I've got a really strange problem with my Xserver. My xinitrc file (in directory /etc/X11/xinit) contains the line startkde. I don't have a .xinitrc file in my home dir so X should use the default xinitrc file. This system (Debian testing) is running since March and it always used to start KDE (I'm using xdm by the way). I updated my system yesterday (apt-get upgrade) and all of a sudden Gnome starts when I log in. My xinitrc hasn't changed. It still contains the line 'startkde' and not 'gnome-session'.

It's really weird and I don't understand what's going on. Can somebody help me with this problem?

If you are using xdm, you should start from your ~/.xsession

Example:

#!/bin/sh
xhost +localhost

exec icewm
#exec openbox

Have you checked your inittab the line where it specifies what to run at level 5:

# Run xdm in runlevel 5
x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/xdm -nodaemon

Good luck

Wrexy

Hehe. Give this a shot. As root:

update-alternatives --config x-window-manager
update-alternatives --config x-session-manager

and select what you want from the lists.

When a new window manager or desktop environment is installed or updated in Debian, I believe it automatically sets itself as the new default.

Good tip! it works, i tried it (i try everything)

thanks

Great, it worked.

One thing I want to know. Is this a Debian feature (the x-window-manager and x-session-manager files in /usr/bin) or do all distributions work like this ???

Thanks for the help.

Update-alternatives is Debian specific. See "man update-alternatives" for more info. There's also a GUI frontend "galternatives", which you can install if you want to.

good to know, thanks, DP.