Kde and Systemd - In the News

kapqa · 2026-02-03 10:57:02

Hello ,

am using Devuan 6-7 on the laoptop with KDE Plasma

goes like this

-----------
`'dPPd:,. OS: Devuan GNU/Linux 7 (freia/ceres) x86_64
`:b$$b`. Host: 20KMS0DL1J (ThinkPad A475)
'P$$$d` Kernel: Linux 6.18.5+deb14-amd64
.$$$$$` Uptime: 1 day, 1 hour, 17 mins
;$$$$$P Packages: 4429 (dpkg), 6 (flatpak)
.:P$$$$$$` Shell: bash 5.3.3
.,:b$$$$$$$;' Display (CMN14F2): 1920x1080 in 14", 60 Hz
.,:dP$$$$$$$$b:' DE: KDE Plasma 6.5.4
.,:;db$$$$$$$$$$Pd'` WM: KWin (X11)

most things function, which is comfortable;

i liked that the "airplane mode" is persistent over reboots.

however,
found this in the news.

https://hackaday.com/2026/02/02/kde-bin … d-systems/

so i wonder,
wonder if will be able to continue using it such frictionless-ly?

blackhole · 2026-02-03 12:59:59

It relates to PLM (a fork of SDDM), not plasma itself, but yes it could be a sign of what's to come... otherwise, why fork SDDM to be systemd reliant and make that the default...

Last edited by blackhole (2026-02-03 13:21:14)

steve_v · Yesterday 08:49:34

it could be a sign of what's to come

I'd say "definitely is", and probably soon. IME KDE will do what they always do - death by a thousand bugs. Let [thing they want gone] rot until the userbase is sufficiently annoyed, then trot out a replacement that requires [thing they want to depend on] and use it as justification for never fixing what used to work...
Just like X11 support and the "~~x11-only~~ never ever fix these, they're meant to be annoying" tag on the bugtracker.

SDDM has problems sure, but it certainly isn't beyond saving. KDE could have just adopted it as-is (and as initially implied) or pitched in with maintenance, but instead it's an excuse for yet another rewrite, to use systemd user-services for session management... Which will inevitably spread to KDE in general, as D.E. has been not-so-subtly hinting is "the best way forward" for a while now.

why fork SDDM to be systemd reliant and make that the default

Same reason every new app for KDE that runs a background service (e.g. KRDP) and every new control-panel applet that touches services (e.g. plasma-firewall) also depends on systemd, usually for no convincing reason.
Several influential developers want to move all of KDE's various daemons and services to systemd user-units, so they can get rid of KDED & co. They have for quite some time.
The old "sure we support BSD, we've always supported BSD... You just miss out on some new stuff" pot of totally-not-boiling-yet water is the best way to make that happen with a minimum of screaming, so we get "stay calm, it's just an optional feature. SDDM will still work (for now)".

With any luck Gentoo will patch things to use openrc user services, or Sonic DE will gain the traction and the manpower to be an X11-first and systemd-optional KDE fork.
Both efforts would stand to benefit from some cross-distro support and packaging, but as far as Devuan goes who knows. As far as I can see we're still at "read forum, figure it out yourself" for pipewire, with nary a sign of an official proposition (let alone a solution) for user services more generally.

Last edited by steve_v (Yesterday 08:58:57)

RedGreen925 · Yesterday 09:53:30

I'd say "definitely is", and probably soon. IME KDE will do what they always do - death by a thousand bugs. Let [thing they want gone] rot until the userbase is sufficiently annoyed, then trot out a replacement that requires [thing they want to depend on] and use it as justification for never fixing what used to work...

