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Bug 108

Summary: starting kde from command line launches both KDE3 and KDE4 on same display
Product: TDE Reporter: b.r.longbons
Component: tdebaseAssignee: Timothy Pearson <kb9vqf>
Status: RESOLVED INVALID    
Severity: enhancement CC: bugwatch, darrella
Priority: P5    
Version: 3.5.10   
Hardware: Other   
OS: Linux   
Compiler Version: TDE Version String:
Application Version: Application Name:

Description b.r.longbons 2009-07-23 15:31:11 CDT
commands:
easy way:
#tab completion works for this
sudo update-alternatives --config x-session-manager
#select /opt/kde3/bin/startkde
startx -- :1
#assuming you already have something on :0

or, not specify set a default
startx /opt/kde3/bin/startkde -- :1
#requires a full path, regardless of your $PATH

or, prove that it isn't the fault of startx/xinit
X :1 &
DISPLAY=:1.0 /opt/kde3/bin/startkde
#less convenient in that you have to kill the X server manually

expected:
a kde3 session starts, just the way it does from kdm or any other display manager.

actual:
on the display, kde3 appears to start normally. However after maybe 15 seconds, the desktop background turns white and then the kde4 background appears, and the kde4 panel pushes up the kde3 one. I have kde3 set to use windows-style shortcuts, and when I pressed Win-R, the kde3 desktop appeared again with the box, and it ran commands from the kde3 PATH. Alt-F2 still worked to bring up the kde4 one, though that didn't bring the kde4 desktop back, and ran commands from kde4. However, on closer inspection it did have the kde3 paths set; this behavior was because it was shortcutting to run the menu items (.desktop files). Finally, even when selecting "Leave" from the KDE4 desktop menu, the confirmation box was still the kde3 one. From the new fancy start menu, leave/logout does nothing.
Oh, one more thing to note: the kde4 panel is not following the settings I used when it kde4 mode (as a symptom of the fact that $KDEHOME is set to ~/.kde3).
This hasn't caused any major problems with my normal kde3 desktop, but I have noticed a few obscure things like now there are 2 kwrited's listening on /dev/pts/{0,1} (oddly, the kde4 one got 0 and the kde3 got 1...)

I'm going to look into exactly what startkde is doing, since I already traced it through startx, /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc, /etc/X11/Xsession, and it's children... (essentially it came down to "if user hasn't specified a program, try in order, x-session-manager, x-window-manager, x-terminal-emulator, or die". The rest of the files in /etc/X11/Xsession.d are just window-dressing - some literally)
Comment 1 Timothy Pearson 2009-07-23 15:36:20 CDT
Launch manually like this:
DESKTOP_SESSION=kde3 /opt/kde3/bin/kdm

The plasma file has been diverted and modified such that Plasma is started whenever $DESKTOP_SESSION is not equal to kde3.  When you launch kdm manually, $DESKTOP_SESSION is empty, so Plasma launches and starts all the KDE4 junk.
Comment 2 b.r.longbons 2009-07-23 19:01:23 CDT
(In reply to comment #1)
> Launch manually like this:
> DESKTOP_SESSION=kde3 /opt/kde3/bin/kdm
> 
> The plasma file has been diverted and modified such that Plasma is started
> whenever $DESKTOP_SESSION is not equal to kde3.  When you launch kdm manually,
> $DESKTOP_SESSION is empty, so Plasma launches and starts all the KDE4 junk.

It's not kdm (which is the login screen), but startkde
and I found that same variable, and simply adding 'export DESKTOP_SESSION=kde3' at the top fixed it.
Can you give me any circumstance where user would be running the kde3 startkde script, and NOT want DESKTOP_SESSION to be set to kde3?
Comment 3 Timothy Pearson 2009-07-23 20:02:49 CDT
No, and in fact it should probably be part of the startkde script.

Look for the fix in Karmic.