[NTLUG:Discuss] RH 8.0 questions.

[kbrannen@gte.net]

Wayne Dahl wrote:
...
> libImlib.so.11.0.0 and, voila, it works.  Now I have a different problem
> in that I can't seem to switch back to Gnome from Enlightenment as there
> are no menu options to switch desktop managers.  In fact, most of my
> menus showing under Gnome are now gone under Enlightenment.  I think
> that once I have it back the way it was before, I'll use a test account
> to mess with Enlightenment until I'm satisfied with the way it works or
> the way I can make it work.

I haven't used gnome in awhile, so you may have to adapt this a bit. :-)

The start up of X is generally controlled by a file called ".xinitrc" (some 
distros may do it differently, especially if you boot into run level 5). 
First check your home directory.  If you have one there, it takes precedence 
over all others.  If you don't have one there, then there is a system one 
somewhere (e.g. /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc on my system) that will be used 
instead.  If you don't have one in your home, copy the system default one to 
your home dir.

Now that we know what file controls the process, you'll need to edit that 
file, forcing it to your favorite WM.  You may find (Suse does this) that it 
can be easily overridden with an environmental var (e.g. WINDOWMANAGER).  If 
that is true for your .xinitrc, then do:
	export WINDOWMANAGER="/opt/gnome/bin/gnome-wm"
or set it to whatever you want it to be, in your .profile or .bash_profile or 
whatever you use.  If your .xinitrc does not use the env-var, then you'll have 
to find out how it's set in the .xinitrc and override it with your choice. 
The .xinitrc file is merely a shell script, so you must understand at least 
var assignments and if/then/else, or so it is the case for mine.

BTW, I'll use this opportunity to point out the power of Linux (for those who 
are new).  You have the ability to control how your system starts up, in text 
mode (run level 3) or in GUI mode (run level 5).  If you want full, absolute, 
"my way" control, :-) then start in text mode, and after you login, you can 
issue the "startx" command to get the GUI.  Though the distro makers should 
allow you to customize the login process, it is possible that they may take a 
short-cut or two and do a few things automatically that you don't want. 
Fortunately, that seems to now be mostly a thing of the past and they've fixed 
those bugs (features :-).

HTH,
Kevin