New Features
On System Settings’ Region & Language page, you can now choose how you’d like storage sizes to be displayed. This means you can change them to the more common MB and GB style, instead of MiB and GiB, for example. Note that the default value has not changed, but you have the option to change it yourself (Méven Car, Plasma 6.1. Link):
The popular Kirigami.ContextualHelpButton component now has a QtWidgets counterpart: KContextualHelpButton! (Felix Ernst, Frameworks 6.2. Link)
UI Improvements
On X11, Spectacle now makes it obvious that screen recording isn’t supported when you try to run it in recording mode using a global shortcut (Noah Davis, Spectacle 24.05. Link)
Plasma’s Vaults widget now appears visible in the active part of the system tray only when a Vault is actually open, bringing the System Tray closer to its platonic ideal of only showing things that are contextually relevant (me: Nate Graham, Plasma 6.1. Link)
Apps inhibiting sleep and screen locking are now shown by their pretty names, not their technical names (Natalie Clarius, Plasma 6.1. Link):
Adopted the new frameless message header style in Discover, as seen when there’s a distro upgrade available (me: Nate Graham, Plasma 6.1. Link):
Bug Fixes
Kate once again works as expected with multiple virtual desktops, opening files in a new window in the current virtual desktop rather than attaching it to an existing instance in a different virtual desktop (Christoph Cullmann, Kate 24.05. Link)
Fixed Spectacle’s multi-monitor screenshots on X11 not working either at all, or well (Vlad Zahorodnii, and Noah Davis, Plasma 6.0.5. and Spectacle 24.05. Link 1 and link 2)
Fixed a semi-common crash in System Monitor when switching to the Applications page (Arjen Hiemstra, Plasma 6.0.5. Link)
When updating the system using Discover, there are no longer gaps in the updates list as items complete and disappear (Ivan Tkachenko, Plasma 6.0.5. Link)
Plasma’s feature to remember whether Bluetooth was on or off last time now works more reliably (Someone going by the pseudonym “Arctic Lampyrid”, Plasma 6.0.5. Link)
Fixed an issue in Plasma that would cause flickering and stuttering with adaptive sync turned on (Xaver Hugl, Plasma 6.0.5. Link)
Floating panels now de-float when a window reaches the correct distance away from them, as opposed to de-floating too early (Yifan Zhu, Plasma 6.0.5. Link)
Fixed multiple issues involved with LPD printer discovery and queue management (Mike Noe, Plasma 6.1. Link)
When you have multiple Brightness and Color widgets (for example, because you have multiple panels each with a System Tray on it), the Night Light portions of the widgets no longer interfere with one another and interact in strange ways (Natalie Clarius, Plasma 6.1. Link)
Other bug information of note:
- 3 Very high priority Plasma bugs (same as last week). Current list of bugs
- 39 15-minute Plasma bugs (up from 38 last week). Current list of bugs
- 116 KDE bugs of all kinds fixed over the last week Full list of bugs
Performance & Technical
Improved Spectacle-s startup speed on Wayland (Noah Davis, Spectacle 24.05. Link)
Improved the scrolling performance of long scrollable views in Discover. This is an area of focus, so expect more to come soon (Aleix Pol Gonzalez, Plasma 6.0.5. Link)
Reduced visual glitchiness when the GPU does a reset, which can happen due to driver bugs, or, with NVIDIA, when the system goes to sleep (Xaver Hugl, Plasma 6.1. Link)
Implemented support for the org.freedesktop.impl.portal.Secret portal for KWallet, which lets Flatpak apps use it (Nicolas Fella, Frameworks 6.2. Link)
Automation & Systematization
Added some basic GUI tests for Dolphin (Méven Car, link)
Added basic GUI tests for opening Plasma’s Alternate Calendar config page (Fushan Wen, link)
…And Everything Else
This blog only covers the tip of the iceberg! If you’re hungry for more, check out https://planet.kde.org, where you can find more news from other KDE contributors.
How You Can Help
The KDE organization has become important in the world, and your time and labor have helped to bring it there! But as we grow, it’s going to be equally important that this stream of labor be made sustainable, which primarily means paying for it. Right now the vast majority of KDE runs on labor not paid for by KDE e.V. (the nonprofit foundation behind KDE, of which I am a board member), and that’s a problem. We’ve taken steps to change this with paid technical contractors—but those steps are small due to growing but still limited financial resources. If you’d like to help change that, consider donating today!
Otherwise, visit https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved to discover other ways to be part of a project that really matters. Each contributor makes a huge difference in KDE; you are not a number or a cog in a machine! You don’t have to already be a programmer, either. I wasn’t when I got started. Try it, you’ll like it! We don’t bite!
Adventures in Linux and KDE 
On Wayland, on NVIDIA, after sleep, all my windows are pitch black except for the newly created ones. I thought it to be a driver issue but now I rather think it’s this bug.
