More than 20 Virtual Desktops?

Support KDE Plasma
1

I have 18 virtual desktops (I do a lot of things in parallel that I work on gradually as well as having certain desktops reserved for system tasks and hardware monitoring) in 3 rows right now which work pretty well, but I would like to add 3 more (to make a new column), but this appears to be impossible because of a hard coded limit.

image

Is it possible to get more than 20 virtual desktops? How can I do this?

HW:

System:
  Host: MidnightStarSign Kernel: 5.12.0-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc 
  v: 10.2.0 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.21.4 Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME X570-PRO v: Rev X.0x 
  serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 3001 
  date: 12/04/2020 
CPU:
  Info: 16-Core model: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3 
  rev: 0 cache: L2: 8 MiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 217685 
  Speed: 3033 MHz min/max: 2200/3400 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 
  1: 3033 2: 2506 3: 3735 4: 3742 5: 3780 6: 3733 7: 3740 8: 4671 9: 2899 
  10: 2885 11: 2594 12: 2491 13: 2514 14: 2527 15: 2565 16: 2639 17: 2559 
  18: 3739 19: 3733 20: 3730 21: 3753 22: 3822 23: 3734 24: 3409 25: 3734 
  26: 4672 27: 2509 28: 2540 29: 2373 30: 2459 31: 3748 32: 3750 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 10 [Radeon RX 5600 OEM/5600 XT / 5700/5700 XT] 
  vendor: ASRock driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus-ID: 0c:00.0 
  Device-2: Microdia USB 2.0 Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo 
  bus-ID: 7-1:2 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: amdgpu,ati 
  unloaded: modesetting,radeon resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz 2: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  3: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (NAVI10 DRM 3.40.0 5.12.0-1-MANJARO 
  LLVM 11.1.0) 
  v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 10 HDMI Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus-ID: 0c:00.1 
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus-ID: 0f:00.4 
  Device-3: JMTek LLC. Plugable USB Audio Device type: USB 
  driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus-ID: 3-1:2 
  Device-4: Schiit Audio Schiit Modi 3+ type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio 
  bus-ID: 3-2:3 
  Device-5: ASUSTek ASUS AI Noise-Cancelling Mic Adapter type: USB 
  driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus-ID: 5-5:3 
  Device-6: Microdia USB 2.0 Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo 
  bus-ID: 7-1:2 
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.12.0-1-MANJARO running: yes 
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 0.125.0 running: no 
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.26 running: yes 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel I211 Gigabit Network vendor: ASUSTeK driver: igb v: kernel 
  port: f000 bus-ID: 06:00.0 
  IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 24:4b:fe:5b:08:2a 
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) type: USB 
  driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-5.3:6 
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: see --recommends 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 7.33 TiB used: 3 TiB (40.9%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WDS100T3X0C-00SJG0 
  size: 931.51 GiB temp: 49 C 
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0 
  size: 931.51 GiB temp: 41 C 
  ID-3: /dev/nvme2n1 vendor: Intel model: SSDPE2KX040T7K size: 3.64 TiB 
  temp: 32 C 
  ID-4: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST2000LM015-2E8174 size: 1.82 TiB 
  ID-5: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Toshiba model: TransMemory size: 14.92 GiB 
  ID-6: /dev/sdc type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Gaming Xbox 360 size: 7.48 GiB 
  ID-7: /dev/sdd type: USB model: N/A size: 29.3 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 767 GiB used: 704.64 GiB (91.9%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/dm-0 
  mapped: luks-466d5812-64c7-4a28-bcc4-a1a5adfa9450 
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 26.1 MiB (5.1%) fs: vfat 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 
  ID-3: /home size: 767 GiB used: 704.64 GiB (91.9%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/dm-0 
  mapped: luks-466d5812-64c7-4a28-bcc4-a1a5adfa9450 
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 64 GiB used: 8.64 GiB (13.5%) 
  dev: /dev/dm-1 mapped: luks-81b2dc57-06f5-4471-b484-77c3a516f307 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 58.0 C mobo: 0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 48.0 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 0 
Info:
  Processes: 934 Uptime: 20h 15m Memory: 62.79 GiB used: 17.82 GiB (28.4%) 
  Init: systemd Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 clang: 11.1.0 Packages: 1955 Shell: Bash 
  v: 5.1.0 inxi: 3.3.04
2

I can´t help but I admire you, I would take too long to find things again! :smiley:

1 Like
3

Simplified with: “1 desktop, 1 purpose” philosophy.

I have 3 monitors as well :smiley:

Due to this, I rarely lose windows. Most have dedicated purposes (Local music player | Browser Music | Browser general | Throwaway (Forge) 1., 2 ,3, 4 | Discord & Signal & Email | 3 Konsole Windows, 1 per monitor | Administration Block where I have my task list, System Monitor for killing tasks, school schedule

Konsoles (MidnightStarSign Command Bridge):

X
X2879Ă—537 597 KB

General Browser (Hyperlight Catapult MkII):

Y
Y2880Ă—538 383 KB

Since this was my first serious desktop build, I decided to make it fun and gave the computer a nice name: MidnightStarSign and give naming assuming it’s a sci-fi spaceship.

The virtual desktops reflect this:

image
image1267Ă—606 24.8 KB

image
image1351Ă—299 13.5 KB

I kind of imagine it something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg7No7SoPUo

image
image1916Ă—1078 404 KB

It’s more fun than GENERIC_DESKTOP_0. Also is interesting when people see MidnightStarSign on the local net. I always get questions about it, since it’s uniqie compared to most other devices which have generic names by default.

2 Likes
4

For that you can make use of Activities. Each Activity can have 20 Virtual Desktops, otherwise you will not get pass that number.

2 Likes
5

Got it, I’ll look into it.

I tend to prefer everything on the virtual desktops though :smiley:

6

You’ll have all that multiplied by how many Activities you will use. Switching Activities can be done via Activity Pager or via Meta+Tab, or to view the Activity Switcher with Meta+Q. You can “Suspend” and Activity too, and have different Power Management settings for each. Some applications do not follow the “Suspend” protocol, but others do, so if at some point the memory is filled up, you can suspend the activity hence the apps with it, and when you activate it again, all gets back as you left it.

2 Likes
7

Sounds great!

Can I have a “static” virtual desktop (like hardware monitoring) that stays the same if I switch activities?

8

You can define that to show on all Activities, yes.

9

Is that this option?
image

And I do that for each desktop that I want remembered?

10

That is a history of applications used in that activity … i think (as they can be isolated).
You create a Window/Application Rule and check to be shown on all Activities by default, or you right click on the window Title bar and set it to show in all activities, right under Move to Desktop …

1 Like
11

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