Can't switch to KDE

[Aldo Foot]

On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 1:09 PM, Craig White <craigwhite at azapple.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-09-05 at 15:07 -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>> > This is
>> > why /etc/sysconfig/desktop is not a candidate for the job.
>>
>> So how come it works for me and apparently many other people?
> ----
> I'm under the impression that settings in /etc/sysconfig/desktop...
>
> DISPLAYMANAGER=
>
> has the effect of choosing which dm launches at next startup/launch of
> runlevel 5
>
> DESKTOP=
>
> has the effect of choosing which desktop manager is the default for
> users who haven't logged in previously.
>
> I could be wrong and I've done no intelligent research on this but this
> is what I think I have come to understand happens.
>
> Craig
>
> --

What I understand is that when initdefault is set to 5, there are
three components
that launch in this order:
(1) a Display Manager (GDM)
(2) an X Server
(3) a Desktop Manager (GNOME, KDE)

gdm is simply a GUI where one can enter the user/pasword and choose a
Desktop Manager. Once you hit enter GDM, will launch X, which will serve
GNOME/KDE.

Both the GDM and GNOME/KDE are x-clients.

Note that a regular user could not modify /etc/sysconfig/desktop, but any user
can use either switchdesk (I've done it) or gdm (login window).

In F8 the user is given a .Xclients-default file which can be modified.
    #! /bin/bash
    # Created by Red Hat Desktop Switcher
    WM="startkde"

~af