[CS-FSLUG] GDM, KDM and Services

[Ed Hurst]

On Sun, 14 Nov 2010, EnzoAeneas wrote:

> Did you try pstree and then look for the processes started by GDM/KDM?

I am somewhat back to my original question. I'm testing the idea on
Ubuntu Lucid. Using IceWM and Slim, I found several essential services
did not start as they did under GDM, to include sound. This, despite
being listed among the init services supposed to start at boot time.

None of these were linked under pstree to GDM, yet without GDM they did
not start. I realize this is likely distro-dependent, but it recalls the
same trouble I had in the past with other distros, such as SuSE,
Mandriva, Red Hat, etc.

At the same time, I have to specifically kill gnome-screensaver, which
does not work without GNOME, then start xscreensaver manually. This was
one of the reasons I tried to get out of using GDM. It seems any distro
which offers a strong GNOME installation links too many things to it.
Similar experiences with KDE/KDM. I don't know whether it's something
simply common as a practice, or if it's the design of the DEs, but if
either is present on the system, I struggle to make it work sensibly
when trying not to use it.

With Ubuntu there are flavors and I could reinstall, but Red Hat and
friends come only with one or another DE, unless you simply do without X
altogether. I will not consider running any other distros at this time,
so if anyone knows enough about Red Hat to help me untangle this, I'd be
very grateful.

Ed Hurst
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