(Warning! All text thatfollows is entered by a LINUX newbie)

I own a commercially developed (but now unsupported) Myth TV box which has Mandrake V10.0 installed. It boots directly into the MyTH TV application (as intended).

I wish to run some other applications in a new, separate session. When I initiate such a session (via...Ctrl-Alt-F1, logon as root and then issue 'init 5'), the system then requests a Mandrake logon (with which I oblige) and then fires me directly into the default windows manager (IceWM). I wish to change this process.....

I would like to run KDE desktop as an alternative to IceWM. I have done some research, and changed the parameter in /etc/sysconfig/desktop to 'DISPLAYMANAGER=KDE'. This seemed to have no effect.

I have also tried 'startx KDE', but get the error:

Fatal Server Error:
Server is already active for display 0

Can someone please guide me to where I should look to get KDE as my default desktop?

Thanks.
Aussie_Newbie

Assuming KDE is installed, you should be able to ( once at the login screen, at init 5 ) be able to change your "Session Type" to KDE. I do not know how to make it the default, as it varies from distribution to distribution, and desktop manager to desktop manager.

When I login, I am unable to select a "Session Type". The only entries at the login screen for localhost are "Login" and "Password" (there is no drop-down menu or any other method to select a session type).

You'll get the "Session Type" menu if you switch the display manager to KDM, what your system is using now is XDM which is a very basic display manager. Install kdebase-kdm, then from terminal as root:

Code: Select all

su
drakedm

(drakedm will edit /etc/sysconfig/desktop automatically, it should be DISPLAYMANAGER=KDM not KDE ).