Kdm session manager

[James Richard Tyrer]

Luca wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I have installed kde-3.5.4, xfce4, metacity, gnome-2.14.2 and
> gnome-2.16.0 and I use kdm as login manager. I created the desktop files
> for the sessions but I am unable to start gnome-2.16.0.
> Kde-3.5.4 is installed in /opt/kde-3.5.4 with a symlink /opt/kde
> pointing to it, gnome-2.14.2 is installed in /opt/gnome-2.14.2 with a
> symlink /opt/gnome pointing to it, gnome-2.16.0 is installed in
> /opt/gnome-2.16.0, xfce4 is installed in /usr and metacity is installed
> in /usr.
> 
> Since I use to launch dbus-daemon with gnome my gnome-xxx desktop files
> looks so:
> gnome-dbus.desktop
> [Desktop Entry]
> Encoding=UTF-8
> Name=GNOME with D-BUS
> Comment=GNOME Desktop with D-BUS support
> Exec=dbus-launch --exit-with-session gnome-session
> TryExec=/usr/bin/dbus-launch
> Icon=
> Type=Application
> 
> gnome-2.16.0-dbus.desktop
> [Desktop Entry]
> Encoding=UTF-8
> Name=GNOME 2.16.0 with D-BUS
> Comment=GNOME 2.16.0 Desktop with D-BUS support
> Exec=dbus-launch --exit-with-session /opt/gnome-2.16.0/bin/gnome-session
> TryExec=/usr/bin/dbus-launch
> Icon=
> Type=Application
> 
> How do I manage to start the different sessions?
> I also tried to modify /opt/kde-3.5.4/share/config/kdm/Xsession in this way:
> case $session in
>   "")
>     exec xmessage -center -buttons OK:0 -default OK "Sorry,
> $DESKTOP_SESSION is no valid session."
>     ;;
>   failsafe)
>     exec xterm -geometry 80x24-0-0
>     ;;
>   custom)
>     exec $HOME/.xsession
>     ;;
>   default)
>     exec /opt/kde-3.5.4/bin/startkde
>     ;;
>   Gnome-2.14.2)
>     export BINDIR=/opt/gnome-2.14.2/sbin
>     export HOME=$HOME/.gnome-2.14.2
>     export SBINDIR=/opt/gnome-2.14.2/sbin
>     export LIBEXECDIR=/opt/gnome-2.14.2/lib/gdm
>     export PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R7/bin:$GNOMEDIR
>     exec /opt/gnome-2.14.2/bin/gnome-session
>     ;;
>   Gnome-2.16.0)
>     export BINDIR=/opt/gnome-2.16.0/sbin
>     export HOME=$HOME/.gnome-2.16.0
>     export SBINDIR=/opt/gnome-2.16.0/sbin
>     export LIBEXECDIR=/opt/gnome-2.16.0/lib/gdm
>     export PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R7/bin:$GNOMEDIR
>     exec /opt/gnome-2.16.0/bin/gnome-session
>     ;;
>   *)
>     eval exec "$session"
>     ;;
> esac
> exec xmessage -center -buttons OK:0 -default OK "Sorry, cannot execute
> $session. Check $DESKTOP_SESSION.desktop."
> 
> Still I am unable to start gnome-2.16.0, and just a note when I start
> gnome-2.14.2 it seems to load in background some things of gnome-2.16.0,
> I have two trash icons.

If you are going to directly execute "gnome-session" the stuff you put 
in the: "gnome-xxx.desktop" is not relevant since it is NOT executed.

I don't think that you want to change HOME and I have no idea if setting 
BINDIR, SBINDIR, & LIBEXECDIR does anything at all except to take up 
space.  Stuff in the environment doesn't do any good unless something 
reads it.

What is: GNOMEDIR?  IAC, the directory "/opt/gnome-<version>/bin" needs 
to go at the _start_ of the PATH.  If there is stuff in: 
"/opt/gnome-<version>/sbin" you might need to add that as well although 
normally, only root uses it.

Then, you have two sets of GNOME libraries.  You must use the correct 
ones.  To control this, you must set the environment variable 
LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

	LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/gnome-<version>/lib
	export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

There are other issues so I would recommend that rather than putting 
this stuff in your "Xsession" script that you write a short script to 
start GNOME -- one script for each version.

I find that to run GNOME that I must set: XDG_CONFIG_DIRS.

-- 
JRT
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