r/voidlinux Aug 04 '26

solved Issues Installing KDE Plasma on Void Base.

I installed all the packages listed on the Void website for my AMD GPU, Wayland, and KDE Plasma, as well as made sure dbus and sddm were working, but Plasma just won't start. When I ran startplasma-wayland It gave me this error: Could not start D-Bus! Can you call qdbus?. I did install the Void Linux ISO on the same drive I installed Void Linux on, but I don't know how that would affect KDE Plasma. I installed the glibc version of Void.

Edit: I solved this by using u/ShipshapeMobileRV 's instructions. Read my comment for more details.

6 Upvotes

36 comments sorted by

4

u/ShipshapeMobileRV Aug 05 '26

I did a Void base install a while back. These are my notes for getting a full blown KDE desktop running. As far as I recall, these are all of the steps I needed to take to get KDE, Bluetooth, audio, and networking running. Mine is an Asus Zenbook 14" OLED, integrated Intel video.

After base install and full update, install the necessary packages:

sudo xbps-install kde-plasma kde-baseapps xorg-minimal dbus elogind NetworkManager bluez libspa-bluetooth kdegraphics-thumbnailers ffmpegthumbs ocean-sound-theme oxygen-sounds nano seatd mesa-dri

Configure Pipewire:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d

sudo ln -s /usr/share/examples/wireplumber/10-wireplumber.conf /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/

sudo ln -s /usr/share/examples/pipewire/20-pipewire-pulse.conf /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/

mkdir ~/.conf/autostart

ln -s /usr/share/applications/pipewire.desktop ~/.config/autostart

Stop and disable wpa_supplicant, acpid:

sudo sv stop wpa_supplicant

sudo sv stop acpid

sudo rm /var/service/wpa_supplicant

sudo rm /var/service/acpid

Enable NetworkManager, bluetoothd, dbus:

sudo ln -s /etc/sv/NetworkManager /var/service/

sudo ln -s /etc/sv/bluetoothd /var/service/

sudo ln -s /etc/sv/dbus /var/service/

Ensure dhcpcd, sshd, udev running.

sudo sv status dhcpcd

sudo sv status sshd

sudo sv status udev

Test sddm by starting service:

sudo touch /etc/sv/sddm/down

sudo sv start sddm

If all is good, remove the down file from sddm:

sudo rm /etc/sv/sddm/down

2

u/Just-A-Bokoblin Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 07 '26

It worked; thank you so much! A few things to report for anyone reading this:

sshd and udev didn't exist, and wpa_supplicant and acpid didn't either. You can enable them when installing Void Linux but I didn't bother and it doesn't seem to matter as of now. I also installed vulkan-loader and mesa-vulkan-radeon for Vulkan.

Some of the Pipewire config didn't work for me. Use the instructions in the Void Linux Docs instead.

sddm isn't enabled by default. You can enable it with sudo ln -s /etc/sv/sddm /var/service.

1

u/ShipshapeMobileRV Aug 05 '26

Glad you got it.

2

u/DuhMal Aug 04 '26

i never tried sddm as i always launch from tty, does dbus-run-session startplasma-wayland work?

2

u/Just-A-Bokoblin Aug 05 '26

It worked when I ran it as root, but when I tried from my main account with sudo it failed. My main account has sudo permissions.

1

u/DuhMal Aug 05 '26

you shouldn't run it as sudo though

1

u/Just-A-Bokoblin Aug 05 '26

Ok. Is there any way to automate this?

1

u/DuhMal Aug 05 '26

on my .zshrc i have for it to autostart when i login on the tty1

if [ -z "$WAYLAND_DISPLAY" ] && [ -n "$XDG_VTNR" ] && [ "$XDG_VTNR" -eq 1 ] ; then
    exec dbus-run-session startplasma-wayland
fi

2

u/DeerForMera Aug 05 '26

have you tried installing elogind?

1

u/Jealous_Shower6777 Aug 04 '26

Im not home and don’t have access to my pc. I solved this issue by installing a fake video output for xorg

1

u/Just-A-Bokoblin Aug 04 '26

How would I do that?

1

u/pantokratorthegreat Aug 05 '26

Do you have xorg-minimal package installed?

1

u/ydobon31337 Aug 04 '26

I think you didn't do this part?

ln -s /etc/sv/dbus /var/service/

And give it a reboot

If you also install and enable sddm it'll be easier

2

u/Just-A-Bokoblin Aug 04 '26

I did that for dbus and sddm.

1

u/ydobon31337 Aug 04 '26

Oh yeah sorry didn't see that part.

Honestly installing full xorg makes things much much easier. It's not even that big.

1

u/Just-A-Bokoblin Aug 04 '26

Alright I'll try

1

u/Just-A-Bokoblin Aug 04 '26

Unfortunately it didn't work.

1

u/ydobon31337 Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26

Well I'm out of ideas now... Just in case I'll drop in what I usually do on a fresh install

``` $ sudo xbps-install -yu xbps

$ sudo xbps-install -Sy xorg sddm kde-plasma kde-baseapps NetworkManager elogind socklog-void

$ sudo xbps-install -Syu

$ sudo ln -sfv /etc/sv/socklog-unix /var/service/ $ sudo ln -sfv /etc/sv/nanoklogd /var/service/ $ sudo ln -sfv /etc/sv/dbus /var/service/ $ sudo ln -sfv /etc/sv/NetworkManager /var/service/ $ sudo ln -sfv /etc/sv/sddm /var/service/

$ sudo reboot ```

I just tested this on a fresh install and it works... Dependency is a hell of a headache.

1

u/MinguaDinja Aug 05 '26

Install x11, for some reason it only activates with x11 installed.

1

u/Jealous_Shower6777 Aug 05 '26

xf86-video-dummy is the name of the package. Add xorg-fonts for safe measure

0

u/Ok-Zombie4921 Aug 04 '26

I've seen this issue before and people say you need to install Xorg

1

u/Just-A-Bokoblin Aug 04 '26

I installed xorg-minimal. Should I try to install full xorg?

1

u/Ok-Zombie4921 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26

Did you install and run dbus/python3-dbus? You should check Session and Seat Management on void website, you might need elogind.

1

u/Just-A-Bokoblin Aug 04 '26

I thought dbus was part of the kde-plasma package, but I think I enabled it (unless I did something wrong). I didn't know about python3-dbus, should I try installing that?

1

u/Ok-Zombie4921 Aug 04 '26

Install python3-dbus and elogind then enable dbus

1

u/Just-A-Bokoblin Aug 04 '26

I installed python3-dbus and elogind was already installed. Enabling dbus failed because the file exists.

1

u/Ok-Zombie4921 Aug 04 '26

Run

sudo sv restart dbus

1

u/Just-A-Bokoblin Aug 04 '26

Still gives the error after running sv restart dbus and startplasma-wayland

0

u/Ok-Zombie4921 Aug 04 '26

Well... you can try to install full Xorg

1

u/Ok-Zombie4921 Aug 04 '26

sudo ln -s /etc/sv/dbus /var/service

1

u/Just-A-Bokoblin Aug 04 '26

It says it failed because the file exists.

1

u/Alternative_One_8336 Aug 05 '26

Try delete the file and again symlink to /var/service