Plasma 6 Panel Configuration

Purpose: Modify Plasma panel/widget configs without trial-and-error pain. When to use: Panel styling, clock fonts, colorizer issues, multi-monitor panel sync.

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Critical: Edit Workflow

Plasmashell overwrites config on exit. Always:

pkill plasmashell
# make edits to config file
nohup plasmashell &>/dev/null &

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Config File

Location: ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc

Format: INI-style with nested sections. File is ~66K tokens - use grep/offset reads.

Structure:

[Containments][PANEL_ID]
lastScreen=SCREEN_NUMBER
plugin=org.kde.panel

[Containments][PANEL_ID][Applets][WIDGET_ID]
plugin=org.kde.plasma.digitalclock

[Containments][PANEL_ID][Applets][WIDGET_ID][Configuration][Appearance]
# widget-specific settings here

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Finding Things

Find	Grep Pattern
All panels	plugin=org.kde.panel
Digital clocks	plugin=org.kde.plasma.digitalclock
Panel Colorizer	plugin=luisbocanegra.panel.colorizer
Screen mapping	lastScreen=
Appearance sections	\[Configuration\]\[Appearance\]

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Digital Clock Font Settings

Under [Containments][PANEL][Applets][CLOCK][Configuration][Appearance]:

Setting	Required Value	Notes
autoFontAndSize	false	CRITICAL - must be false or font settings ignored
fontFamily	e.g. Hack Nerd Font	Font name exactly as system knows it
fontSize	e.g. 9	Integer
boldText	true or false
fontStyleName	e.g. Bold
fontWeight	e.g. 700	400=normal, 700=bold

BAD: Adding font settings without autoFontAndSize=false

fontFamily=Hack Nerd Font
fontSize=9

Result: Settings silently ignored, uses system default.

GOOD: Include the disable flag

autoFontAndSize=false
fontFamily=Hack Nerd Font
fontSize=9
fontStyleName=Bold
fontWeight=700
boldText=true

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Panel Colorizer

Preset Location

~/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/luisbocanegra.panel.colorizer/contents/ui/presets/

Config Location

Under [Containments][PANEL][Applets][COLORIZER][Configuration][General]:

globalSettings={"panel":{"normal":{"enabled":true,...huge JSON...}}}
lastPreset=/path/to/preset

The JSON Blob

globalSettings is a single-line JSON blob (thousands of chars). Key paths:

JSON Path	Purpose	Required for Styling
panel.normal.enabled	Master enable	Must be true
panel.normal.backgroundColor.enabled	Enable bg color	Yes for custom bg
panel.normal.backgroundColor.custom	Hex color	e.g. #000000
panel.normal.backgroundColor.sourceType	Color source	0 = use custom
widgets.normal.foregroundColor.enabled	Enable text color	Yes for custom text
widgets.normal.foregroundColor.custom	Hex color	e.g. #FFFFFF

BAD: Panel colorizer not styling

"panel":{"normal":{"enabled":false,...

Result: All styling silently disabled.

GOOD: Enable the panel styling

"panel":{"normal":{"enabled":true,...

Copying Colorizer Between Panels

1. Find source panel's colorizer widget ID
2. Copy entire globalSettings= line to target
3. Copy lastPreset= line if using presets

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Randy's Current Panel Mapping

Panel ID	Screen	Monitor	Clock Widget	Colorizer Widget
209	2	HP	309	323
273	0	LG	276	321
291	1	ASUS	326	345

Note: Widget IDs are arbitrary. Always grep for plugin names to find current IDs.

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Common Gotchas

Issue	Cause	Fix
Edits not persisting	Plasmashell overwrote on restart	Kill plasmashell BEFORE editing
Font settings ignored	Missing autoFontAndSize=false	Add the flag
Colorizer does nothing	panel.normal.enabled: false in JSON	Set to true
Wrong panel modified	Screen numbers changed	Verify lastScreen values
Can't find widget	Grepping wrong plugin name	Use exact plugin string

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Quick Copy-Paste Templates

Clock with Hack Nerd Font

[Containments][PANEL_ID][Applets][CLOCK_ID][Configuration][Appearance]
autoFontAndSize=false
boldText=true
customDateFormat=ddd, MMM d |
dateDisplayFormat=BesideTime
dateFormat=custom
fontFamily=Hack Nerd Font
fontSize=9
fontStyleName=Bold
fontWeight=700
showLocalTimezone=true
showSeconds=2
use24hFormat=2