i'd recentely updated both the xfree86 and the nvidia drivers on a redhat 7.1 workstation here in the office but now all i get is xterm instead of the usual KDE desktop. can anyone tell me how to get the old desktop back? i've alreayd tried switching it with the desktop switching tool but it always defaults back to xterm upon login. any help with this matter would be greatly appreciated.

The update defaults the login to xterm.

open terminal
su
pico /etc/inittab

# These are the default runlevels in Slackware:
# 0 = halt
# 1 = single user mode
# 2 = unused (but configured the same as runlevel 3)
# 3 = multiuser mode (default Slackware runlevel)
# 4 = X11 with KDM/GDM/XDM (session managers)
# 5 = unused (but configured the same as runlevel 3)
# 6 = reboot
# Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:4:initdefault:

make sure your id: is 5, refer to your list like above. Slack is 4.
save & exit
reboot