KDE OS - is there an estimate? Where can the development be followed?

Development
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I have heard about this new model. Is it a replacement and more telling innovation for current KDE neon? The name i think would be perfect as KDE is a known entity. “Neon” doesn’t tell anything to people living outside of Linux, nevermind KDE ecosystem.

Plasma is the default on Steam Deck and many people (including myself) have gotten more interested in Plasma (and KDE ecosystem apps overall). I used to have Solus as daily driver but then they dropped Snap support (i need many packages) so i got into KDE neon.

Is KDE OS truly up and coming? And if there are any latest development stories that could be shared it would be much appreciated.

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If you’re interested in the up-going development, you can look around on the project’s pages on Invent:

Beside that, there is a room on Matrix: #kdeos:kde.org

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In terms of development stories, I’ll have to defer to people actually working on it. However, you can follow development and discussions yourself if you’re interested. Here are the main resources:

The down-low is that people are working on it, since the Akademy talk actually in the open.

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Thanks for the replies and resources. I see it could be called KDE Linux, too.

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How about Linuks or LinuKs (-:

Perhaps it is too short, but it uses the old „K“ moniker. (-:

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Not to steal your thunder, but in spoken conversation it would be impossible to differentiate this product from general Linux then, so that name would be bad (to put it lightly) from a promotional perspective.

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It was such a lowball, I had to make that joke.

Honestly finding a really good name might be quite a tough job.

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Let’s do a little bit more thinking - this time on the more serious side - since I find the thought of having a KDE Flagship Linux to be very enticing!

Some thoughts:
1: For one it should have something that connects it to the KDE project

2: And it may have something the connects it to Linux itself

3: or it may state its type

1: KDE or plasma would be the obvious choices
2: The name ‘Linux’ in it also carries a nice and positive weight
3: ‘OS’ comes to my mind. ‘System’ might also be a nice choice

so 1 and 2 would be

Plasma Linux
KDE Linux

1 and 3

Plasma OS
KDE OS
Plasma System
KDE System

What do the ‘others’ do?

Ubuntu just uses their name which would be only part 1
Fedora Linux uses 1 and 2
Debian - like Ubuntu uses only their name, however is quite a broad project - 1
Slackware Linux - 1+2
Arch Linux - 1+2
SteamOS - 1+3
Nobara Linux - 1+2
NixOS - 1+3
Alpine Linux - 1+2
EndeavourOS - 1+3
CachyOS - 1+3
There is even
PCLinuxOS which is mainly 2+3 since PC in itself is not a very identifying ‘name’

All those which only use 1 can easily be paired with 2 and are also used with it.
The other way round (taking away the addendum) is also possible and is done.

And I think those names that stand well with and without an addendum are nice and strong names by itself.

Now Plasma and KDE already stand for other products/organizations besides a Linux distribution, so might have their issues in the context of a Linux distro when standing alone.

Personally I think all the options above are somewhat equal. It would mainly depend on would you prefer the Project name or the Desktop name.
Perhaps preferring to use ‘Linux’ as addendum might be preferable since ‘Linux’ already has a good and well known name. (Making Plasma Linux or KDE Linux the obvious choice)

Now after more thinking it would also be quite interesting to have a separate name for the distribution project that can connect to the desktop and/or KDE project.

Now what words might connect to plasma?

After a short brainstorming session I came up with the word ‘Fusion’ which is closely related to ‘plasma’.

So you could establish a separate name for the distro which then clearly expresses that this is a new project and has also the possibility to be used together with an addendum or not:

Fusion Linux
Fusion OS
Fusion System

(Fusion would also lend itself to be used with other words like hot or cold… etc.)

Personally I like the Sound of

Fusion Linux

What are your thoughts?

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Warning the latest raw images are failing when installing . There is a bug in the install script
issue 39

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I tried to install the KDE OS/Linux but it failed to boot. I wonder if this is expected, does the builds are failing?
I installed on a partition on a test machine, along side of 2 KDE Neon install. I use refind. I tried with those images

kdeos_202410081818.raw
kdeos_202410100008.raw

When booting it failed when running /dev/gpt-auto-root
and goes into emergency mode with a message saying

Cannot open access to console, the root account is locked

Is it on my side or the builds are not ready? Does anyone manage to install?

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It works fine for at least 4 people of the 4 people I know who installed it.

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KDE OS requires UEFI boot. Please check this is enabled in your BIOS.

gpt mention raised a bell.

