x-session-manager overrides x-window-manager

[matthew arnison <maffew@cat.org.au>]

Hi,

I have an old 166 MHz PC at home. It's got only 50 MB RAM so only certain
software runs with usable speed. It's running debian potato, which I am
slowly updating to woody.

I have settled on icewm as a nice efficient window manager.

But kde keeps overriding my choice of window manager.

Here's the details:

/etc/X11/Xsession.d/50xfree86-common_determine-startup

chooses which window manager to launch, e.g. after a user logs in from
xdm.

It says that /etc/alternatives/x-session-manager has higher priority than
/etc/alternatives/x-window-manager.

Now if I have kde and icewm installed, /etc/alternatives sets kde as the
default session manager, and icewm as the default window manager. So kde
gets run from xdm by default.

To override this, I run:

sudo update-alternatives --remove x-session-manager  /usr/bin/kde2

However, sometimes when I upgrade software, the alternatives system seems
to relink kde as the session manager. I don't upgrade that machine very
often, so each time it happens I have to retrace my setsp and remember how
to reset it back to icewm.

Any tips for how to avoid kde permanently? Apart from uninstalling kde of
course - I want the option to run kde apps now and then.

Cheers,
Matthew.