I don’t want to waste any time with much of an explanation for this solution, except I really like Awesome, a tiling window manager. The only issue is that I prefer the ease of configurations and Kwallet that come with Plasma desktop environment (formerly KDE). Outside of those, I don’t need Plasma.
First, disable systemdBoot:
kwriteconfig5 --file startkderc --group General --key systemdBoot false
You might need to use this instead, depending upon your version of Plasma:
kwriteconfig6 --file startkderc --group General --key systemdBoot false
This forces Plasma to boot with the old scripting system, enabling us to setup a new base script for booting with Awesome window manager instead of Kwin:
kate /usr/local/bin/plasma-awesome.sh
If you’re feeling like a hacker, then replace kate with something like sudo vim, sudo nano, or sudo emacs. I am not a hacker, just a computer user, and kate is nice. Kate will ask for your adminstrator password when you go to save this to it:
#!/bin/sh
export KDEWM=/usr/bin/awesome
/usr/bin/startplasma-x11
Then make it executable:
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/plasma-awesome.sh
Finally, create the desktop file:
kate /usr/share/xsessions/plasma-awesome.desktop
Remember to replace kate with something that soothes your particular issues. Again kate manages authentication for saving this:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=XSession
Exec=/usr/local/bin/plasma-awesome.sh
DesktopNames=AwesomePlasma
Name=AwesomePlasma(X11)
Comment=Plasma&Awesome
Log out or restart and select the new option before log in. Be sure to delete any Plasma panels. Mod4 (super/flag/command)+(number) changes your desktop (called “tag” in Awesome wm). Since the Plasma desktop covers the first tag, I like to use it for my writing activities, with its own peaceful wallpaper and nothing else. Mod4+r grants a nice run prompt, and, as is common for tiling window managers, mod4+enter presents a terminal window. Rest of the shortcuts for Awesome can be found here:
awesome-window-manager-cheatsheet-3-x
These are some nice setups to get started, if you are new to Awesome:
https://github.com/lcpz/awesome-copycats
Thanks go to the Arch wiki authors for their documentation of Plasma:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/KDE#Use_a_different_window_manager
As well, thanks go to the KDE.org tutorials authors, for the following additional alterations to Awesome for better Plasma integration:
https://userbase.kde.org/Tutorials/Using_Other_Window_Managers_with_Plasma
If you have a way of salvaging tag 1, message me on Jami @doctoro.