Linux Error message- newbie needs HELP!!

[Skiracer]

I am still trying to figure out this Linux stuff, and I am currently up against the wall. I successfully installed Red Hat Linux 7.1 on a server box, was running the GNOME GUI, and everything was fine. I went in and configured the newtork settings to the LAN that the system is attached to, and I could ping the router and other machines no problem. I thought that I was out of the woods, but when I shut the computer down and rebooted, the following error message appears and I can't figure out how to get around it:

"The GNOME session manager (Process 867) has crashed due to a fatal error (segmentation fault). When you clear this dialog, all applications will close and your session will exit."

Anyone know what I sc*ewed up, and a way to fix it other than re-installing Linux all over again? Any help given is appreciated in advance.

Thanks!!!

 

[ProviaFan]

It sounds like you're getting this error message in the X Window System (Linux's equivalent of the Windows GUI). So I assume this happens when you log in, right? When your system boots, you should see a "LILO:" prompt for a second or two before it goes on to load Linux. You need to enter "linux 3" here, and this will boot it up in text mode, and thus get around the GNOME thing (it appears that you are having trouble with GNOME's desktop manager, sort of like the Windows EXPLORER.EXE). Then you can log on in the text mode, and fix things there. I really don't know much about GNOME, but hopefully some GNOME guru can step in and take it from here.

 

[neptuneb1]

First of all, Seg Faults suck to try to fix. Probably the easiest thing to do is download the newest version of gnome from gnome's site. If you pick the ximian option, it will do everything for you. Going from source is a little more time consuming, but not terribly difficult. Anyway, if this doesn't work, it might be easiest to just reinstall redhat from scratch (backup files to a DIFFERENT DRIVE first).

 

[ProviaFan]

Yes, seg faults are hard to diagnose (for a Linux user who can talk to bash but can't grep C++ ). When I first installed Redhat 6.1, and was trying out GNOME 1.0.whatever, and it was crashing right and left, I fixed the problem by going to KDE.

 

[Skiracer]

Thanks for the inputs neptuneb1 and jliechty. I was afraid that I would have to reinstall from scratch, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do....:disgust:

jliechty- you were correct in assuming that the error occurred after the login screen- I tried logging in as both root and a user with the same results. I know that I could use the command at the lilo prompt to enter the console mode, but I am such a Linux idiot I wouldn't know where to start to fix this problem. I will back up the few important files on the HDD and wipe it clean for a reinstall. I will try the KDE GUI this time- maybe it is more stable- any opinions?

 

[ProviaFan]

I've used KDE a lot, and it's pretty stable, except for their crappy media player (trust me, xmms is much better). The only apps that crash for me are the kde media player, and the koffice betas did a little, but not much.