Problem with X

[Jean-Philippe Tardif <jptardif@videotron.ca>]

Hi,

I am having some bad time running X.  Actually, XFree86 works pretty
well, but I can't log as a user.  Startx works as root, but as a user,
it starts, but nothing else happen, unless series of ..\n in my console
until I kill the server.  I suspect a permission problem, but I can't
find where it is.  I already did chmod -R 755 /etc/.

Also, gdm crashes on startup, but kdm works fine. (but gdm is from
Ximian so it's not your busniess).
I really need things to work since I have my mid-term homework to submit
this week... 

Does anyone know what could cause this?

Thanks

Jean-Philippe Tardif