Salamo Alaikom to all..
I have this slight problem, it started when I ran Nautilus from a root shell on my normal user KDE desktop.. It changed my desktop to GNOME's. The windows and all were still KDE's, but the desktop (background, background menus, etc) got changed to GNOME's! Even when I logged out and logged in again, everything is fine but then it changes to GNOME desktop after a few seconds. I checked the processes and there was Nautilus running while it is not supposed to (it's KDE). When I tried killing it, the desktop freezed as expected. Finally I changed permissions to Nautilus, and the problem is now partially solved. Of course, this is a very lame solution for the problem (changing permissions for N), so, anyone has any clue on what Nautilus has changed when I ran it as root, so I can change it back?
It's RedHat 9,
Thanks in advance..

first of all there is a way to run nautilus without it taking control of your desktop (probably a command line option).

now if I remember correctly (I don't use DE's) KDE has a session manager that remembers the apps you had running when you last closed it, so it is running nautilus again for that reason.
I suppose running KDE and closing it with no apps running would solve the problem, if it doesn't then there must be some session manager for KDE to deal with the problem.

maybe KDE or Gnome users would be able to offer more help.

cheers,
Alaa

Salamo 3alaikom,

When you installed RH9, did you choose your default desktop env to be KDE or GNOME? Try killing Nautilus via a virtual console and then return to the X virtual console. Exit KDE (logout) then re-login.

Salam.

I re-changed the permissions for Nautilus (+x), logged out and logged in again, and everything went fine this time. I think it just needed one session where Nautilus wasn't running to be fixed..
This reminds me of IE to a great extent, taking over your desktop in an evil way! lol
Thanks guys..

I don't like the way nautilus takes over the desktop either.
and yes it is similar to IE, but let it be noted that

1- you can easily disable this behaviour, not only through the command line but from the preferences menu in nautilus in a gui luser friendly way.

2- you can choose a different tool to take over you desktop (if you really need one to do so), and alternatives do exist (although the new fascist regime governing gnome is moving away from such flexibility).

3- there are attempts at places like freedesktop.org to standardise the "feature" of taking over your desktop, so that both KDE, Gnome and whatever DE chooses to conform, and maybe other apps (rox-filer??) can do it in the same way and thus be easily interchangeable.

4- removing nautilus doesn't break Gnome let alone the whole operating system.

5- the creators of nautilus where not found in a court of law to have written it for the purpose of crushing competition and creating an illegal monopoly.

cheers,
Alaa

nautilus --no-desktop