Arch Linux

skawzy

Member

Registered: 2025-01-02

Posts: 16

KDE Plasma Themes concerns

Hello there,

I’ve been using Arch Linux for several months now, and I really like it. I found a theme that I like, and I’m using it.

From the Global Themes option, when I try to add a new theme, I see this notification:

"Use caution when accessing user-created content shown here, as it may contain executable code that hasn't been tested by KDE or your distributor for safety, stability, or quality."

After doing some research, I found information that some global themes could potentially delete user or system files. I have installed the CARL theme which I like the most.

Can someone tell me more about this?

1. Under what circumstances can global themes that are not from KDE remove files?

2. What happens if I just install the theme but don’t activate it globally? For example, if I only use parts of the theme, such as some colors, application style, plasma style, or cursor?

3. Is there any solution do customize the KDE default themes with colors I want?

To be honest, I love KDE Plasma because it offers so many customization options, and I prefer it over GNOME or any other desktop environment. However, the Breeze Dark theme feels a bit outdated and not very modern, so I’m not a big fan of it (even though I prefer dark themes).

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,076

Re: KDE Plasma Themes concerns

1. Global themes can contain scripts to configure things to your/the theme authors liking (because you e.g. need to setup panels in a certain way) and as such can potentially run harmful commands, the reason the warning was added is because this actually happened with a theme at some point

2. Probably not much as the scripting part of this is afaik exclusively to the global themes toggle, but you are still trusting 3rd party files in any case.

3. You can do a lot directly from the relevant configuration spots in the settings, anything more in depth you can probably copy paste the relevant files and create a new theme from the base, most of it will be CSS/SVG and similar for styling -- see e.g. https://develop.kde.org/docs/plasma/theme/quickstart/

Last edited by V1del (2025-03-20 17:18:51)