[kde-linux] Starting KDE4

[David Baron]

Since Debian puts it in /usr/bin, /usr/lib/kde4, most of all this path stuff 
is not the critical factor. As I said in recent posts, at Debian's startkde 
needs root privileges. Otherwize, everything from kcminit, plasma, knotify, 
et al, crash out. If the old kde is on the path (mine is in /opt/kde3.5...), 
kdesktop and kicker will kick in and be usable except for all those knotify 
crashes (one can move it out of the way), but this is not a real kde4 
session.

Visa-versa, running a kde3 session with the kde4 paths leading will bring up a 
perfectly OK kde3 session. Plasma will execute and crash. Live and learn.

Being able to have both a kde3.desktop and kde4.desktop in Xsessions is not 
enough. PATHs may need to be switched, though kde4 on Debian will run without 
changing the paths. But it needs root privileges and I have only gotten it 
started from a "failsafe" session by typing sudo /usr/bin/startkde in an 
xterm.