gnome session problems

["Spud" <spud has a godcomplex com>]

    After changing the WM to enlightenment in
/usr/local/share/default.session so that gnome-session would run, i put
"exec gnome-session" in my .xinitrc. Now when it loads up it shows my
enlightenment background with no panel or theme buttons, and takes a minute
and half of inactivity before it replaces the background with a baby blue
solid, and still no panel comes up, but a bunch of gmc windows are
opened...how do I get gnome-session to work right? Really the only
difference I've noticed from running "panel &, enlightenment &" is that it
keeps my home dir icon on the desktop throughout the session...