Okay.....so not-so nix newb decides to finally get around to learning some random GUI instead of sticking old school style to my lovely command shell. Fresh install of Slackware 8.0, figured out configuration for xf86 and got KDE running mostly the way I want it, with one exception. I changed the default runlevel to 4 (the appropriate level to load XDM on Slack), and got XDM to load and prompt for u/p.

Now the fun part....no matter what type of session I select at the login prompt, the x server loads Twm, slack's default window manager. It's an interesting problem, or not....but an annoying one at that. I've tried editing the .xinitrc, but cannot find the problem. The .xinitrc ends with the line "startkde" and doesn't mentioned anything else about a window manager.

Any input would be appreciated.


DarkKnight

actually the .xinitrc is just a link to other files to load the default window manager..

if you take a look in your /etc/X11/xinit directory, you'll fine many other files that start out with xinitrc.whatever... those are the actual xinit files.

easiest way to set your default window manager is first just delete your xinitrc in that directory.. you'll notice that its just a link by the way..
then just do a ln -s xinitrc.whatever-wm-u-want xinitrc

and that should set the link to point to whatever window manager to load by default.

Okay....I tried out your suggestion, but the same thing is occuring. Here's the real thing that I can't figure out...when I login through the command shell and type "startx", KDE loads up fine. But if I let it boot into the login manager, it will only boot into TWM no matter what selection I make for my window manager. Maybe I'm just confused...


DarkKnight

Check the error file for XDM at $HOME/.xsession-errors, it should give you some clue on what exactly went wrong.

Good luck!