I'm running mandrake 9.2 and I've been happily using KDE 3.1 with KDM for sometime, but I have recently switched to xfce4/command line login, because it is noticeably faster, and still has "good looks" . The thing is, when I was logging on using KDM, KDM would start x as root, then I would log in. Now, that I'm using xfce, I'm logging in from the command line, and starting x as non-root. So certain programs such as xaw-tv and programs that use mesa-gl cannot properly access my Nvidia drivers (because x wasn't started as root). This is obviously annoying. I tried to add xfce4 to the desktops in KDM, but couldn't get it to work. So if anyone out there has a suggestion on either how to add xfce4 to KDM, or to be able to start X as root, but then login to xfce4 normally, please help me.
thanks

How come only root has access to the Nvidia drivers? Did you set it up this way?

I installed the nvidia drivers with the nvidia install script, there was not a binary for mandrake 9.2, so it automaticly compiled from source, as far as I remember, I never had to choose any options, it just did it automaticly. Everything works great if I use KDM, but if I log in direct from the command line, xaw-tv and opengl programs wont work. Unfortunately, I cannot find a way to run xfce4 from KDM.

You should add the DRI section to your XF86Config-4 and set the mode to 0666 so everyone can use DRI (and OpenGL, etc).


Håkan

from a website with a review of xfce 4: "Also, you may note lack of a Session Manager. There is currently one in the XFCE CVS. I have used it and it seems stable, so if you require a Session Manager, you can try it out." I read something else about it as well, but I don't recall where. I have not used a CVS system before, so I don't know how to access/download/compile it.

The basic CVS options are pretty simple and shouldn't pose a problem - login and checkout. There is a page on the XFCE website which describes how to log in and what modules to get: http://xfce.org/index.php?page=docum...ang=en#install

Håkan