Startup problem on fresh KDE 3.5 install

[Jan Schledermann <spamtrap@schledermann.org>]

I have recently installed to systems, a laptop and a desktop, from scratch,
with sid/kde 3.5. (a minimum non-desktop install from the latest stable
net-install cd image. Changing the apt config files to sid, doing an
update / dist-upgrade getting kde 3.5 from alioth)
Both systems exhibits the same strange startup behaviour:

When logging a user on to KDE 3.5, through kdm, the process stops at the        
peripherals icon for about 15 seconds whereafter the screen goes black and
the user is returned to the kdm login screen.

Login into twm from kdm, and executing startkde (as root), starts up kde
just fine.

Here comes the weird part of the story: From then on it is just possible to
normally log into kde from kdm (after exiting kde and twn).

The only way to start kde as a non-root user seems to be to first start up
kde as root, stopping kde and then login in normally through kdm.

I don't see any log entries indicating that something is wrong.
Exactly the same processes are running before and after starting/stopping
kde from twm.

I suspect a rights issue somewhere but is somewhat stuck! Googling for
answers hasn't provided any hints.

On yet another system, running sid/kde 3.4, I have upgraded kde to 3.5 and
it is working just fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Jan Schledermann

-- 
** Do not use the reply-to address. It'll end up in the trash can
** Mail me at: janATschledermann.or"REMOVE_THIS"g