Configuring X on my dell inspiron 510m
 

i've got mandrake 10.1 with a 2.6.10 kernel.

when i log in and run
$ kde

X (xorg) starts up but the picture is all messed up. when i switch to another console:
ctrl+alt+f2
and then back again to X:
ctrl+alt+f7
everything is fine.

when i check tty1 (ctrl+alt+f1) i see the following error messages:
ksplash: WARNING: KGenericFactory: instance requested but no instance name passed to the constructor!
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
kbuildsycoca running...
SetClientVersion: 0 8

---------------------

why won't it just start up and work fine the first time? why do i have to switch to another tty and then back again to tty7 for it to work?

I get this error message whenever I run any KDE application (I only see it when I call it from the console). Nothing doesn't work, it's just... there. My applications work, just this stuff fills up my console whenever I call such an app from it.


Have you tried using the command "startx" instead of "kde"?

when i run "startx" it starts up gnome. how do i configure it so that "startx" starts kde instead?

but the real question is why the heck does it work fine after i go to another tty (tty6, for example) and then back again to the X tty (tty7)?

the exact same thing happens when i run startx too with gnome, so its not a kde or gnome issue, it must be Xorg.

could you please post the contents of this file? ~/.xinitrc

all i can find is /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
============================

if [ "`whoami`" != root ]; then
xsetroot -solid "#21449C"
fi

exec /etc/X11/Xsession $*
=============================

oh yeah, and i normally log in as root.

Then create an .xinitrc file and add one line to it, telling X to load KDE, as follows:

startx should (hopefully) load KDE when called.

And if I may add.. don't ever login as root into a graphical desktop environment, because it allows for mistakes to occur without anyway of recovering them. You should create a user account, and use it as your main account. You should only need root to do maintenance, checkups, or edit system-wide files, and the like - NOT as your default account. It is considered bad practice and leaves your computer vulnerable to attacks, as any program that is run by root is given root permissions which allows it to run other processes with the same access rights.

thanks for the tips :) but my main questions still is unanswered. why do things work fine after i switch to another terminal (tty6, for example) and then back to the X terminal (tty7)? why won't it work fine from the start?