Re: switching window managers and session managers - update-alternatives ?

[Kai Grossjohann <kgrossjo@eu.uu.net>]

Jerry_Bash@spectral-sys.com writes:

> I have a question about switching between kde and other window managers
> (blackbox, fluxbox, ion, etc).
> I am interested in learning what is the preferred or intended method of
> switching between kde and other 'more traditional' window managers in Debian.

Maybe the easiest method is to do it from the config file.  When you
log in via xdm, kdm, gdm, or a similar program, then the file
~/.xsession is read.  If you log in on the console and start X11 via
startx, then ~/.xinitrc is read.

I usually make one of them a symlink to the other.

One of them thingies has to be an executable shell script, so don't
forget to put "#!/bin/bash" or something in the first line, and
"chmod a+x" it.

For good measure, when you log in via [gkx]dm, then it can easily
happen that you don't get a "real" login shell in the sense that
~/.profile (or ~/.bash_profile or ~/.login or ~/.zprofile or ~/.zlogin
or ...) are NOT being read.  This is a nasty situation that needs
remedy, IMHO.  In any case, I suggest to set a special variable in
~/.profile (or...) that signifies that the file has been read, and
then, from ~/.xsession, check whether the variable has been set.  If
not, you assume that the system forgot to read ~/.profile (or...) and
you just read it explicitly.

Does this help?

Kai