Loading a prefered DE with just the startx comand.

[Absent Minded]

I am not sure if I am just getting old or becoming senial but I can't remember for the life of me how to set the default Desktop Environment (DE) when not using a display manager. Every time I have Gnome and KDE installed and need to load my GUI from the command line interface (cli) I get Gnome instead of KDE even though I thought I had KDE as my default DE. I put this question here as I think it will be helpful to a new user. So far I have tried punching my question into Google but I must not be wording it correctly as it doesn't seem to come up with anything relivent. If someone would point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.

AM

[eric1959]

http://www.go2linux.org/how-to-install-startx . Could give you an answer ?!

[Absent Minded]

Thank you Eric1959 I will have a look.

[refracta]

update-alternatives --config x-window-manager
update-alternatives --config x-session-manager
and/or
use a .xinitrc file too specify what you want to start

[Absent Minded]

Thank you refracta

[Polaris96]

Thank you, Absent Minded. I just want to express solidarity- I "live" in CLI and have recently been brutally confronted with the fact that I'm basically a novice in all things GUI. It's heartening to see that people even smarter than me (thats a big compliment i'm pretty damned brilliant! Just ask I'll tellya so) occasionally need a push with GUI configs. (swear I feel like a freshman anytime I need to tweak X)

[Absent Minded]

Thank you Polaris96, I accept that complement with admiration. I have found a great many of your posts very helpful indeed.