Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display
 

hi im new to fairly new to linux.last night i installed redhat 7.3 onto my system.it was setup to have gnome load on startup.now everything was fine i was logged in as root i had xchat and gaim open just talking online.i was going to try and mount one of my external usb hd's so i plugged the one into my usb.my system then froze and i unproperly shutdown the system by hitting the power button.i then began to start the system back up and gnome never opens it goes right to the comamnd prompt.so i search google and found out to try root@my: gnome-session ; and i got this error

Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display
Session_manager = local/localhost.localdomain:/tmp/.ICE-unix/1348
Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display


if anybody can help me pls respond.

You won't be able to run gnome-session without X Windows running. At the prompt, try typing init 5 and see what that does.

CentOS 4.x
 

I'm having this same issue with my CentOS box. Ran the init 5 command and still having issues when trying to load up a GNOME session.