KDE Plasma 6 Arrives On Debian Trixie But Breaks Desktop. How To Resolve Problem.

[@willuhmjs]

As much as you may hate the idea, I think you are becoming closer to an Arch Linux user every day, given your desire for more bleeding-edge software. One of us!

[@AndreaBorman]

No I don't think I will ever take up using Arch as my OS. For one thing it is difficult to install as it is all done by commands. So I probably won't be able to install it. I tried testing it out on Distrosea which is a website that lets you try out Linux operating systems in a web browser. Even there it wouldn't run. Arch is also very different to Apt so I don't think that is the one to go to. Arch is bleeding edge in regards to software. Debian Sid is not the same things. Although it is called Unstable it's not actually unstable at all. Because many of the desktops and software are already in Ubuntu and other Ubuntu based distros. The latest version of Ubuntu already has Gnome 47 and Kubuntu has Plasma 6 in the 24.10 version which is the new release that is supported for 9 months. So the software and versions of Gnome, KDE and other desktops you are using in Debian Sid are the same as what you would get on Ubuntu. I used to use Windows and on Windows we were always told not to use old versions of software. Because of the risks of viruses. Not that I listened because the new versions of Windows Media Player and other Windows software on Windows 7 was not as god as the Windows XP versions. So I did sometimes run old software from Windows XP that was not supported. Which was not a wise thing to do. So I think that making sure that the software is up to date is a Windows thing. Since I am an ex-windows users and on Windows you have to update. It's the same thing on Linux and I think even in the old versions of Linux Mint that are still supported they still update things like web browsers and other software that connects to the Internet, but not everything. If you want later versions of things like office suites or media players then the latest version of Ubuntu or Debian Sid is what you should run.

[@TNMPlayer]

​@AndreaBorman I started using arch after I learned about the archinstall script. It has quite a simple gui. And yes, the package manager took a bit of adapting to, but I got a lot more comfortable typing sudo pacman -Syu over sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt autoremove -y

[@humanfactorsio]

@@TNMPlayer I hated it didn't even come with audio drivers for my computer, it was a bit too blank for me, though I did end up using it for a year. I also found in the end I had much less control as I sort of blindly trusted all these pacman scripts. Appreciate the reason people do use it though.

[@willuhmjs]

@@AndreaBorman Thank you for the insight! I understand where you're coming from.

[@MaxUgly]

Not selling anything or here to convince anyone of anything. Having used both sid and arch my anecdote is that opensuse tumbleweed was the most solid of the bleeding edge setups. Just my anecdote but I dont know anyone who has used it and not liked it. Zypper seems smarter than apt and is more clear about dependencies and what it is actually doing. It also has snapper and btrfs out of the box last I installed it. Kde settings and yast allow for a gui that is actually laid out in an intuitive way. I'm comfy in etc and nano but cant help feeling a bit nostalgic to when windows had a nice control panel, decades ago. Since I am being all contrarian, Linux brew is also really nice. It is like having github as your repos. That is huge for me. Get packages from the source, cut out distro middle man. I use it on *buntus.

[@anonymous-rj6ok]

Oh my, Andrea. This was an unpleasant surprise delivered to you by the debian maintainers. I'm sorry you had to go through this. I watched the next video and know you recovered from it. Cheerio!

[@AndreaBorman]

Yeah that's what happened. I have read some posts on Reddit and other websites from other users who have been using Debian Trixie with KDE who have had the same problem. It seems that Debian either keeps back or removes some packages from their testing builds. So I sometimes find that the software I want is missing and I have to download it from the Debian Sid packages. That's why the KDE desktop is now broken on Trixie because many of the packages that are needed to run Plasma 6 or are part of Plasma 6 are missing. Yet they are all there in Debian Sid because nothing is removed or kept back. Debian should not be removing packages that are an essential part of the desktop. If they think they are not safe or still in testing phrase they shouldn't have updated the KDE desktop to Plasma 6. They should have just left it as it was at Plasma 5 which was working fine. But they didn't do that so now users on Debian Trixie have to either find another desktop environment or do a reinstall. That is very bad I think.

[@joelamouk7192]

Hello from France, Andrea, your English is so clear and understandable! you're great at Linux videos.

