[kde-doc-english]Problem in the KDE FAQ, section 9.7

[Éric Bischoff]

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Le Tuesday 07 January 2003 18:05, Michael Schwager a écrit:
> >> KDE (kdm) does not read my .bash_profile!
> >>
> >> profile. Please edit your Xsession and .xsession files."
>
> ...
>
> > What is your distribution and version of KDE ?
>
> It's 3.0.3, it's the one that comes with Redhat Linux 8.0 out-of-the-box.
> I see that it is copyright 1999-2002 Redhat, inc., and there is no .profile
> stuff in it at all.  So perhaps the file is completely different than what
> KDE distributes.  Strange...

Or perharps it has evolved between KDE 3.0.3 and KDE 3.1. I know several 
things have changed in kdm's initialization.

>  Maybe it's an FAQ, that seems plausible, so I check.  I see:
>         Chapter 9. Configuring KDE
> ...which is what I want to do!  Great!  Obviously, the questions in this
> section of the FAQ have to do with Configuring KDE (not configuring X if
> the environment is not known).  I see:
>         KDE (kdm) does not read my .bash_profile!
> ...interesting!  Because I am trying to add to KDE's startup; there is
> nothing in section 9.7 that discusses the case when the environment is not
> known.  This looks like a very good place to go, because I know the
> bash_profile is run when the bash shell starts.
>
> It says "So the normal practice is to add statements in Xsession to source
> the user profile."  Remember, it does not say "in case kde does not know
> what environment you want to use."  The FAQ has to do with KDE- I'm not
> going to be concerned about reading the FAQ if, for example, I'm running
> Gnome or if I don't have any idea what environment I'm running.  And the
> title for section 9.7 says that it's *KDE* that's not reading my
> .bash_profile.  Nothing there gives any clue that we may be talking about a
> special case.  As a matter of fact, it also says "the normal practice".
>
> I would be interested to see the text in that section of the FAQ that gives
> me an indication that it is about the case where the environment is not
> known.

I think that some minimal comprehension of the code in Xsession (like the 
comprehension you have) is needed, so the user should realize he cannot put 
the code indifferently in any one of these files and not at a random place.

But I get your point. In fact .xsession would better not be mentioned at all 
in the FAQ.

Now there is a practical problem : the user might not have enough rights to 
modify Xsession, while he has enough to modify .xsession. Not that I have any 
solution... As you said, .xsession is called only when the desktop 
environment is known, so if kdm knows it should start kde then in every case 
the ordinary user cannot fix the problem.

- -- 
Disclaimer: The above gramar and speling mistaches
are copiryghted (C) by there respective authors.
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