display not set- kde won't start

[zargyl]

I'm running redhat 7.2, everything's going fine, then I do a reboot and now KDE won't start, I just get the command line login.

After searching the archives, I found the "startkde" command, but I get the error:

xsetroot: unable to open display ""
xset: unable to open display ""
ksplash: cannot connect to X server
Aborting: $DISPLAY is not set.

This doesn't sound like a kde problem...what is the $DISPLAY variable, and how do I set it/what should it be set to? Thanks.

[mychl]

I think you're close, but not quite. The display variable is assigned by xinit I think. I don't think you should do it, but if you do, try 0:0

export DISPLAY=0:0

I don't think you can run startkde without doing it at the same time as the xserver.

Try typing startx after logging in via text mode. It's not kde that is having problems but it's your xserver.

If you get errors after typing startx, post 'em and we'll try to help. If not, and X starts up, then reboot again, your GUI login should come up. IF it does not, then let us know.

Good Luck

[zargyl]

Okay thanks for the input, it did work to set DISPLAY=0:0 and then enter "startx". KDE did startup successfully and the system seemed to work fine.

However, then I rebooted to test and the same problem happened again. I guess I can enter in a display value everytime I boot up or I need to find out where this variable is set. Any thoughts?

[2thumbs]

I assume you use BASH, so you can set it in /etc/profile ... which should have serveral exports in it already.. so just add it in. You can also set it in ~/.bashrc if you wish.