After 'switchdesk-gnome' GUI utility was used to switch to KDE, and with "Affects this display only" checked, attempts to use command line 'switchdesk' to get back to Gnome are ineffective. The problem is that even if a proper '~/.Xclients-default' was written there exist another one, which is a display specific, is not affected by 'switchdesk' at all and silently overrides .Xclients-default choice. 'switchdesk' does not seem to have a way, documented or otherwise, to deal with the situation. One can use 'rm', of course, provided knowledgable enough (but then one does not need 'switchdesk' at all :-). Michal michal
Do you still have this problem in Pinstripe?
When you check "Change only applies to current display", a .Xclients-$DISPLAY is written; otherwise a .Xclients-default is written. In order to overwrite the .Xclients-$DISPLAY you need to check "Change only applies to current display". But arguably it is a bug that switchdesk doesn't remove display-specific .Xclients files when writing a .Xclients-default, as the implication of not checking "current display only" is that the change will occur for all displays.
I agree that .Xclients-$DISPLAY is changed when changes apply to "current display only". The problem is that 'switchdesk' script does not have that notion (it can be faked and/or options to do that are easy to add) and it can be run totally outside of X when $DISPLAY is not set at all. Those who have some idea about the mechanism do not need 'switchdesk' at all; any editory and 'rm' will do. Others will be totally baffled. --mj
Actually, switchdesk has this option... Try switchdesk KDE local or switchdesk GNOME local We probably should implement --help though.
About "local" option... Yes, indeed, in switchdesk-helper but: - it affects only the current display - it is not operational outside of X while 'switchdesk' happily runs from a console. I had in mind an option which allows to specify display(s) affected regardless of a way one is logged in; say from a remote location. It is not a major surgery. An option which shows status of all switchdesk configured desktops would also be of a considerable help. As a real life example: I have serious troubles with the current version of KDE. After switching to KDE with a help of switchdesk-gnome and only on a "current" display I have no way to back off to GNOME with a help of switchdesk (no single terminal window under KDE so far). Yes, I know that I really do not need switchdesk for that task but with that knowledge I do not need switchdesk at all.
Having been just reassigned this package, I'm curious if this issue is still relevant in Red Hat Linux 8.0. If it is still an issue, please update the report so I know this and can investigate. If it isn't an issue, indicate that also please.
> I'm curious if this issue is still relevant in Red Hat Linux 8.0. I do not think so. Besides nowadays most people are likely using gdm facilities when switching desk types and from window managers supplied with 8.0 only twm does not have an entry in /etc/X11/gdm/Sessions although there is twm in /etc/X11/xdm/Xsession and 'switchdesk twm' will work. An oversight?
Not sure, if you think there's a bug there, you might want to file it against gdm though. I'll close the bug as CURRENTRELEASE since you've indicated you believe it to be ok now. Thanks.