Install in a Virtual Machine

KDE Linux ships a regular bootable .iso image, available from the download page. You can install it in a virtual machine in largely the same way as any other Linux distribution — create a VM, attach the ISO, boot, run the installer, then reboot from the installed disk. There is only one requirement specific to KDE Linux:

The VM must be set to use UEFI firmware rather than legacy BIOS.

Otherwise, the image will not boot. If it still refuses to boot, also disable Secure Boot in the VM’s UEFI settings.

Each VM app puts the UEFI setting in a different place — here’s where to find it:

Oracle VirtualBox

In the wizard, check the checkbox labeled Enable EFI when setting up the VM Hardware (Or, from a terminal after the fact, run: VBoxManage modifyvm "<vm-name>" --firmware efi).

Virtual Machine Manager (virt-manager)

On the last page of the wizard, check the checkbox labeled Customize configuration before install, then set Overview > Firmware to UEFI before clicking Begin Installation.

QEMU

There is no wizard; you enable UEFI by pointing QEMU at OVMF firmware. Make a writable copy of the variables store and pass both pflash drives:

cp /usr/share/edk2/x64/OVMF_VARS.4m.fd ./OVMF_VARS.4m.fd
qemu-img create -f qcow2 kde-linux.qcow2 20G

qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -m 4G -smp 4 \
  -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly=on,file=/usr/share/edk2/x64/OVMF_CODE.4m.fd \
  -drive if=pflash,format=raw,file=./OVMF_VARS.4m.fd \
  -drive file=kde-linux.qcow2,if=virtio \
  -cdrom kde-linux.iso

Drop the -cdrom line once the install is finished to boot from the disk. The OVMF path differs by host distro: Arch’s edk2-ovmf package puts the files in /usr/share/edk2/x64/, while Debian/Ubuntu use /usr/share/OVMF/.

XCP-ng

Set the VM template to Generic Linux UEFI when creating it; that’s the UEFI toggle.

UTM (macOS)

Choose Emulate, not Virtualize — Apple’s Virtualization framework is incompatible with the KDE Linux image. UTM’s emulated Linux profile boots via UEFI by default; if it does not boot, check that UEFI Boot is enabled in the VM’s QEMU settings.

Post-install steps

If this KDE Linux VM will hold unimportant or ephemeral data, or if the VM itself is already snapshotted or backed up on your host system, consider turning off automatic snapshots.

Article contributed by Nate Graham, Rudolf Psenicnik, and Hadi Chokr under the CC-BY-4.0 license.