[SOLVED] SW 13.1 strange XWindow configuration(XFCE and KDE simultaneously)

FeyFre · 08-03-2010, 04:58 PM

Hello

I have installed SL13.1 on my home PC week ago. Usually I do not use X often during my work and have not favour Desktop Environment so during post-install configuration step I selected XFCE as default one. After reboot I have tuned some network configurations, reinstalled LILO with shorter timeout, then started X using 'startx' to check if it works(starts at least). All works!

Yesterday I have booted SL and decided to tune-up XFCE. So I started it using 'telinit 4' command(do not touched any configurations yet). How I was surprised when I saw KDE desktop instead of XFCE!!!

I returned back via 'telinit 3' to try again using `startx`. And XFCE started!

But 'telinit 4' still starts KDE!

Question: did I missed something? Since when 'startx' and 'telinit 4' run different DEs? I newbie in configuration of X so I did not touched anything yet(and I do not know how to switch DE at all). Is that intended behaviour of Slackware 13.x?(Last time I used Slackware 12 based distribution with KDE so do not noticed such behaviour). I do not favour any of them, but I want always run one of them! What and where I should change to force start XFCE during 'telinit 4'?

Thanks for helping

fbsduser · 08-03-2010, 05:30 PM

Do you have KDM installed? If you do, maybe it have an init script in the runlevel 4 (telinit switches from the current runlevel to the one you indicate by appending a number to the telinit command). Basically KDM is the KDE login window, which by default loads KDE, and in your case it could be set to autologin. The reason why XFce gets started by startx is because startx doesn't invoque any login manager application, instead it runs whatever wm/DE is set in the ~/.xinitrc file (in your case that file was set to launch Xfce).

ChrisAbela · 08-04-2010, 02:52 AM

That's perfectly normal.

KDE is the default WM for KDM and XDM irrespective of xwmconfig.

FeyFre · 08-04-2010, 03:31 AM

fbsduser
Yes, kdm is installed(Because I did FULL installation.) Yes, rc.4 contains kdm probing (just after gdm probing). But when I selected XFCE during installation I thought installer should(or must) tune-up gdm/kdm/xdm configuration in order to respect my choice.

So, as I understood I should isolate KDM via something like 'chmod -x kdm' in order to allow XDM start? Or XDM will start KDE too?

ChrisAbela · 08-04-2010, 07:15 AM

The SlackBook has all the details on how to choose XDM instead of KDM. My preferred way is to comment out the relevant line in rc.4.

Note that this will not change your default WM in runlevel4. You will still boot in KDE from XDM unless you hack with ~/.Xsession.

Note that Slack follows the UNIX way of doing things. If you install XFCE, you simply install XFCE not tune up KDM and XDM.

FeyFre · 08-12-2010, 05:08 AM

Quote:

KDE is the default WM for KDM and XDM irrespective of xwmconfig.

Yes, kdm starts only kde. But xdm starts DE I pointed during post-install configuration.(Now I understand why most of users of my local Linux community hate KDE).

Quote:

Note that Slack follows the UNIX way of doing things. If you install XFCE, you simply install XFCE not tune up KDM and XDM.

I understood that. But I do not said anything about installation process. I said about configuration process: it does not configures kdm to start XFCE.(UNIX way of doing things). But now I understood this is not entirely configurators issue, but kdm's one(but I think it could do more in this case, for instance, comment out kdm probe in /etc/rc.d/rc.4 if KDE is not selected as default DE)

Anyway, thanks for answers.

Drakeo · 08-12-2010, 05:58 AM

Oh Pat wrote a script for this a long time ago called pkgtools based on ncursur run it select setup select default window manager. choose xfce4 like you did in the install.
and startx will then point to xfce4.
I have no Idea how it was changed.

fbsduser · 10-28-2010, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FeyFre

Yes, kdm starts only kde.

