How to install KDE Plasma Desktop on CentOS 8

As a Linux distribution commonly used on servers, CentOS appears to be an option exclusively for desktop users. However, with its stable and well-tested facility, and limited access to Flatpak applications, your chances of using CentOS as a workstation are limited only by your imagination.

However, with a relatively heavy default desktop like GNOME, you might want to install something lighter or more scalable. In this article, you will learn how to install KDE Plasma Desktop Environment on CentOS workstations.

Workstation setup

Regardless of your hardware, you'll want a fully updated CentOS 8.2.2004 system up and running. We are using a minimal installation, but you can start with anything you want. You will want to run the full, immutable dnf update before starting with this tutorial.

Activate the repository

You will need to enable some additional repositories in addition to the default ones. The first is the EPEL 8 repo. You can do this by running the following command:

sudo dnf install epel-release

You will need to enable some additional repositories

You will also need PowerTools. You can enable it by running the following command:

sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled PowerTools

Install KDE Plasma

To make sure that everything is displaying correctly, you will want to test your DNF Groups by entering the following command:

dnf grouplist -v --hidden

That will show you everything available as a DNF group. It is interesting to see the different groups and you can see what you have available. However, the main thing that you are looking for lies right here.

Just install DNF Group containing KDE Plasma

From there, you can simply install DNF Group which contains KDE Plasma. To do that, enter the following command:

sudo dnf groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces" "base-x" -y

This is a large download (over 1.8GB), so you can relax while downloading.

If you get any errors, there may be some problems with the repository or GPG key that you may have overlooked. That's why the -y flag makes sense here, in order to resolve any confusing questions that might arise during the installation of packages.

System configuration

Once everything is installed, you will need to make quick changes to your system before you can boot into the KDE Plasma desktop. To tell systemd to boot into the graphical session, you will have to run the following command:

exec "/usr/bin/startkde" >> ~/.xinitrc startx

That will bring you right to the KDE Plasma Desktop. This is an extremely streamlined setup, using only about 6.5MB of RAM, which should give you plenty of space on the workstation or server you want for a GUI.

This may seem a bit cumbersome, as you have to start the X server manually every time you want to boot to your desktop. However, the workaround is to install GDM, which uses 200MB more RAM and a bunch of additional storage space for all GNOME dependencies.

Marvin Fry

Update 13 November 2020