starting kde on boot

[Qv6 <sundiatah_(_at_)_comcast_(_dot_)_net>]

Folk,

This one has me scratching my head:

I can boot into kdm, login as a regular user and have a stock X working.
I can type "startx" once I'm logged in and have kde up, but with no 
mouse functionality.
The relevant section of /etc/rc.local reads thus:
#based on a solution posted by S.Marley

	echo -n ' kdm'; (sleep 5; /usr/local/bin/kdm  ${kdm_flags}) &

"Kdm_flags" is set in rc.local.conf

I have a .xsession file in ~ that has this line

	exec startx

I have also tried startkde instead of startx in .xsession, but I cannot 
get kde to come up once I'm logged in.
/etc/X11/xdm/xsession has been edited.

Any clues? something I've missed?

TIA