I'm currently running KDE 2.2.2 on Mandrake 8.2 and tried
(unsuccessfully) to upgrade to 3.0. I followed suggestions from
someone on my Mandrake mailing list which consisted of this
downloading all the files for my make of Mandrake and creating a
directory named KDE3 and putting all the files in it. I then executed
the following commands in a
shell:

cd /home/eric/kde3
urpmi.addmedia kde3 file:///home/eric/kde3

From this point everything looked like it went fine. I didn't get any
errors. I then logged out and rebooted. Upon reboot I realized that I
only had two choices for "Session Type" when logging in (this is how
it was since the install I think), which were "default" and
"failsafe". There was no Gnome, WindowMaker, or even KDE. I then
posted my problem on my Mandrake mailing list and was told to go to
the "Login Manager" and going to the "Sessions" tab and adding
manually Gnome and KDE. I then rebooted and had all the window
managers installed. I then tried to login using KDE and was greeted
with the old KDE 2.2.2 but had no KDE 3.0.

I then added another KDE manually to the "Login Manager" under the
"Sessions" tab hoping this one would be associated with KDE 3.0 but
that didn't work either. If I try to run the command (again):

urpmi.addmedia kde3 file:///home/eric/kde3

This is what I get:

[root@Mithrilhall KDE3]# urpmi.addmedia kde3 file://home/eric/KDE3
medium "kde3" already exists [root@Mithrilhall KDE3]#

I'm at a loss as what I am doing wrong. If anyone can help point me in

the right direction I would greatly appreciated it.


After posting the above message in my kde mailing list I got back the reply posted below:

You haven't done anything wrong. But, what you have done is not
sufficent to fix your problem.

Convention is that 'default' will run the desktop or window manager
specified in: "~/.xsession". Edit that file so that it executes the:
"startkde" for KDE3 (use full path).

If you want the selection to work, you will have to edit your:
"Xsession" file since it is this file that associates what you select in
the login widget with the command to start that desktop or window
manager.

Did you think that this happened by magic?

Specifically, what you select in the login widget is passed as the first
argument to Xsession. So, if you select: "kde" then ALL that it does is
execute the command line:

Xsession kde

The Xsession then must use this paramater to start the wanted desktop or
window manager. There is usually a case construct at the end of the:
"Xsession" script.




My question is: Is ".Xsession the only thing that I have to change to get KDE 3.0 working, or does someone else have a better way to get it working?

I think it will be better to install KDE3 from sources. It successfuly installs with no problems on Mandrake 8.0... But, it's IMHO...

I've never had to change Xsession. I always modify ~/.xinitrc

I don't use gui login, so that may be different, but I never shut down really so there's no need for it
Anyhow, in .xinitrc i just add
exec /opt/kde3/bin/startkde3 ( i think that is the filename ).

You would need to modify the path to the executable depending on where you installed it.

I've just installed KDE3 on Mandrake 8.2 by downloading the Mandrake rpm via gFTP from one of the KDE.org mirrors (double checking all necessary files with correct version numbers were there, including the language file).

I'd created a directory and installed from there. I logged out of KDE and cd to it. I typed (as per the Mandrake website)
urpmi *
........and happily it worked, although when booting from a startx command it goes straight into 3, which is OK.

I didn't need to alter any file.

HTH

Dutch

so simply running the kde3 rpm installed and configured it to work at startx command? Or am I being a n00b?

Ben.

All I can say is that it worked for me!

If you go to the link on the Mandrake website (KDE3 announcement) and follow the installation instructions it should work.....


HTH


Dutch