And I don't like it too much at the moment either. Anyways to the point.

I am running ML 8.2 and I decided to update X to 4.2.0. I downloaded all the necessary files and ran the installer script after exiting X server. The install went fine (seemingly). As per instructions I created a basic X server config. Again everything fine. The trouble begins when I run X. Instead of launching into Gnome it simply seems to run the window manager w/o gnome. When X starts the screen is a gray mesh. The only thing on the screen is 3 xterms. When I use the xterm to run gnome-session it runs gnome but in a windowed mode. Gnome also does not integrate w/ the window manager whatsoever. The 3 xterms and any other programs I open cannot be closed. The X in the top right corner isn't there ( I assume because gnome isn't working w/ the window manager). They simply shrink down to small green icons on my desktop. If I go into the mandrake control center and set it up for autologin w/ gnome it won't log in. The screen will come up to log in. I type the username and password. Then the X Server will restart bringing me right back to the Login Screen. The only way its usable is to boot to the console then run startx and run gnome-session from the xterm. Everything is messed up and I have no idea how to fix it. Anyone got a clue?

whoops...typo..I'm running ML 8.1 not 8.2

Please post your .xinitrc from your home directory. Yes, there is a dot in front of it.

I don't have that file in my home directory. The only thing I found was /etc/X11/Xinit/xinitrc but that was NOT a hidden file (no period in front. This may be my problem to begin with. I just got done reinstalling X completely after removing all XF86Config files. I recreated the XF86Config file and placed it in /etc/X11 and the problem still persists.

create a ~/.xinitrc and put
exec gnome-session
in it, save and start X
It seems yoyr system is using the system default xinitrc you mentioned above, creating a .xinitrc in /home should override the default one
HTH
-NSKL

well I created a new .xinitrc in my home directory. Once it loaded Gnome back up I realized it wasn't loading the window manager so it now reads like this

exec gnome-session
sawfish

Everything is fine. It starts gnome and then sawfish and all is good...the only problem now is when it starts the screen blows up with about 30 or so instances of xterm and about 5 instances of xclock. I have to killall xterm and xclock to get rid of them. Any idea why these are popping up and how to get rid of them?

Well my problems are multiplying now. This is the last time I even think about upgrading to a better (haha) version of X. Now after linux starts it goes to the login screen (in X). When I enter my login information instead of logging in it simply restarts X server back to the login screen. Does this whether logging in as user or root. Ctrl-Alt-Backspace doesn't work. It also just restarts the X server and it goes back to the login screen. So I jumped out of X into a console (Ctrl-Alt-F2). Only problem now is that I can't run "startx" as it claims X is already running. I've examined the list of PIDs and haven't been able to determine which one is the X server. Each one I have killed has either had no effect, has killed the console and brought me back into the X server again at the login screen, or has caused the screen to flash repeatedly (as if changing resolution) at which point I must reboot it. I am seriously at my witts end with this problem and I'm not experienced enough to know wtf is going on. If anyone could help me it would be much appreciated. I can try and provide any extra information you may need if you just ask for it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Killall X or kill -KILL PIDofX should bring down the x server. In order to boot to normal console mode you need to ediyt, if im not mistaken, /etc/inittab and chhange to the right runlevel (console)
HTH
-NSKL

I tried "killall X" before and it didn't work. After searching the internet for a few hours I found a nice little command

startx -- :1

I was unaware it could run multiple GUI servers at a time while apparently it can run up to 6. After finally getting back into X I set it up to boot into a console rather than X so now I can just startx manually with no problems. The initial problem (X won't login) is still there though. If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them. But for the time being this thing is atleast usable again. Thanks for the help you guys gave :-)