I have recently installed Debian Squeeze on my main machine at home. I used the default installation options, which meant gnome was installed as the display manager/GUI. Once I got the system up and running, I have attempted to install the latest KDE display manager/GUI. I executed the following commands:

$sudo apt-get install kde4

and then responded as required when asked if I really wanted to get and install the huge list of programs this involved.

When booting up in runlevel 3, I would log in, and then execute the following command:

$ sudo kdm

the screen would go blank and I would eventually get a KDE error message saying:

"Cannot open theme file @@@ToBeReplacedByDesktopBase@@@"

I would then be given only the option to press OK, which would dump me back out to the command line. I can get the GUI to start by executing "Startx", which doesn't require sudo to run I might add. The problem is that this command starts gnome. I would like to start X from the command line, but be given a choice of either GNOME or KDE.

Question 1: How do I fix the issue which generates the error message detailed above?
Question 2: How do I set up X to ask me which display manager I would like to use? and
Question 3: Am I correct in assuming that KDM shouldn't require sudo to run? If so, how do I adjust the situation so that it is correctly configured to run like gnome (without requiring root access to run)?

Thank you everyone in advance for your assistance

I am not sure how you change the default desktop environment in Debian, but

try using

to start kde.

You cannot start a display manager from the command-line.

At login window there's a session selection option
click on user name and look at bottom right of screen
there should be an icon that says desktop environment or default with arrow, click on arrow and select kde.

Yet, the OP stated that he wanted to start x from the command line, not a DM.
Using a DM to choose the session is the easiest way, yet it can be done from the command line.

@bruceam
Log in to Gnome and change the default desktop environment. This should make it so that is what comes up on the startx command.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this problem. I have corrected the issue, though I do not know exactly what the problem was. Removed KDE and started from a clean install. I used the same command line to install as I did before, but this time it works. I am able to select between Gnome and KDE at login/bootup, and both are equally usable.

Thank you again to everyone who helped.


Bruce