This Plasma Wayland setup guide follows on from the Debian 12 Install with NVidia Graphics Cards guide. I’m creating this as much as an aide memoir for myself, should I ever wish to rebuild or create a new install. I’d love your recommendations for Plasma setup in the comments too.
How to get Debian to Launch into the Plasma Wayland Desktop Environment using Wayland
When you’re on the login page (sddm) you’ll see some text in the bottom left corner of the screen. This tells you which desktop environment you’ll be logging into. If you click it then you’ll see all the available options (based on the choices you made during the Linux distro installation process).
As you can see Plasma (Wayland) is one of the options. Let’s understand what this actually means a little more.
- Plasma – this is the Desktop Environment which means the look and feel, but also the selection of programs running. Different DEs use different programs to manage things like settings, file access, notes etc.
- Wayland – this is the Windows Manager. Historically this would have been X11, but Wayland is the new kid on the block and is becoming the de facto choice. Some legacy software doesn’t work so well on wayland but most projects are now supporting it. NB: Not to be confused with Weyland Corp the company that owns the Nostromo towing ship captained by Dallas with warrant officer Ripley.
1. Setting up Your Multi-Monitor Rig
The first time you log in you may find that your monitors are all over the place. In my setup I have a main 4k monitor and two 1920×1080 monitors. The situation is further complicated because one of the 1080 monitors is rotated 90 degrees to be portrait oriented. I’ve done this as it works well for live streaming to have OBS and comments on that vertical monitor.
So my goal here is:
- Make sure the layout of the monitors is configured so the mouse can move between them correctly.
- Make sure the resolution of each monitor is correctly set.
- Make sure the correct monitor is assigned as the primary one.
2.1 Setting the layout
Right click on the background and choose “Configure Display Settings…“
As you can see from the window below the out the box layout of Plasma on Wayland is far from ideal. It’s scaled two of the monitors by 175% and they are all arranged in a straight line….
Here is my actual monitors so let’s sort this out right away.
- I’ve set the orientation of the LG Electronics TV to portrait and its scaling to 65%,
- The 4K BenQ monitor is now scaling at 100% (was 175%) and is set to primary.
- The Arzopa monitor is now scaling at 100%.
- The arrangement of the monitors has been correctly set.
2. Preventing Sleep/Suspend/Hibernation
I’m running a desktop machine and I’ve developed the discipline of:
- Lock my screen when I walk away, which is security 101.
- Don’t leave the machine powered on if it doesn’t need to be on, which is saving electricity costs 101.
- Learning how to do a delayed shutdown from the command line, so I can leave it running a task and have it shut down later. Great for uploading videos to Rumble or Youtube etc.
/** Power off in 90 mins */
# shutdown -P +90So my preference is not to have suspending/sleeping etc enabled. Also because such functionality is more for laptops than desktops. So even though in the Debian 12 installation guide I showed you the fix to enable sleep/hibernate etc. Here I’m going to advocate for preventing it. I still think you need the fix in place in case a new user doesn’t disable sleeping.
Go into System Settings > Power Management > Energy Saving:
- uncheck Suspend session
- Hit Apply button
3. Change Global Theme
The default theme is actually quite good. But I prefer a darker setup for several reasons:
- When doing live streaming there’s less bright parts of your screen to cast light and create reflections.
- There’s less blue light being transmitted if you have less white/blue canvas on your setuip.
The steps are really easy:
- Right click on your desktop and select “Enter Edit Mode“.
- You’ll see some buttons appear at the top edge of each screen. Select “Choose Global Theme”
- You’ll get the window shown below and note that Debian Breeze is the default already active theme:
This is all about your own personal choice. I personally will go for “Breeze Dark” and you can experiment and even find new themes by hitting that “Get New Global Themes…” button.
Just note that when applying a theme you have the option to apply two parts:
- The Appearance (Selected by default)
- The desktop and window layout (not selected by default)
4. Change the ALT + TAB (Task Switching) Behaviour
This is just my preference, but having all your windows flash on and off when you alt-tab is very jarring and also makes a mess of a carefully constructed live streaming setup, especially when you’re screen sharing. Out of the box there’s also this large thumbnail display on the left hand side of the primary screen when you are alt-tabbing your way through open applications. I personally find it ugly. The solution is easy.
- Go into System Settings (It’s the slider icon second along bottom left)
- Go to Window Management
- Go to Task Switcher
- Uncheck “Show selected window” to stop the disappearing windows feature.
- Now click on the button bottom right “Get NEw Task Switchers“
- Install the “MediumDefault” by Adhe – just my recommendation.
- Now close the Download New Window Manager Switching Layouts popup window.
- On the “Main” tab under “Visualisation” pull down the list that says “Breeze” and select “MediumDefault“
- Now hit the “Apply” button bottom right. – You are welcome 😉
5. Setup my Favourite Programs and Pin to Task Manager Bar
It’s worth doing this as it will save a load of time and repetition in the future. I have a load of apps I use everyday like GIMP, Kate, Brave, and OBS and so I want quick access to them. If you click on the launcher icon and then find the application you want, you can right click on it and then do two things:
- Add to favourites
- Pin it to task manager
That’s all for now. As I explore Debian Plasma more I’ll add things to this post but for now that’s my goto five things I do when I install Debian 12 with Plasma (Wayland) Desktop Environment. I’d love to hear your recommendations too.
One thing I keep in mind though is I try to stay as close to “Out the Box” as possible. The ultimate goal of this machine is to be a workhorse and deliver on content creation so I try to avoid exotic plugins and themes that may break other things down or upstream.
Is Plasma a Good Transition for MS Windows Escapees?
My final thought on Plasma Wayland is the layout is akin to Windows of old (I know that is a loose approximation) but that means it’s a good choice of DE for someone making the transition from Windows. Personally I’ve not touched windows in over 10 years and will never use it unless there’s a business reason. I don’t think Mr Gates stock portfolio needs any more of our money or support IMHO.