ken wrote:
> I tried adding hal,dbus, and ivman. They all emerged but hal wouldn't
> install via rc-update. (couldn't be found error)

Look in /etc/init.d/ - it's hald rather than hal ("d" for "daemon",
probably). You can also run "rc-update show" to see the settings.

> I setup kdm as per the instructions.
> I can only login as root. If I try to login using a user account
> kdm starup stalls at either the 'system' or 'perphials' stage,
> times out, and leaves me with a blank pale blue screen.

This sounds very similar to
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...a29f4e6bb9ec05

Try renaming your ~/.dmrc file.