[@seupedro9924]

The queen is back!

[@aresaurelian]

Fact from fiction, word and no fairies, straight from the source, Andrea Borman. Thank you.

[@josephdegarmo]

That right there is exactly one reason why I would NEVER use Debian testing or SID on a production machine. I tried Debian testing on GNOME 47 on a live USB and some of the GNOME shell extensions are currently broken. If you want to use Plasma 6, then use Fedora KDE Spin 41, Kubuntu 24.10, or any distro based on Arch Linux. For GNOME 47, use Fedora Workstation 41 or Arch Linux.

[@AndreaBorman]

It's true that using a testing or unstable build has risks but it still shouldn't happen. The reason why the KDE desktop is broken in Debian Trixie, which is Debian Testing, is because Debian have held back and removed some of the packages that are needed to run Plasma 6. They are all there in Debian Sid as the desktop is working fine but not in Debian Trixie. Debian shouldn't have removed the needed packages from testing. Or they should have just just not updated it to Plasma 6 and left it on Plasma 5 as Ubuntu LTS is still on. Then many people who are running Debian Trixie with KDE wouldn't have lost their desktop. In my case I was able to solve the problem by upgrading to Debian Sid but I shouldn't have had to do that. Now that I am using Debian Sid I am finding it is working well and at least all of the packages are there. It should be the same in Debian Trixie as well. Even though it is still in testing there shouldn't be any packages missing which is what caused the problem in the first place. I think I now understand why people who want newer software in Debian use Debian Sid instead of Debian Testing. Because in Sid although it is the unstable version Debian don't remove or keep back any packages from Sid. So everything is more likely to work. I have found that out the hard way. As for Arch Linux or Fedora both of them are different systems as they don't use Apt. To be honest I don't know how to use those. I only know how to use Ubuntu and Debian based Linux as I have gotten to know that quite well. So I would rather stick with those. There are plenty of other Ubuntu based distros such as KDE Neon and the non LTS version of Ubuntu which is 24.10 which has Plasma 6. Since both are based on Debian as Ubuntu based distros are maybe they are using software repositories and packages from Debian Sid. I don't think using Debian Sid is any more risky than using KDE Neon or other later versions of Ubuntu that have more newer software. It depends on the distro and how well it is maintained. Things can also break on a stable version. I have had that too on Linux Mint which is stable. It happens on every operating system though on Linux it doesn't happen very often. When I was on Windows 8 it happened all the time but that's Windows for you.

[@cjuk81]

And you shouldnt use them on a production machine either jsut as Debian warns us not to :) But over the years ive generally found Sid to be more stable then testing, although all my day to day debain stuff is totally on Stable as are my servers obviusly :)

[@AndreaBorman]

@@cjuk81 I don't think that Debian Testing or Sid is any more unstable than anything else. The same versions of the desktops are already on Ubuntu LTS which has both Gnome 47 and KDE Plasma 6 as well as most of the software that is on Debian Testing and Sid. It's just that Ubuntu gets the updated desktops and new software first before Debian. So if I was using Ubuntu I would be on KDE Plasma 6 or Gnome 47 anyway. So I can't see the difference. If it wasn't for the Snaps that are bundled with Ubuntu I would use Ubuntu. But unfortunately you cannot remove Snap from Ubuntu because it is part of the desktop. That's why I use Debian as you don't have to have Snap or Flatpak on Debian unless you want to install it. Not the case with Ubuntu.

[@cjuk81]

@@AndreaBorman very true. I like Sid, tons of updates though sometimes :) I guess we all just have to remember they are all testing environments for the debs and users. Certainly on places like Reddit a certain amount of people totally think they are , well Sid is a proper rolling release which of course it isn't. But I'm with you on Ubuntu, Debian gives you that free some to use flatpak or not or s Snaps for that matter!!

