[PLUG] Getting startx to work again

[Jeff Blain]

On Sat, 2004-02-07 at 11:12, Wil Cooley wrote:
> On Sat, 2004-02-07 at 09:04, Barbara Pfieffer wrote:
> > I run Debian unstable and somehow, I've messed up my startx. I prefer to login 
> > to console then type startx, which runs Kde3, my preferred desktop. Lately I 
> > can't do that, startx gets a generic xterm and that's all. To get Kde, I have 
> > to su to root and run kdm, which I don't really need. 
> > 
> > Any suggestions on how to get startx working again? Thanks!
> 
> It sounds like 'startx' is working okay to start the server, but it's
> not starting your session.  Does the xterm that comes up have an ugly
> green or pink decoration around it?  If so, it's probably starting 'twm'
> for some reason.  Check the ~/.xinitrc file and ~/.Xclients*.  If none
> of these have the 'startkde' command, then one needs to, but if there's
> anything that looks like another window manager, you'll need to remove
> it.

Your .xinitrc file should look something like this.

#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/startkde

The "Debian" way of doing this is to use update-alternatives. Look in
you /etc/alternatives and 'man update-alternatives' for more
information.

Jeff