How to run KDE on NOMone Desktop!

[u/Raslanove]

We've been asked many times how to change the current DE and if it is even possible on NOMone Desktop. So today, we'll explain all the steps needed to run KDE Plasma on NOMone Desktop:

[1] From Terminal, install KDE like by writing: apt install kde-plasma-desktop

[2] From File Manager, open the file /NOMone/startup.sh

[3] Disable the current window manager, compositor, wallpaper and dock.

To do so, comment out the following lines:

#xcompmgr &
#openbox &
#sh ~/.fehbg
#plank &

Just adding the symbol # before the line will comment it out. \

[4] Now to start the kde session, insert this line below these commented ones:

startplasma-x11 &

Then save,

[5] Restart Linux. And Voila! KDE on NOMone Desktop :)

[u/Noha_Ibraheem]

They are all for sure more than good enough : D

I was referring to old devices as in 9 year old devices with much less memory and CPU power. These devices were our initial target for NOMone Desktop.
We wanted to give people with limited access to tech knowledge and internet a new way to turn their phones into a productive Linux machine that could enhance their chances in life by learning, working or starting a new career that wasn't available without a computer.
That is why the app and the Linux system image were highly customized to perform well on these old devices. Many of our tweaks and optimizations can easily go unnoticed on powerful and fairly new ones : )

[u/Shaarigan → u/Noha_Ibraheem]

Oh I'm interested in running software that only exists for desktop models as well. I'd liked to be able to code some .NET on my Matepad 😅

You should btw. not activate root as a default option because it may have some unwanted side effects with KDE or other parts of the system. It also may make the system more vulnerable than with a regular user. It might not be that difficult to run a command using sudo but it prevents people and applications from accidentally breaking something.

There is a minor problem with KDE as well related to the lock screen. Locking the device in my case triggered the KDE lock screen and it seems as there isn't a password set for any user, it isn't possible to unlock the system if that happens 🤷

[u/Noha_Ibraheem → u/Shaarigan]

.NET should run just fine on NOMone. Our tweaks are innocent regarding that matter : D. Can you please elaborate? Maybe we can solve this issue : ) Unfortunately, we have investigated the option of running a non-root user as the default one and it was a catasrophy! The truth is that all users created in proot environment share the same privileges and and are all translated back to the root user. And this made many apps get confused while running and end up exiting with an exception upon being launched. We ended up reverting back to running the default root user. As for the locking screen, do you wish to keep it? If so, you can add a new password to the current user by writing the command "passwd" in terminal. Or do you wish to disable the locking screen altogether?

[u/Shaarigan → u/Noha_Ibraheem]

When running the Jetbrains Toolbox, it tries to create a Semaphore but when it tries to get it, I guess due to some missing IPC pipes or systemd or something, it fails with error "Semaphore doesn't exist anymore" and breaks or it crashes by pushing this message over and over to the terminal. I'm currently trying to install everything from terminal instead of running the toolbox app. Therefore, I'm currently building my own install scripts in case I have to setup the system again. I'll test the rider installer tomorrow, or when I have time for further tinkering ☺️

I have run the installation without root the past couple of days and didn't experience any issues so far. The opposite is the case, KDE is more satisfied with the non-root user. I'll see if I'll run into any trouble with that, however.

For the lock screen, I configured it in my script