Fresh Fedora KDE install - missing cog / gear icon on login screen to change from Wayland to X11 Plasma

Ask Fedora
, , ,
1

I’ve just installed Fedora 40 KDE.

Here are my system info copied from the fedora system info:
Operating System: Fedora Linux 40
KDE Plasma Version: 6.2.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.7.0
Qt Version: 6.7.2
Kernel Version: 6.11.3-200.fc40.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 4 × Intel® Core™ i5-3210M CPU @ 2.50GHz
Memory: 3.4 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 4000
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 3259KNG
System Version: ThinkPad Edge E530

I also have a NVIDIA GeForce GT635M for which, a couple of members here on Fedora discussion page helped me to determine, I will have to install some legacy drivers from RPM Fusion.
And since these drivesr apparently aren’t supported on Wayland, I was advised to use Xorg graphical display (sorry if I’m getting some terms mixed up…)

In order to do so (start using the OS in Xorg mode), I think I have to choose the X11 Plasma graphical display on system startup?

Bu the cog / gear icon is nowhere to be found on my startup screen.

Any ideas what might have caused this after a fresh install? And if there is a solution for it?

2

You can make the X11 option available by installing plasma-workspace-x11.

For why it was not included see here - Changes/KDE Plasma 6 - Fedora Project Wiki

3

Note that the legacy NVIDIA drivers are all now EOL and you will need to use the included OSS nouveau drivers for that particular hardware. And Wayland is supported on Nouveau.

2 Likes
4

As already mentioned you can use nouveau to continue to use wayland with that GPU. One drawback is that there will be no hardware acceleration for the graphics and the CPU will be tasked with performing the graphics rendering.

If you choose to use the nvidia drivers which does enable the hardware acceleration for the nvidia GPU you must install the legacy drivers from the rpmfusion-nonfree repo and the version of the driver required for that GPU is the 390xx driver. When using the nvidia driver (390xx) it does not support wayland so only the xorg DE can be used.

The nvidia repo can be enabled as shown at Configuration - RPM Fusion and the drivers installed per instructions at Howto/NVIDIA - RPM Fusion.
Note, however, that per the nvidia site you must use the 390xx driver instead of the driver shown at rpmfusion for the 600 series cards.