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noconnorandClaude Opus 5 2919012206 coder/desktop: KDE Plasma instead of XFCE

Add image/Dockerfile (published as
git.nic-oconnor.com/public/coder-desktop-kde:noble): enterprise-desktop
noble plus KDE Plasma and KasmVNC 1.5.0, baked in so starts skip apt.
It carries three fixes found testing in the cluster:

- kwin-x11 installed explicitly (only a Recommends; without it Plasma
  runs with no window manager),
- startkde -> startplasma-x11 symlink, since KasmVNC's -select-de kde
  checks for startkde and Plasma 5.20+ renamed it,
- KWin compositing off by default (no GPU; it only adds VNC lag).

The template now uses that image with desktop_environment = "kde" and
pulls Always, and drops the XFCE .xsessionrc seeding.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-09-18 15:02:27 -04:00

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coder/desktop — Coder desktop template

A Coder template for https://coder.nic-oconnor.com: a KDE Plasma desktop in the browser (the KasmVNC module) running as a pod on the homelab Kubernetes cluster, set up from this repo by the dotfiles module.

Push / update

coder login https://coder.nic-oconnor.com
coder templates push desktop -d coder/desktop -y

The in-cluster provisioner uses the coder service account, whose workspace Role is bound in the coder namespace — which is where workspaces go.

The image

image/Dockerfile builds git.nic-oconnor.com/public/coder-desktop-kde:noble: codercom/enterprise-desktop:ubuntu-noble plus KDE Plasma (with Dolphin, Konsole, Kate) and KasmVNC. Both are baked in because only /home/coder is persisted, so installing them at start time would cost minutes on every start. The package is public on Gitea, so the cluster pulls it without a secret. Rebuild after changing the Dockerfile:

docker build -t git.nic-oconnor.com/public/coder-desktop-kde:noble coder/desktop/image
docker push git.nic-oconnor.com/public/coder-desktop-kde:noble

The pod pulls with Always, so workspaces pick the new image up on their next start.

Workarounds the Dockerfile carries:

kwin-x11 is installed explicitly. It is only a Recommends of kde-plasma-desktop, and without it Plasma starts with no window manager.
/usr/local/bin/startkde -> startplasma-x11. KasmVNC's -select-de kde (what the module runs) checks for startkde, which Plasma 5.20+ renamed, and otherwise fails with "Desktop Environment not installed".
KWin compositing is off in /etc/xdg/kwinrc: there is no GPU, and software compositing over VNC only adds lag. Turn it back on in System Settings if you want it.

What a workspace gets

The image above, running as the coder user (uid 1000) with passwordless sudo.
A PVC (truenas-iscsi, default 30 GiB) at /home/coder. Everything the dotfiles install into $HOME survives stops, and so do the Plasma settings. System packages the dotfiles add (zsh, the docker CLI) are reinstalled on each start.
The KasmVNC app, path-based (subdomain = false) because the deployment has no wildcard access URL.
A "Dotfiles" startup script: clones this repo into ~/.config/coderv2/dotfiles and runs bootstrap.sh (log: ~/.dotfiles.log), plus a "Refresh Dotfiles" button. The first run takes about 5 minutes.
Pod requests 0.5 CPU / 1 GiB; the CPU and memory parameters set limits (the nodes are ~4 CPU / ~5 GiB and mostly requested already).

1Password secrets

bootstrap's secrets/ module needs OP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN when there is no TTY. Paste it into the 1Password service-account token parameter when you create the workspace. It is ephemeral: used for that build only, then ~/.config/dotfiles/op.env on the home volume carries it. Leave it empty and bootstrap still applies everything else; secrets, mcp-config and hermes are reported as not completed. Fix that later from a workspace terminal with ~/.config/coderv2/dotfiles/secrets/install.sh, then refresh the dotfiles.

Why noble

The enterprise-desktop:ubuntu tag is now 26.04 (resolute), and KasmVNC publishes no resolute package. The image is pinned to noble with KasmVNC 1.5.0; revisit once KasmVNC ships a resolute .deb, and keep kasm_version in main.tf in step with KASMVNC_VERSION.

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