I just installed Mandriva 2006, but When I get to the login screen, I have no option for starting my session with GNOME. Other options like KDE (default) and Ice are there, but no GNOME. It says that GNOME gets installed by default with the OS, but I can't figure out how to access it. Any ideas?

Check if it's installed.

rpm -qa | grep -i gnome

That might return a lot. If unsure, as root from terminal type:

urpmi gnome

Also use the control centre, then the boot option, and see if it's an option there.

Thanks for the quick reply! I tried that and it shows that GNOME is there. I went to the Control Centre and into the boot options, but nothing there to allow me to select GNOME.

Do you think it might have something to do with the fact that I only used the first installation CD? I was told the other 2 discs just had documentation on them and weren't necessary in the installation.

If you only used one cd you'll be missing quite a lot. Including gnome. You only get 700mb on a cd, whereas a full install is generally at least twice that, depending on what you choose. If you try to urpmi gnome from the console it should automatically install it if you haven't already got it. It will ask you to insert the relevant disc. Anything else you need as well can be urpmi'd from the console.

For additional software not included on the discs, visit http://easyurpmi.zarb.org where you can add a lot of extra sources, including any updates.

Using urpmi from the console is the same as going through the control centre to install software. It's just quicker and easier. You could also have a look at the man page. man urpmi, which will tell you about all the options. Like searching for already installed software. The rpm command I gave above is how you search for rpm's on your system. urpmi is mandriva's own improvement on rpm. You can see man rpm for an overview of that.

you definitely need 3 discs. first 2 are the basic system. as for gnome the default in the install is gnome but i unchecked it and checked kde as i'm from the days when gnome did not exist but i can tell you this, the first disc has very little on it and if you have an active dsl connection then i would re-install gnome completely. you don't have to do a system re-install but if your not confident enough with linux then get all three discs and re-install. i find when i've instructed someone to do that they have an operating linux system easier and the head aches are taken out by default..
do a (brain just failed) expert' install and then you can check and un check the programmes you want installed(ps some still need to be installed for others to work(ie some of kde for gnome)) then you will have a system thats customised for you and by you.. dont forget to make sure that you have all programmes you need and want then you will only have a few installs to do later and lots of customizing fun.. (still can't make linux make my cups of 'TEA' tho)..
have lots of fun and enjoy..

Ok, I did a re-install with all 3 disks and it's working perfectly. Thanks for your help guys.

wraithe: You can definitely do an install with just the 1st CD, only. You end up *missing* many ueful things, like Gnome, but you can get a fully functional system up and running. Of course, if you do a single-CD install (as I often have), the correct thing to do is set up your on-line urpmi repositories and then fetch all the packages you want that you don't have.

thats fine to start with bare minimum...
i have a complete install of mandriva 2006 on my sempron(takes 2gb with what i wanted)...
but i also run two headless machines with 400 meg of install and can possibly use less...
i also have ubuntu and win-xp on the sempron...
only 1 gb of ubuntu, so even less than mandriva loaded yet fully functional..
i know if i wanted to i could load very little and bring it up that way but for someone playing with linux the first time it's easier to use all the install discs and load a workstation or the likes...gives them more functionality and less stress trying to work it out...
if we give them an easy option then they will continue to use linux...if we make it hard by saying they dont need that but you have to do this and that to get it working, they will give up...lets make it easy and then they can enjoy it more and stay longer...but yes your are right...once the kernel is booted and a shell is working it takes no genius to bring it right up...but after some have used windows for so long it can be a head ache...

GNOME is not installed by default and if it had been installed from the discs, Mandriva would automatically create a menu in the kdm sessions.

Nice link, simcox1

Thanks.