KDE4 without a desktop manager

[blackbelt_jones]

I discovered that kde4.02 was out, and decided to give it a try, since now that I love Ubuntu, I need something else to complain about.

KDE4 will fill that need for some time to come, but it seems to be coming along. It still gives me a headache, and it's hard to imagine that newbies will ever like it... but I get the uneasy feeling that I'm going to love it someday. Right now, about all I can do is play solitaire, but in KDE 4, Solitaire (the program is called "Patience") looks great. Best looking solitaire ever!

KDE 4 is different... really, substantially different, and I can see now how smart KDE was to release it right away, allow us to run it alongside KDE3, and give everyone a good long time to get used to it. It looks like it's going to be a real power user desktop, complicated and powerful.

My question is: what is the command to put in my .xinitrc file so I can open KDE4 without a desktop manager? I prefer to start x from the console. I tried:

startkde4

and that didn't work, I don't have a better guess than that.

Anybody?

[happybunny]

I might be splitting hairs, but i'd call KDE a desktop environment while kwin(?) is the windows manager.

To run KDE and not kwin, start a different windows manager first (like fluxbox) then launch KDE from there. I don't think kwin will start if you already have a windows manager running.

[blackbelt_jones]

I might be splitting hairs, but i'd call KDE a desktop environment while kwin(?) is the windows manager.

To run KDE and not kwin, start a different windows manager first (like fluxbox) then launch KDE from there. I don't think kwin will start if you already have a windows manager running.

No, I'm not talking about the window manager, I'm talking about the desktop manager, e.g. kdm, gdm, xdm. In Ubuntu, the default desktop manager is gdm, which I disable like so:

sudo mv /etc/rc2.d/S30gdm /etc/rc2.d/K70gdm

this means that I boot into the plain console, login at the terminal and start x by typing


startx

which gui starts is determined by what I've installed, and by a single command that's in a little script named

~/.xinitrc

For Ubuntu, the default is gnome, so gnome boots when there is no .xinitrc file, and also if the script reads

gnome-session

If I want to start fluxbox, the file simply needs to read:

fluxbox

If I want to start KDE, the command is

startkde

but that opens kde3. I have both kde3 and kde4 installed, and I'm wondering what command will start kde4 All I could think of was "startkde4", but that didn't do the trick. Right now if I want to check out kde4, I have to reenable gdm.

[Calipso]

the DM in KDM, GDM, XDM, actually stands for display manager.

This doesn't exactly help you but thought I would make the correction :D ;)

[stumbles]

You most likely will have to give it the full path like;

/opt/lunar/kde/4/bin/startkde

or where ever you distro put it.

[blackbelt_jones]

the DM in KDM, GDM, XDM, actually stands for display manager.

This doesn't exactly help you but thought I would make the correction :D ;)

I didn't know that! It helps me alot, by preventing me from going around saying the wrong thing! Much thanks!:)

[happybunny]

oh...remove the init script for whatever you use

rm /etc/init.d/gdm

or remove the link in /etc/init.d/rc3.d/S99gdm, or similar

[happybunny]

I always thought of those as login managers myself. They seem to only manage logging in. Oh well.

[happybunny]

maybe if i read your post i could help better!!

do a which startkde...i think it is just a symlink to /usr/lib/kde or something....maybe there is a /usr/lib/kde4 you can link to instead?

I guess after all my yaking, i can't help you!

[blackbelt_jones]

oh...remove the init script for whatever you use

rm /etc/init.d/gdm

or remove the link in /etc/init.d/rc3.d/S99gdm, or similar

I think that what I do is disable the display manager by renaming the link, right?

sudo mv /etc/rc2.d/S30gdm /etc/rc2.d/K70gdm

I always thought of those as login managers myself. They seem to only manage logging in. Oh well.


I think you have an excellent point. If it was klm, glm, and xlm, that would make a lot more sense.

You most likely will have to give it the full path like;

/opt/lunar/kde/4/bin/startkde

or where ever you distro put it.

That did the trick. Used the "find" command to locate the file at

You most likely will have to give it the full path like;

/opt/lunar/kde/4/bin/startkde

or where ever you distro put it.

That did the trick. Used the "find" command to locate the file at

/usr/lib/kde4/bin/startkde

put it in the .xinitrc script, and I was golden.

I don't want to whine about KDE4 any more, but I can't use it just yet. I'm dying to fool around with it, but from what I've been able to figure out, they haven't gotten around to adding the features that a user like me, who doesn't want to favor the mouse, needs. Too much clicking makes the tendons in my right forearm throb. What i need most is a keyboard shortcut for run application, so I don't have to click though the menus. The only run application dialogue that I could found required a right-to-left double click to open, and that hurts. I was permitted to carry over some shortcuts from kde3, but that particular shortcut wasn't one of those. Bummer!

[Calipso]

Well I think its called the Display Manager because it actually starts the X server for you, and then once you provide the proper credentials, actually starts your session for you. So its not just responsible for login you in.

[darkdud]

I usually keep a "konsole" open to run commands in, there is also a option to have this command line functionality in Dolphin and Konqueror as a sidebar.

To "background" the applications you launch from the command line, type "Ctrl-Z" to suspend the process (this will give you a number of the job you just stopped) and then send this job to the background with "bg %1" (to send job #1 to the background). Alternatively, you can launch an application in the background by appending "&" to the command. "konqueror &" will open konqueror, give you your command prompt back and still display any messages and program feedback in the konsole.

You can then terminal these applications with a "fg %1" (to bring job #1 into the foreground) and break the process with "Ctrl-C".


I don't want to whine about KDE4 any more, but I can't use it just yet.

What i need most is a keyboard shortcut for run application, so I don't have to click though the menus.

I was permitted to carry over some shortcuts from kde3, but that particular shortcut wasn't one of those. Bummer!

If you just need a quick command to run an application, there is always "Alt-F2" and just type your program. However, this will not provide information on if an application is unable to launch, it will just fail quietly.

With "Alt-F2" you are also relying on using the GUI to terminate these applications unless you want to start messing about with your job list. ie. "ps faux | grep konqueror" to show the process and its number and "kill 12345" (where 12345 is the process number).

Hope this was what you were looking for, the discussion here has helped to clarify some ideas on getting my own KDE4 install tweaked.