PineBook Pro with Nordic style [how-to]

Today I am going to show you how to make KDE Plasma with Nordic style. I will be doing this on PineBook Pro with Manjaro ARM installed. Let’s get started.

Initial setup

1. First open Plasma system settings and go to Desktop Effects. Enable following effects: Sheet, Dim Inactive, Dim Screen for Administrator Mode and Slide Back. Then choose get new desktop effects, install Maximize effects and enable Maximize and Scale effects. Apply those first steps to Nordic style.

2. Go to Screen Edges and choose the right-middle one, enable it. In Virtual Desktops minimize rows to only one, and add 2 new Virtual Desktops.

3. Select Window Behavior and then Advanced. Window placement should be centered and disable allowing apps to remember the positions of their own windows. Edit Task Switcher so that it did not show selected windows, and enable the Include “Show Desktop” icon.

4. Enter KWin Scripts and get following scripts: Force Blur, Latte Window Colors and Activate Latte Launcher Menu. Enable those three.

5. Go to Compositor, set Scale method to smooth and Rendering backend to OpenGL 3.1. Close system settings.

Configuring Nordic Theme

6. Enter this page and download zip file, do the same with this one and this one too.

7. Open Dolphin and go to the Downloads folder, split the app in two. On the left side extract all your files into subfolders and enable showing hidden files. On the right side go to /home/”your-username”/.local/share and create a new folder named aurorae and enter it. On the left side enter Nordic Master, kde and then aurorae folder. On the right side create a new folder named themes, enter it. From the left side copy the Nordic folder to the right side.

On the left side leave the aurorae folder. On the right side step back to the share folder. From the left side copy the colorschemes folder to the right side, and rename it color-schemes. On the right side enter plasma folder and create a new folder named look-and-feel, enter it. From the left side copy the look-and-feel folder to the right side and rename it Nordic, then step back to the plasma folder and create a new one named desktoptheme.

On the left side step back to the Downloads folder and copy Nordic-kde-master folder to the right side and rename it Nordic. On the right side step back to your user folder and enter .config. From the left side copy kvantum to the right side and rename it Kvantum. Close Dolphin.

8. Open Konsole and install Kvantum Manager.

sudo pacman -Sy kvantum-qt5

9. Open Dolphin and enter /home/”your-username”/Downloads/KDE_Wow_Factor_Nordic. Copy Fonts folder and paste it in the user folder, rename it .fonts.

10. Go to this site and download file named Nordic-Folders.tar.xz, then go to this site and download file named Nordic-Darker-mod.tar.xz, and go to another site and download archived file named Zafiro-icons.tar.xz (the one at the top of archived files). Extract them into subfolders.

11. Again split Dolphin in two. On the right side enter /home/”your-username”/.local/share and create folder named icons, enter it. From left side copy 2 folders named Nordic-Darker and Zafiro-Icons to the right side. On the left side enter Nordic-Folders, copy folder named Nordic to the right side. Close left part of the screen, split again. On the left side enter Nordic and open file named index.theme. Delete the line number 4, and paste the following text there.

Inherits=Nordic-Darker,Nordic-Darker,breeze-dark,ubuntu-mono-dark,Mint-X,elementary,gnome,hicolor

Applying Nordic Theme

12. Open system settings and change Global Theme to Nordic, set Application Style to kvantum-dark and click Configure Gnome/GTK Application Style. Get new Gnome/GTK Application Application Style named Nordic (file named Nordic-v40.tar.xz). Refresh app and as GTK theme the Nordic-v40.

13. Go to Fonts and select Adjust All Fonts, as font select Roboto. Change the fixed width font to Iosevka Term.

14. In icons select Nordic. Then choose Breeze Light cursors. As Splash Screen select Nordic.

15. Open Kvantum Manager. Click on Change/Delete Theme and then on the down arrow to be able to select Nordic. Click on Use this theme and Quit.

16. Go to /home/”your-username”/Downloads/KDE_Wow_Factor_Nordic and copy Wallpapers folder to the Pictures folder. Right click on the clear screen and select Configure Desktop and Wallpaper. Add pictures from the Wallpapers folder and select the one that you like most.

Installing and Configuring Plasma Widgets

17. Go to /home/”your-username”/Downloads/KDE_Wow_Factor_Nordic/plasmoids copy everything there except com.pajuelo.plasmaConfSaver folder to /home/”your-username”/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids.

18. Open Konsole and type following lines one by one to the app.

cd Downloads
git clone https://github.com/wsdfhjxc/virtual-desktop-bar.git
cd virtual-desktop-bar
./scripts/install-dependencies-arch.sh
./scripts/install-applet.sh

19. Install this packages.

sudo pacman -Sy qt5-websockets python-docopt python-numpy python-pyaudio python-cffi python-websockets

20. Add to your plasma following widgets: AlbumArt, NowPlaying and Panon. Put AlbumArt and NowPlaying in one line and Panon under them. In Panon settings change gravity to south, in Visual Effects add new effect named rbn42-bar and select it. Click on Back-end and set back-end to PulseAudio and set input device to the one that you prefer. Change colors like this:

Hue from 1
Hue to 1
Saturation 10
Lightness 100

Hide Panon’s background.

Installing and configuring Latte-Dock

21. Open Pamac and install Latte.

22. Enter this site and download a file named Frosty.layout.latte.

23. Right click on the bottom dock and click edit panel. Grab the dock by Screen Edge button and glide it to the top of the screen.

24. Launch the Latte app. Right click on a new bottom dock and select layouts, then click edit layout. Choose import button and select the freshly installed Frosty.layout.latte file. Remove the top panel. Again in the Latte settings click switch button.

25. You might noticed that menu in left corner is not working properly, actually it isn’t working at all. There is only one package to install to make it all right. Open Pamac and install kdeplasma-addons. Restart Latte Dock.

Configuring Lock and Login Screen

26. Open system settings and search for SDDM. Click get new SDDM and install Nordic sddm. Refresh app and choose Nordic as your SDDM. Synchronize your settings.

27. Edit Screen Locking. Click Configure button and choose the wallpaper that you chose for the main screen.

Inspired by Linux Scoop.