KDE System Administration

This section provides system administrators who are rolling out new or managing existing KDE deployments in their organization with the information they need to do so effectively.

File System

Configuration File Syntax

KDE configuration files are text-based and consist of groups of key-value pairs. In this section the syntax is explained. Advanced features such as localisation, the use of shell-variables and the lock-down of configuration files in whole or in part is also covered. Useful editor utilities are also covered.

KDE Hierarchy

This article describes how KDE uses the filesystem, where it looks for files and where it stores it files. It also explains how to change these locations. Additionally a brief overview of the defaults used by the major OS Vendors is included.

XDG Hierarchy

Supplementing the KDE filsystem hierarchy, KDE also uses various directories as defined by XDG specifications on freedesktop.org. This article documents which paths are used and for what purposes.

Desktop Sessions

Environment Variables

A variety of environment variables, as documented in this article, are available to influence aspects of the runtime behavior of KDE and KDE applications.

Desktop Startup Sequence

During startup KDE starts the visible desktop components as well as several services that run in the background. This article describes the startup sequence, gives an overview of some of the services started and explains how you can make changes.

Login Manager

The KDE Display Manager (KDM) provides the services commonly associated with a login manager. The first contact your users have with a KDE system is usually KDM's login screen. This section covers the basics of how to setup KDM as well as advanced topics such as remote login, automatic login and more.

User & Group Profiles

Introduction to Kiosk

The Kiosk framework provides a set of features that makes it possible to easily and powerfully define and restrict the capabilities of a KDE environment based on user and group credentials. In addition to an introductory overview, this article covers configuration setting lock down, action and resource restrictions, assigning profiles to users and groups and more.

Kiosk Keys

This document details known global and application specific kiosk keys for action, resource and url restrictions making it a handy reference guide when setting up a Kiosk profile.

Additional Resources

Links to tools, mailing lists and additional documentation relevant to user and group profiles in KDE.

Tools

KioskTool

A graphical application that helps manage KDE Kiosk user and group profiles.

Desktop Sharing

KDE's Desktop Sharing capabilities make it possible to share your desktop with others. Although the uses are numerous, this feature can be of great help for support staff when handling assistance calls from users.

Using KDE Dialogs in Shell Scripts

With KDialog shell scripts can take advantage of a variety of KDE dialogs. This allows you to seamlessly integrate your own custom enhancements in the KDE desktop.