Hi Tim,

thanks for your help.

I've uncommented my PATH assignment in my .zshrc and executed env.
Here are the interesting results:
PATH=/home/stefan/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/usr/NX/bin
KDEDIRS=/usr/

Should KDEDIRS really point to /usr/?

BTW, I get the same PATH when I login using the control+alt+f1 console. Seems that my PATH in /etc/environment is overwritten anyway.

And yes, I have different startkde scripts on my system:
% locate startkde
/opt/kde-nightly/bin/safestartkde
/opt/kde-nightly/bin/startkde
/opt/kde3/bin/startkde
/usr/bin/safestartkde
/usr/bin/startkde

I suppose the wrong startkde is called. I will try to determine that.

Here is the complete output of env:
% env
LESSOPEN=| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s
KDE_FULL_SESSION=true
DM_CONTROL=/var/run/xdmctl
GS_LIB=/home/stefan/.fonts
USER=stefan
KDEDIRS=/usr/
HOSTNAME=d630
SSH_AGENT_PID=6477
SHLVL=1
HOME=/home/stefan
XDM_MANAGED=/var/run/xdmctl/xdmctl-:0,maysd,mayfn,sched,rsvd,method=classic
OLDPWD=/home/stefan
DESKTOP_SESSION=kde3
XDG_SESSION_COOKIE=86c4985d911b842c66aeca3b48886e4a-1240855278.209129-1682253260
GTK_RC_FILES=/etc/gtk/gtkrc:/home/stefan/.gtkrc:/home/stefan/.kde3/share/config/gtkrc

DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-JtDyiFBunE,guid=ec0eddd5635a57a46ac40cfb49f5f2f0

LOGNAME=stefan
_=/usr/bin/env
READNULLCMD=/usr/bin/pager
GTK2_RC_FILES=/home/stefan/.gtkrc-2.0-kde:/home/stefan/.kde3/share/config/gtkrc-2.0

SESSION_MANAGER=local/d630:/tmp/.ICE-unix/6538
PATH=/home/stefan/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/usr/NX/bin

XCURSOR_THEME=DMZ-White
DISPLAY=:0.0
LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
WRITE_ON_UDEV=yes
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-klbVMl6376/agent.6376
SHELL=/bin/zsh
KDE_MULTIHEAD=false
MESA_NO_ASM=1
GPG_AGENT_INFO=/tmp/gpg-4o5YCJ/S.gpg-agent:6478:1
KDEHOME=/home/stefan/.kde
PWD=/home/stefan
JAVA_HOME=/usr/share/java/jdk1.6/jre
XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/etc/xdg/
KDE_SESSION_UID=
DISTCC_HOSTS=+zeroconf
MANPATH=/opt/kde3/share/man:
EDITOR=vim
JDK_HOME=/usr/share/java/jdk1.6
DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID=
LANGUAGE=
TERM=xterm
PROFILEHOME=
COLORFGBG=15;0
KONSOLE_DBUS_SERVICE=:1.38
KONSOLE_DBUS_SESSION=/Sessions/1
WINDOWID=81788929
MAIL=/var/mail/stefan
LS_COLORS=no=00:fi=00:di=01;34:ln=01;36:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;31;01:su=37;41:sg=30;43:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.svgz=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.lzma=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.dz=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tbz2=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.deb=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.rar=01;31:*.ace=01;31:*.zoo=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.7z=01;31:*.rz=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.svg=01;35:*.mng=01;35:*.pcx=01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.m2v=01;35:*.mkv=01;35:*.ogm=01;35:*.mp4=01;35:*.m4v=01;35:*.mp4v=01;35:*.vob=01;35:*.qt=01;35:*.nuv=01;35:*.wmv=01;35:*.asf=01;35:*.rm=01;35:*.rmvb=01;35:*.flc=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.gl=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.yuv=01;35:*.aac=00;36:*.au=00;36:*.flac=00;36:*.mid=00;36:*.midi=00;
36:*.mka=00;36:*.mp3=00;36:*.mpc=00;36:*.ogg=00;36:*.ra=00;36:*.wav=00;36:
ZSHDIR=/home/stefan/.zsh
LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s

Regards,
Stefan