[@AndreaBorman]

@@cjuk81 Even though Debian Sid is the Unstable version so it's not officially supported by Debian and neither is Debian Trixie which is the Testing version. A lot of people still use it and many use Debian Sid one of the reasons is because they want the latest software that Ubuntu has. I mean Debian and Ubuntu are almost the same except for a few differences. That's why many of the Ubuntu packages, software and tweaks work on Debian. The only difference is that Ubuntu has later versions of software and desktop environments for example Gnome 47 and now KDE Plasma 6 which they do support in their LTS version. Where as Debian only has Gnome 43 and slightly older software in their Stable version which is also the LTS version. So the only way to get later software and later desktops is to use Debian Testing or Debian Sid. Debian Trixie which is at the moment still in testing is working fine. If you avoid the KDE desktop, at least for now. Though Debian Sid is the one to use if you want all of the later packages. Because none of the packages are kept back or removed from Debian Sid. Debian only do this with Debian Testing if they think there are bugs. Which is fair enough if it's just one or two packages but half of a desktop environment. Which is what they have done with KDE Plasma 6 and they never should have done that. They should have just kept the desktop at Plasma 5 instead of upgrading it like that. I think Ubuntu is better if you want the latest and greatest software. Ubuntu also provide additional software and tools such as the Update And Driver Manager make it easier for new users to use. Ubuntu also has Network Boot in their Recovery Mode where you can install updates and software if you cannot boot to the desktop. The problem is that Ubuntu has Snaps which you cannot remove because they are part of the operating system. Which is the big thing that is stopping me from using Ubuntu. If it wasn't for that I would use it. There is of course Linux Mint which is based on Ubuntu but they don't have an option to have just the main desktop environment without all of the software I don't want. I don't like their media players and other things that come with it. I like VLC and to be able to chose my own software. Which you can do if you install for the minimal desktop environment such as Cinnamon Core or Gnome Core. Which you cannot on Linux Mint. That is why I use Debian. Because with Debian you do have more control of what desktop environment you want and how you run your desktop. There are many desktops to chose from with Debian but not so much with Linux Mint or other Ubuntu based distros. Yes you can still install KDE in Linux Mint but it's not supported by Mint. So that's why I use Debian. I think I should have chosen Debian Sid rather than Testing. Both work but with Testing some packages do get remove if Debian think there is a problem with them. That is the only drawback with Testing.

[@JackedLinuxUser]

KZbin just recommended me this video, never saw you to be honest, and my heart is melting. Thank you for the video. Have a truly blessed day Andrea and don't forget to flex your muscles.

[@markjones2349]

You inspired me to try the testing branch because stable is extremely stable and reliable but it is extremely extremely boring. So I like the idea of Arch but figured if I went with sid that I could get pretty close to Arch but with a little added stability from packages being tested a little bit. If you don't already run timeshift you might want to consider it. A snapshot would have got you back up and running again. I have 16 years on Debian/Ubuntu based distros like Mint but I don't have experience trying to fix a broken system so I use timeshift as a fallback so I don't have to figure it out or at least help me as I learn to fix things. At this point the only thing stopping me from going full blown Arch is that I hate having to remember all of the pacman option flags. Apt is just so much easier. Also your sources.list only needs one line to function properly on testing and sid as far as I know. Take out security and take out updates.

[@AndreaBorman]

Yeah I have used Timeshift but it eats up a lot of hard disk space so I stopped using it. Also if you are on Debian Testing or Unstable the system is getting updated almost every days so is constantly changing. So Timeshift would not be much use in this situation. Because you have to install the updates. Even if you put them off for a few days you will have to update eventually. Otherwise you will get broken packages. So even if you do roll back with Timeshift the system will just want to update again.

[@markjones2349]

@@AndreaBorman Yeah the drive usage from Timeshift is a bit of a hickup but I think it's a good tradeoff for having a safety net. There is a super easy fix for that and that is to use BTRFS which the Debian installer sucks at and it requires manual steps. But with Fedora or Arch and others that support installing with BTRFS, the snapshots are instantaneous and I don't even know if they require extra space or not. They happen in like a second its insane.I'm hoping Trixie has full BTRFS support with proper @ and @home volumes or whatever they are called. Yes I have heard that with Arch if you let updates go for too long then your system will break and I was hoping that Debian didn't suffer the same fate. It would be nice to just roll back to the day before your system breaks and then wait a few days and try to update again with hopes that the offending packages get fixed. I will keep your warning in mind though.

