Linux

I recently spent some time tuning the power profiles on my laptop running CachyOS and KDE Plasma. I wanted the three buttons in KDE’s power menu to actually mean something: power-saver should make the laptop quiet and conservative on battery; balanced should behave like the normal default; performance should feel immediate, without secretly keeping power-saving limits enabled. I expected the usual result: power-saver would use the least energy, performance the most, and balanced would sit somewhere in between. ...

I ran into a small but surprisingly annoying problem with the KDE Plasma lock screen and the fingerprint reader on my ThinkPad. After opening the laptop, KDE would show the usual lock screen with the wallpaper and clock. Nothing unusual here. The problem was that the password field wouldn’t appear until I pressed a key or moved the mouse. That also meant the fingerprint reader wasn’t listening yet. So instead of: ...

I use both Russian and English keyboard layouts on my laptop, and usually don’t think about which one is active. Until I unlock the laptop. The KDE Plasma lock screen inherits the last active keyboard layout from the session. So if I was writing something in Russian before closing the lid, I can open the laptop the next morning, put my password in and got locked laptop for a couple of seconds. ...