LinuxQuestions.org - How to change what desktop manerger is used to logon. (mandrake)

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How to change what desktop manager is used to logon. (mandrake)

I am running mandrake 9.1 on my box, and i saw someone who changed there graphical logon screen from the default mandrake one (kde) to the one that redhat uses (the gnome one). i cant figure how to change which one my computer uses. can anyone help?

http://doc.mandrakelinux.com/Mandrak...tml/login.html

'As you can see in the Session Type field, the default environment is the last one you used. You can change it by simply choosing another one from the pull-down menu.'

Mandrake's documentation is second to none.

RO

I believe that you'll have to edit one of your config files, no doubt you should be root to do this. The config file in question is /etc/X11/prefdm

It should look like this (with some more stuff at the bottom I left off) -

Code:

#!/bin/sh



PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin

HOME=/root

export HOME



# We need to source this so that the login screens get translated

[ -f /etc/profile.d/10lang.sh ] && . /etc/profile.d/10lang.sh



# trap SIGTERM to be able to kill autologin

killed () {

    kill -15 $!

    exit

}



trap killed 15



# Run preferred X display manager



# Try autologin first, if wanted...

if [ -f /etc/sysconfig/autologin -a -x /usr/sbin/autologin ]; then

        . /etc/sysconfig/autologin

        if [ -n "$USER" -a "$AUTOLOGIN" = yes ]; then

            /usr/sbin/autologin &

            echo -n $$ > /var/lock/subsys/dm

            wait $!

        fi

fi



# we have to assume that /etc/sysconfig/desktop has two variables, DESKTOP

# and DISPLAYMANAGER because administors may prefer a specific DM regardless

# of desktops.

# DISPLAYMANAGER is referenced by this script, and DESKTOP is referenced

# as system-wide default by /etc/X11/Xsession script only when X-session

# is opened by "startx" command. 

# when DMs open an X-session, they send DESKTOP, which is in this case

# directly selected by users, as a commandline argument of /etc/X11/Xsession.

# actually Xsession script is only able to know by existance of its first

# argument whether it is called by DM or "startx". see the logic

# in /etc/X11/Xsession.

# If DISPLAYMANAGER is not defined, then assume that it is the same as DESKTOP

preferred=

Open this file in your favorite text editor and after the "preferred=" part add the text "gdm", so it looks like "preferred=gdm". That should change your login manager. If that doesn't do it than edit the file again, this time add "gdm" underneath the "
# Run preferred X display manager" line in the config file. Either one of those changes should do what you want.

use xwmconfig to change your standart window manager

On a Mandrake 9.1 box there does not seem to be a xwmconfig.

Code:

[default@localhost default]$ man xwmconfig

No manual entry for xwmconfig



[default@localhost default]$ whereis xwmconfig

xwmconfig:



[default@localhost default]$ urpmf --provides xwmconfig

(nothing)

xwmconfig seems to be mainly a Slackware-specific program.

Also I *think* that the original poster wants to merely change the login manager from kdm to gdm, anyone with half a brain can figure out that you can choose from any of the WMs you have installed when you login via gdm or kdm on Mandrake. Mandrake also provides a very easy graphical tool to change the default WM, so I don't imagine that's the problem. However there is no such tool to change your login manager other than the prefdm script. Which is as simple to edit as I outlined above.

thanks Read_Icculus your method worked perfectly :)