Gnome desktop ?'s
 

I have just recently switched to linux, and saw that you could get themes with gnome. So I installed gnome and whenever I launch it all of my files that I previously had are removed and I am logged on as the root user. With no desktop icons or anything it is almost like I am running a whole different OS called gnome. Is that supposed to happen?????????????

What distro are you using ?
Fedora,Ubuntu,mint,WHAT ????
and you should log into ANY AN ALL Linux OS's as a NORMAL user and NOT AS ROOT

How did you install Gnome ?
What files ?the normal user files?? the ones in /home/YourNormalUserName
or the ones in /root

gnome is just a GUI
WHAT were you using before ?
KDE, xfce,E17, what ???

I am running xfce for my desktop manager, and I installed gnome with like this in terminal
:apt-get install gnome
and I launch gnome with the command
:gnome-panel &
I originally log on as the regular user and when I launch gnome it switches me over to the root user

my home files and documents are missing but I still have all my applications

did I install it wrong ??

what distro are you running ?
i see you are using "app-get" so i am guessing it is Ubuntu ?
also if you are using xfce is your computer a old one or a "netbook" with very limited resources ?
some stats might help.

I am running ubuntu, but I am dual booting it with windows 7 and my computer is relatively old it is an ibm thinkpad and if I shouldnt use xfce what should I use and how do I change it, I am getting very frustrated with this and I am thinking about switching to the forsieght linux brand with comes with gnome pre installed but If you think you know how to fix this I would appreciate it a lot

the odd thing is that ubuntu normally installs Gnome as the default user interface .
as to installing the FULL gnome ui , that i don't know for ubuntu

if you are on a old version you might want to install the current -- 9.04
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

in order for xfce to be the default you must have installed Xubunut
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/xubuntu

ya its really weird oh well, thanks for trying tho and I am using the most current ubuntu 9.10

You do realize 9.10 is not even beta yet. That could be part of your problem... Software that early in development, is not for newbs to be using. Its unstable, and breaks frequently w/ upgrades.

Use the latest stable release, 9.04

IGF

With gnome display manager (The login screen), you can configure whether or not it will log in as root, or as the user. If you are logging in as a user, with a user name and user password, and gnome is running as root, something is fundamentally wrong. And, I don't think your files are gone. I think they're still there, they just aren't on the desktop.