[kde-linux] kde comes up but screen is black

[rossi at york.cuny.edu]

Good morning everyone:

I have a problem with getting the kde desktop.

I concede this may not be kde-related but X-related.  In any case, I need
help.

I am using a Debian-based operating system on a laptop.

What I am experiencing is that, at login time, the kde server brings up kde,
I see the kde splash page saying "kde coming up" but then the screen is
black.  There is no kde desktop.  I know it's there, but I can't see
anything.  I just have the mouse moving around on a black screen.  There is
no desktop.

1) ps -ef | grep kdm
root      2523     1  0 08:02 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/kdm
so the kdm server is running

2) ps -ef | grep kde
rossi     2722     1  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 kdeinit Running...
rossi     2725     1  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 dcopserver [kdeinit] --nosid
rossi     2727  2722  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 klauncher [kdeinit]
--new-startup
rossi     2729     1  0 08:20 ?        00:00:53 kded [kdeinit] --new-startup
rossi     2736     1  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 ksmserver [kdeinit]
rossi     2737  2722  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 kwin [kdeinit] -session
1012e142e6b1
rossi     2739     1  0 08:20 ?        00:00:01 kdesktop [kdeinit]
rossi     2741     1  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 kicker [kdeinit]
rossi     2744  2722  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 kio_file [kdeinit] file
/tmp/ksocket
rossi     2749     1  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 kio_uiserver [kdeinit]
rossi     2753     1  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 kxkb [kdeinit]
rossi     2759     1  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 kaccess [kdeinit]
rossi     2763  2722  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 kcalc [kdeinit] -session
1012e142e6b
rossi     2764  2722  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 konsole [kdeinit] -session
1012e142e
rossi     2765  2722  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 konsole [kdeinit] -session
1012e142e
rossi     2767     1  0 08:20 ?        00:00:00 knotify [kdeinit]

so I think all of kde is there.

3) cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager
/usr/bin/kdm
so this is the default X-server.

Can you please help me recover the kde desktop?

Thank you for your help with this.

Regards,

Angelo