Solus Linux released KDE-6 to the Stable repository on Friday, 29 March 2024. I updated my system on Saturday, 30 March 2024, and I had a few minor issues following the upgrade. After performing the upgrade, I rebooted my computer as suggested in the associated alert posting. After the reboot, all the installed applications on my system seemed to have disappeared, so I started experimenting (and I posted a cry for help in Support).
I opened the Application Launcher menu, and there were no applications or categories listed, but the Search field was still there at the top, so I searched for Firefox, and an option to Run Firefox appeared in the right pane (where applications are typically listed), so I clicked it, and Firefox opened with its icon displayed in the icons-only task manager. I ALT-Clicked it and selected “Pin to Task Manager”, and it worked, so I un-pinned the blanked-out icon that was previously for Firefox. After repeating this procedure for all the apps I keep pinned to the task manager, for some reason I haven’t discovered, all the installed applications re-appeared in the Application Launcher’s menu.
My next action was to switch to a login screen/SDDM theme that’s compatible with KDE-6. I selected the Maldives theme (one of the pre-installed themes), changing the background image to forest-street.png (the default desktop image for KDE on Solus Linux).
The last thing to ‘fix’ was getting rid of the on-screen keyboard in the login screen. After multiple Internet searches, I found a solution that works in a post titled sddm blocks screen with on-screen keyboard in Ubuntu 20.04. Even though the post is for Ubuntu, the solution works in Solus Linux too, so I suspect it will work with almost any distribution.
Following the directions, I opened the file/etc/sddm.conf.d/kde_settings.conf in nano (as a sudoer/administrator), then added the following comments and command as the last item(s) in the General section of the file:
# This disables the on-screen keyboard from popping up when
# Username and Password are being entered at the Login screen.
InputMethod=
I saved my changes, closed Konsole, and rebooted Solus. I was no longer plagued with the on-screen keyboard.
In the hope that this helps others,
Ernie
