Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

Copper36 · 2021-06-29 16:09:43

Hi,

I'd like to make a fresh install of Beowulf with a KDE desktop on a new box, but I do not need that huge bundle of KDE apps installed by default. As far as I can see, the things has not changed and it's still a PITA to remove them after the full KDE has been installed.
What is the correct way to run a minimal install of KDE desktop? What I have found so far is to run a net install without DE, and after it's done to manually install minimal KDE running

apt -y kde-plasma-desktop plasma-nm

Is this correct? By any chance, is there a minimal KDE-plasma install option in the "regular" installer?

Thank you.

Last edited by Copper36 (2021-06-29 16:31:54)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2021-06-29 17:18:59

Copper36 wrote:

Is this correct?

Almost:

# apt install -y kde-plasma-desktop plasma-nm

Copper36 wrote:

is there a minimal KDE-plasma install option in the "regular" installer?

No but you can add a custom entry to tasksel with this file at /usr/share/tasksel/descs/kde-minimal.desc:

Task: KDE-minimal
Relevance: 2
Parent: desktop
Key:
Packages: list
   kde-plasma-desktop
   plasma-nm
Section: user
Description: Minimal KDE desktop
 .

Not sure if the installer actually uses tasksel but if it does then you could perhaps remaster it with this addition.

EDIT: 3-space tabs ftw.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2021-06-29 17:20:13)

dice · 2021-06-30 15:24:51

this is a fairly decent overview of what you may want in below link.

https://www.pragmaticlinux.com/2020/10/ … 10-buster/

even though it says debian buster it should apply to devuan as well as long as you are aware of the differences in the installers.

Last edited by dice (2021-06-30 15:25:04)

pcalvert · 2021-07-02 00:46:16

I would use a slightly different approach:

# aptitude install -R kde-plasma-desktop plasma-nm kwin-x11 sddm xserver-xorg 2>&1 | tee KDE-desktop-installation-log.txt

This installs KDE without recommended packages. That's why I save a log of the installation. After the installation, I would open the log file and look to see which recommended packages weren't installed because I may want to install some of them.

Disclaimer: I haven't actually tried this because I don't use KDE anymore. However, this is the general approach I would use to install any desktop environment, and I have used it to install Xfce.

Copper36 · 2021-07-04 21:24:10

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

No but you can add a custom entry to tasksel with this file at /usr/share/tasksel/descs/kde-minimal.desc:
Task: KDE-minimal
Relevance: 2
Parent: desktop
Key:
Packages: list
   kde-plasma-desktop
   plasma-nm
Section: user
Description: Minimal KDE desktop
 .
Not sure if the installer actually uses tasksel but if it does then you could perhaps remaster it with this addition.

Where do I look for this file? I do not see anything like this in the installation image. There is a package called tasksel however... I'm afraid I just do not understand what you mean, sorry.

Copper36 · 2021-07-04 21:26:08

dice wrote:

this is a fairly decent overview of what you may want in below link.
https://www.pragmaticlinux.com/2020/10/ … 10-buster/

Thanks!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2021-07-05 16:56:22

Copper36 wrote:

Where do I look for this file?

It would be created manually. How to add it depends on the installer used and I'm not sure how Devuan's works (sorry). I don't even know if the Devuan installer uses tasksel at any stage.

Copper36 · 2021-07-05 19:44:31

Well, I followed the method (https://www.pragmaticlinux.com/2020/10/ … 10-buster/) suggested by dice, but as usual, there are problems... Base system installs, installation of basic plasma-nm and KDE is also fine, but after reboot I still face the same tty1.

Last edited by Copper36 (2021-07-10 22:14:31)

Copper36 · 2021-07-10 20:56:38

As far as I can see, running

apt list -a --installed *something*

sddm and xserver are installed, but xinit is not...
The content of /var/log/boot is:

