How do I make a KDE startup option in LILO?

Hulsie · 11-14-2007, 09:12 AM

Hello everyone! I'm very new to the world of Linux (and all Unix-like OS'es in general) and I seem to be understanding most of it--slowly but surely.

I am using Slackware 12 and have a dual boot setup between Slackware and Windows XP using LILO. Much of the time, I work from the Linux command prompt in order to try and familiarize myself with the operating system and its commands as much as possible, but I work from KDE quite a bit as well. My question is this: is there a way to add a third option to my LILO boot screen that will boot directly into KDE? I've tinkered around a little bit, but I've had no success. I'm assuming there's something I have to APPEND in my lilo.conf file, but I don't know exactly what.

I found that KDE has an "autostart" feature, but I really don't want to do that. I want the choice of logging into the CLI or into KDE with each boot-up. It may be a picky request, but it should be somewhat easy, right?

Thanks a lot!

Matt Huls

kanwar_rajan · 11-14-2007, 09:25 AM

Hi Hulsie..

Its good you are putting efforts to understand the GNU/Linux.

You seem to be getting confused between running a windows manager (desktop environment) and an OS (Linux or Windows)

Let me put it like this:

* LILO is a boot loader that gives you the ability to choose between different OS'es while booting.

* KDE is a desktop environment. You can take it be like an application or a program running under Linux.

* LILO cannot (and in fact is not supposed to) select a desktop environment like KDE. It just selects between the OS.

* Once you have launched Linux from the LILO option, you will have to configure your startup scripts in LInux if you want KDE to automatically start.

--
Here is what you should do:

* Either start KDE from the command line by giving the command:
> init 4 (It will be 4 for Slackware, 5 in general for Redhat, SuSE, Fedora etc)

* If you want it to start automatically on boot, you will have to change the default runlevel for Linux.

For this, change the file "/etc/inittab"

Modify the "initdefault" value as:

id:4:initdefault:

--

Hope this helps in resolving your issue.

I have skipped some other possible methods, as you are new to Linux and this will cause unnecessary confusion.

Regards,
Kanwar

indeliblestamp · 11-14-2007, 09:27 AM

Read up on runlevels. Runlevel 3 in slack refers to multi-user mode and leaves the user in the command line. Runlevel 4 is multi-user mode with X11, so that would launch KDE.
So when your machine is booting up, hit Tab at the Lilo screen to enter the Lilo prompt. If your lilo config for slack is called 'Linux', then type 'Linux 3' to go to the console login, and 'Linux 4' to start X. (Of course if you do nothing and just hit enter, the default runlevel will start).
Assuming your default right now is the console login and you need to change it to GUI login, edit /etc/inittab and change this line:

Code:

id:3:initdefault:

to this:

Code:

id:4:initdefault:

This might be a little different from what you're expecting (i.e. having 2 different fields in Lilo for 2 different runlevels). I'm not sure if that is possible, maybe someone else can pitch in their ideas.

ranger_nemo · 11-14-2007, 09:37 AM

It's been quite a while since I've used LILO, but I seem to remember you could add an "append=" line for different boot entries.

Edit your lilo.conf... Copy the entry you are using for Linux to a second entry, something like...

Code:

image=/boot/vmlinuz-#.#.##.##
	label=CLI
	root=/dev/hda1
	read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-#.#.##.##
	label=KDE
	append="4"
	root=/dev/hda1
	read-only

I also don't quite remember the Slackware runlevels... I think it's "4".

Hulsie · 11-14-2007, 10:39 AM

Thank you everybody for your very quick and friendly replies!

Based on your answers, I was able to configure LILO to do exactly what I wanted. kanwar_rajan, at the time of posting, I didn't know the terminology well enough to express myself clearly, but I was basically asking if there was a way to have multiple options in LILO to boot the same Linux kernel into two different runlevels (one for the console, and for the desktop environment). I wasn't sure if this was something LILO could do itself, or if I needed to write out different startup scripts in order to accomplish this.

I took arungoodboy's advice and read all about runlevels, how they are used, and when they are implemented. It then dawned on me that I could just start the system from runlevel 4 and that would do what I wanted. I was initially overthinking it and trying to make LILO load a script that would include the "startx" command. I followed ranger_nemo's example about using the "append" line and it worked perfectly.

Thanks a lot you guys, your help is much appreciated!