XMB PS3 theme for KDE Plasma 6
A PlayStation 3 XMB-style login screen, lock screen and Shut Down screen for KDE Plasma 6, built to feel like one continuous console UI:
- The animated XMB wave, changing colour through the day and in sync with your desktop wallpaper
- A PS3-style user column, clock,
[Tab] Optionspanel and "Restart the system?" Yes/No prompts - Smooth fades between the lock screen, login screen and desktop, across multiple monitors
- Soft PS3-style menu sounds (original, made for this theme)
Just want the wallpaper? Get the live XMB wave on KDE with
./install.sh --wallpaper-only(how), or grab the 4K stills and videos for any OS from the latest release.
Screenshots
| Login screen | Login screen: Options |
|---|---|
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| Lock screen | Lock screen: Options |
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| Restart confirmation | Turn off confirmation |
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| Shut Down screen (Ctrl+Alt+Del) | The XMB wave on the desktop |
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The wave changes colour through the day, like the PS3: each shot shows a different hour.
Menu sounds
Every screen has soft PS3-style menu sounds, original ones made for this theme from plain sine tones (no Sony audio):
| Sound | Plays when |
|---|---|
| open | The login or lock screen appears |
| move | Moving between users or options |
| select | Signing in, unlocking, choosing an option |
| back | Closing a panel, choosing No |
| error | A wrong or empty password |
Use your own sounds: put files named move, select, back, error and open (WAV, or MP3/FLAC/OGG with ffmpeg installed) in the custom-sounds/ folder and run ./install.sh. Any you leave out keep the built-in sound. More on sounds
Don't want any? Install with --no-sounds.
Install
You need KDE Plasma 6 on Wayland and SDDM for the login screen. On Fedora 44+, which uses Plasma Login Manager, add --use-sddm and the installer switches to SDDM for you.
git clone https://github.com/luk3h/xmb-ps3-theme.git
cd xmb-ps3-theme
./install.shRun it as your normal user; it asks for your password when it needs it. No git? Click Code → Download ZIP, extract it, and run ./install.sh from that folder.
For the wave on your desktop too, install the free Shader Wallpaper plugin first: see Wallpaper.
Try before you install: scripts/preview.sh login (close with Ctrl+Q) or scripts/preview.sh lock.
Controls
| Key | Login screen | Lock screen |
|---|---|---|
| Up / Down | Choose a user | Move between you and Other User… |
| Enter | Sign in | Unlock |
| Tab | Options (session, Sleep, Restart, Turn Off) | Options (Sleep, Hibernate, Restart, Turn Off) |
Uninstall
./uninstall.sh
This puts back everything the installer changed: your previous login theme and login manager, the original lock screen, your Global Theme and splash, and the original Shader Wallpaper file.
More
| Page | What's in it |
|---|---|
| Options | Every install option, more than one user on the PC, your own sounds, previews |
| Wallpaper | The wave on your desktop, power use, video and still alternatives |
| How it works | What gets installed where, the lock screen and staying safe, multiple monitors |
Credits & licence
- How it was made: designed, tested and maintained by luk3h, with the code written mostly by Claude (Anthropic's AI). I decided how every screen should look, behave and sound, tested each change on real hardware and in a VM, and tracked down the bugs; Claude wrote most of the QML and scripts. Bug reports and pull requests are welcome.
- XMB wave shader (
shaders/): originally "PS3 Menu effect" by int_45h, who released it freely ("do whatever you want with this shader... if you can leave a comment or something or hit me up, that'd be dope"). Updated as "Ps3 XMB 3.0 Background" by llmciv (dithering, smoother raymarching, anti-aliasing, time-of-day colours). Starfield based on xaot88's, hash function after Dave Hoskins. Converted for Qt 6 with an hourly colour palette for this theme. Seeshaders/README.mdfor the full credits and how to change the wave. Thank you, int_45h and llmciv! If you use this theme, go leave them a comment on Shadertoy. - Menu sounds (
sounds/): original, generated from sine tones for this theme (seesounds/README.md). No Sony audio is used. - Everything else is licensed under the GNU GPL v3 or later (see
LICENSE). The optional wave clock sync changes one line of Shader Wallpaper by @y4my4my4m (GPL-3.0); the original file is kept and restored byuninstall.sh. - Inspired by the PlayStation 3 XMB. This is a fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It contains no Sony logos or assets; "PlayStation" and "PS3" are trademarks of their owners.







