ODD Problem: Can't Start a terminal in Redhat--but GUI seems just fine.
 

HI Guys,
Im not a linux expert by any means but I used CAD tools based on it for a long time.
I know just enough to screw myself up.

Recently one of my tools crashed, and the program exited..no big deal.
BUT when I go to open a new terminal to restart, nothing happens.
It doesn't matter if I use a right click on background -> Open Terminal; or if I go to the start menu, SYSTEM TOOLS -> Konsole.
I never get an xterm to open.
The resat of the GUI seems fine, I can open and browse folders, and other GUI activated programs..BUT whenever I run a terminal, nothing happens.
I can go to the start menu: System Tools -> rxuvt-unicode and open that terminal up.
From there I can run top, but not open a proper Xterm from where to launch the tools I need.

Any suggestions on what to look for? Maybe a errors file or corrupted .cshrc? I don't know.

NOTE:
REDHAT 6.1
GNOME 2.28.2
Im logged into a server using an NX session.
The Sysadmin reset my NX session last night, and wasn't much help beyond that last night.

Thanks in advance!

What exactly happens when you try to start an xterm from rxvt? Do you get any reported errors?

Hi Hazel.

If type: > xterm &
It seems to start a terminal, and I can see a gnome-terminal PID process pop up on "top"...but I can not find a window anywhere.
I've thought maybe its minimized but if it is I cant find it.

No errors reported though.

You're right, that's odd ;). You mentioned that you had suspicions about your initialisation files. You can eliminate those by going to a virtual console (ctrl+alt+F1) and trying to log in there. If you can do that, then it's definitely the terminal program itself that's playing up.

How come when you type "xterm", you get a gnome terminal? Is /usr/bin/xterm on your system a link to gnome-terminal rather than an actual program? I'm no expert on gnome, but if you have a terminal of any kind running minimised, there should be at least a named button on one of your four taskbars.