[@AndreaBorman]

@@markjones2349 Timeshift is very much like the System Restore we have on Windows. It even looks the same as the Windows 7 and Windows 8 System Restore. But the Windows one is better as you scan chose how much disk space you want to give a restore point and what drive you want to create one one. But with Timeshift you can't. Timeshift just eats up the disk space but the Windows System Restores doesn't. That's why I stopped using Timeshift and there really isn't anything else like it. Timeshift seems to be the only one that works like the Windows System Restore. The thing is because I am running Debian Testing and Debian Sid on the other laptop. The system is constantly being updated and changing. So it is pointless creating restore points because if you roll back then you are going to get the same updates again next time you update. You cannot avoid installing updates because if you do some of the software won't install. Since your packages come from Debian or Ubuntu if you are running Ubuntu. sure you can delay updating or put if off for a short time. But you will have to update eventually. Though it is very rare that any updates you get on Linux break the desktop. It has never happened to me before. I think it only happened because there are packages from the KDE6 desktop that are missing. The packages are missing because Debian has removed and held back some of the packages that are needed to run the KDE6 desktop. That is why my desktop broke and other Debian Trixie users have had this problem. If the core complements that are needed to run a desktop environment are missing or held back then of course the desktop will be broken. So Debian shouldn't have done that. They should either have removed the desktop in the update(giving us a warning that the desktop would be removed as they did with the Budgie Desktop.) Or they just should left the desktop at KDE5 and not upgraded it. I am not very happy with that my half of my desktop was broken because of an update. That shouldn't have happened.

[@MaxUgly]

Sorry to mention opensuse in two threads but it comes with this exact thing out of the box as well as all very fresh packages (tumbleweed). It defaults to btrfs with snapper. You can roll back with surgical precision or roll back 1000 packages. Btrfs with snapper is smart enough to not take up space it doesnt need. Meaning only differences are stored. This allows for a ton of snapshots and they only take up a small amountof space.

[@nejarmparmolle5161]

I updated this morning and was completely disappointed.😭😭😭

[@AndreaBorman]

Did you have the same problem? I have read a lot of people who are running Debian Trixie with KDE have found the same thing as me. When it updated from Plasma 5 to Plasma 6 most of the desktop was broken. That shouldn't have happened. The reason is that Debian have kept back many packages from Trixie that are the main software and core components that are needed to run the KDE desktop. That is why the KDE desktop is broken but this is not the case on Debian Sid. Debian Sid gets all of the new packages first as well as the updates. Which is why there is not this problem on there. Debian really do need to sort this problem out.

[@nejarmparmolle5161]

@AndreaBorman I can't access the desktop, I can't log in on the password entry screen. My enter key doesn't work, I think it's a break. Now I'll start a live and save my data, thank you for informing me, grandma, I love you 😭🙏❤️

[@AndreaBorman]

@@nejarmparmolle5161 Are you running Debian Trixie with KDE? If that's the case then it is the big update to KDE that upgrades KDE from Plasma 5 to 6 that has broken the desktop. That's what happened to me. When I restarted my computer and logged back in I found that most of the control panel settings were gone. So i tried upgrading to Debian Sid and it worked. That solved the problem. I also reinstalled my KDE desktop using the TTY just to be sure. That seems to have sorted out the problem. If you look at the other links I have posted I am not the only one who has had this problem. It seems that Plasma 5 and Plasma 6 are so different that an upgrade may not be the best way. Debian shouldn't have released such a big update without testing it first. It's no fun having to reinstall your whole operating system.

[@nejarmparmolle5161]

@@AndreaBorman thank you, i will try this now🙏

[@AndreaBorman]

@@nejarmparmolle5161 Another option if you want to stay on Debian Trixie is to uninstall the KDE desktop and install another desktop environment such as Mate, Cinnamon or any other desktop. You can log into the TTY at the log in screen by pressing ctrl alt F3 which should get you a terminal. Then from there you can remove all of the KDE desktop and install another desktop. That's one option. The other is a clean install with either a different desktop if you want Debian Trixie. Or install Debian 12 Bookworm which is the Stable version or Debian Sid which is unstable. It is only the KDE desktop on Trixie that is effected none of the other desktops are. So if you want to stay on Trixie it is better to just avoid the KDE desktop. For now until Debian sort it out.

