I'm back to starting on runlevel 4. I just rebooted to check. I have to log in at the sucky KDE greeting screen. I see no sign of SDDM. The bottom left hand corner doesn't have any part of SDDM, but some part of kde . As for /etc/sddm.conf, the AutoLogin section looks like this: Now I've been running a 'pgrep sddm' in the background. Three processes start, and two stay running after I log in. But I never see sddm on screen, I see kde instead. The 'nuclear option' for kde is looking very attractive right now.

Apparently sddm.conf also allows me to start wayland and confuse myself with that, but I'll hold off on that for a while.

In runlevel 3, I'm already logged in, so I never see the login screen. So the problem appears to be that I'm getting the kde login screen instead of the Mate offering.

That's really impossible IF you installed everything from aaa_libs to the bsd games and you do not played with the autologin options on Plasma5's System Settings. And honestly the SDDM is a program which I know quite well how behaves.

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I wouldn't call it KDE greeting screen. It is SDDM. Wait a moment, don't type your password immediately. Instead, look at the bottom left hand corner. Which 'Desktop Session' is selected? Click there and change it first, and log in only after that.

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Well, that doesn't make sense... or, rather, it might make sense depending on how you tried to compile. But as you've found out, audit is not part of a full slackware install, nor is it needed for compiling either elogidnd or polkit if you use Pat's buildscripts (including patches and other files). at github-com elogind, it's listed as an optional dependency. There's no audit package on my system and I've built both elogind and polkit a number of times these last few days without any issues during build.

Since your login troubles persist, maybe it would be worth removing all KDE packages from your system and see if you then can login to a mate session.

It is possible to install chosen KDE applications, although it can be a nuisance to trach down all dependencies. Even if I've skipped most of KDE I do have k3b installed, which requires thirty-something other KDE packages.

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OP, you are kind to show us a photo made with a phone, of that login screen?

Honestly, I am truly convinced that you did NOT installed all Slackware packages and that's why you got this mess.

Or maybe your MATE packages replace critical packages on Slackware?

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What is the kde login screen ? The sddm one ? sddm is a package from kde, written by the kde devs.

So if you launch sddm you have its login screen and you should have the choice of your desktop as said in posts above.

I called it a KDE screen, because it is the KDE background pic in the background, if slightly out of focus. But you're right, I can get up the virtual keyboard, and all of the sessions before I log in. I instinctively presumed I was back in kde, but it's just hiding the Virtual keyboard. I even got into Wayland, and the sky didn't fall in.

Encouraged by kgha, I exercised the 'nuclear option' on the entire kde package set. I presume I can do likewise for the various half-assed window managers (blackbox, fluxbox, fvwm, motif, twm, window maker, etc.). Apologies to the remaining ardent user of one of these (imho) failed projects. I don't enjoy learning curves any more or seeing what's possible.

I think I can offer an explanation for everything. ALL packages were installed (except e/ & f/), but I wasn't using Pat's build scripts and didn't wrestle much with the compile. So I didn't wrestle with elogind, because a package was quickly coming.

@BrunoLafleur: SDDM is a theme-able window manager (in x/). The KDE devs appear to have written themselves a theme (in kde/). That probably explains why sddm was looking like kde. That kde/ package went with the rest of kde, and I'm back to default behaviour A look at the relevant text files shows I have no idea to what extent kde devs are involved in sddm, or anything else.

The "Greeter" or "Login Screen" IS SDDM. That function is called "Chooser" but is only a part of KDE's SDDM which is primarily a Display Manager with a Login/Chooser function. If you'd like to test it, just try Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to restart it or Alt-F1 to drop back to Runlevel 3. That, incidentally is an improvement over SDDM's predecessor, KDM which required killing it before returning.

It's maintained by some guys at KDE (among others), but it's not a part of the project
The only "sddm thing" maintained by the team is sddm-kcm

But the line is thin, I confess
sddm is designed for Plasma, mainly used by them, but is not part of the project... who knows why...

I don't think sddm uses anything from the kde/ directory. So, it should be possible to reinstall only sddm, if wanted after the nuclear option.

No, it is not a window manager like fvwm or blackbox, it is a login manger, also known as a display manager. Such display managers allow users to login to a graphical environment without first logging in to a text console. Some such display managers including SDDM allows the user to choose desktop environment or window manager at login.

With KDM running you can still switch to different virtual consoles with key combinations like ctrl-alt-f2, this is a Linux feature configured with /etc/inittab rather than a display manager feature. However, KDM also has a menu choice to kill all X servers and switch to a text console. If I remember right, kdm remains in the background and restart an X server when you exit from such a text console login.

regards Henrik

Nuking kde/ doesn't nuke sddm, which is in X. All I nuke is the kde theme, which is an advantage, to my mind.

@enorbet: I suppose it depends on which window manager you're in. Alt-F1 gets me the Mate Applications menu.

What I would like is to replicate the keystroke switching between the 4 VTs in Mate & XFCE. XFCE allowed a switch between them with Ctrl_F1-F4, which I found very productive.

That's easily done in mate using the Keyboard Shortcut tool: System > Preferences > Hardware > Keyboard Shortcuts, or mate-keybinding-properties from terminal. Scroll down to Window management and you'll find the entries for switching between workspaces.

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I have same Slackware-current (64-bit) problem (even after running /var/log/setup/xwconfig as root). I use runlevel 3 but startx runs KDE instead of XFCE.

Use