Newbie Help

["Tim Christensen" <chrstnsn whidbey net>]

I've recently installed GNOME via the deb distribution files for
Debian.  I have edited the .xinitrc file like is says on the web page,
but when I startx, Afterstep comes up, with out GNOME.  I get these
error messages:

GImLib ERROR: Cannot find palette file /etc/im_palette-pal
gdk_imlib: Cannot find palette.  A palette is required for this mode
(the above two messages appear consecutively 3 times)
connected
/panel/
debug: need old_cfg here
** ERROR **: sigsgv caught
** ERROR **: sigsgv caught

What is this palette file and how do I get it?  What is this sigsgv junK?