I have installed KDE as my desktop, I have managed to get XMBC working from KDE. At times it would be nice just have XMBC load automatically from boot up. I know that its possible to have XBMC load as the Desktop Enviroment.
Is it possible to have something like this setup for Grub?
1 - openSUSE - KDE (Default)
2 - openSUSE - KDE (SafeMode)
3 - openSUSE - XMBC
4 - Windows XP
If so is it also possible to get more fancy and have KDE goto a login screen and XMBC auto login?
Thanks
Desktop selection is made at the login screen. So for multiple desktop environments you should disable auto-login (which is a security issue IMO anyway, so I never have auto-login enabled.)
Then from the ‘Sessions’ (lower Left of screen) you can choose Desktop Environment.
I do not know of a way to set this up in grub.
One way that could work would be to dual boot two different installations of OpenSUSE and let them share the same home folder with the same user set up on both. That way you could configure one to start with KDE and the other with XBMC. And, since you’ve got two installed operating systems, GRUB should let you choose which one you want to boot up with. Maybe it’s overkill for your uses, but it might work… 
You have the misconception that the desktop has something to do with the boot process. When the system has finished booting into runlevel 5, users can login using cmd/gdm/kdm (a displaymanager) and there they can choose which desktop each of thoser users wants (as default, or just for that one session). Remember that Unix/Linux is a multiuser system. So you can have many users loging in, each having their own choice of DE.
As caf4926 suggested the fact that you most probably have the autologin on makes that the difference between boot and login became vary vague to you. The fact that you most probably configured only one user on the system does not help here. You should be aware of the fact that this is not typical Unix/Linux usage and that the system is designed to have more users loged in at the time and that this has consequences.
Why don’t you use run levels and choose alternative login manger in run level 4 to kdm? Then “simply” passing ‘4’ as boot parameter would let you choose the alternative. In past I have used the init= boot parameter to set a flag for later in boot sequence, and then start normal bootup.
So possible, whether it’s worth the effort only you can judge, personally I’d rather choose session type at login screen, as others have suggested.
A workaround I use is to autostart xbmc from KDE, but this machine is mostly for living-room media center. Apart from that the two-installation idea seems feasible.
Thanks for the suggestions.
I was thinking more along the lines of having a secondary or dynamic file for ‘/etc/sysconfig/desktop’. Which would be pointed to as a switch from grub. I though it might be possible from some of the live cd’s you get the option to select a desktop from grub. But I guess really an option
For the record I understand
A) The security risks of having autologin enabled, which is why I stated to have the system default to a login screen. (which really isn’t an issue to me since my laptop doesn’t travel)
B) The desktop is seperate from the OS Layer.
Other then the extra amount of HDD space for a seperate install of OS, I think I may go that method.
Thanks again for the help and suggestions.
It really not that hard to install both Gnome and KDE. Other ways can be done but the login screen is designed to allow you to select the desktop environment, why not use it?
In fact it is rather simple. The meachanisms you have with GRUB are combinations of:
you can GRUB let boot different systems from different partitions;
you can let GRUB boot from the same partition, but give it different parameters, these parameters are either parameters to let it boot a different kernel, and kernel parameters (among them the runlevel).
The GRUB documentation (man grub and info grub) give the details.
You may be able to combine these things onto a construction that fullfills your wishes. When not, then it can not be done.
Using run levels for switching modes has the advantage a reboot is not required. Running init(8) with 3, 4 or 5 would let you switch between text, xmbc or kdm mode.
Doubling the install looks like a ludicrous solution to me, instead of using the boot features as intended by the designers. Running updates and configuring things twice, is not an efficient use of time.