cobalt_11_launcher
A Windows 11 style application launcher for KDE Plasma 6. It is a personal fork of Menu 11 Next.
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README.md

Cobalt 11 Launcher #

A Windows 11 style application launcher for KDE Plasma 6.

Named after Cobalt, the internal codename for the Windows 11 project.

It is a maintained fork of Menu 11 Next. I brought it up to date with Plasma 6 APIs. I fixed several bugs that made the original silently misbehave under current Plasma versions.

Companion project: Cobalt 11 Theme, a matching Windows 11 style Global Theme. The launcher works with any theme. They are independent.

Features #

  • Search bar with auto-selection of the first result
  • Pinned (favourite) applications
  • Full application list, grouped by category
  • Recent documents
  • Right-click context menu on entries: Add to Desktop, Add to Panel, Pin to Task Manager, Edit Application, Hide Application, Uninstall, jump-list actions, and favourites management
  • User profile, home folder and system settings shortcuts
  • Shutdown / Restart / Sleep / Lock controls
  • Configurable icon sizes, grid dimensions and menu position

Requirements #

  • KDE Plasma 6.0 or newer
  • Qt 6

Installation #

From this repository #

git clone https://tangled.org/shaunguimond.com/cobalt_11_launcher
cd cobalt_11_launcher
kpackagetool6 --type Plasma/Applet --install src/cobalt11

Then restart Plasma:

killall plasmashell && (setsid plasmashell >/dev/null 2>&1 &)

Right-click your panel, choose Add Widgets, and add Cobalt 11.

Upgrading #

kpackagetool6 --type Plasma/Applet --upgrade src/cobalt11

Removing #

kpackagetool6 --type Plasma/Applet --remove cobalt11

Development #

The plasmoid package lives in src/cobalt11/. For live editing, symlink it into Plasma's plasmoid directory. Changes take effect on restart without reinstalling:

ln -s "$PWD/src/cobalt11" ~/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/cobalt11
killall plasmashell && (setsid plasmashell >/dev/null 2>&1 &)

QML errors do not surface in the UI. Watch the journal instead:

journalctl --user -b --since "-5 min" | grep -i cobalt11

Validate syntax before restarting:

qmllint src/cobalt11/contents/ui/*.qml

Detailed notes on architecture, components, and the reasoning behind each fix live in agent/.

What was fixed in this fork #

Area Problem
Settings button Opened the .desktop file in a text editor instead of launching System Settings. Now opens the Quick Settings page via KCMUtils.KCMLauncher.
Right-click menu Did nothing. tools.js threw on activities.runningActivities, renamed to activities in KF6. PlasmaExtras.Menu was removed in Plasma 6.
Clicking inside the popup Clicking empty space, or a category heading, dismissed the launcher.
Icon hover Used a hardcoded colour that ignored the active colour scheme.
Tooltips Used unreadable colours under dark themes.

Each is documented in full, with root cause analysis, under agent/docs/.

Credits and lineage #

Cobalt 11 Launcher stands on a chain of prior work, all GPL-2.0-or-later:

Project Author
KDE Kicker Eike Hein, Aurélien Gâteau, Ivan Čukić
OnzeMenuKDE adhec
Ditto Menu —
Menu 11 Next Eisteed
Cobalt 11 Launcher Shaun Guimond

Original copyright headers have been preserved throughout the source.

Licence #

Released under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later (GPL-2.0-or-later), matching its upstream projects.

See LICENSE for the full text.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.