- Firefox, Keepass, Obsidian,Teams
- Empty
- empty
- empty
So:
Monitor and Virtual desktop location seem not to survive a relogin.
Some Stuff from Left monitor is now on the rght one (Firefox) and the Virtual Desktop Localtions are not remebered at all.
While i can reoder it manually its not what helps the workflow/speed if i have to do it manually.
I want like: Firefox open on Left Screen on desktop 1, vmware on Left screen on Desktop 2. Teams Right monitor, desktop 2. Like a pinning to a workspace kinda thing.
As far as i read this is not implemented right ?
KDE Version tested: plasmashell 6.7.2
Next try:
Window rules, after all my hope to just remember where i put windows in a multi Monitor multi Desktop setup while reasonable is just a bit too high (no even MAC does this, you need to set the Workspace).
(All set to forced)
I used Screen 0, 1 for this in window rules.
Right Monitor:
Virtual Desktop:
4 obsidian
1 keepass
3 Teams / Signal
2 Thunderbird
Left Monitor:
1 Firefox
2 rdp
3. vmware
4. alacritty
After Relogin, everything is mixxed up again.
Right Monitor:
Virtual Desktop:
4 Thunderbird
1 firefox,keepass
3 Teams
2 Thunderbird
Left Monitor:
1
2 rdp
3. vmware, signal
4. alacritty (does not start up anymore)
So basicly i could improve the situation with Window rules somewhat but it seems that only Applications that i start from hand (freerdp) or have a restart (vmware) do honor the Windows rules, and not Auto started Applications from my last session.. Then there is the execption of signal with is later started but does ignore the window rule all thogether. While other open “Saved” Applications like firefox totaly igonre them and even jump screens when the get reopend from KDE itself at Login (Was on Screen LEft/1 jumped to Right/1).
I tried again after a new boot, next day.
(Window rules still aktive)
Right Monitor:
Virtual Desktop:
4 obsidian, alacritty
1 firefox,keepass,Thunderbird
3 vmware
2 empty
Left Monitor:
- empty
2 rdp - teams
- empty
Next occourance:
HDMI Monitor turns on.
DP does not turn on
- This never happend with X11 DP always turned on. Hdmi is sometimes slower to come up.
Naturally everything is f*cked.
After That i did a clean logout
(Session/Logout)
Then i did a relogin. The onyl thing i saw was a black screen and the mouse moving. Nothing else. Nothing further happend. Had to reboot the Laptop to get a working setup again.
After that reboot i did a login. And the only till now consistent behaviour: freerdp on Desktop 3 (manually started, late after login) (after all the Screens where Detected and working), did not do what i set in Window rules and was on Desktop 1. So i gave up.
So basicly it does what it wants. Not even Window rules seem to be able to force a consitent behaviour. Sometimes wierd stuff with Displays seems to happen. I would call this Alpha/Beta Stage. Its not “dumb user ready”.
This is not really useful/workable to me at this stage.
Can this be improved to Window rules stick and are more consitent at least ?
Make the monitors turn on relibaly like in X11 ? Best behaviour would be Workspace like settings. Programm X on Workspace y and Workspace y is on Monitor 1 or so. Like fixed groups and then put the windows in that group and so on. Like MAC does it.
Can i impriove something in my end ?
Any more debug info needed ?
Will this be improved or is the feature considered “finished” ?
Sadly i dont know to to relibaly utilize this besides moving Windows around by hand every login, which basicly defeates pourpose at least for me.
Not even forcing them with window rules seems to be reliable.
I did look into kdotool do manually move the Windows around but it does lack the features it would need to utilize virtual desktops afaik could glean, so i cant use it.
So while the foundations are there is think this is not “end user” ready. I found another bug report that maybe hopes to improve on this but there seems little activity.
Hi. IMO what you describing isn’t related to per-screen virtual desktops. I didn’t use Plasma before, but I’d expect that it would have been the same with “global” virtual desktops as well.
What you’re describing is called session restore. Plasma 6.7 added support for a new Wayland session restore protocol (to be clear: I had nothing to do with that). Though the protocol also has to be supported by GUI toolkits and applications, so it could be a while. I’m not sure what the status of all of that is.
Since the task was about per-screen desktops, I’d like to ask you to primarily evaluate that. I.e. once you have the windows organized as you like, does switching desktops etc work better for you? Hopefully it should be a significant improvement compared to “global” virtual desktops.