Hello Everyone - Need help with KDE5/Plasma5 on Fresh ARCH install

sudohawk · 2015-10-22 00:01:59

Hi guys and gals. I'm relatively new to Linux and even newer to Arch Linux. I've been using Ubuntu for a couple years but only as a 2ndary OS so I'm obviously no expert. I'm not afraid of command lines basically but I dont know everything there is to know about them. I've got a new laptop that I'm setting up to be strictly Linux as a means to force myself to learn more about it. I've got Linux Mint set up as my primary OS on it and it is running great. I've been researching other flavors to try and Arch appeals to me the most, seeing as how my only real gripe with Mint is that it's on an older kernel/packages than what is out there. Furthermore I'd like to give plasma5 a go but dont really want to try on that install as i hear it could be nightmarish.

In any case here are some specs on my setup:

MSI PX60 2QD-034US Laptop
M.2 Samsung Evo850 Primary SSD (sda: linux mint, also houses grub)
I feel I should note linux mint (as well as a few other flavors I've tried) seem to require libata.force=noncq in order to run on this laptop. I have it set for Mint but my arch install thus far boots fine without setting any such parameters other than what arch sets by default.
SataIII Samsung Evo850 2ndry SSD (sdb: arch)
sdb1 1024MiB fat32
sdb2 250GiB ext4
sdb3 remainder (appx 15Gib) swap
Optimus Graphics setup (didnt know prior to purchase that this would be so troublesome w/ different flavors)
Nvidia - GTX 950
Wifi Obviously and Killer LAN

UEFI is present and on I can also enable UEFI w/ CSM which appears to allow me to assign which SSD loads first but as mint w/ grub gets hit first anyways I dont believe this is necessary
Fastboot on
Secureboot off (iirc)

I believe those are all of the "pertinent" specs on my rig but if more info is needed please let me know.

Moving on, I've got arch installed to the point where i have xorg setup and working. That is to say that I can issue startx and i get a graphical screen with 3 command windows and a graphical clock. My issue is that all attempts to install plasma (or plasma-meta - tried both) only result in a black screen coming up. I can usually ctl+alt f2 into a new ttyl command session but despite my best efforts getting past the command prompt and xorg BASIC graphical interface is proving quite difficult. Could you guys help me out in getting this set up right?

Below i've included my install steps as reference in case something was left out or done incorrectly. After getting frustrated with my failed attempt at plasma/kde5 I tried to get gnome installed but while it was downloading I looked around and decided I wouldnt be happy with it. I tried to uninstall the packages but got the impression that things just werent fully uninstalling and rather than risk having a bunch of stuff installed, I redid my Arch install. I was hoping the reinstall would also resolve a reboot issue i was noticing and it seemingly has. All of this is to say that the directions listed below is exactly where I'm at as its now a fresh install with no other gnome/kde/plasma files installed. I'll be looking around for tips (still new to the forum so I havent gone through too many threads yet) but I've done my fair share of looking at the arch wiki install/beginners guide and the link to kde and I'm still a bit lost at this point.

I'm looking forward to being part of the community and hope that jumping into the deep end of the pool with arch proves to be a valuable learning experience.

My install steps thus far:

wifi-menu

select network & provide credentials

ping -c 3 google.com

verify successful pings w/ 0 packet loss

timedatectl set-ntp true

parted /dev/sdb

partition done prior to install

set 1 boot on

quit

mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt

mkdir -p /mnt/boot

mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/boot

nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

copy (ALT + 6) desired mirror
pgup to the top
paste(Ctrl + U)
exit/save(Ctrl + x)
yes (y)
enter

pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel

genfstab -U /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab

arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

nano /etc/locale.gen

uncomment en_US.UTF-8
exit/save(Ctrl + x)
yes (y)
enter

locale-gen

echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf

export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

tzselect

2 for america
49 for US
18 for Mountain
1 for yes

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Zone/SubZone /etc/localtime

hwclock --systohc --utc

mkinitcpio -p linux

boot loader already exists on the other drive so i skipped the grub steps in the beginners guide

pacman -S iw wpa_supplicant dialog

wifi-menu

set up same credentials as before

passwd

enter pw

useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage,power -s /bin/bash username

passwd username

enter pw

pacman -S sudo

EDITOR=nano visudo

uncomment %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

exit

umount -R /mnt

reboot

log into other OS (mint)

sudo update-grub

(successfully identifies Arch on sdb)

reboot

log into arch

sudo wifi-menu

credentials remained but wifi doesnt auto connect

sudo pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-server-utils

4 for nvidia-libgl

sudo pacman -S mesa

sudo pacman -S nvidia

sudo pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

pacman -S xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm

startx

this brings up a graphical interface very basic

exit

Last edited by sudohawk (2015-10-22 03:58:27)

Xyne · 2015-10-22 00:20:13

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I have never installed plasma so I can't help you directly, but I would like to suggest ways to make it easier for others to help you:

Please use a title that reflects the precise technical problem, such as "black screen when installing plasma or plasma-meta". This will better catch the attention of someone who can help.
Use code blocks for command output, file contents and other technical data,
```
like so
```
.
(At least in future posts) jump straight to the technical issue. Even if your post has a friendly demeanor, there is a lot to read through before getting to the actual issue. The first paragraph would be better suited to the "Hello Everyone" thread for example.

How are you installing plasma and running plasma?
What console commands are you using?
Is there any console output when running them in a shell?
Is there anything relevant in the logs (/var/log), e.g. in errors.log or everything.log

sudohawk · 2015-10-22 02:46:11

Thank you for the tips. I've doubled back and updated my thread title to hopefully attract more individuals whom might have knowledge pertaining to my situation. I've also utilized the code blocks in the steps I've taken as suggested and I'll continue to do so going forward.