Without this fixed, Wayland is not really usable for me in practical terms unless I always log out and log back in. For this reason, may I ask for a backport to the next patch version, too?
If you think it’s indeed a driver issue, I report it to NVIDIA, but now I’m more convinced it’s a KWin bug that resets aren’t handled properly.
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The change does not look trivial to me. Feel free to ask on https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/5581 and hopefully a KWin devs will weigh in regarding whether it would be appropriate or not.
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Any chance of revising this feature request?
It drives most of the non-tech people crazy to do it manually
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=377253
A format removable drive context menu it’s a must in 2024 on a modern DE.
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Definitely we should do it, but non-techy people don’t have this use case, do they? This seems more like it’s a convenience feature for experts. Which is of course worthwhile. But not a burning priority.
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“Definitely we should do it, but non-techy people don’t have this use case, do they? This seems more like it’s a convenience feature for experts. Which is of course worthwhile. But not a burning priority.”
Non-techy people do not use Linux and for good reason. Personally, unless the machine is just used to watch videos or basic tasks like looking at emails and browsing the internet, I would have a hard time recommending Linux to a non-techy person unless they are a masochist or have the patience of a saint.
Low-techy people (non-power-users) may get away with Linux, they’re not total noobs that they can’t intall an OS that has a reasonably easy installer for example, but they’re not good at diagnosing more complex issues, so the system better work out of the box and not break during updates.
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Sure, I’m not trying to say we shouldn’t do it, just explain why it hasn’t been done yet.
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There is a small mistake on the first screenshot. The selected entry says ‘1.0 KB = 1,024 B’ with a big K, but later in the same entry it says ‘Kilobytes (kB)’ with a small K. The other two entries are consistent.
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I remember logging the fault for the MB vs MiB issue at least eight years ago. So grateful to finally see it come back to Plasma since having gone missing in KDE4. Thank you!
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I would like to know if Plasma 6.1 will apply Pipewire as default audio stack.
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That’s not a Plasma decision, it’s a distro decision.
Plasma could decide to drop support for non-PipeWire audio stacks entirely, and thereby force the issue for distros. But that it not something that has been decided or, to my knowledge, even discussed.
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Cant reply to you nate but I do agree with what Marc said, I used to use the USB Format option in windows a lot (due to FAT32 devices that I no longer use) but the first thing that pops to my mind that if I want to format I usb I would right-click it and press format from the context menu.
I would definitely consider myself a low-techy person but not a non-techy person.
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I agree, I also use that in Windows a lot, even to format external drives. They often come loaded with crapware on it, and I just need a plain old file system without the rubbish, so I format the drives.
The Linux way is very convoluted even for a techy person like myself.
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Manymany times non-techies for instance don’t know why they can’t copy a big file to usb. The solution being formatting the drive to exFat. This should absolutely be just a right-click away. Also, cheap usb sticks are often messed up in various way, so an easy and quick format option is great. In fact, KDE Plasma should take this to an even better, kick windows ass-level and provide a complete reformat/restore right-click option that windows doesn’t have. For those times when you use usb writers to make a bootable .iso and it snatches most of the storage away and a reformat doesn’t restore the usb stick to it’s original state. On windows you need special programs to do that. Imagine if KDE Plasma could do all that with just a right-click… You know this makes sense. Non-techies often use usb sticks as backup too, because they’re cheap and easy. They have drawers filled with “backup”-sticks. It’s true, I’ve seen it. I wish I didn’t.. The issue where a large videofile from that day on the beach in Benidorm refuses to get backed up to the “goddamn stick” is very common in non-techie-world. Let’s squash that bug, with KDE Plasma. Damn I’m smooth, I should work in retail.
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Sure, I’m not trying to say we shouldn’t do it, just explain why it hasn’t been done yet.
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@Nate
Fair enough. This, in my opinion, falls under the “simple by default”-category. Someone here suggested there could be a right-click option that takes one to the partition tool. That is just asking for trouble, for newbies. A simple usb format operation could easily escalate into a “whoopsie, I deleted my operating system”-scenario. This thing shouldn’t be difficult.
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While we’re discussing regional settings, how about looking at this UX issue: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=394698
The report has been marked RESOLVED UPSTREAM but in Plasma 6.0.4 already there is no sign of it being resolved.
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“RESOLVED UPSTREAM” means a system/project we depend on is responsible and we can’t/shouldn’t do something about it. It does not necessarily mean the problem is fixed. If you look at Nate’s comment in that bug report, you will see the reason.
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“shouldn’t do something about it” -> “shouldn’t do something about it directly in our software”
A solution could still be implemented by one of us upstream or we could advocate for creating a solution upstream if none of us are capable of doing it by ourselves.
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I cannot comprehend how you would consider not having a USB drive format option a priority because you somehow believe non technical people have no use for it, but I would assure you that is wrong and quite frankly absurd.
