Linux Mint Forums

If you want to install KDE on top of an existing Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon, MATE or Xfce installation you should install these two packages:
mint-meta-kde
plasma-desktop

Mind that KDE has its own suite of default programs for common tasks like file manager, text editor, calculator and so on. By installing KDE on top of an existing Linux Mint installation you'll thus end up with two file managers, two text editors and two calculators in your menu.

In general if you want to try KDE I would instead suggest to download the Linux Mint 18.3 KDE ISO and boot your computer from that to give it a spin. Or load the ISO in VirtualBox so you can try it without affecting your current Linux Mint installation.

If you want to switch to KDE, seeing as it's not trivial to remove installed desktop environments, I would suggest to do a clean install.

If I understand this... there are (will be) no scripts to run. Instead, we would install Mate or Xfce then install these two packages through Synaptic. Correct?

Is one (Mate or Xfce) better than the other as a base?

Will this change - or will there be multiple versions of these packages - when Mint-19 is issued?

THANK YOU for your work on this project.

I'll revisit this for Linux Mint 19. For Linux Mint 18.3 we do of course still have a KDE ISO you can use. The above tutorial is intended for people that want to add KDE to their existing Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon, MATE or Xfce installation.

If the purpose is to be able to use multiple desktop environments at the same time, like KDE and MATE, or KDE and Xfce, it doesn't really matter which you choose. MATE or Xfce both will work fine.

If you intend to install MATE or Xfce and then replace it with KDE, I'd suggest Xfce. That one is easier to uninstall (just removing xfce4* packages goes a long way to removing Xfce while for MATE it is much more complex).

For Mint 19 it doesn'l look like either of those packages exist in the repos.

Xenopeek - Am I correct in thinking that apt install kde-full would pull in everything needed? Is adding the kubuntu backports repo a good idea?

smurphos wrote: ⤴Thu Jul 05, 2018 8:36 am For Mint 19 it doesn'l look like either of those packages exist in the repos.

Xenopeek - Am I correct in thinking that apt install kde-full would pull in everything needed? Is adding the kubuntu backports repo a good idea?

HI
tyvm for info,
The command apt install kde-full work with v19 (Chinnamon, Mate, xfce) and change it in the FULL KDE version (i use only KDE softwares) or no?
All work great? Dimension of all the packages near 1GB?
TY

EDIT:
Only for Mint V19 setup in KDE moved here with new command for Terminal founded on internet:
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=273422

xenopeek wrote: ⤴Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:10 pm I'll revisit this for Linux Mint 19.

I hope you will update your tutorial for 19.x, even though (it seems) I no longer need it myself. Maybe you'll find this thread useful in the process:
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=304515&p=1726099

Regards,
Albert Wik.

I don't get the point of installing KDE on Linux Mint. If successful you literally just transformed Linux Mint into literal Kubuntu LTS. The Mint team does not manage the KDE Plasma desktop at all anymore.

Only do it if you know what you are doing, if you don't know how to remove and reinstall desktops just do a fresh install of Kubuntu.

For KDE enthusiasts:
I'm currently testing the KDE version of Debian Buster and am very happy with it.
The installation is very easy à la Mint and GIMP 2.10.8 is included...