(Nothing has been logged yet. If you're still seeing this message your current init system might not write bootup messages to the system console at all.)
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: [....] Activating swap...??7[ ok 8??done.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: [....] Checking file systems...fsck from util-linux 2.33.1
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: fsck.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24)
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: /dev/nvme0n1p1: 382 files, 41850/125952 clusters
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: /dev/nvme0n1p6: clean, 20/13189120 files, 1105464/52735744 blocks
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: ??7[ ok 8??done.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: [....] Cleaning up temporary files... /tmp??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: [....] Mounting local filesystems...??7[ ok 8??done.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: [....] Activating swapfile swap...??7[ ok 8??done.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: [....] Cleaning up temporary files...??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: [....] Starting: AppArmor[....] $Mounting securityfs on /sys/kernel/security??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: [....] Loading AppArmor profiles...??7[ ok 8??done.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: ??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: [....] Starting Setting kernel variables: sysctl??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:14 2021: [....] Configuring network interfaces...ifup: waiting for lock on /run/network/ifstate.eth0
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: ifup: interface eth0 already configured
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: ??7[ ok 8??done.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: [....] Cleaning up temporary files...??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: [....] Setting up X socket directories... /tmp/.X11-unix /tmp/.ICE-unix??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: INIT: Entering runlevel: 2
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: [info] Using makefile-style concurrent boot in runlevel 2.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: [....] Setting up console font and keymap...??7[ ok 8??done.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: [....] Starting enhanced syslogd: rsyslogd??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: [....] Starting anac(h)ronistic cron: anacron deferred while on battery power??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: [....] Starting periodic command scheduler: cron??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: [....] Starting system message bus: dbus??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: [....] Starting Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD Daemon: avahi-daemon??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: [....] Starting bluetooth: bluetoothd??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: [....] Starting session management daemon: elogind??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:20 2021: [....] Starting network connection manager: NetworkManager??7[ ok 8??.
Sat Jul 10 17:34:21 2021: [....] Starting Init script for Simple Desktop Display Manager: sddm??7[ ok 8??.

Could it be due to the lack of the drivers' support for my hardware (it is i5 11th gen with Xe GPU)?
I also did not set a root password during installation.

Thank you.

Last edited by Copper36 (2021-07-10 23:23:45)

GlennW · 2021-07-10 22:52:45

Hi, I think Tasksel is the page in the install program that allows us to select what desktop we want installed, like xfce, kde, cinnamon, etc.

If it's not booting to a login gui, have you got elogind installed?

Just my 2c. All the best.

Copper36 · 2021-07-10 23:01:14

GlennW wrote:

If it's not booting to a login gui, have you got elogind installed?
Just my 2c. All the best.

Elogind is installed (automatic).
Thanks!

Last edited by Copper36 (2021-07-10 23:02:49)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2021-07-11 09:48:04

Copper36 wrote:

Could it be due to the lack of the drivers' support for my hardware (it is i5 11th gen with Xe GPU)?

11th generation Intel graphics need a newer version of Mesa than is available in beowulf.

Magnus · 2021-07-11 14:02:57

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Copper36 wrote:
Could it be due to the lack of the drivers' support for my hardware (it is i5 11th gen with Xe GPU)?
11th generation Intel graphics need a newer version of Mesa than is available in beowulf.

You will need at least three packages newer than Beowold to use the 11th generation of Intel processors. In any case, this applies to i7, and I think it also applies to i5.
The packages are:
intel-media-va-driver-non-free for graphics
https://pkginfo.devuan.org/cgi-bin/pack … .1.1+ds1-1
firmware-sof-signed for audio
https://pkginfo.devuan.org/cgi-bin/pack … gned=1.7-1
firmware iwlwifi for wifi
https://pkginfo.devuan.org/cgi-bin/pack … -2~bpo10+1

The easiest way is to add Debian's Experimental to your source list and just run 'aptitude upgrade -t experimental'. That's what I've been running for a few weeks to get the latest KDE and the latest of it all. ;-)

Last edited by Magnus (2021-07-11 14:28:33)

Copper36 · 2021-07-11 23:13:39

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

11th generation Intel graphics need a newer version of Mesa than is available in beowulf.

Ah, so it won't work anyway... But just out of curiosity - do you think my problem is due to the old mesa driver or maybe systemd/sysvinit differences? The same approach worked with Buster, however I have no idea on what hardware.

Thank you.

Last edited by Copper36 (2021-07-11 23:14:27)

Copper36 · 2021-07-12 15:57:46

OK guys, thank you very much for all your help and assistance, hope to see you in a few years.

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#1 2021-06-29 16:09:43

Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#2 2021-06-29 17:18:59

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#3 2021-06-30 15:24:51

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#4 2021-07-02 00:46:16

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#5 2021-07-04 21:24:10

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#6 2021-07-04 21:26:08

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#7 2021-07-05 16:56:22

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#8 2021-07-05 19:44:31

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#9 2021-07-10 20:56:38

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#10 2021-07-10 22:52:45

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#11 2021-07-10 23:01:14

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#12 2021-07-11 09:48:04

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#13 2021-07-11 14:02:57

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#14 2021-07-11 23:13:39

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

#15 2021-07-12 15:57:46

Re: Minimal KDE install in Beowulf

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