Gnome doesn't start

[ilugd]

Hi, I made updates and installations using yum gui. I had installed the rpmforge repo and installed vlc, mplayer and similar stuff also ntfs-3g, fuse and similar basically to get mp3s and ntfs partitions to work. When I tried mounting with mount immediately it didn't work with ntfs drives and so i restarted to see if it would fix it.
Now I don't get the normal display. I get a sort of a striped down version in which i have to left click which brings up a menu which disappears if i let go of the button. I have to click and drag to use some item on the menu. There is no task bar either and the clock is a dockable one. I get the terminal by clicking on the xterm in the left click popup menu. I don't know what to do. I got firefox to work by typing firefox at the terminal. How do I get gnome back? what did i do wrong?
Did i uninstall gnome by mistake?

By the way, I am using centos 5

 

[QwertyManiac]

See in your sessions if you're using XFCE or GNOME ?

Or maybe you've just installed some other Window Manager ..

 

[praka123]

if u get gui(supposedly twm),try as root, 'system-config-packages' and make sure gnome is installed.

 

[ilugd]

I get an 'unknown error' dialog when i enter the command above. And how do i find out what session i am using?

 

[QwertyManiac]

At the left bottom corner of your GDM-Login Screen there must be an option to set the session I guess.

 

[ilugd]

only has last session, default system session and failsafe terminal. I remember now that when I tried to install something, it asked that i uninstall a few things. I don't remember if i uninstalled gnome

 

[QwertyManiac]

Maybe you ought to try installing GNOME via command line and see if it is already installed or not? Cause else it'd show you a GNOME in those options!

 

[ilugd]

sorry to be so stupid but how do we do that?
i tried yum install gnome but it says nothing to do
tried yum -C search gnome but it gives me a lot of stuff.

wow, ok, i did yum switchdesk-gui and it installed a few 100 kb worth of two packages
then i typed switchdesk from the terminal and got only twm and default manager so i guess i really uninstalled gnome.
Now i have done yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Manager"
and it is installing 8 packages totalling 5.3 MB
I guess I'll wait and see. Good learning experience.
Thanks. Fingers crossed. (And cursing mtnl triband unlimited 256 kb)

Working now.
thanks everyone.