Setting the width of KRunner

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1

how can I set the width of krunner in plasma 6?

I used this guide

I tried a window rule but nothing happens.

is there a settings config somewhere where I can just edit a file?

2

works on plasma 5.27

what distro are you using? and what version of plasma?

3

Operating System: Fedora Linux 41
KDE Plasma Version: 6.2.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.9.0
Qt Version: 6.8.1
Kernel Version: 6.12.7-200.fc41.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i5-8265U CPU @ 1.60GHz
Memory: 7.4 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics 620
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 20Q1S7RW00
System Version: ThinkPad X390

4

The right way to do this would be by implementing it directly in KRunner. I wanted to do that 2 years ago because I always felt it was too small, and my implementation was functional:

But apparently the new, better way to implement this would be to turn the KRunner popup into an org.kde.plasma.core.Dialog (I think PlasmaQuick::Dialog Class | KDE API Reference), and I haven’t tried that since (back then I knew virtually nothing about the Plasma Framework/Libplasma API).

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5

It’d be nice to have a default you can set, like 70% width, and then to drag on the window edges to resize when you need to see longer paths / file names.

because the nature of what I’m searching for is quite variable, given the wide variety of krunner doodads. like sometimes it’s just a list of single words and other times it’s a bunch of paths 200 characters wide.

I went to grab the edges and nothing happened and I was disappoint.

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7

Works on plasma 6.2.5 - but the search bar doesn’t expand to fill a bigger window, it’s big enough already… and you’ll likely fix the height which should be flexible to suit the results.

8

weirdly it doesn’t seem to “force” the height… it just depends on the number of matches.

9

Oh, I just gave it a spin and it did - but the search bar didn’t stretch the full width and - well, no point forcing the height anyway if there’s not enough results to fill it.

I think the main aim would be to allow krunner to show longer strings of text without cropping them off… so allowing it to expand full screen width would be a nice option.

10

So am I correct in thinking that for fedora workstation plasma 6.x.x, as of this moment,

  • the width of krunner cannot be changed using user accessible files

  • that using “Window Rules” does not work due to undiagnosed issues

  • that there is nothing in .local or .config or /usr/ or /etc/ that can be changed by the user to change the width of krunner

so the simple solution is to download the source, change some hardcoded number, compile it and install it?

it’s easy enough to grab the source on fedora and change a number and run it through rpmbuild

any idea where to look? I have little idea about KDE frameworks and whatnot.

be nice to sort this as I don’t use the feature because its too narrow to be useful.

and having three dots in the middle of file names when the screen is so wide makes me sad.

and actually, I prefer the opaque background that the overview search uses, I wonder if it’s possible to hack that in somehow.

transparent stuff makes my brain hurt.

11

the link you provided at the top of this post works for the width by adding a windows rule

what part of that link is not working for you?

you have to pin the krunner window using the pushpin

then you can use alt+f3 to access the menu … maybe fedora doesn’t provide that keymapping and you just need to add it yourself under shortcuts > kwin > window operations

12

If you regard this as simple, then I don’t know why you’re asking us simpletons.

To have krunner searchbar width expand to display text, or to have it wrap text, would be quite a good thing.

I look forward to seeing your solution. it would certainly help when entering a fairly simple command which is too large to fit the little window…) like this one maybe?

qdbus org.kde.Solid.PowerManagement /org/kde/Solid/PowerManagement/Actions/BrightnessControl org.kde.Solid.PowerManagement.Actions.BrightnessControl.setBrightness $(($(qdbus org.kde.Solid.PowerManagement /org/kde/Solid/PowerManagement/Actions/BrightnessControl org.kde.Solid.PowerManagement.Actions.BrightnessControl.brightness) + 10))

13

Windows Rules don’t seem to work on krunner on my system, they seem to work fine on other windows it seems, including the Window Rules dialog box.

I’ve tried quite a few variations of that tutorial and the thing didn’t budge.

I’m wondering if there is a config file somewhere I can just change.

14

Hi,

Well, you see, as I can’t seem to change the width of krunner using “Window Rules”, I was wondering if there is a conf file somewhere I can just edit a number.

perhaps something like this

~/.config/kde/plasma/krunner.conf

with a variable like

width = 600px;

Something like that. But it seems there isn’t, please correct me if I’m wrong.

So I’m not a programmer by trade, but found it’s easy enough to download an RPM source tar, change a number, run rpmbuild and install it. No programming required.

I’d prefer not to have to maintain a fork though, just to fix such a small thing.

As to why window rules don’t work on krunner on my system, I don’t have the patience to find out. I don’t use the feature otherwise. And surely it’s better to have it set to what I want by default, rather than having to run a service that has to sniff windows, match a pattern, and apply the change.

Anyway thanks for the interest, and sorry I can’t help shine a light on your brightness problem.