Display/Login Managers

joey_g · n00b Joined: 06 May 2008 Posts: 44

I'm wondering what are the different ways/options in starting a graphical interface like kdm. Lately I've been using xdm at the default run level to start kde but I've wondered why I had to emerge xorg-server (which took me 15 minutes to compile) just to start a graphical interface. Are there thriftier ways I can automatically enter the graphical environment (kde) without using xdm, xorg-server or xorg-x11? I thought xdm and xorg-x11 were needed to start a graphical interface (kde) but after an unmerge everything seems to work. I'm still trying to figure this out.

SeaTiger · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 7:26 am Post subject:

xorg-server is the graphic engine
-- xdm, gdm, kdm are login manager that run on top of xorg
-- gnome, kde, xfce, etc... are window manager that run on top of xorg

Even you start kde without xdm, you are still using xorg. If you do a ps -ef, you will see X is actually running.

easy target · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 09 Jan 2008 Posts: 134

xorg-x11 is a meta package consisting of several packages needed to run xorg. xorg-server is a server :-), it's one of the packages pulled by xorg-x11.

As junksiu stated, xdm, kdm, gdm are graphical login managers using xorg to start a window manager (or whole desktop environment) like gnome, kde, xfce, fluxbox etc.

So, to start kde You need xorg-x11 (which pulls xorg-server) and kdm (kde login manager) and kde.

IMO the best would be following kde install guide:

http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/kde/kde-config.xml