Kali KDE vm issues

[k13pt0]

I've installed the KDE image on a vm and testing it out, but i have a couple of issues I'd like to see if anyone else has noticed and possibly found a solution for.

Every time I've done a clean install on VMware workstation Pro I get to users that are created by default, couchdb admin and systemd core, next to the root user. Now I've done the install a couple of times and cant seem to see any step during that process that would hint at it being selected to create a user for log in. I would try to recreate this by installing the KDE version on virtualbox but every time I do i get a terminal screen asking to log in and when i do i stay inside the terminal not into the GUI.

Second issue, when running as root i cant seem to be able to use the Dolphin file manager. if i try clicking on it, the gui will never appear and if i try to launch from the terminal, i get an error that says that it can not be used as root, same with Kate. now when i installed linux mint with KDE i can go into terminal as root and launch both of these with no issue. can anyone tell me why that is?

I would really love to finally install Kali on my old laptop as a dual boot and really looking at have it be the KDE version but these issues make me hesitant.

[re4son]

Hi k13pt0,

1. These are service accounts that are automatically created during installation. You can hide them from the login screen by just adding "couchdb,systemd-coredump" to "HideUsers=" in "/etc/sddm.conf". This is what mine looks like:


HideUsers=arpwatch,speech-dispatcher,postgres,couchdb,systemd-coredump

Was that what you were after?


2. Dolphin cannot be run as root as a result of a design decision by the developers:
https://cgit.kde.org/dolphin.git/commit/?id=0bdd8e0b0516555c6233fdc7901e9b417cf89

Some distros ship with old versions or implemented other workarounds.
The KDE developers are working on a polkit route (https://phabricator.kde.org/T6561) to allow temporary elevated privileges but my guess is that it will still have to be launched as unprivileged user.
In the meantime you can use Konquerer as root. Works like a charm.

Hope that helps,
Re4son

[k13pt0]

Hey Re4son,

thank you very much for the reply. i'll try to edit the sddm.conf file to see if that will work for me.

Konqueror does work, i have been reading up the last couple of days on the Dolphin issue. still unsure why the KDE Developers would restrict usage by default rather than allow the end user decide if they want to use Dolphin as root or not.

I take it that i were to use a different file manger it would work without the restrictions,, but i really do like the functionality of Dolphin.