startx fails with gnome

[jhayes76 ix netcom com]

I'm a new to linux. I installed Red Hat 5.2 and am using the default window manager. I've 
downloaded and installed all the gnome base packages and followed the install procedure. 
I created the needed .Xclients file in my home directory and made it executable (chmod 
755). When I use startx to start the session I get the beginning grey screen then 
xwindows stops and I get the following text messages:

	XKEYBOARD keymap compiler xkbcomp  Error: bad length in Geometry  Output file 
"/var/tmp/server -0.xkm removed. This error non fatal to xserver.

	Gnome error could not create per-user gnome directory </home/jim/.gnome.Then it 
says it's aborting.
	
	I tried creating a .gnome directory myself in my home directory but then it just 
said it couldn't created .gnome-private directory. The other window manager ,fvwm2, seems 
to work fine when I delete the.Xclients file, but of course I don't want to use fvwm2. 
Any ideas on getting gnome to run with startx command. Thanks, jim