Add or Override Content in /usr

In KDE Linux, /usr is read-only; you cannot modify the contents.

However, you can set up an overlay on top of it, and then files you add to this overlay will override files with the same name and location in /usr. To do this, we will use a tool called “Systemd Extensions”, or “sysext” for short.

Run the following setup script to set one up:

set-up-systemd-extension

After it completes, confirm that the sysext works:

# Verify that it got enabled
systemd-sysext

# Create a dummy file in the sysext
echo "It worked" > ~/kde/usr/foo

# Refresh the sysext so the system sees the change
sudo systemd-sysext refresh

# Make sure it appeared in /usr as expected
cat /usr/foo

Disabling the sysext is easy too:

sudo systemd-sysext unmerge

Add or Override Content in /usr

See also