i've got a basic install of slackware 10.2 and i wanted to try kde(i didnt bother to burn the cd with kde on it), so i went out to slackware.com/pb , got all of the kde packages, installed them with pkgtool, and used xwmconfig to set my default desktop to kde. afterwards, i get a "kdeinit not found" error when i try to start X and when i reboot, i get some flashy errors about my filesystem(reiserfs), which is very destroyed.

a very similar thing happened when i tried to install gnome(i had to do a complete reinstall of linux after the kde crash). i used the installer from dropline-gnome.sf.net and did a basic install of dropline gnome with it. after the install finished, i set gnome as my default desktop with xwmconfig and tried to start X. gnome hangs and a whole bunch of very bad things happen to my system.

i've reinstalled slackware again and am looking to get dropline or kde set up right this time and possibly figure out why they were killing my linux install last time. if anybody can help me out, i'd really appreciate it.

You dont have to reinstall Slack just because your graphical interface is not working. Before you try startx or startkde again run xorgconfig and see if that fixes your problem. What is the exact error you get when you try startx or startkde. What do you mean bad things happen to your system?

i had to reinstall slack because my filesystem was killed

Try a full install of Slackware with KDE, and verify that nothing is broken. If things don't work, then you likely have a larger problem on your hands (e.g. failing hardware).

What made you think that?

fsck said so on startup