Die K Desktopumgebung

9.11. KDE (kdm) doesn't read my .bash_profile!

Well, xdm (and kdm) doesn't run a login shell, so .profile, .bash_profile, etc. are not sourced. When the user logs in, xdm runs Xstartup as root and then Xsession as user. So the normal practice is to add statements in Xsession to source the user profile. Please edit your Xsession and .xsession files.