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I played around with nautilus trying to add a launcher under start-here --> applications --> programming yesterday. The launcher did not appear after I had entered all the info and clicked OK. Now Gnome does not start at all. After entering user name and password it shows the screen with the 'Red Hat Linux' rectangle and the 'Window Maker' icon on it. Then it hangs (the only thing I can do is to click on the rectangle which makes it disappear leaving just a blue screen). If I remember correctly, there should have been 2-3 more icons on that rectangle before Gnome opens.
I can get into Window Maker, which allows me to write this. Tuxracer runs as well, so it is not a display problem. Could you tell me where I could look for the problem or, even better, a solution?
Log in as root and delete (or if you're more cautious, rename them to move them out of the way without destroying them) the hidden folders .gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconfd .metacity .nautilis
The next time you log in Gnome should recreate the folders with their default settings.
Thanks for the reply. I tried that and, unfortunately, it did not work. The same problem stays. It also does not matter whether I log in as root or a nomal user. More help!?
In particular, could somebody tell me what normally appears after the 'Window Maker' icon after you log in?
can anybody help with this? Please!? I have installed Ximian Desktop version of GNOME and still get the same problem -- screen freezes after login. It shows only the Window Maker icon and then nothing. What is the next thing that should load after Window Maker? Is it GNOME or is there more?
I am getting desperate. After working in Window Maker all day GNOME sure seems nice to have.
Well, I solved it. The clue came from this line in the .xsession-errors:
/usr/bin/gnome-wm: line 86: /usr/share/metacity: is a directory
I looked at the gnome-wm script and saw that it can not find metacity. It turned out that the .profile had /usr/share before /usr/bin in $PATH. For some reason this disturbed root (same $PATH) only sometimes yesterday, later it worked even without the change in $PATH.
Thanks to Andrew Benton and g-rod who tried to help!
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