Hi. I'm brand new to Linux and I'm trying to run dual boot SuSE 9.1/Windows on my laptop. I originally played with GNOME on a Fedora Core, and I liked the look and feel much more than KDE. I'm struggling to get GNOME to load. I've done my best to follow the apparent law of the land and read as much as I can, but I've troubleshot everything that comes up in Google, and I'm stuck.

Initially GNOME wasn't listed as a possible window manager under the login screen. I've followed a few suggestions. I went Control Center > YaST > Install/Remove Software > Selections and found that the Gnome System and Gnome Development had not yet been loaded. So I ran the cds and installed them. Under Packages > GUI > GNOME it appears that a great deal of stuff has already been installed.

Under YaST > System > /etc/sysconfig/editor > Desktop > Window Manager > DEFAULT_WM GNOME set as Default (though the Default value further down the screen still says KDE).

When I got to my Login Menu, GNOME now appears, but when I try to login to GNOME either from the login screen or from text, startx gnome, two things occur.

First, (though based on the documentation out there I suspect this is a secondary problem) I get a screen saying "Could not look up internet address for (xx-xx........) ...add to the file /etc/hosts/".....but this also happened in GNOME in Fedora, but GNOME still loaded and operated fine. It appears other GNOME users have had this problem, but it's really a nuisance more than a problem.

Secondly, and what I think is the major problem, is that GNOME isn't loading. At first I get a small gray box with a huge verboten symbol, and text so small it is not possible to read, surrounded by a screen of black, with random white document symbols. If click on the arrow provided it takes me to a new screen, with a small pic of Tux in the middle again surrounded by icons, but absolutely nothing is legible or functioning and I have to manually shut down to get out.

Am I missing something in the install process? I feel like I've been dropped down in the middle of a new country without knowing the language....patted on the back and told good luck, which is good because I've learned more about my computer trying to get GNOME to run than I've learned in the last six months....still, it's a lonely place for a new girl. Any suggestions?

you might try running SuSEconfig at the root prompt, any time you edit the sysconfig or any config file by hand you need to run that.

Best suggestion I can make is this. Boot into KDE, and open YaST control center. Select YaST2 modules, Software, Install and remove. Supply the root password. When the dialogue box opens, click Gnome in the list to see all the Gnome packages. Check the gnome packages (highlight them one at a time to see the synopsis). It may be simply a matter of installing the SuSE-Gnome desktop package, or some such simple thing.

You might want to try kde first since it is the Suse 'default' desktop.For Gnome they might not install all the packages needed by default.

True i agree w/ bigrigdriver try that and if that doesn't help u can look for the list of rpms one need 2 install gnome. and with that could not get ip adress just do this use ur text editor such as pico nano or vi and oen hosts /etc/hosts under there instert ur localhost name.

# /etc/hosts: static lookup table for host names
#

#<ip-address> <hostname.domain.org> <hostname>
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
# End of file