Posted this on the KDE board but got no reply. Can anybody help?

Knoppix (Debian) system with KDE 3.2.3; although I don't think this is relevant because I have had the same problem with Mandrake & others.
Problem is with many applications I get an error message:

Code:
kdeinit could not launch <application>
usually the application starts anyway & runs just fine, often the error message does not appear until after the application has launched, been run & closed out.
There doesn't seem to be any pattern to these errors, for instance I drag'n'dropped the kpat icon from the start menu to the desktop; it starts kpat just fine but I get the error box anyway.
Another example: I drag'n'dropped the kate icon to the desktop, then changed properties to run as a different user (root). Again, it starts & runs OK but I get a 'kdeinit could not lauch kdesu' message.
I have had the same problem with new created desktop icons ie not drag'n'dropped from the start menu. I just use drag'n'drop because it's easier.

What's happening & how do I fix it?
Thanks.