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XMB Dashboard

A fullscreen app launcher for KDE Plasma 6, inspired by the PlayStation 3 / PSP XrossMediaBar. Navigable by keyboard, controller, mouse wheel and mouse edges, with the classic wave background, type-to-search and subtle sounds.

Built and tested on Plasma 6.7 / Qt 6.

Features

• XMB-style cross navigation (categories horizontal, apps vertical).

• Animated wave background with monthly colour presets and particles.

• Type anywhere to search (KRunner results).

• Mouse: wheel scrolls apps, screen edges scroll categories, middle-click launches the highlighted app.

• Navigation "tick" sound and an optional ambient background loop (both original, configurable, off by default where relevant); both can be replaced with your own sound files from the settings.

• Lots of tunables in the settings: icon sizes, cross position, scroll feel, wave look, sounds, and which categories to show.

  

Requirements

• KDE Plasma 6 (6.7+ for native controller support), any distribution.
• Qt6 Multimedia QML module, used for the sounds. Most distros ship it with Plasma; if not: qt6-multimedia (Arch/Solus), qml6-module-qtmultimedia (Debian/Ubuntu), qt6-qtmultimedia (Fedora/openSUSE).

Install

Recommended: install the YAMIS monochrome icon theme first (KDE Store, GPL-3.0, by DIRN) and set it in System Settings → Colors & Themes → Icons. XMB Dashboard is designed around its clean adaptive look, and the whole cross stays visually coherent. (Thanks DIRN, awesome set)

From the folder containing metadata.json:

# install
kpackagetool6 --type Plasma/Applet --install .
# update after changes
kpackagetool6 --type Plasma/Applet --upgrade .
# remove
kpackagetool6 --type Plasma/Applet --remove org.kde.plasma.xmbdashboard

Then add it from Add Widgets… and click its panel icon to open the dashboard. For quick iteration during development, plasmoidviewer --applet . (from plasma-sdk) loads straight from source.

Note: the tools/ and po/ folders are development sources only (sound generators, translation files, packaging). They are not part of the installed widget and nothing from them ever runs on your machine.

Usage

The widget is just a panel button: the XMB itself opens as a fullscreen overlay on top of your desktop, and closes with Esc — nothing sits on the desktop permanently.

• Arrows / wheel / screen edges — move between apps and categories.
• Enter or left-click the highlighted app, or middle-click anywhere — launch it.
• Start typing — search; Enter or middle-click runs the top result.
• Esc or click empty space — close.

Configuration

Right-click the widget → Configure. Sections for appearance, behaviour, the mouse category bar, the wave background and colour, particles, sounds, and visible categories. Each section has its own "reset to defaults".

Credits & licence

• The wave background is a Qt/QML port of PlayStation-3-XMB by Mart (linkev), used under its MIT licence. That project in turn credits Alphardex's CodePen prototype and Sony's original XMB design.
• All sounds are original synthesis (see tools/); no PlayStation audio is bundled.
• App data comes from Plasma's own menu model (the same one Kickoff uses).

All the repo is licensed under GPL-3.0 (see the LICENSES/ folder).