Execute applications

This document describes the necessary environment variables and steps for running and debugging applications in Plasma Mobile.

It is not necessary for end-users to set these. Applications can be executed from the drawer easily, however this may be useful for some development cases.

Environment Setup

In order to run applications on the device, you need to set up your environment similar to the environment in which the plasmashell is running:

export $(cat /proc/$(pidof plasmashell)/environ | tr '\0' '\n')

In case the plasmashell isn't running, you can use this environment setup as a replacement:

export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland
export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=KDE
export QT_WAYLAND_DISABLE_WINDOWDECORATION=1
export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=KDE
export KSCREEN_BACKEND=QScreen
export KDE_FULL_SESSION=1
export KDE_SESSION_VERSION=5

Manually starting the Plasma shell (or applications)

If you want to run the Plasma phone shell, do:

export $(dbus-launch)
exec /usr/bin/plasmashell -p org.kde.plasma.phoneshell

Forcing an UI type per-application

If you'd like to force an application to launch with its desktop user interface (if it offers one) rather than the mobile one, do:

QT_QUICK_CONTROLS_MOBILE=false $program_to_run

The inverse also works; If you wish to run an application on a desktop system with its mobile interface, simply set the above variable to true instead.