Installing KDE Linux on a VMware Virtual Machine
KDE Linux officially provides .raw disk images for flashing to the USB stick, which is an only official method of installing KDE Linux on your real computer, which you can see here. However, we’ve managed to get our hands on KDE Linux raw image to install this immutable distro on a VMware virtual machine using VMware Workstation 17. How? See below.
Preparation
First, download the .raw image file on your computer from this link. For instance, we’ve used the kde-linux_202507270255.raw file that is built today. After the download is complete, you should see this file on your downloads folder, depending on where you downloaded it.
Now, install QEMU, since it contains a necessary utility to let you convert .raw image files to .vmdk VMware disk file.
This is necessary, because, although it has the same .raw file extension that VMware Workstation can process, the software can’t read .raw files of this kind, because it describes a “raw dump” of a disk containing two partitions: EFI and root, and KDE Linux .raw images don’t contain the VMDK descriptor.
Execute this command, assuming that ~/kde-linux_202507270255.raw is the input file and ~/kde-linux_202507270255.vmdk is the output file:
$ qemu-img convert -f raw -O vmdk ~/kde-linux_202507270255.raw ~/kde-linux_202507270255.vmdk
After that, you should see the resulting .vmdk file in the output directory, just like below:
Now, that can be used in VMware Workstation to install KDE Linux, but we need to verify that everything is working. Let’s create a new virtual machine, but without adding an actual virtual disk that we’ll be installing KDE Linux to.
We’ve made some changes to the default configuration. First, we’ve selected Linux > Other Linux 6.x kernel 64-bit, since KDE Linux uses the latest Linux kernel and is only available in 64-bit UEFI computers. Then, we’ve increased the processor count to use four processors, and racked up the RAM to 8 GB to ensure stability. Finally, we’ve used the existing installation disk that we’ve converted, keeping the existing format.
Before starting the virtual machine, we’ve enabled UEFI booting by navigating to Properties > Options > Advanced > Firmware type and selecting UEFI. Make sure that Secure Boot is disabled by default.
Now, let’s try starting the virtual machine. As soon as we’ve started it up, we’re greeted with this bootloader screen that has three options: KDE Linux, EFI Shell, and Boot Into Firmware Interface.
We allowed it to boot to KDE Linux, and saw this splash screen that has the spinning wheel, along with the KDE logo at the bottom.
This is the booting stage, since it means that all the necessary services will be started automatically prior to starting the KDE desktop environment, which first shows this splash screen.
Then, we’re greeted with the gorgeous KDE Linux desktop environment that introduced us to a welcome screen where we had an option to either install the distro or to try it out.
We’ve closed it, as we were testing the KDE Linux environment, and the boot up was successful, which means that the conversion was successful, too! Look at the gorgeous KDE Plasma 6.5 desktop below:
Installation
Now, let’s shut down the virtual machine and add a virtual disk, which we’re going to use to install KDE Linux on. We’ve opened the virtual machine settings, and added another virtual disk of 200 GB.
After that, we’ve started the virtual machine again and pressed Install System. This took us to the Calamares installer that showed us another welcome screen where we’re given an option to choose a language of our choice.
Afterwards, we’re asked for our location. This is to make location-dependent features, such as time/date synchronization and night light, work properly.
Next, we’re presented with the keyboard layout selection. We’ve chosen to keep everything as default.
Next up was the partitioning stage, where we’re asked to choose which disk to install KDE Linux on. In our case, the default disk was the KDE Linux installation image, which is definitely the source disk, so we’ve changed it to the actual target disk.
Afterwards, we’ve chosen the erase disk option, since nothing was installed.
After that, we’re asked to create a user profile for the new installation of KDE Linux.
The installation process now begins with formatting the disks. After that, the installer copies all the files from the installation disk to the target disk. At this point, this can take a while, and the process may appear “hung”, but it’s actually copying the files with no clear indication as to when the process finishes. Additionally, there is no presentation; just a white screen.
As soon as the process finished, we’re asked to reboot the system. We’ve manually shut down the system, and took off the KDE Linux installation image, since we no longer need that image.
The virtual machine configuration has now become like this:
The first attempt went unsuccessful, since the boot order declared that the target disk is actually at the bottom of the boot sequence. To correct that, we’ve turned the virtual machine on to the firmware, then went to Enter setup. Next, we’ve pressed ENTER on Configure boot options > Change boot order > Change the order, and moved the second hard disk entry up to the top of the list using the arrow down and the plus sign. Finally, we went to Commit changes and exit > Exit the Boot Maintenance Manager > Reset the system.
After that, we saw the KDE lock screen below:
As soon as we’ve logged in to the desktop, we saw the Welcome Center window, welcoming us to the KDE Linux operating system running KDE Plasma.
When we checked for updates afterwards, we saw three below entries.
Finally, we’ve switched the desktop theme and set the color accent to a color that is close to our signature color, and got this awesome gorgeousness:
Looks hot, indeed!
Are you excited for KDE Linux? We are excited, too!
