So, I installed Fedora workstation but did not like the desktop, so I installed KDE Plasma. But I had the issue that many videos would not play. There were also some other bugs. However, when I switched back to the standard desktop everything worked, even the videos.
Now my question is, could this be related to some error in the installation of KDE, or is it just that Fedora with KDE does not work well on my hardware? I have had the thought of installing the KDE edition directly from ISO, but I don´t really see why it would be any difference. If you have the standard edition and install KDE, don´t you have effectively the same system as the KDE edition? Should I try some other DE instead?
Did you install additional codecs from the Fedora repos and the RPM Fusion repo multimedia codecs?
Welcome to KDE.
If you install Fedora Workstation with GNOME and then install KDE on top of it, you have a system full of bloat from two desktop environments. I personally install Fedora KDE from the everything netinstall iso image with a minimal software group selection (installing only Firefox web browser and LibreOffice as additional groups) and then install what QT/KDE apps I want manually. Otherwise a default install tends to have a lot of crud I don’t need or use. Even with my minimal KDE install I still remove a lot of preinstalled software because I don’t use it.
Installing KDE from a freshly installed Workstation probably updated packages.
You might see details of what changed with the dnf5 history list (see man def-history for usage details), but when you encounter bugs it helps to install updates:
some bugs may have been fixed, and
it is easier for others to help if they can reproduce the versions of the packages involved.
Choice of DE is mostly a matter of personal preference. I advise sticking with Gnome because it has more users so more chances someone will find and report bugs before you encounter them. If you find annoyances in Gnome, you can ask how KDE deals with them.
Yes, I have installed the media codecs exactly like the Internet says. It still does not work. So you say it could work better if you install the KDE version from the start? Maybe I try that when I get home today.
Before doing another install, you should attempt to provide enough detail for us to understand what doesn’t work and suggest fixes. Even if you decide to reinstall, this may help others avoid the same problem(s). You may be able to find those details using journalctl: see: https://linuxhandbook.com/journalctl-command/ if you are not familiar with journalctl.
How did you do install KDE Plasma? Depending on what you did, you may have a different set of applications installed.
How did you try to play the videos? In which video player application? Was there a difference between videos that you could play and ones that wouldn’t play?
Are you looking for help with these bugs? If yes, you will have to provide some more details.
Hardware could be an issue if you tried to play a video with a modern codec like AV1 on an older machine without hardware decoding for it. And I have seen a lot of issues people have with Nvidia cards.
But without more information about the problems you experienced and your hardware, trying to answer that is pure speculation.
That very much depends on how you installed KDE Plasma, that’s why I asked that at the beginning. I usually install the kde-desktop group, which only contains the base KDE Plasma packages. This way, I can add other things that I want and leave out things that I don’t need. The KDE edition, AFAIK, installs the kde-desktop-environment, which provides a much more complete experience (and also includes kde-desktop).
IMO, Gnome and KDE offer the most complete and polished experience. Other DEs have their own strengths and weaknesses but if you are struggling with KDE, I don’t think another DE will be the solution.
Well, I made a fresh install of the KDE version but the problems with videos remained. Now I have reinstalled the standard version and the multimedia codecs, and it works again.
Like others here I don’t understand what the problem is.
In Fedora, both Gnome and KDE versions, you play videos in two ways, either from a Web site with Firefox or both from a Web site or from a file on your disk with a media player.
If you install RPM Fusion codecs you should be fine with Firefox, regardless the Desktop Environment.
About the media player, it depends. Whatever issue there can be, it can be worked around by installing a different media player (making sure it is not based on the same technology as the other one).
Some video formats like mp4 have not played. Likewise videos in certain sites have not played. This is the same as in every desktop before you install the media codecs. For some reason, with KDE the system does not seem to recognize them.
However I have tested the Cinnamon desktop and this issue does not appear, so I think I will use it from now on.
There could be a bug in Fedora KDE I am not aware of but as general rule the “desktop” DOES NOT PLAY VIDEOS.
It is either the browser (default, Firefox) or a local program like a media player, in Fedora Gnome you get “Video” that was named “Totem” before, I don’t remember the KDE default, there are several media players, I guess the most popular is VLC.
If you open Firefox - help - more info you should be able to see what video formats can be played and in which way (software - hardware accelerated).
Of course to play videos regardless you need the GPU drivers installed and the proper codecs. In Fedora you get “patent free” codecs by default and you need RPM Fusion for “non-free” ones. Same goes for drivers, BTW.