Where is the gnome install HOWTO?

[David Finlayson <dfinlays u washington edu>]

I hate to post newbie questions but gnome FAQ, Deja news, and the on-line
docs have failed me.

I installed Debian using the "scientific" pre-defined package list
(dbootsome-thing-or-other)  After some fiddling around with xf86config I
had managed to get the window manager up and running.  I got cocky and
tried apt-get install task-gnome-update from gnome.org.  Things have been
in shambles ever since.  To muck things up worse, I also did an apt-get
update.

Now I suspect that I have dozens of mis-configured files and I cannot find
anything anywhere that does a low-level walk through, file-by-file of what
needs to be configured to set gnome and X windows straight again.  I have
flipped though Norton's new book, O'Reilly's several new books and spent
almost a week digging through newsgroups (including 2000 plus files I
accidently down-loaded from this list last night!)

I'd like to work this out myself but I don't know where to turn for
advice.

-- 
David Finlayson
dfinlays@u.washington.edu
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Washington, Box 351310
Seattle, WA 98195-1310
(206) 685-7981 or (206) 543-1975