I've recently been forced into Plasma 5 because some software I use requires Java 8. I was running Debian Jessie and am now into Stretch. Since my settings from KDE 4 apparently did not carry over - I was unexpectedly greeted with a blank screen and generic taskbar after the update - I am now trying to rebuild my workspace.

Here's a screenshot of where I was last week, and where I hope to get back to ASAP: http://imgur.com/a/QJ0U2
I really, really wish I could just go back to 4, but alas the Debian dependency tree doesn't seem to allow that with Java 8.

There are a lot of little things wrong - like the network manager, it connects but does not show that I am connected, so I inadvertently spent many hours trying to fix a network connection that was in fact working. The calender that pops up when I click the time - my single most used widget after systray and xeyes - is enormous, difficult to see, and does not show holidays. And a lot of the scaling seems the be off - there's a lot of weird blank space which doesn't shrink to fit what's on it.

I think the last issue might be just with Oxygen and not with Plasma 5, because the Plastick theme fixes a lot of that. I don't want to use Plastick or Breeze, however because Plastik looks like Windows and Breeze has that disorienting "flat" look to it, so that leaves Oxygen. A lot of the configuration options for Oxygen that I used before seem to be missing, however, so it looks like I need to do some manual configuring or theming.

Is there a nice config file I can use to change how things look (like IceWM has?) Otherwise, as far as I can tell I'll have to make a theme.

After much googling I found this tutorial:
https://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tu ... emeDetails
and I'm good with graphics, so I hope to get to work creating my own theme. However, in the directories mentioned I can't find anything relating to window decorations. "locate plastik" doesn't bring up anything but clipart, so, I could use a good point in the right direction.

Breeze is drawn with a C++ plugin. Plastique too I think but maybe not. The themes on the KDE store with .svg are aurorae themes.

~/.local/share/aurorae/themes/

is where aurorae themes download to. Download a few, and you can edit them.


If you're interested in the source code of the shipped themes, check out:
/usr/share/kwin/aurorae/
/usr/share/kwin/decorations/kwin4_decoration_qml_plastik/
https://github.com/KDE/breeze/tree/master/kdecoration

Thanks for the reply. It seems my installation of plasma 5 did not come with aurora.

Unfortunately I ran into so many issues and missing features that I've decided to stick with KDE 4 as long as possible. I found a workaround for my Java issue (forcing apt to ignore a recommendation for a java browser-integration package. I don't like overcomplicated, Java-dependent webpages anyway.) and was able to migrate back down to Debian Jessie.

Hopefully, by the time I have no other choice, KDE 5 will have fixed it's plethora of problems, I'll find a more configurable desktop, or I'll be able to hack in some of the missing functionality myself.