So I went into the KDE System Settings/Advanced/Login Manager, and had a look at the tabs -- they looked very much as the default.
Anyway, selected administrator mode, and then clicked on the "Defaults" tab, and applied the changes (none that I could see).
Then repeated the restart process and... usplash works flawlessly.
Not sure how to classify this one: kdm, or usplash.
So I went into the KDE System Settings/ Advanced/ Login Manager, and had a look at the tabs -- they looked very much as the default.
Anyway, selected administrator mode, and then clicked on the "Defaults" tab, and applied the changes (none that I could see).
Then repeated the restart process and... usplash works flawlessly.
Not sure how to classify this one: kdm, or usplash.