Sal Posted January 5, 2003 Report Share Posted January 5, 2003 One thing I've never been able to figure out is how to change the default desktop after setting it to something else during install? I have one install of 9.0 that was set up to default to Gnome with no KDE installed, then I installed KDE3.1rc5 and now want it to be the default load. I changed it in lilo through MDK Control, also in KDE Control, no difference. I also have a different computer with 8.2 that has the original KDE2.2 installed as default. I later installed KDE3.02 in /opt and all is OK in 3.02 but the computer still defaults into a corrupted version of 2.2. I then log out and back into 3.02 and all is fine. I would like to remove the 2.2 install but I'm afraid to as I can't change the default load and don't know what would happen if I tried to boot and 2.2 was missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated. (I really suck at command line so any help here needs to be very clear). Thanks, Sal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beesea Posted January 5, 2003 Report Share Posted January 5, 2003 edit the /etc/sysconfig/desktop file so the first line reads the window manager you want to use Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest anon Posted January 5, 2003 Report Share Posted January 5, 2003 The gui way is to go to mdk control centre, boot, boot config, bottom right is the option to auto login and choose your d-top manager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sal Posted January 5, 2003 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2003 Thanks guys, but thats not it. Tried the MDK Control thing and the /etc/sysconfig/desktop file is KDE3 DISPLAYMANAGER=kdm This is on the 8.2 box I have access to right now but I've tried MDK Control-Boot Conf. on the 9.0 box also and it still loads Gnome? Thanks for the reply, I'll keep looking, Sal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted January 6, 2003 Report Share Posted January 6, 2003 Are you sure that you loaded kdm when you installed kde? I don't think it will load by default when you load it manually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted January 6, 2003 Report Share Posted January 6, 2003 In 9.0 kdm is part od kdebase...I don't know about 8.2. Have you tried gdm and kde?...just to see if it'll start? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sal Posted January 6, 2003 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2003 kdm-gdm? I'm a little over my head here. Id need some more info to try this. Thanks, Sal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted January 6, 2003 Report Share Posted January 6, 2003 Kde Display Mgr Gnome Display Mgr X Display Manager open a terminal such as konsole, or xterm and type rpm -q gdm or urpmf gdm {bvc9 10:29 PM bvc9}>rpm -q gdm package gdm is not installed {bvc9 10:29 PM bvc9}>rpm -q kdm package kdm is not installed I use xdm from XFree86; {bvc9 10:29 PM bvc9}>urpmf xdm XFree86:/etc/X11/xdm {bvc9 10:29 PM bvc9}>urpmf kdm kdebase:/usr/bin/kdm kdebase:/usr/bin/kdm_config kdebase:/usr/bin/kdm_greet This tells me that kdm is in the kdebase pkg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted January 6, 2003 Report Share Posted January 6, 2003 oh, urpmf finds the files, it doesn't mean it's installed. Use rpm -q kdebase for 9.0 to see if it's installed, but if you're using kde...it is installed. urpmf to find files of rpm -q to see if installed man urpmf man rpm urpmf --help rpm --help man urpmi urpmi --help ect.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sal Posted January 7, 2003 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2003 Problem solved in 8.2! I found the answer posted on the old MDKuser board. What a shame that this wealth of info is going down in a few days and all this archived info will be lost. Deno, can't we do something about this? Isn't there a way to store these archives? Anyway here is the answer that was posted by a user named Sargek last Nov. I think it may also apply to 9.0 "OK, got it! I did two things, but it appears the first actually solved the problem. In my /home/username directory, there is a .desktop file that read DESKTOP=KDE and I changed it to DESKTOP=GNOME. I also renamed the files in /etc/X11/wmsession.d from 01KDE and 2GNOME to 01GNOME and 02KDE. All is well and now my system does the autologin thing with GNOME as the desktop. Thanks again." The answer really is the .desktop file. In my case I just changed it from DESKTOP=KDE to DESKTOP=KDE3 and all was well. Thanks to everyone who tried to help. Sal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest southernguy Posted January 7, 2003 Report Share Posted January 7, 2003 quote from the Docs section "X Tweaks" on mandrakeuser.org: "... start X from the console with startx or via 'autologin' and thus avoid loading a display manager. See the article on Starting X." ok that looks simple enough, on the face of it, but when i run 'free -m' the result is practically the same no matter how i get to my kde desktop. what i want to do is, as it says above, run just X and whatever window manager without a display manager being in the mix at all. how do i do it and how can i test when i have done it to be sure i really have no display manager running but just X and a window manager? