source: archive/core/config.xml

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   "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
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<sect1 id="kde-core-config" xreflabel="Starting KDE4">
  <?dbhtml filename="config.html"?>


  <title>Starting KDE4</title>

  <bridgehead renderas="sect3">KDE4 Startup Dependencies</bridgehead>

  <bridgehead renderas="sect4">Recommended Runtime Dependencies</bridgehead>
  <para role="recommended">
    <xref linkend="consolekit"/> and
    <xref linkend="dbus"/>
  </para>

  <para>After <application>Kde-workspace</application> has been installed, the
  first important milestone has been reached. Now you need to configure your
  system to start KDE4.</para>

  <sect2 role="content">
  <title>Starting KDE4 from the command prompt</title>

    <para>
      You can start <application>KDE4</application> from runlevel 3, using
      <xref linkend="xinit"/>, or from runlevel 5, using a Display Manager,
      such as <xref linkend="sddm"/>.
    </para>

    <para>
      To start <application>KDE4</application> using <xref linkend="xinit"/>,
      run the following commands:
    </para>

<screen><userinput>cat &gt; ~/.xinitrc &lt;&lt; "EOF"
<literal>ck-launch-session dbus-launch --exit-with-session startkde</literal>
EOF

startx</userinput></screen>

    <para>
      The X session starts on the first unused virtual terminal, normally vt7.
      You can switch to another vt<emphasis>n</emphasis> simultaneously
      pressing the keys Ctrl-Alt-F<emphasis>n</emphasis>
      (<emphasis>n</emphasis>=1, 2, ...).  To switch back to the X session,
      normally started at vt7, use Ctrl-Alt-F7. The vt where the command
      <command>startx</command> was executed will display many messages,
      including X starting messages, applications automatically started with
      the session, and eventually, some warning and error messages. You may
      prefer to redirect those messages to a log file, which not only will keep
      the initial vt uncluttered, but can also be used for debug purposes. This
      can be done starting X with:
    </para>

    <screen><userinput>startx &amp;&gt; ~/.x-session-errors</userinput></screen>

    <note>
      <para>
        You may wish to drop consolekit and/or dbus-launch, e.g., just using
        startkde in ~/.xinitrc. However some capabilities such as mounting or
        umounting file systems from a file manager will not be possible, or the
        reboot option will be absent or inoperative, among other problems.
      </para>
    </note>

    <para>
      When shutting down or rebooting, the shutdown messages appear on the vt
      where X was running. If you wish to see those messages, simultaneously
      press keys Alt-F7 (assuming that X was running on vt7).
    </para>

  </sect2>

    <sect2 role="content">
    <title>Starting KDE4 at boot</title>

    <para>KDE4 comes with a graphical login interface called KDM (the KDE4 Display
    Manager), which provides a customizable graphical login at boot. To use KDM,
    you need to edit your <filename>/etc/inittab</filename> file (as the
    <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user).
    First, setup run-level 5 to start KDM (adjust
    the path to kdm according to your system):</para>

<screen><userinput>cat &gt;&gt; /etc/inittab &lt;&lt; EOF
<literal>kd:5:respawn:/opt/kde/bin/kdm</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>

    <para>Additionally, you need to change the default run-level from 3 to 5:</para>

<screen><userinput>sed -i 's#id:3:initdefault:#id:5:initdefault:#' /etc/inittab</userinput></screen>

    <para>You can now restart your system and see the KDE4 login
    screen.</para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="content">
    <title>Installing further languages (l10n)</title>

    <para>You may want to install support for your locale language. The l10n
    packages can be found at <ulink
    url="&kde-download-http;applications/&kde-apps-version;/src/kde-l10n/">
         &kde-download-http;applications/&kde-apps-version;/src/kde-l10n/</ulink>.
    See <xref linkend="kde-add-pkgs"/> for build instructions. If you are in a
    KDE4 session when installing a new language and configure KDE4 to use it, the
    session needs to be restarted, in order to see the effects.</para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="content">
    <title>Installing further KDE4 packages</title>

    <para>Every subsequent package can be built while having
    <application>KDE4</application> up and running, but remember to keep
    <envar>&kde-dir;</envar> and <envar>&qt4-dir;</envar> set.</para>

  </sect2>

</sect1>