After finally getting my Linux to a stage where it is actually usable, hardware is sorted, user account is finally sorted, I thought I'd install Gnome, which I prefer to KDE.
I used Synaptic to install "Gnome-Desktop-Environment" and also added "GDM".
Everything downloaded and seemed to install with no problems while setting up the components and got the regular "you can close the window now" prompt.
When I came to reboot it got as far as the login manager but the cursor was frozen and no amount of throwing the mouse around moved it. I don't know what the problem is but I ended up using apt-get to remove "Gnome Desktop Environment" - this removed 4 components -
Gnome Desktop Environment
Gnome Volume Manager
Hal
Udev
The mouse was working fine after this so I tried re-installing and got the same mouse problem but when they are removed, I don't have any problems with the mouse and I can get into Gnome from the login manager but there are quite a few problems with it.
As it starts up I get this error - I remember having this error when I installed Gnome on Gentoo a few weeks ago and never did manage to solve it.
Also there are other issues - It's like everything is unfinished, menus missing and when I try going to the control centre it brings up the KDE one.
Things like the panel, themes, Nautilus and all other Gnome stuff is there but I don't really know what's going on.

check the x-server log files?

cd /var/log
*look for a file that looks xfree86ish ( i use Xorg ) then....
cat thefile | grep EE

hmm... you should have gotten gnome on your computer with debian..... i've been using debian net installer for the past 4 months or so and every time it automatically installs gnome on there for me... infact it selects it as a default.... hrm.... are you trying to upgrade it to something different or somethin?

It is a Kanotix hard drive install, which is why Gnome didn't come with it.
As to the X-server log, there doesn't appear to be anything there that would suggest any problem with the keyboard or mouse, it shows modules are being loaded for both. The only error in there is something about not being able to find fonts.directory.
I have the keyboard layout set to British-English but I don't see why this should cause a problem and tried altering the language and keyboard layouts but when I restarted, Gnome was still giving me these errors. I really don't understand why installing Gnome should affect my hardware at all but it is definately caused by one the components I mentioned earlier -
Gnome Volume Manager
Hal
Udev

Kanotix gives you Debian Sid/Unstable where bugs are more usual than in Debian Testing or Stable. Ever wondered what "SID" in Debian Sid means? It means "Still In Development". It is not recommended for novice users. Especially the big and complex desktop environments, KDE and Gnome, are often more or less broken in Sid.

If you continue using Debian Sid, you should install apt-listbugs that warns you before you install packages that have known bugs. Then you'll have the chance to cancel the installation and wait until the bugs have been fixed.

It never really dawned on me. I read somewhere that different Debian names (Woody, Potato etc) were named after Toy Story characters.
I'll try installing the program you mentioned though for future reference. I still don't understand why a desktop environment should affect hardware though. Well, whatever, I'll have to give up on Gnome and stick with KDE, at least it works, most of the time.

Gnome uses HAL and UDEV that are supposed to offer a kind of "plug and play" functionality with hardware devices. UDEV uses hotplug to detect which devices are currently plugged in to the system but apparently it failed to recognize your mouse. This may be a Debian bug -- if it is, you should be safe as long as you don't install any packages that apt-listbugs points out as buggy.

You could try to install first just the gnome-core metapackage that provides only the basic Gnome desktop, although I think that even this includes HAL and UDEV, which seem to cause problems with your hardware. Or you may want to try xfce4 that resembles Gnome a bit in look and feel and integrates very well with Gnome apps.

If you upgrade packages with Synaptic, you can tell Synapic to "hold" the packages that apt-listbugs reports to be buggy. Some time later, perhaps after a week or two, you can tell Synaptic to unfreeze some packages that are marked to be "held" back and test if apt-listbugs still complains about them. This all is a bit laborious but it enables you to run a relatively stable Debian Unstable system.

I actually have XFCE4 downloading right now. I must admit, I want Gnome more for the look than the apps. Is there something like a basic Gnome Window Manager that works like Enlightenment or Icewm or something without all the apps, most of which I removed anyway last time I used Gnome cos
I prefer the KDE ones.

That would be the gnome-core metapackage I mentioned in my earlier post. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/gnome-core

Unless you mean the actual windowmanager for Gnome, called Metacity. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/metacity But Metacity doesn't include anything from the Gnome desktop. I think XFCE4 is a better option than just plain Metacity.

I have Metacity installed but when I choose it from the login manager, nothing happens, the login manager background just stays there but no Metacity. Do I need to change the default login manager or something?

Actually I've never tried to run Metacity as a standalone windowmanager, so I cannot help you there. From what I've read it appears to be a very minimalistic windowmanager while XFCE4 is a lightweight desktop environment, so this is the reason why I recommended XFCE. Besides, I use XFCE4 myself and I like it a lot.

Well I've given up on the Gnome idea for now. I just have one final question to wrap things up -
Now I have XFCE4 installed (I haven't tried it out yet) do I need to set it as default display manager or just run it from the KDE login manager as a session?

I don't see any reason why you should configure a default windowmanager at all. You can just use KDM to easily switch between different windowmanagers / desktop environments without worrying about the defaults.

Of course, if you absolutely insist that you cannot sleep peacefully unless you've set the default windowmanager, you can do this by running as root user the command "update-alternatives --config x-window-manager". But it won't have any effect on KDM.

K. I'll leave it as KDM. Thanks for all the help.

Sorry to be a pain but I have a rather major problem already using XFCE4 - there are no titlebars.
There are options for placement of titlebar buttons so I'm pretty certain there should be titlebars.
I tried searching google and can't seem to find anyone else that's had this problem.
At the moment, if I start a program I have to go through the menu to close it and I can't minimize anything.