Installation blues

[gnome mail stankevitz com]

Hi all.  I've been using linux for about 10 months now... just started
with X this weekend.  I'm having trouble installing gnome.  I would like
to share what I have tried and hopefully get some advise on what I can do
to get this thing actually working.

1. The RH61 approach.
- Downloaded RH61, installed everything.
- XFree86 3.3.5 does not support my video card well (Diamond Speedstar
A50).  I can see gnome was installed properly, but well-known font
display issue plagues me.
- Download xfree86 3.3.6 .tgz files and install (basically, just extract
*.tgz and sh postinstall.sh), run xfree86config
- GNOME is not running (I think).  Just putrid green/brown display
- switchdesk (sd) behaves strangely.  After execution, nothing.  Click any
area of screen and sd appears, asks for a desktop.  I choose GNOME,
click OK. Again, nothing.  I click anywhere and sd window says "restart
to
finalize".  I exit/startx but still same putrid color desktop.

2. The do-it-yourself approach
- Install RH61 without X.
- Download xfree 3.3.6 .tgz and install (FYI, a X11R6 folder already
existed, which I thought weird because I told RH installer no X).
- Putrid green/tan desktop works well.
- Download ftp/gnome/rh/i386/*.rpm
- attempt rpm -Uvh, obtain deps, and finally install
- startx still putrid tan/green
- install switchdesk.rpm, run it, but still same weird behavior and GNOME
not running after restart
- add "exec gnome-session" to ~/.Xclients -- no luck
- type "exec gnome-session" after X starts up... GNOME loads, but behaves
very weird... moving my mouse shows window outline... everytime I click my
mouse a new window is placed on the desktop (clock, browser, treeview,
etc).

What should I do?
Get a new video card and use RH default GNOME install?
Play with this messed up version of GNOME from "do-it-yourself" install?
Install win2k? :)

Thanks for your help!

Chris