How do I run 2 KDEs?

[kde-head]

I''m about to build KDE 3.2 with Konstruct, and the notes are quite detailed , but involve booting to level 3 (console), setting some environment variables for KDE 3.2 and doing /usr/bin/startkde

 

How can I add KDE 3.2 option on the Mandrake login screen , as an additional WindowManager, as I would rather keep my 3.1.4 Texstar enhanced KDE whilst I try out KDE 3.2

[bvc]

I'm guessing it'll either install to the users $HOME or /opt, or /opt/kde-3.2 or somehting and basically if you look in /etc/X11/wmsession.d at your current KDE file, you should be able to copy it, changing it's name, and change the paths the the kde-3.2 install. Done.

[cardassianscot]

First of all you need to choose a different install directory from the default. I suggest /opt/kde3.2 or something similar but its up to you. Konstruct explains how to do this. You also might want to specify a different directory to store your config files to keep KDE3.2 settings different to KDE3.1 but its up to you.

 

Now, as with lots of things in Linux there are two ways of doing this, the proper way and a dirty hack.

 

For the proper way look at this thread which tells you how to do it for GNOME, remember to call your file KDE3.2 or something similar to differentiate from your other KDE.

 

Now I just discovered this thread it wasn't available when I did it, so I came up with a dirty hack that works instead. So if this doesn't work for you then you need to edit /etc/X11/Xsession . Find the bit that says

if [ -n "$DESKTOP" ]; then
   case $DESKTOP in
  	 failsafe)
       xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr
type -p rxvt > /dev/null >& 2 && exec $SSH_AGENT rxvt -geometry 80x24-0-0
type -p xterm > /dev/null >& 2 && exec $SSH_AGENT xterm -geometry 80x24-0-0
type -p xvt > /dev/null >& 2 && exec $SSH_AGENT xvt
type -p twm > /dev/null >& 2 && exec $SSH_AGENT twm
;;
default)
;;
*)
exec $SSH_AGENT /bin/sh -c "$(/usr/sbin/chksession -x=$DESKTOP)"
;;
   esac
fi

 

and add the following lines above

default)

 

	KDE3.2)
       exec /opt/KDE3.2/usr/bin/startkde
      ;;

 

or whatever the path is to your startkde file for KDE3.2.

 

There is however a problem with my way of running KDE3.2 and I suspect it will probably crop up with the other method as well, although I could be wrong. The path setting is wrong and thus when launching items from the K menu it launches the KDE3.1 versions. The Konstruct readme explains how to set the correct path but I can't get this to work outside a terminal. I added the path statements to startkde but it won't stay fixed. The only way I could get it working was to open a terminal, set the path and launch programs from there. Not ideal, hope someone else can help you here.