How to install KDE plasma desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux

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By default, Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish sports the GNOME desktop environment, or no GUI at all in the server edition. If you would like to change things up and install KDE Plasma instead, the GUI can be downloaded and installed directly from Ubuntu’s package repositories.

This can be done whether you are switching from GNOME to KDE Plasma, or you currently are running command line interface only and wish to install a graphical desktop environment. KDE Plasma is a great choice that comes with all the tools you will need to administrate your Ubuntu system.

In this tutorial, we will go through the step by step instructions to install the KDE Plasma GUI desktop environment on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to install tasksel
  • How to install KDE plasma desktop
  • How to switch to SDDM display manager
  • How to login to KDE plasma desktop
KDE plasma desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux
KDE plasma desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux
Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish
Software KDE Plasma
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Install KDE plasma desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 step by step instructions

  1. We will be using the tasksel command to install KDE plasma desktop. In case the tasksel command is not available on your system you can install it by: 
    $ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install tasksel
  2. Execute the following command to begin the KDE Plasma desktop installation, depending on which package you wish to install. The kubuntu-full package will come with more KDE apps installed by default. 
    $ sudo tasksel install kubuntu-desktop
OR
$ sudo tasksel install kubuntu-full
    KDE Plasma installation command on Ubuntu 22.04
    KDE Plasma installation command on Ubuntu 22.04
  3. If you already have GNOME installed, you should receive a notification during KDE installation to let you know that you will now have multiple display managers installed. If you want Ubuntu 22.04 to boot into KDE Plasma by default, then you will need to set your default display manager to sddm when the prompt appears. Use TAB to select sddm and hit ok button.
    Prompt asking us to switch over to sddm display manager
    Prompt asking us to switch over to sddm display manager
  4. After installation, you can reboot your Ubuntu 22.04 system to load into the KDE Plasma desktop environment. 
    $ reboot
  5. At the login screen, select Desktop session as Plasma. Then you can login and begin using your newly installed KDE desktop environment.

    Open Desktop session selection menu and Select Plasma session, enter your password and hit login button
    Open Desktop session selection menu and Select Plasma session, enter your password and hit login button

Closing Thoughts

In this tutorial, we saw how to install the KDE Plasma desktop environment GUI on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux. KDE is a speedy and responsive desktop environment, which comes loaded with a lot of its own applications, such as the Dolphin file manager, to make your system administration that much easier. Ubuntu 22.04 and KDE Plasma is a great combination that you are sure to enjoy – I personally like it a lot better than the default GNOME environment on Ubuntu.

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