>From: OinkFreeBiker@att.net
>Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2001 23:38:52 +0000
>[...] 
> My last advice was to move /home/me/.xinitrc out of 
> the way. So I renamed it to .xinitrc_1. Then I
> rebooted. And did login as me.
> 
> It did the same thing, flipping out for a second,
> and then asking for login again.
>[...]

Try moving some other stuff out of the way, such as your startup files
(.profile, .cshrc, .bash_profile, .bashrc, and so on) until you
isolate whatever is causing the problem.  Or, working in the other
direction, move all your files somewhere else, and move things back to
your home directory until it breaks.

> Could it be that, having done login as root, there
> is proper authority to startx? But having done login
> as me, that authority is lacking?

No, kdm is run as root from rc.local and has privilege to do
everything that needs to be done.  There's something in your home
directory that's screwing it up.  In my case it was .xinitrc but in
your case it could be some other file.

--
entropy -- it's not just a good idea, it's the second law.