I see you have noticed the same as I have in my got to be twenty-five years of using it now since the pre-1.0 days all them years ago. The way they do the death by thousand cuts method of elimination. I was pissed enough at the x11 rot they did on the transition to the version 6 but seeing the deeper integration with the systemd garbage and the wayland only announce pushed me over the top and I dumped it. I went with the LXQt still uses the toolkit and same type layout but way less resources. First time in years I have seen a load under 1 on my machine and it is on a regular basis, none of this three or four BS anymore for just being logged in. I used to think those people going on about it being bloated piece of junk were just Gnome trolls, they were/are most times, but they actually had a point about the resources the damn thing used for doing next to basically nothing but showing desktop. Who knows if the Sonic people can gather enough momentum to get a fork going to allow for a reasonable means to go forward, I gave the TDE a try as well it is based on the old 3.5 code with a modern skin applies it looks good not like a Fisher Price toy OS those old skins from twenty years ago make it look like. So hopefully there will be couple of choices for people who like the free software they use to actually support freedom of choice not just pay lip service to it, while the developers kiss the ass of the parasite corporations who seek to lock down everything and tell you how to use your own computer.

steve_v · Yesterday 10:51:13

my got to be twenty-five years of using it now since the pre-1.0 days

You and me both. I do like KDE, (even the current iteration) but the development model is utterly infuriating. Sadly, warts and all, I'm not convinced there's a better "full DE" option right now.

resources the damn thing used for doing next to basically nothing

It's still not terrible (and still better than GNOME), but only if you get quite brutal ripping out the worst offenders *cough* akonadi.
Bare plasma without all the chaff is comparable to current XFCE IME.

Who knows if the Sonic people can gather enough momentum to get a fork going

I tried it out a little while back, and I can say it at least compiles and runs (or master did at that moment in time) on Gentoo. Currently I'm just cherry-picking a couple of changes on top of upstream plasma, because I'm too lazy to write proper ebuilds and untangle the KDE apps / frameworks dependencies.

TDE

Yes... But also no. QT3 is long dead, and not entirely without reason. Security support might as well be nill, and no modern applications target it so you end up with a pretty horrific mix of QT3,5,6 & a bit of GTK to boot.
I try to stick to no more than 2 clashing GUI toolkits where I can.

kapqa · Yesterday 10:57:09

the newer KDE feels a little bit more "color-y" but i don§t mind as long it function well and allows for good flow.

maybe KDE 4 liked very much, but would not ever get to use it for long; (maybe had knoppix installed for portable use on a usb-stick at some time)

now, with newer computer, KDE resource usage became newer a problem;

this laptop even has 16 gb of ram, and the real hog can be firefox AND thunderbird.

but since the this laptop will probably not get much faster, could freeze the OS for the time being, or maybe revert the "rolling" devuan 7 to a more stable devuan 6?

can i just switch the repository back from Freia/Ceres to Excalibur or how could i freeze the OS so that i don§t get trouble once KDE 6.6 get release?

thanks.

(sorry i f could not chime in to the news of what is best or what is slim - login - system)

EDUT:

after fresh-start the OS consume maybe about 3GB of RAM on Devuan 7, with 2 firefox window open (and around 35tab)

Last edited by kapqa (Yesterday 16:06:46)

brocashelm · Yesterday 11:06:21

Well, it's a shame that GTK2 wasn't forked before MATE made the full switch over to GTK3. It's the only workable GUI toolkit in my experience, as I find modern forms of GTK and Qt too restrictive and bloated. I had to mix older Devuan and Debian (pre-Systemd infection) repositories to get the preferred versions of software that I needed. My systems all only have very, very few programs depending on GTK3 (no GTK4 at all) and Qt5 (no Qt6 at all).

I really wanted to like TDE, but it's a bit wonky to set up, and the hard dependency on Konqueror (a shitty file manager and an even shittier Web browser in one) is a major turnoff. If and when I am "forced" to stop using older Xfce for the sake of shiny new shit, and I'd depend on a DE, I would just fuck with LXQt and do whatever it takes to keep as little GN*ME or GTK+ as possible.

RedGreen925 · Yesterday 12:49:38

can i just switch the repository back from Freia/Ceres to Excalibur or how could i freeze the OS so that i don§t get trouble once KDE 6.6 get release?
thanks.

