Here are some more notes on getting KDE Plasma 6 on FreeBSD up and running on a Framework 13 AMD laptop. This follows up on previous notes about getting the hardware together and installing FreeBSD.

First off, I think it’s hard to express how high the DPI is on the screen in this laptop. I have been using 27” 2560x1440 monitors for a couple of years, which I feel is fine for regular desktoppy-office-coding work. I’m not a monitor junkie by a long shot. I can’t even fit a screenshot from the laptop, on my desktop monitor at 100% scaling.

KDE Plasma 6 desktop showing KInfoCenter with FreeBSD details and Discover. Original size 2880x1920, scaled down to 25% in each direction.
KDE Plasma 6 desktop showing KInfoCenter with FreeBSD details and Discover. Original size 2880x1920, scaled down to 25% in each direction.

Getting to KDE Plasma 6 on FreeBSD

I’m sure I have written it down before, but here’s the quick steps to a working KDE Plasma 6 on FreeBSD:

  • pkg install kde sddm
  • sysrc dbus_enable=YES sddm_enable=YES
  • Add suitable values (e.g. 65536) for net.local.stream.recvspace and net.local.stream.sendspace in the file /etc/sysctl.conf

Step 1 there is “get the software” and step 2 is “enable the software”. I can get behind that choice, since FreeBSD doesn’t come with the assumption that installing KDE means you want a graphical login. Step 3 is kind of regrettable. There’s no convenient tool for this, but without those tweaks, Akonadi (and hence KMail) are crap on FreeBSD.

Reboot or service sddm start, and you get the well-known SDDM greeter. On this machine, make sure to pick KDE Plasma X11, because Wayland doesn’t work.

My Own List of First-Run Customizations

  • Focus follows mouse (in KDE System Settings, under Window Behavior, Focus; searching for Focus finds it)
  • Put the control key where it belongs, to be to the left of the letter A (in KDE System Settings, under Keyboard, then click the weirdly-named and -placed Key Bindings button, enable Configure keyboard options, then search for Swap Ctrl and Caps Lock)

The X11-keyboard-options code seems to have been (or become) broken, at the very least on FreeBSD, so here’s a little script to do it by hand; you do need to pkg install setxkbmap for this:

#! /bin/sh
setxkbmap us
setxkbmap -option ctrl:swapcaps

Customizations for this Laptop

  • Set global scale to 175% (in KDE System Settings, under Display Configuration, value of Global Scale; changing this value requires log-out and log-in again to make it take effect, and doesn’t seem to influence KWin decorations or cursor size – but this is X11, which is basically abandoned upstream)

Things that are Cool

  • KDE Discover detects updates. I have no idea how it decided that I have 16 things installed (devel/apr and editors/kate are listed, but not KDE Plasma itself) to display in the list of installed applications, but they did need updates today.

Things to Investigate and Fix

On the KDE side:

  • Plasma 6 Wayland (on this specific GPU model) is the big-ticket item.
  • Keyboard options, for instance all the options related to what-does-caps-lock-do. (This already applies to Plasma 5 on FreeBSD)
  • Konsole starts in / rather than in my home directory. (This also)
  • KDE Discover’s Home page just displays a “no internet” warning.
  • After first logout, KWin lost whatever keybinding it had. I have managed to get alt-tab to switch windows again, but not found where alt-F4 binds to Close Window.

On the FreeBSD or hardware side:

  • Figure out how to make F-keys default, rather than the media controls (so I don’t have to hold the Fn key to, say, reload a web-page with F5).
  • Figure out how to make the media keys work at all (e.g. brightness, which is on the F7 and F8 keys).
  • Figure out WiFi, since a laptop with a bright red ethernet cable sticking out the side is less portable than I might like.