i just installed kde and i am about to configure x but after that how do i run kde?????

Most likely it will run automatically, assuming you also installed kdm as your login manager. Normally, one would do it the other way around (install X, followed by desired window manager).

Cheers,

mj

If you're at the command line, run "startx" (no quotes). -- J.W.

If you do an

apt-get install kdm

you will be asked for your default login manager. If your going to use KDE, I asume answering this question with "kdm" would be a good choice. Nest time you start your computer you will see the KDM login screen where youn can choose between the different desktops.

i installed kdm and kde and it still won't run kde do i need to install xfree86 or what

Try "apt-get install x-window-system kde kdm rcconf". That should ensure that you've got all the needed packages to start kde. After installing the packages reboot.

If after rebooting kdm (kde's GUI login screen) doesn't appear, you need to run (as root) rcconf to enable kdm, and reboot once again.

if kdm dosen't run how do i enable (i know how to log into root)

P.S.
thanks to everyone who has posted im brand new and will probably need a lot of help.

It's better to login as normal user and then use the "su" command to become root only temporarily, and only for administration tasks (such as installing/upgrading/removing packages and editing configuration files). Especially new users should feel safer as normal user because then you can be sure that you don't break your system.

Like I've already suggested, you can install the rcconf utility to enable kdm, and then you need to reboot. "rcconf" is the name of the utility and it is also the command that starts this utility. Just type "rcconf" (without quotes) and hit Enter. Once rcconf has started, you navigate between services with up and down arrow keys, you enable/disable services with the space bar, and when you're ready you use the tab key to move cursor to "OK", and then just hit Enter.

ok i installed rcconf and enabled kdm and xdm is that good

i have a dell demension xps r400 and i don't know which video card driver i need to install. Which options should i mark on the rcconf utility

Well, my quick Google search for "dell dimension xps r400" suggests that you may have nVidia graphics card, so "nv" might be the correct driver to choose. However, I don't know much about video drivers so you may want to use the search engine here at LinuxQuestions.org to find other posts/threads that discuss nVidia drivers.

In addition to choosing the correct video driver, you should know the horizontal and vertical refresh values for your monitor. If you don't have your monitor's manual around, making a Google search for your monitor's manufacturer and model with the keywords "horizontal" and "vertical" might produce useful results.

There's no reason to panic if you don't get the Xserver configuration right on the first attempt. You can rerun the setup script as many times as needed -- just type (as root) "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86".

I'd suggest that you mark kdm and unmark xdm. xdm is an older display manager that comes with Xserver while kdm is a newer display manager designed specifically for kde.

i tried that and i shut down and then restarted but nothing worked i used the nv driver i had wondered i think i have some kind of a diamond video card. how do i reboot?

OK, apparently you don't have nVidia graphics card. Sorry about that, I shouldn't have made such a wild guess. You can find out what graphics card you ACTUALLY have with the following command:

how do i do the line in the center

It's a special character called "pipe" and how you get it depends on your keyboard layout. For example, on the average American keyboard you type it by hitting shift and the backslash key.

EDIT:
At this time it's not really important, try just "lspci" and check out the line that has VGA.