I had attempted to install plasma by:

sudo pacman -S plasma

sudo pacman -S sddm

enable sddm

start sddm

i know the general consensus is to avoid online tutorials and stick w/ the arch wiki which I tried to follow but after not having luck I had tried the steps above from an online tutorial without luck. I'm not familiar with running things in a shell so I'm not able to answer that and since I performed a fresh install I unfortunately dont have any logs. If i can get confirmation on how to first install KDE5/Plasma5 and all of its necessary counterparts I could take it from there and dive into logs if necessary at that point. Furthermore, I read on some of the tutorials online that Plasma5 is picky on fonts but got tutorials stating to install different font packages. I'm not sure how much truth there is to that but if that is a requisite then please let me know what one I should go for.

Rog131 · 2015-10-22 09:01:58

sudohawk wrote:

...
startx
this brings up a graphical interface very basic

Yes - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc
It will bring, as default, few xterms and a xclock.

To start the KDE plasma desktop try:

startx /usr/bin/startkde

/usr/bin/startkde is part of the plasma-workspace

Rog131 · 2015-10-22 09:11:36

sudohawk wrote:

I had attempted to install plasma by:
sudo pacman -S plasma
sudo pacman -S sddm
enable sddm
start sddm

What was the output of the commands ?
You could save the output with the 'logsave' command:

logsave Example.txt sudo pacman -S plasma

=> Saved output (Example.txt): http://pastebin.com/LwZHtiGT

man logsave:
LOGSAVE(8) System Manager's Manual LOGSAVE(8)
NAME
logsave - save the output of a command in a logfile
SYNOPSIS
logsave [ -asv ] logfile cmd_prog [ ... ]
DESCRIPTION
The logsave program will execute cmd_prog with the specified argument(s), and save a copy of its output
to logfile. If the containing directory for logfile does not exist, logsave will accumulate the output
in memory until it can be written out. A copy of the output will also be written to standard output.
If cmd_prog is a single hyphen ('-'), then instead of executing a program, logsave will take its input
from standard input and save it in logfile
logsave is useful for saving the output of initial boot scripts until the /var partition is mounted, so
the output can be written to /var/log...

Last edited by Rog131 (2015-10-22 09:30:36)

sudohawk · 2015-10-22 15:57:19

I'll give that a try once plasma is reinstalled. Are the steps I took to install kde5/plasma5 sound or is there something I missed?

V1del · 2015-10-22 16:32:05

You are using an optimus laptop, your approach to driver installation is wrong, hence you can't get X to start. Look into the following https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bumblebee and/or https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA_Optimus

If you just want a working setup and bother with bumblebee/optimus later install mesa-libgl and xf86-video-intel and remove nvidia and nvidia-libgl for now

Rog131 · 2015-10-22 17:53:56

sudohawk wrote:

I'll give that a try once plasma is reinstalled. Are the steps I took to install kde5/plasma5 sound or is there something I missed?

The KDE is now divided to the plasma desktop, KDE applications and the KDE frameworks. When you install the plasma desktop you are only installing the desktop not the KDE applications. More of that you will find: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KDE and https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KDE_Packages .

sudohawk · 2015-10-23 03:10:20

I can get x to start by using startx. It produces the very basic graphical interface with 3 text windows and a simple clock. I hadnt looked into bumblebee because I believe i read somewhere that the new nvidia drivers have essentially made using bumblebee a deprecated method. Please correct me if i'm wrong.

If i install plasma alone, shouldnt i still be able to log into the desktop graphically without applications?

V1del · 2015-10-23 06:50:46

installing plasma alone should allow for the desktop to start that's correct, install the kf5 group as well for good measure, I don't know of any work on Nvidia's side that would make bumblebee obsolete and there are many current threads suggesting as much.

But yeah any other advice at this point is mostly guessing, try to use the method described or one of these to get us the requested logs, appending Xorg.0.log to that output will also come a long way

sudohawk · 2015-10-26 14:20:26

Much appreciated guys for the tips. Bumblebee did the trick.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-10-22 00:01:59

Hello Everyone - Need help with KDE5/Plasma5 on Fresh ARCH install

#2 2015-10-22 00:20:13

Re: Hello Everyone - Need help with KDE5/Plasma5 on Fresh ARCH install

#3 2015-10-22 02:46:11

Re: Hello Everyone - Need help with KDE5/Plasma5 on Fresh ARCH install

#4 2015-10-22 09:01:58

Re: Hello Everyone - Need help with KDE5/Plasma5 on Fresh ARCH install

#5 2015-10-22 09:11:36

Re: Hello Everyone - Need help with KDE5/Plasma5 on Fresh ARCH install

#6 2015-10-22 15:57:19

Re: Hello Everyone - Need help with KDE5/Plasma5 on Fresh ARCH install

#7 2015-10-22 16:32:05

Re: Hello Everyone - Need help with KDE5/Plasma5 on Fresh ARCH install

#8 2015-10-22 17:53:56

Re: Hello Everyone - Need help with KDE5/Plasma5 on Fresh ARCH install

#9 2015-10-23 03:10:20

Re: Hello Everyone - Need help with KDE5/Plasma5 on Fresh ARCH install

#10 2015-10-23 06:50:46

Re: Hello Everyone - Need help with KDE5/Plasma5 on Fresh ARCH install

#11 2015-10-26 14:20:26

Re: Hello Everyone - Need help with KDE5/Plasma5 on Fresh ARCH install

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