I would like to be able to run a Gnome or KDE desktop environment with the X Server running on my W2K PC. I have tried a number of different approaches, e.g. launching it from the W2K and from Linux but to no avail. I can start up Xterms OK.

The X Server on W2K is an evaluation version of Xmanager 1.3.9.9. Linux is RH9.0

I'd appreciate any help. Thanks

Did you make your linux partitions correctly and where you install the linux distribution if you dont have partitions...you can not install linux on win32 partition..;] make an ext3 and swap partitions for linux READ THE MANUALS...

instead of using the dodgy "Xstart" client try just run the Xmanager, use putty
http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/.../x86/putty.exe
to ssh into your linux box, then run the applications there (export DISPLAY variable to point to your win2k box) just execute "startkde" "gnome-session" etc to start a window manager. But imo you're better off using VNC, which is basically designed for what you're trying to achieve.

Thanks Demonbane. I will look into VNC - I've heard it's pretty good. In the meantime I've tried your suggestion (using telnet rather than ssh). The behavior is erratic. Typical dialog is

[tony@Thorin tony]$ export DISPLAY=192.168.1.10:0.0
[tony@Thorin tony]$ gnome-session
SESSION_MANAGER=local/Thorin:/tmp/.ICE-unix/3172
Xlib: extension "RENDER" missing on display "192.168.1.10:0.0".
Xlib: extension "RENDER" missing on display "192.168.1.10:0.0".
Xlib: extension "RENDER" missing on display "192.168.1.10:0.0".

The splash screen appears and sometimes I see the main icons and background (but not in the right colour). Then it dies. On the main console of the linux box I see the follwwing message being spewed out.

eth0: Error -110 writing Tx descriptor to BAP
eth0: Error -110 writing Tx descriptor to BAP
eth0: Error -110 writing Tx descriptor to BAP
...

I cannot stop this, not can I communicate with the linux machine in any way. I have to press the reset button - an action I normally associate with MS operating systems.

I'm trying the VNC approach. It's all installed OK and the VNC server starts up OK on RH9. When I run the VNC viewer on my W2K machine it looks promising. I see a VNC window that contains an xterm. The user is the same user that started the VNC server. Next I type gnome-session into the xterm and I get the splash screen and an icon allowing me to move the gnome panel around. While I'm doing this my linux system becomes unusable and chucks out the same messages as in the previous reply, i.e.

eth0: Error -110 writing Tx descriptor to BAP
eth0: Error -110 writing Tx descriptor to BAP
eth0: Error -110 writing Tx descriptor to BAP
...

I have to reboot the linux machine to recover.

there's a configuration file in the users directory for vnc, I think its in ~/.vnc not exactly sure, which is equivalent of .xinirc but for VNC instead, so you can get it to preload the window manager. As for the error to be honest with you I'm not exactly sure whats happenning, even executing gnome-session with a remote X server runs already for me(despite some glitches because win32 X servers doesnt support all extensions the real one does) but it sounds like something to do with the NIC, maybe you need to tweak some kernel parameters..not sure.