F28+NVIDIA+KDE+SDDM on my Dell XPS 15

Issue

I wanted to run KDE Plasma on my Dell XPS 15 with the NVIDIA drives and use sddm as the display manager at log in. Sounds like an easy task but is was not.

Solution

Here are the steps in the order I did them.

Use these boot parameters when starting the installation.

nouveau.modeset=0 rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau video.use_native_backlight=1 acpi_osi=! acpi_osi=Linuxacpi_osi="Windows 2009"

Install gdm display manager if it is not already installed. I found that I could log into KDE with gdm most (but not all) of the time.

    sudo dnf install gdm

Make gdm the display manager to use at the next boot. We have to determine the one that is the current on first and then enable gdm service.

    systemctl status kdm gdm lightdm sddm  
    sudo systemctl disable <some_dm>  
    sudo systemctl enable gdm

Log into KDE with a userid and password. Run the System Settings tool.

Set the display scaling as show in the following:
Here is the next part of setting display scaling. User a scaling factor of 2 (1.3 is still very small).
Make double-click how files are opened
Get rid of the bouncy cursor when launching. Not sure it still is part of KDE but I really did not like it.
Force the font dpi to something big. Best is 192.

Create file .config/plasma-workspace/env

mkdir -p .config/plasma-workspace/env
cd .config/plasma-workspace/env/
echo “#!/bin/bash

export PLASMA_USE_QT_SCALING=2
# export QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=1

export GDK_SCALE=2
export GDK_DPI_SCALE=0.5
export XCURSOR_SIZE=48
“ > mysetyp.sh
chmod +x mysetup.sh

Make notification try icons size bigger

vi .config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc

# Search for extraItems and add: iconSize=2  after

[Containments][7][General]
extraItems=org.kde.plasma.printmanager,org.kde.plasma.pkupdates,org.kde.plasma.d
evicenotifier,org.kde.plasma.mediacontroller,org.kde.plasma.volume,org.kde.plasm
a.notifications,org.kde.plasma.bluetooth,org.kde.plasma.networkmanagement,org.kd
e.ktp-contactlist,org.kde.kdeconnect,org.kde.plasma.clipboard,org.kde.plasma.bat
tery,org.kde.plasma.keyboardindicator
iconSize=2

Configure fonts in GTK apps to be bigger

sudo su 

echo “#!/bin/sh
# Xsetup - run as root before the login dialog appears

xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr –auto
“ > /etc/sddm/Xsetup

systemctl disable gdm
systemctl enable sddm

Configure the sddm screen to use a dpi of 2. Screen will be real small on my 4K XPS 15.

 vi /etc/sddm.conf

# Uncomment the ServerArguments in the [X11 section and add -dpi 200 to the setting

[X11]
# Path to a script to execute when starting the display server
#DisplayCommand=/etc/sddm/Xsetup

# Path to a script to execute when stopping the display server
#DisplayStopCommand=/etc/sddm/Xstop

# The lowest virtual terminal number that will be used.
#MinimumVT=1

# Arguments passed to the X server invocation
ServerArguments=-nolisten tcp -dpi 200

Open up Systems Settings app to configure screen locking and background.

Chane the screen locking activation as follows:
Configure sddm background to match KDE screensaver with the following commands as root user.

[kurtis@xps15 bin]$ ll /usr/share/backgrounds/kurtis
total 412
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 421347 Aug 28 00:15 kde_plasma_ultimate.jpg

[kurtis@xps15 bin]$ grep ultimate /usr/share/sddm/themes/01-breeze-fedora/theme.conf.user
background=/usr/share/backgrounds/kurtis/kde_plasma_ultimate.jpg

Change background locking screen

Make the Fedora Launcher longer. REF: https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/8rj760/how_can_i_change_the_size_of_the_kde_application/

    To adjust the size of the app launcher you can adjust the values in the qml file. The file you need is FullRepresentation.qml and should be located at: /usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kickoff/contents/ui/

    In my file the lines needing adjustment are lines 34 & 35 and look like this:

    Layout.minimumWidth: units.gridUnit * 26
    Layout.minimumHeight: units.gridUnit * 34
    I have no idea what these values correspond to and a difference of + or - 5 or 10 will make a big difference. Save your changes and logout/login or I believe you can just kill and restart plasma for the changes to take effect. Keep in mind this file sometimes gets overwritten during an update and you'll have to adjust it again so you may want to create a link to it.

Update grub to use same kernel boot parameters that were added when F29 was installed.

sudo vi /etc/defaults/grub
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="$(sed 's, release .*$,,g' /etc/system-release)"
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=true
GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="console"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="resume=UUID=3d433e66-0abf-46b0-a3fc-23da85544f60 rd.luks.uuid=luks-e36392ff-0800-4a7a-9aaa-5562c51182f7 rhgb quiet nouveau.modeset=0 rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau video.use_native_backlight=1 acpi_osi=! acpi_osi=Linuxacpi_osi=\"Windows 2009\""
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

Create a new /boot/grub2/grub.cfg by running the following command:

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

Show only tasks from current desktop in taskbar

Right-button click on a task in the taskbar. Click on "Configure Task Manager..." Scroll down to the bottom of the "Task Manager Settings" dialog. Enable checkbox "Show only tasks from the current desktop" Click the Apply button
reboot and hopefully everything will work.

TIP: Use the following command to restart KDE so you do not have to keep logging out and then back in. I found that doing a logout was the only way to see changes.

    # Use the following for Fedora 29 and earlier
    killall plasmashell && kstart plasmashell
    
    # Use the folloing for Fedora 30 and possibly later.
    killall plasmashell && kstart5 plasmashell
    
    # If kstart5 is not found it can be installed with the following command:
    sudo dnf -y install kstart

kurtis318/F28-NVIDIA-KDE-SDDM-XPS15.MD

Issue

Solution