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted January 7, 2003 Report Share Posted January 7, 2003 To see if you have a dm running, in a term, su as root and type service -s Mine says "dm is stopped". To turn off the dm ( don't do this while X is running) service dm stop but this is temporary. I make it permanent from mcc>System>Services because it's easier and faster than from the command line, because I'm almost always making many changes and not just one. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe to turn it off permanently; chkconfig dm off {root 10:19 PM bvc9}>chkconfig --helpchkconfig version 1.3.4 - Copyright © 1997-2000 Red Hat, Inc. This may be freely redistributed under the terms of the GNU Public License. usage: chkconfig --list [name] chkconfig --add <name> chkconfig --del <name> chkconfig [--level <levels>] <name> <on|off|reset>) {root 10:21 PM bvc9}> I think you can also do ps auxf to see if a dm is running???? For startx, you need a ~/.xinitrc("~"=/home/your_name). If you don't have one you can copy ~/.xsession renaming to .xinitrc for the easy way. Remove all contents except for #!/bin/bash /usr/bin/startkde You'll also have to boot to init 3. Either change the line in /etc/inittab from id:5:initdefault: to id:3:initdefault: or, go to mcc>Boot>Boot Config, and uncheck that you want the graphical environment to start at boot. If you just want a lighter/faster/less buggy dm so you can autologin, try xdm (part of XFree86). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beesea Posted January 7, 2003 Report Share Posted January 7, 2003 "OK, got it! I did two things, but it appears the first actually solved theproblem. In my /home/username directory, there is a .desktop file that read DESKTOP=KDE and I changed it to DESKTOP=GNOME. I also renamed the files in /etc/X11/wmsession.d from 01KDE and 2GNOME to 01GNOME and 02KDE. All is well and now my system does the autologin thing with GNOME as the desktop. Thanks again." oh yeah, i remember having that problem in 8.2 (you're right, it should apply to 9.0 also). if i remember correctly, all you had to do was delete the .desktop file in you home directory since it overrode the /etc/sysconfig/desktop file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest southernguy Posted January 7, 2003 Report Share Posted January 7, 2003 To see if you have a dm running, in a term, su as root and typeservice -s Mine says "dm is stopped". To turn off the dm ( don't do this while X is running) service dm stop but this is temporary. I make it permanent from mcc>System>Services because it's easier and faster than from the command line, because I'm almost always making many changes and not just one. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe to turn it off permanently; chkconfig dm off {root 10:19 PM bvc9}>chkconfig --helpchkconfig version 1.3.4 - Copyright © 1997-2000 Red Hat, Inc. This may be freely redistributed under the terms of the GNU Public License. usage: chkconfig --list [name] chkconfig --add <name> chkconfig --del <name> chkconfig [--level <levels>] <name> <on|off|reset>) {root 10:21 PM bvc9}> If you just want a lighter/faster/less buggy dm so you can autologin, try xdm (part of XFree86). ok thanks this is exactly everything i needed to know. and i dont want autologin as i am constantly in and out of user and superuser accounts meddling with things lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted January 7, 2003 Report Share Posted January 7, 2003 and i dont want autologin as i am constantly in and out of user and superuser accounts meddling with things lol an easier way to go about this is whenever you want to go into superuser/root just open up a console, su to root, and run any programs you need from the command line. from what i understand this is the safer way to go about doing it. alteast, it's what i do :). plus then i don't have to go jumping around from one account to the other-tho i still don't use auto-login, just doesn't feel safe to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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