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I use UEFI:I have 2 install of KDE Neon and use rEFInd. Could multi-boot be the problem? Beside I tried with various configuration : whole partition encrypted, separate /boot unencrypted, not encrypted (all with btrfs) .
The .efi is locate in /efi/EFI/Linux/ and found and started by rEFInd but I wonder if it needs particular configuration.
Right now I installed it with full encryption (no separate /boot) and it didn’t ask for the passphrase and failed before.
Notice that KDEOS is not accessible in the boot option of the uefi boot menu only trough rEFInd.
And thanks for the reply

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Where can i currently download an ISO to try it out already as others seem to have? The releases section on KDE Invent site holds nothing at all.

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Scroll down on the Invent page to the README file, where you’ll see a link to the Installation section (which then includes links to downloads of the most recent images).

(Although not all projects use the “Releases” function of GitLab, it would especially not make sense yet for KDE Linux since it is in such an early stage of work)

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Kinux
Kdux (pronounced kaydux)
Knix (silent K)
KDX <<-- like that one, may be TMed already.

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Hi I retry to install KDE Linux but …
Latest image kdeos_202410260604.raw to kdeos_202410270255.raw failed to login into the live session. It failed to autologin then you are on the sddm screen (classic theme) trying to login to live user without password failed. And then switching to tty and login (succed) but then startplasma_wayland failed with

org-kde-startup: "kdeinit5_shutdown" QList() exited with code 255
startplasma-wayland: Shutting down...
startplasmacompositor: Shutting down...
startplasmacompositor: Done

So I then tried with kdeos_202410260254.raw but I had the same problem than before. Install was succefull (has I can tell) but on 1st boot after plymooth and after

[OK] Started DIsplay Boot-Time Emergency Messages In Full  sceen

boot proccess hang with

A start job is running for /dev/gpt-auto-root (  /1m30s)

until it reach 1min30s and then goes into emergency mode.

GPT is the partition table and UEFI is enable and working. I have 2 install on the device: one KDE Neon unstable (using GRUB I think) and another with Endeavour OS (Arch base which use systemd-boot) both boot without a problem. Note that KDE Linux (202410260254) appears in the systemd-boot menu alongside EndeavourOS.
Also since I have multiple partition I had to do a manual config of the partition in Calamares with a partition for / and specifying to mount my efi partiition to /efi.

Maybe it is better to open a new topic, let me know or if there is a better place to ask.

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Not on the development team for KDE Linux myself, but I’d estimate they will not be spending much time on individual issue troubleshooting on the forums at this point, simply because it’s almost expected that there will be things breaking/non-functional from day-to-day - the project is a ways away from an alpha release still, so it’s not expected that most folks would be trying it without being involved in the dev work.

If you’d like to jump in to that dev work, exploring the open issues and joining the Matrix room to see what needs done seem like good first steps.

I say that only because I don’t know if the devs would expect that multi-boot situations would be functional yet, so it’s likely worth double-checking there before creating an issue/bug report in case that functionality isn’t expected to be working yet anyway.

Hope that helps,

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thanks for the reply
I am no dev unfortunately so could not help in this
I am asking here because dev did responded earlier above.
I did look at and somewhat follow the invent.kde.org ticket. I did ask because I tried again and have the same issue.
I don’t expect that dev come to solve my individual problem but merely just point me on a direction to search. I would just be ok if someone says that multiboot is not yet supported or not really tested and problably wouldn’t work. I don’t know if multiboot is supposed to be supported in the end or not.
Beside it is not necessary devs from :banana: it could be someone with knowledge on systemd-boot or arch boot process. Or who encounter such situation.
And in the end if no one answer well no problem for me, it is a really new project, experimental, wip and such Beside I, obviously, don’t depend on it.

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Cool, yeah sorry I just thought it might make sense to check if expectations were at the level of “experimenting” :slight_smile:

The project outline community wiki page that’s been worked on so far for KDE Linux doesn’t specify dual boot support as either a “goal” or “non-goal”, but at least to me, that certainly seems like a decision worth making - so that might be a good topic to bring to the folks specifically working in that Matrix room / via the Issues board? (At least to know if it’s something that should be tracked as a bug/issue?)

And I mention specifically the folks working on KDE Linux because, while it’s using some of the same underlying components as Arch / other distros, my impression is that by being immutable base and things like that, it’ll be pretty different in function from a “typical” Arch installation (so it might work a bit differently trying to set up dual boot for it than say a standard Arch and standard Ubuntu/Fedora/etc.?)