I started using KDE in the ‘90s. Back then I tested Gnome, KDE, and a few other DEs and KDE has been my preferred one since then. I haven’t been continually on Linux, I’ve had times I’ve had to use other OSes. In the past few years, I used KDE on Debian for the computer in my workshop. It worked fine. I also know, from all those years using Linux, that many are going to want to attack me for this post because I’m saying, “There are problems here,” and some don’t want to hear that.
(Note, yes, I use “app” instead of “program.” Sorry, just lazy.)
I just downloaded Kubuntu 24.04.3, the latest LTS version to install on an older iMac that is old enough Apple won’t update the OS anymore.
I have not found a GUI or Linux so tough to deal with or to get some basic features working since the ‘90s, when, as a newbie, I got frustrated with RPM hell and switched to Debian as a Linux newbie. I’m not making this post to complain, but to let the KDE community know there are some serious usability issues in KDE at this point. Granted, some issues may be in the Ubuntu base, but when I tried Debian on this same iMac, I didn’t run into a lot of these issues. The UI is not only less than helpful, but almost user-hostile, which, in my experience, is FAR from normal for KDE.
I also realize I’m including 2 major issues here, instead of just one, but I think addressing them both in one post is critical, since both of them address important usability issues that are usually a simple and transparent part of setting up a new computer and change the experience from something easy and simple to a struggle. And my experience is that is NOT KDE or Kubuntu in terms of style and user friendliness. I’ve stuck with KDE for over 20 years because it has always been so good at that.
I’m posting here because this is not just a simple bug report and I think it’s something the KDE dev community needs to examine. If I’ve had almost 3 decades on Linux and find this frustrating, I can imagine how a new or not so experienced user would feel about it. (I will also post this on the Kubuntu forums as well - but I can’t join them because my email uses a gTLD and, apparently Kubuntu is over 10 years out of date in terms of knowing about gTLDs!)
- Wifi: Basically, Apple uses Broadcom chips, so they need proprietary drivers. But that’s only where the problem starts.
A) No hints, nothing in the Settings app, under Networking, to give me ANY idea bout setting up wifi. For the mid 2020s, this is SO 20th century! Nowhere in the install, or in the Network settings, is there any indication of the need for proprietary drivers. So I searched.
B) No clear way to install the drivers! Since the DE apps and install didn’t point me at all in the needed direction, I searched and found a few pages on setting up wifi on a Mac in Debian, Ubuntu, and Kubuntu. Nothing pointed me to how to setup the drivers in KDE. So I used apt, as instructed in one tutorial, and installed the Broadcom drivers. It looked like everything was installed okay - but wifi would not work. And, again, nothing, anywhere, that tells me the “official” way I can do it on KDE or Kubuntu. Even when searching, I didn’t find anything like a page on the Kubuntu or KDE sites.
C) I FINALLY found, with more and more searches, something about drivers in the Settings app. BUT - not one single page provided a good “path” to find the drivers app within Settings. I had to search for Drivers to get it. (So I am thinking the location for this section has been moved - but not well documented on websites?) I go there and see that I have not enabled proprietary drivers for the Broadcom chips. I’ve installed them with apt, but KDE says they’re not there. The interface here is a bit confusing, so some additional documentation in this app would help. Once I enabled the Broadcom drivers, it installed them (reinstalled?) and my wifi was FINALLY recognized.
D) Entering the password for my wifi was a nightmare! I tried to enter it, but then have to set up KWallet to do it. I want to do that, but KWallet needs me to set up an encryption key for it. Okay, where? How? What kind of key? A key in KWallet? Finally found that it needed a gpg key. Okay, done that many times, I can set it up. But WHY make it so freaking hard to do? Even when I tried to go to the KWallet app, it gave me the same steps and told me to set up a key.
E) I set up a key and have KWallet working. I have wifi. I test the sleep mode (which is another issue!) and when it wakes up, it promptly asks for my wifi password. I enter it and click Okay. (I even turn on the view option so I can be sure there are no typos.) And within a few seconds it asks for the password again. I enter it again. And again. And again. And it just won’t stop. It keeps asking me to type in the wifi password over and over. There is NO stopping it. I finally try “Cancel,” and now have no wifi. I try to select Wifi from the icons on the right side of the bottom bar and end up in that endless loop again. So I had to set up KWallet to save the password, but KDE doesn’t save the password AND when I enter it to turn wifi back on (even if it’s only been in sleep mode for 10 seconds), it doesn’t use it - it keeps asking for it again.
