source: kde/core/config.xml@ c81d34a

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
   "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
  %general-entities;
]>

<sect1 id="kde-core-config" xreflabel="Starting KDE4">
  <?dbhtml filename="config.html"?>

  <sect1info>
    <othername>$LastChangedBy$</othername>
    <date>$Date$</date>
  </sect1info>

  <title>Starting KDE4</title>

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

  <bridgehead renderas="sect4">Optional</bridgehead>
  <para role="optional">
    <xref linkend="dbus"/> (runtime)
  </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 a vtn (n=1, 2, ...) simultaneously pressing the keys
      Ctrl-Alt-Fn. To switch back to the X session, normally started at vt7,
      use Ctrl-Alt-F7. If started from vt1 (the usual case), you will see many
      messages there, 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 vt1 uncluttered, but also can be used for debug
      purposes. This can be done starting X with:
    </para>

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

    <para>
      You may wish to drop consolekit and/or dbus-launch, e.g., just using
      startlxde in .~/.xinitrc, but some functionalities such as mount/umount
      file systems from a file manager will not be possible, or the reboot
      option will be absent or not functioning, between other problems.
    </para>

    <para>
      Because X is (normally) on vt7, when you shutdown the vt is switched back
      to that one where the command starting it was executed. In this case, if
      you wish to see the shutdown messages, simultaneously press keys Alt-F7,
      because normally those messages appear on the vt where X was running.
    </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>