[@LargeLaddd]

I love your videos, straight to the point and you give information thats useful for later use. Keep up the great content.

[@silentJET85]

I wish Debian had a branch that updated every 6 months or so, like Ubuntu and Fedora do. I think that would be the best of both worlds: You still get relatively new packages without worrying about anything breaking.

[@AndreaBorman]

Debian does update software in Debian Stable which is Bookworm ( Debian 12.) So you do get regular updates but they only release new versions of their operating system once every 2 years. Where as Ubuntu puts out new versions ever 6 months and Linux Mint every 3 months. Mint already have the packages for their next release which is I think Linux Mint Xia 22.1 on their packages website. So I think we will be getting Linux Mint 22.1 very soon. Yes I do think it would be better if Debian brought out new versions more often but maybe they have their reasons. The software you get in both Debian Trixie and Sid is actually the same as what you get in the currant version of Ubuntu. So Debian Sid is not really unstable. Linux Mint has quite a number number of versions with long term support. Linux Mint 20 is still supported although support end in 6 months. Mint 21 is supported until 2026. Mint 22 is supported until 2028 and each are supported for 5 years. So you can still use Linux Mint 21 if you want to. Ubuntu only supports their LTS versions for 3 years but it's still a long time. I think Debian also has 5 years supports but I am not sure about this.

[@imad4324]

I had this issue too, hopefully fixed soon.

[@AndreaBorman]

I don't think so. At least not with the KDE desktop because some packages are missing from Debian Trixie because Debian have removed some and kept back others from Debian Testing. This is not the case with Debian Sid which does have all of the packages. If you are running Debian Trixie I think you should remove KDE and install another desktop environment. That seems to be the only way out of it. Until this problem is fixed or upgrade to Debian Sid where KDE is working.

[@claudiakempke8698]

Thank you ❤️

[@davidtuomi8361]

The joys of testing.

[@RaniaAmina]

thanks for video; something that happen on me after update to kde 6 is - panel layout broken, i use 2 panel on top, it should display align vertically on top, but update update it look like one panel upper other - task manager not work, it only launch app but the opened app not showed, so when i click the icon launcher it will open new instance instead of open running instance - multimonitor issue, i use 2 external monitors and the the setup be broken :"

[@SS-gu2tx]

Andrea, I'm sorry to see you in this state dear. I'm confused though what did you expect to happen and what exactly is the problem? Your system appears to have upgraded as clearly stated and is working as intended?

[@AndreaBorman]

It is working now because I upgraded my system to Debian Sid. I was on Debian Trixie and the update broke the desktop. The problem is that Debian have kept back packages from Debian Trixie which is testing but not from Debian Sid (unstable.) So that's why the KDE desktop is broken on Trixie because some of the KDE packages that are needed to run the desktop are missing. Other Debian Trixie users who are running the KDE desktop also have this problem. Here is what I found: www.reddit.com/r/debian/comments/1h5ahxi/what_happened_with_kde_on_trixie

[@biskitpagla]

glad i went with fedora

[@var_tmp]

Sid doesn't require security repos

[@btiphotography5292]

I suspect I'll wait until Kubuntu 26.04 LTS until I switch to KDE Plasma 6.

[@AndreaBorman]

Kubuntu already has KDE Plasma 6 in the 24.10 version. You could try that. Although it's not LTS as 24.04 is. The only disadvantage is that 24.10 is only supported for 9 months and not 2 years like the LTS version.

[@LinusBerglund]

Hi Andrea! I am going to come with some unsolicited tips: try one of those immutable distros like Aeon desktop or Fedora silverblue. If there is an issue upstream, I can just rollback my distro to a working snapshot and wait for the issues to be solved before trying to upgrade again. The base system is quite minimal, and most of the userland consists of flatpaks. I use gnu guix for my userland as well

[@petertech210]

The matrix forgot to render this characters skin. It should be the fat guy in glasses skin.

[@creativeb549]

oh crap, that sucks

[@moonmonoar5000]

Hello grandma...

[@Melanittanigra]

dont have this problem on my mac