Help develop KDE Linux

The KDE Linux team always appreciates help developing KDE Linux into the operating system of the future!

• To talk with the KDE Linux developers, use Matrix.
• To propose changes, submit a Merge Request in one of the relevant git repositories.
• To report issues in the KDE Linux operating system itself (i.e. OS design, integration, system services, etc), use invent.kde.org, and ignore the scary red banner at the top of the page.
• To report issues in KDE Plasma or any KDE apps, use bugs.kde.org.
• To get help with something related to KDE Linux, use discuss.kde.org, and tag your post with “kde-linux”.

CI Images

Check the build log for your pipeline. It should mention where the images have been published.

You can also browse the images from here.

Improve Local Build Speed

In order to speed up local builds, create a mkosi.local.conf file in the root of the repository with the following content:

[Content]
Environment=LOCALE_GEN="en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8" # replace with your locale`
Environment=MIRRORS_COUNTRY=us # replace with your country code`
Environment=PARALLEL_DOWNLOADS=50 # if your internet connection is fast

You need to be using the Btrfs storage driver for docker, otherwise this won’t really work.

If your host filesystem uses Btrfs (like KDE Linux), add the following to /etc/docker/daemon.json

{
  "storage-driver": "btrfs"
}

Official docker documentation explaining this can be found here.

If you don’t use Btrfs for your host machine, you can still create a Btrfs volume backed by a file like so:

systemctl stop docker.socket docker.service || true
fallocate -l 64G /store/docker.btrfs
mkfs.btrfs /store/docker.btrfs
[ -d /var/lib/docker ] || mkdir /var/lib/docker
mount /store/docker.btrfs /var/lib/docker
systemctl restart docker.socket docker.service

Then run:

./build_docker.sh --incremental

Building Custom System Images

You can generate custom KDE Linux images to test package integrations or system modifications locally. The build process uses mkosi wrapped in a Docker container.

To include custom packages, add the desired package names to the relevant configuration files (such as the [Packages] section in mkosi.conf or the specific .packages files) before running the build script.

Run the build with:

./build_docker.sh

Once the build finishes successfully, the output will be a .raw image file located in mkosi.output/.

Quick Testing with Virt-Manager

The fastest way to test your changes is to boot the .raw image directly as an existing disk in a Virtual Machine, bypassing the full installation process.

1. Open Virtual Machine Manager and start the New Virtual Machine wizard.
2. Select Import existing disk image and choose your generated .raw file.
3. Allocate at least 4GB of RAM and 2 CPU cores.
4. Important: In the VM configuration, ensure the Firmware is set to UEFI and Secure Boot is disabled.

For a more permanent setup or instructions on using other virtualization tools like VirtualBox or UTM, refer to the Installing in a Virtual Machine guide.

Article contributed by Harald Sitter, and Nate Graham under the CC-BY-4.0 license.