RedHat 7

> 1) shutting down from the graphical login doesn't always work (I
> sometimes have to click there twice)

This is a bug.

> 2) from konsole (kde console?), /bin/su works, while "login root"
> doesn't accept the passwd

This is NOT a bug! (if you don't understand why, look up "securetty").

> 3) sometimes kpackage wouldn't accept the root passwd (probably related
> to (2)

No. It's a bug.

> 4) ls --color is different for "root" and "user" (doesn't color rpm
> files when run by "user", for example) Somebody told me that this can be
> "customized" however.

This is not a bug. You are supposed to custimize things the way you like.

> 5) Suddenly, new instances of xemacs acquired white instead of the usual
> grey background. I removed all ~/.emacs* files to exclude the
> possibility of "customazation". It still has white background

I wouldn't use emacs instead of vi.

> 6) screensavers in KDE used to work fine. At some point, I got stuck
> with "Science" screensaver and I couldn't change it back via "display
> properties".

Edit your misbegotten corrupt .kde/…/kdeXYZrc file.

> 7) In KDE, I always configure the panel to be "tiny". Sometimes it goes
> back to being "normal" without asking for my permission.

Ditto. With kpanelrc.

> 8) X server dumps messages to tty1 (this is probably a "feature")

It's probably intended, yes. It rather indicates you don't have syslogd running or configured, though.

> 9) Sometimes, shutting down results in blank screen, sometimes it ends
> with "System halted", sometimes "system is halted", while putting
> "system halted" in tty2

Sounds like you need to investigate your bios apm settings. Or this might be a genuine race condition. But why do you care? Is there a functional difference?

> BTW, who needs xinetd.d ? What was wrong with inetd.d ?

Nothing. Put it back. Don't put up with redhat if you don't want to.

Peter