startkde and restore settings
 

Hello,

I think I've messed up KDE somehow, but not bad enough to reinstall. I unplugged my tv tuner too late, while Mandrake 9.1's bootup was checking for new hardware (because the tuner causes that part of just stay stuck there) and then shutdown and rebooted before the bootup had finished (I know that was bad). Anyway, now whenever I login I only get a console, even if I pick KDE from the desktop environment options. I have to "startkde" to get it to load and I've tried making an .xsession and an .xinitrc file in my home directory to no avail. In addition, all my settings in terms of fonts seem to have gotten messed up. The settings still point to the same ones I had, but the fonts just seem bigger in all of the applications.

I did this once before (the tv tuner card thing) and just reinstalled, but I don't want to now since I've got everything set up nicely. Any ideas?

Thanks.

Chinmay

This doesn't really seam related to your kde startup, but your xinit process...

Maybe that "ls -lh /etc/X11/xinit/" gives you a little more insight.

remove your ~/.xinitrc too ;) some desktop environments write their start-up code in ~/.xinitrc. (I hate that) Since it is the script executed when you type "startx", it will overrule any desktop settings.

If you work as normal user, you can't really mess up any software. Working as root shouldn't be done unless you want to configure your /etc/, or install new software. ..Did you upgrade your system recently?

I haven't upgraded or anything and I never actually log into the graphical environment with root. Another poster having the same problem said he had to change system.xsm in /etc/X11/xsm/, but I think that overwrites any desktop environment you choose with the login manager. Currently mine has the following lines:

twm
smproxy
xterm

If i change twm to startkde, would that work or is there a better way of doing this? In addition, some people suggested just removing the .kde directory in ~/. Would this reset KDE to what it was at default? Because then I can just make the fonts the way I like, but I won't lose any programs?

Chinmay

All programs store their configuration changes in your home directory (~), and a hidden folder (starts with a dot)

so, ~/.kde, or /home/you/.kde is the folder where KDE will store all it's settings. In fact, it's a micro version of /opt/kde/, considering the fact there aren't any programs installed in there.

Removing this folder will reset your KDE.



I don't know anything about that xsm file, but I seam to have the file too, and it's contents is exactly the same as yours. Rather concentrate on the /etc/X11/xinit directory ;) (and your ~/.xinit stuff)


one other thing: don't login as root in your graphical desktop. You're giving every program, virus, website leak, etc a license to destroy your entire system. (even flash your bios) Working as limited user works perfectly in Linux and the KDE. :) try it :) if you need to install something, become root in a console (use "su"), and if it's a kde program, it will ask for your root password.

Unfortunately, moving the ~/.kde directory to someplace else didn't work. It reset my kde environment, but the application fonts are still much bigger than the desktop/kmenu/panel fonts. The toolbar and the menubar and the tabs, etc. I'm not sure why.

Also, kde is still not starting up by itself, I just get a console terminal when i log in and have to type startkde to start it. Can't figure out how to stop this..

Thanks (and appreciate all your help thus far).

Chinmay

To load the KDE at boot, change your runlevel from 3 to 4 or 5. (in /etc/inittab) Instead of the text-based login, you'll get an graphical login (gdm, kdm, or xdm screen). Your other virtual terminals should be accessable through Ctrl+Alt+Fx too.

Have you looked at /etc/X11/xinit already, and what did you find there?

The runlevel is set to 5 already. I don't go into the text console, it loads like xterm instead of startkde and I have to type it in then.

In my /etc/X11/xinit directory I have a xinitrc file with the following:

if [ "`whoami`" != root ]; then
xsetroot -solid "#21449C"
fi

exec /etc/X11/Xsession $*

Any suggestions?

Chinmay