Actually. KDM can start any DE/WM as long as it have's a *.desktop file in /usr/share/xsessions (This is how the gnome *.desktop file looks like in my system)

Code:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=GNOME
Name[az]=GNOME
Name[be]=GNOME
Name[ca]=GNOME
Name[cs]=GNOME
Name[cy]=GNOME
Name[da]=Gnome
Name[de]=GNOME
Name[el]=GNOME
Name[es]=GNOME
Name[et]=GNOME
Name[fi]=Gnome
Name[fr]=GNOME
Name[he]=GNOME
Name[hi]=गनोम
Name[hu]=GNOME
Name[it]=GNOME
Name[ja]=GNOME
Name[ko]=그놈
Name[lt]=GNOME
Name[mn]=ГНОМЕ
Name[ms]=GNOME
Name[nl]=GNOME
Name[nn]=GNOME
Name[no]=GNOME
Name[pl]=GNOME
Name[pt]=GNOME
Name[pt_BR]=GNOME
Name[ro]=GNOME
Name[ru]=GNOME
Name[sk]=GNOME
Name[sl]=GNOME
Name[sq]=GNOME
Name[sr]=Гном
Name[sr@Latn]=Gnom
Name[sv]=GNOME
Name[tr]=GNOME
Name[uk]=GNOME
Name[vi]=GNOME
Name[wa]=GNOME
Name[zh_CN]=GNOME
Name[zh_TW]=GNOME
Comment=This session logs you into GNOME
Comment[az]=Bu iclas sizi GNOME'a daxil edəcək
Comment[be]=Гэтая сэсыя завядзе вас у GNOME
Comment[ca]=Aquesta sessió entra en GNOME
Comment[cs]=Toto sezení vás přihlásí do GNOME
Comment[cy]=Mae'r sesiwn hwn yn eich mewngofnodi i GNOME
Comment[da]=Denne session logger dig på Gnome
Comment[de]=Diese Sitzung meldet Sie an GNOME an
Comment[el]=Αυτή η συνεδρία σας εισάγει στο GNOME
Comment[es]=Con esta sesión accede a GNOME
Comment[fi]=Tämä istunto kirjaa sisään Gnomeen
Comment[fr]=Cette session vous connectera dans GNOME
Comment[he]=תצורת הפעלה זו מחברת אותך ל GNOME
Comment[hi]=यह सत्र गनोम में लॉगिन होगा
Comment[hu]=Ez a környezet a GNOME-ba jelentkeztet be
Comment[it]=Sessione di lavoro con GNOME
Comment[ja]=GNOME セッションにログインします
Comment[ko]=GNOME세션으로 로그인합니다
Comment[lt]=Ši sesija prijungia Jus į GNOME
Comment[mn]=Энэ суултаар та ГНОМЕ руу нэвтрэнэ.
Comment[ms]=Sesi ini akan log anda  ke GNOME
Comment[nl]=Deze sessie meldt u aan bij GNOME
Comment[nn]=Denne økta loggar på GNOME
Comment[no]=Denne sesjonen logger deg inn til GNOME
Comment[pl]=Sesja logowania do GNOME
Comment[pt]=Esta sessão inicia-o no GNOME
Comment[pt_BR]=Logar no ambiente GNOME
Comment[ro]=Această sesiune vă va loga în GNOME
Comment[ru]=Начать сеанс GNOME
Comment[sk]=Toto sedenie vás prihlási do prostredia GNOME
Comment[sl]=Ta seja vas prijavi v GNOMe
Comment[sq]=Kjo seancë do t'ju fusë në GNOME
Comment[sr]=Ова сесија вас пријављује на Гнома
Comment[sr@Latn]=Ova sesija vas prijavljuje na Gnoma
Comment[sv]=Denna session loggar in dig i GNOME
Comment[tr]=Bu oturum ile GNOME'a giriş yaparsınız
Comment[uk]=Сеанс роботи в середовищі GNOME
Comment[vi]=Session này cho bạn đăng nhập vào GNOME
Comment[zh_CN]=此会话使您登录到 GNOME
Comment[zh_TW]=選取這個作業階段後會進入 GNOME 環境
Exec=/usr/bin/gnome-session
# no icon yet, only the top three are currently used
Icon=
Type=Application

The detail is that to log into whatever DE you want you need to select it (and make it the default session) in the login screen itself (you'll need to disable autologin to do this).