The KDE environment

Posted by peeper on Wed 1 Feb 2006 at 08:46

I'm running a number of Debian Sarge-based systems, with each using the Gnome Display Manager (gdm) to present a login screen after booting. From here the default is to log in to a KDE session.

Can anyone tell me where environment variables are set for a KDE session in order for them to take effect system-wide, for all users? I know that the KDE environment doesn't source any of the bash initialisation files (/etc/profile, /etc/bash.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile, etc), as I've experimented by changing the value of PATH in all of those files, without it having any effect on KDE's PATH environment variable upon session restart.

Maybe a better understanding of the start-up sequence from init bootstrap through to execution of an X-session, via an X login manager, would be useful? I have an outline understanding of the way that init starts up and forks for each terminal to present a login, etc, but I've yet to find anything that does a good job of explaining the way init starts and builds the environment for a graphical login and session, such as gdm and then a KDE session. Any guidance/links to good articles explaining this would be most welcome.

Thanks,

Peeper.

This article can be found online at the Debian Administration website at the following bookmarkable URL (along with associated comments):

http://www.debian-administration.org/article/The_KDE_environment