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I have no horse in this race but for the last 5-10 years I’ve very rarely needed to format an USB drive since they usually come formatted as exFAT already when I’ve bought them.
So it’s not that it wouldn’t be useful, but not as critical to do when there are plenty of other formatting software already, like GParted (including the KDE variant). Sure, a bit more of a hassle but unless you’re formatting USB sticks several times a month it’s really not that bad in my opinion.
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Well it’s always a good, and very Linux style design choice when the answer is “go download a random program or learn how how to do it in the terminal.” It makes it very easy to never recommend anybody but the most seasoned individuals to use.
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@Arthur
You buy those large capacity expensive ones, non-techies don’t.
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Sure I’m not trying to say we shouldn’t do it, just explain why it hasn’t been done yet.
If it’s something that’s very important to you, perhaps you could consider sponsoring a developer to work on it. See https://ev.kde.org/consultants/
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@KayDeeMee
What does capacity have to do with whether you format them or not? exFAT or FAT32 is usually just fine for all tasks unless you happen to format one as a live USB and then need to reformat to exFAT or FAT32 again. But that’s hardly regular user stuff.
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Awesome to see the printing aspect getting some love.
I’ve been wondering about that, very nice.
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The “Format Removable Drive” context menu it’s a must for everyone. I use Gparted all the time for this and it looks cumbersome to do so!
I bet a lot of new users coming from Windows are looking for this. It’s convenient to have it .
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Dolphin has the option to open a volume in KDE’s partition manager so adding an equivalent action to the removable devices popup shouldn’t be that much of a problem.
The partition manager would probably gain from having a slightly less “advanced” mode/UI when it is opened from either of these two actions.
Maybe something like a “re-format” view that does neither change partition layout nor file system choice.
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fixing filesystem it’s needed as well. In my case NTFS drives needs that all the time. It’s frustrating I have to use “Disks” for this every time I or someone else forgets to safe remove a drive!
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what I’ve meant earlier is that Dolphin needs a “Repair Drive” option as Windows has.
If you remove a NFTS drive(maybe Fat32 or ExtFat as well, I’m not sure), the Filesystem gets corrupted and you cannot mount it In Dolphin. It just throws an error with no solution.
Until recently, I had no idea you can fix this in the Gnome app Disks, so I had to reboot to Windows to do it.
This happens quite a lot in my job where I’m the only one using Linux.
Whether we like it or not we live in a world dominated by Windows PC’s.
With all the respect for Linux Devs, they should dual boot to see the cross problems that appear in every day use.
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Some good additions this week. One suggestion i will write here as i don’t have an issue tracker account on where the discussion is currently ongoing. Maybe it’s time to create a common Linux icon theme for all desktop environments to use together. No harm if two biggest Linux desktop environments and likely after most of the smaller projects to follow, to use the same icon for the same purpose. That is both projects to use and contribute to the same icon theme Git repository. Distributions making a package of this repository and for everything to just work seamlessly. Obviously 3rd party customizing would become a breeze too. Maybe the time has come to try out something like that? And not in lets say 100 years from now. Are you guys up to the challenge or he hell will freze before that happens?
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The thing is, to work with GNOME on something, they have to want it too. Right now the GNOME position on icon theming is that it’s an obsolete relic of the past.
So KDE could make a shared icon theme with everyone else but GNOME (e.g. Cinnamon, Budgie, XFCE, Cosmic), but GNOME would not want to be included. And I’m not sure the others would be so interested either. They have their own visual style and their own icon themes.
IMO What makes more sense to collaborate with them on would be improvements to the icon theming specs themselves, so that those of us who do care about icon theming achieve greater interoperability. And that’s already happening. Like literally today.
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Thank you for your response. Indeed it is a shame that a mayor Linux desktop environment project doesn’t want to adhere to standards when it comes to such basic feature as icon theme interoperability. To be honest i gave up on GNOME a while back exactly due to such behaviour and as long as KDE keeps supporting icon themes and the support doesn’t deteriorate, compared to years prior, that works for me. As for the need to form some alliances and to fight against other projects that aren’t interested in interoperability. AFAIK Mint developers already expressed they are interested in similar idea in regards to theming. Wayland and packaging fragmentation … if you take away interoperability then the fragmentation itself kills off any chance of any of the projects having a shot in success.
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So what about closer collaboration with Mate developers on things like interoperable (icon) themes and maybe even toolkit or desktop environment as a whole? Or just let it be and hopefully for such distribution to start pushing KDE over GNOME? I remember, years back, on where GNOME devs gave an example of a single button looking misplaced in some corner case scenario when a custom theme was used. They used that to smear icon themes as a whole. Now, years latter, if you look at any GTK4 GNOME app as a whole, used outside of GNOME, it looks misplaced as a whole.
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hi, can share if kde neon unstable it’s expected to update ubuntu base from 22.04 to 24.04 lts soon or will take a while.. can share approximate ETA? Days, Weeks, months..
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