RH 8 GUI question

[dishawjp]

Hi All,

I know that I'm not too smart, and when it comes to GUI's... any GUI's I'm really very stupid.

I'm running RH 8 with the Gnome desktop. Last weekend I installed RH 8 on my oldest daughter's computer. I set it up with the default Gnome desktop, but I did a custom install so I also installed KDE. The problem is that my daughter wants to try out the KDE desktop and I have no idea what she has to do to get X to load KDE. I did set up a RH 8 computer for my younger daughter, and she set it up with the KDE desktop, but when I talked to her and asked her how she did it, she just said that she kept "clicking" on things and then she got it. Since she's in PA in college, she can't just mess with my other daughter's computer and "click on stuff" to get hers to run KDE. And, I have to admit that her desktop is really nice looking compared to mine, but then I rarely "startx" anyway. And if it weren't for the gimp'ed digital picture my younger daughter took and put on account as my "wallpaper" I'd still be running the rock-stock Bluecurve that it came with.

So, anyway, my question is, how do I get my older daughter's Xwindows to run KDE instead of Gnome.

If anyone would be good enough (after you get done laughing at stupid old farts trying to deal with GUI's) I would be very appreciative.

My second question is for me. When I do "startx" on my computer, it would be nice to have a terminal window open. I did figure out how to add one to my panel, but is there a way to have Xwindows open and automatically open a terminal window like my Windows computers automatically open a DOS window when they start?

TIA for any help.

Jim

edit

I almost forgot... when using the Nautilus file manager, I prefer setting up folders as "
list -> zoom out." I would guess that there must be some way to set that as the default and not have to set each directory to that. The question is how. I don't use it a lot, but the big, ugly icon things really difficult fo me to deal with. Thanks again.

Jim

[Void Main]

If you start your system in runlevel 5 it should boot up to a graphical login. Before you enter your username and password click on "Session" at the bottom of the login screen and select whichever Window manager you want. It will ask you if you want that to become your default so you don't have to select it every time. If you do not use a graphical login and use "startx" to start X then type "switchdesk KDE" before typing "startx". To get back to GNOME type "switchdesk GNOME".

In GNOME to get a gnome-terminal to start every time you log in have it open when you log out and click on "Save current setup". It should start a gnome-terminal automatically next time you log in.

As far as the big ugly ICON thing, I don't know because I don't use graphical file managers and I figured a guy like you wouldn't either. :) Nothing like a bash shell prompt for me...

[Calum]

In GNOME to get a gnome-terminal to start every time you log in have it open when you log out and click on "Save current setup". It should start a gnome-terminal automatically next time you log in.

and that exact same advice also applies in KDE, FYI.

As far as the big ugly ICON thing, I don't know because I don't use graphical file managers and I figured a guy like you wouldn't either. Nothing like a bash shell prompt for me...

either that or just use a file manager other than nautilus, how about gentoo or xfm? i haven't used either yet, but from what i have seen, they might be more your cup of tea, dish. (dosman is an easier name to remember btw, but i can see why you changed it! maybe you should be 'bashman'? )

[dishawjp]

Thanks for the prompt answers Void Main and Calum.

I'll give it a try when I get home from work tonight. I also like your suggestion Calum about changing my name here from dishawjp to bashman. I only use that here because that's what I use as a login name on my computers and I was having trouble remembering my "names" on the different forums I'm in.

Jim