You could either run plasma-desktop through .xinitrc or set KDEWM to xmonad in .xsession. You will have to send plasma-desktop to the float layer. It's best if

You could either run plasma-desktop through .xinitrc or set KDEWM to xmonad in .xsession. You will have to send plasma-desktop to the float layer. It's best if you make xmonad act like an EWMH compatible WM by using the EwmhDesktops [1] log hook and I think the ManageDocks [2] manage hook also played a role. The relevant xmonad.hs changes are: import XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks import XMonad.Hooks.EwmhDesktops managehook = composeAll [ className =? "Plasma-desktop" --> doFloat] defaults = defaultConfig { , manageHook = managehook <+> manageDocks } main = xmonad $ ewmh defaults There are a lot of dialogs that pop up in KDE applications that you'll probably want to add to the float layer. I haven't tried it, but there is this plasmoid [3] that can offer you better integration with xmonad's way of working with workspaces (xmobar/dzen2 style). Good luck! [1]: http://xmonad.org/xmonad-docs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Hooks-EwmhDesktops.html http://xmonad.org/xmonad-docs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Hooks-Ew... [2]: http://xmonad.org/xmonad-docs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Hooks-ManageDocks.html http://xmonad.org/xmonad-docs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Hooks-Ma... [3]: http://gitorious.org/xmonad-log-plasmoid http://gitorious.org/xmonad-log-plasmoid