The day has come: Plasma 5 packages are now in [extra]! KDE 4 users that don't plan to switch to Plasma 5 can stop reading here. This doesn't affect you in any way! The packages are /usr prefixed and the only two conflicts are: kdebase- workspace and kdebase-kdepasswd. In truth, there are also baloo and kactivities4, but they can be safetly replaced with the -framework version. If you install Plasma 5 you will not be able to switch from KDE 4 to Plasma 5 just by logging out from your X session, but the good news is that you can run any KDE 4 application over Plasma 5 because there are very few (or almost none) that really require kdebase-workspace to work. I also invite you to report on your bug tracker any package that has a dependence on kdebase-workspace but that can also run without it (e.g. kdevelop - which is fixed now). To install Plasma 5 you can use the old plasma-next group that I made months ago with just kwin and oxygen. This group will be probably renamed to plasma5 or just as 'plasma' with the next Plasma update (sorry for the wordgame :). If you install the packages from AUR, I suggest you to remove it completely first and then install the packages from [extra] this way: # pacman -Rscn plasma-desktop # pacman -S plasma-next *Note*: Plasma 5 doesn't ship a DM anymore and since KDM is included into kdebase-workspace this means that you also have to choice a new DM. I personally suggest sddm which is also in [community] now. And now just few words more: I've no more time as I had before to contribute to Arch, and I want to let you know that all this work has been possible mainly thanks to a member of our community: Antonio Rojas (arojas). This man has reported me a lot of suggestions on how to handle the conflicts between KDE 4 and KDE Frameworks/Plasma 5 and he has made the skeleton for the official packages. Antonio, a very huge thank you from me!!! -- Andrea Arch Linux Developer