No you are committed to them now you have upgraded libc to the newer version it is the MAIN building block of your entire operating system in Linux. Once you do that there is no going back.

I really wanted to like TDE, but it's a bit wonky to set up, and the hard dependency on Konqueror (a shitty file manager and an even shittier Web browser in one) is a major turnoff.

Old Konqueror which it is was at its time the best file manager around allowing the split view of side by side or up/down split or both if wanted. With plenty of plugins so you could sftp, ftp, ssh, smb from the address bar and need nothing else but it to do all of your work if you want. Still can in the modern version too I have numerous bookmarks that do just that to connect to my various machines using them protocols. Then of course the killer feature a split the screen in a top / bottom arrangement so you can see the entire file name and not some truncated piece of junk view that side by side view all other file managers do. Wasting all of that space that can give you a proper view of the name. It is my only browser I have used in all of these years since I first started using it and it works fantastically. I avoid the Gnome like the plague and have for decades now, gtk apps well there are some that you have no choice but to use like the Handbrake though if not feeling like going graphical I have my encoding scripts that do the same thing using the ffmpeg.

Edit:

You and me both. I do like KDE, (even the current iteration) but the development model is utterly infuriating. Sadly, warts and all, I'm not convinced there's a better "full DE" option right now.

Yes it is definitely a polished effort I will give them that but they way they have gone about it over the years has severely pissed me off to the point I do not even care to use it anymore. Who knows perhaps the LXQt will not continue to be my good enough for me to use in its place option. But I have figured out the quirks that bother me and it is working well. If not I will have to build a bridge and get over it on the KDE BS go back to it if it is even possible then.

Last edited by RedGreen925 (Yesterday 12:57:32)

greenjeans · Yesterday 16:48:58

I have my encoding scripts that do the same thing using the ffmpeg.

Man it's great ain't it? I'm in the big love right now with ffmpeg, so many things you can do.

@brocashelm, I probably understand your frustration with gtk 3 better than most right now due to immersion for the last year, it's a real pain to deal with. But it's likely the best candidate for forking gtk, the right group of smart people could fix a lot of it's shortcomings and unneeded complexities.

RedGreen925 · Yesterday 19:33:37

Man it's great ain't it? I'm in the big love right now with ffmpeg, so many things you can do.

Oh it certainly is one hell of a program a bit of a steep learning curve to it but damn the things you can do..

brocashelm · Yesterday 22:39:56

greenjeans wrote:

@brocashelm, I probably understand your frustration with gtk 3 better than most right now due to immersion for the last year, it's a real pain to deal with. But it's likely the best candidate for forking gtk, the right group of smart people could fix a lot of it's shortcomings and unneeded complexities.

Probably best to start looking into CTK, which is a fork of GTK3 (used for CAFE, a fork of MATE).

Even still, there's a lot that you could do with GTK2 comparatively (two that I can recall being forked are STLWRT and a debloated fork). I would consider no Wayland support a _feature_.

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#1 2026-02-03 10:57:02

Kde and Systemd - In the News

#2 2026-02-03 12:59:59

Re: Kde and Systemd - In the News

#3 Yesterday 08:49:34

Re: Kde and Systemd - In the News

#4 Yesterday 09:53:30

Re: Kde and Systemd - In the News

#5 Yesterday 10:51:13

Re: Kde and Systemd - In the News

#6 Yesterday 10:57:09

Re: Kde and Systemd - In the News

#7 Yesterday 11:06:21

Re: Kde and Systemd - In the News

#8 Yesterday 12:49:38

Re: Kde and Systemd - In the News

#9 Yesterday 16:48:58

Re: Kde and Systemd - In the News

#10 Yesterday 19:33:37

Re: Kde and Systemd - In the News

#11 Yesterday 22:39:56

Re: Kde and Systemd - In the News

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