KDE refuses to start

[ken at kg293.net (Ken Gosier)]

I have a problem with logging in to KDE. Currently, I boot up rh7.1 on my
toshiba laptop. It presents me with a login window, where I can log in to
kde or gnome. kde is the default, but a few days ago it started acting
screwy, though I didn't change any config stuff, as far as I know.

Now, when I type in my name and password, the screen simply blinks and
flashes a couple times, and then the login screen is presented to me
again. I can't get kde to do anything other than this. I can still log in
to gnome. I'm running kde 2.1:

[ken at localhost log]# rpm -qa | grep kde
kdelibs-2.1.1-5
kdenetwork-2.1.1-1
switchdesk-kde-3.9.5-1
kdetoys-2.1.1-2
kdelibs-sound-devel-2.1.1-5
kdesupport-2.1-3
kdeadmin-2.1.1-3
kdemultimedia-2.1.1-1
kdenetwork-ppp-2.1.1-1
kdebase-2.1.1-8
kdepim-2.1.1-1
kdeutils-2.1.1-1
kdegraphics-2.1.1-1
kdelibs-devel-2.1.1-5
kdelibs-sound-2.1.1-5
kdegames-2.1.1-1
kdesupport-devel-2.1-3
kdevelop-1.4.1-2

I notice a couple other things. There are several empty kde startup files
in my home dir from aborted login attempts:

[ken at localhost ken]$ ls -l KDE.*
-rw-------    1 ken      ken             0 Feb 18 20:45
KDE.startkde.F9uQCK
-rw-------    1 ken      ken             0 Feb 18 20:45
KDE.startkde.vFtgtA

Also in /var/log/messages, I see

Feb 18 20:45:01 localhost kde(pam_unix)[1136]: session opened for user ken
by (uid=0)
Feb 18 20:45:02 localhost kde(pam_unix)[1136]: session closed for user ken
Feb 18 20:45:12 localhost kde(pam_unix)[1216]: session opened for user ken
by (uid=0)
Feb 18 20:45:12 localhost kde(pam_unix)[1216]: session closed for user ken
Feb 18 20:45:21 localhost kde(pam_unix)[1296]: session opened for user ken
by (uid=0)
Feb 18 20:45:22 localhost gnome-name-server[1369]: starting
Feb 18 20:45:22 localhost gnome-name-server[1369]: name server starting

where the last lines are from when I finally logged in with gnome.

Many thanks for any help. Also, I can do research, but I don't know where
to look. I've looked through kde.org, but haven't found help on this
specific aberration--

-- 
Ken Gosier
ken at kg293.net