Recommendations:
i) Include some documentation in the Networking setting about proprietary drivers for wifi, since I know Mac is not the only hardware that will run into this kind of issue. At least POINT the user toward how to fix it. Forcing the user to have to search when simple help could be provided is a UI failure. (Especially when there are no clear pages on the KDE or Kubuntu website to address this - at least not ones that show up in a simple search.)
ii) In the dialog saying KWallet can’t work without an encryption key, include notes on how to fix that. Explain WHAT kind of key is needed (not just an encryption key - one generated by KWallet or gpg or what? That is completely unclear!). AND provide a button there to allow the user to generate and save the key, including some instructions about how important that key is. Better yet, why the heck can’t KWallet, at this point, say, “If you have an encryption key, you can enter it here or load it from a file?” Just saying, “You need a key,” and leaving the user to wonder what kind of key or how to generate it is about 25 years out of date in terms of user friendliness. I did NOT have this issue a few years ago, when I set up my workshop computer with KDE.
iii) Wifi is a critical part of setup for most computers. (And often needed to set up everything else!) There needs to be a way to setup wifi WITHOUT the need to go on the web and search and without the need to go to yet another app to setup KWallet, and another app to generate a key. Create a way to save a wifi password PERMANENTLY and to not have to provide it again after the computer wakes up from sleep mode.
Wifi is a basic need for setting up a computer from an install image. It should NOT be this hard to set it up!
- Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard - these are a nightmare! I get that many input devices do not use bluetooth. My “backup” keyboard and mouse hardware is a cheap set of the keyboard, the mouse, and a small USB dongle. Plug it in and the mouse and keyboard are seen as USB devices. But there are times, besides Apple (I know because friends have told me this), that a mouse or keyboard uses bluetooth. Adding the bluetooth devices is tough and KDE can ignore them at critical times.
A) The bluetooth panel in Settings provides a long list of MAC addresses. I found when I had my Apple bluetooth mouse and keyboard on, they often weren’t seen by the app. I realize that the KDE app uses the bluetooth command to get the info, but isn’t it possible to provide a bit more than just a MAC address? And the mouse and keyboard would show up and disappear. When the keyboard did show up, I would try to type in the PIN and hit and nothing would happen. It took multiple times to try to pair the keyboard. The mouse was easier, though and didn’t take a lot of time.
B) I cannot wake the computer by using the bluetooth keyboard or mouse. I tried this many times. Once it goes to sleep, it will not respond to the bluetooth keyboard or mouse at all. I have to use my standby keyboard or mouse to wake it up and, even then, it takes time before the bluetooth devices are recognized. This may or may not be a KDE issue and may be an Ubuntu core issue. Often, after waking the computer, and making sure the bt keyboard and mouse are working, I found KDE would respond to mouse movement, but NOT to mouse clicks. (I would think this is beyond any bluetooth issues in the Debian/Ubuntu/Kubuntu core, since KDE and the system know, at this point, the mouse is there and is reading input from it.)
Recommendations:
i) Provide more feedback and info during bluetooth setup. Make instructions clearer! I can’t remember if it’s on Kubuntu or on the Debian install (with KDE) I did, but I kept getting a prompt for the keyboard that said, “Introduce bluetooth pin.” What does “Introduce” mean? Does it mean set the pin on the computer or type one on the keyboard? While this was not as much of an issue on Kubuntu, it was in KDE, on Debian, and was a mess. I’d click “Okay” and get a place to enter a PIN on the screen. I entered it, hit and then nothing happened. The logical thought was, “Okay, I guess I need to enter it on the keyboard.” Still, nothing happened. Tell me, clearly, what to do and use terms better than “Introduce.”
ii) I know KDE can’t write special cases for every kind of bluetooth device out there, but for devices as critical as a keyboard and mouse, have it flagged. If a bt mouse, trackpad, keyboard, or other commonly used input device is added, provide a dialog that informs the user of any bt issues involved - like the inability to wake the UI with a bt device. (And if there is a way to turn on “wake on bt activation,” then include info for that and a way to do it.)
I have liked using KDE for, literally, decades. I’m not trying to say, “This sucks.” If I thought that, I wouldn’t care and I’d just say, “Wow. Still a load of crap,” and move on to Unity or Gnome or something else.
I’m bringing these issues up because they make installing and setting up KDE a struggle that’s as frustrating as anything I remember from the 90s or before about 2005 in terms of Linux setup. That’s not like the KDE I’ve used for so long. Also, both issues are, I’m sure, not limited to installing on an old Mac, but are going to show up for others, as well.
(even just 
